Reclamation Tape #25: Candidate For Absorption (Tolstoyish)

As I worked my way through this tape, one snippet kept reappearing, with muffled words I couldn't understand, but with a naggingly familiar melody. Turns out it was the infamous "Fat Balloon," a fine, if overly ambitious ballad that has left would-be bandmates who shall remain nameless (because I totally don't remember the dude's name, if he even had one) aghast at its melodic sprawl and general too-much-ness.

Basically, some dude was interested in working with my erstwhile partner and me, until he heard this tune, then he was definitively not interested anymore. Well, he was wrong; it's a damn good tune, but at a syrupy tempo that strains patience.

So fine, ok, it's not for everybody. But look what else we dug up: the mysterious tale set to music otherwise known as "What's In The Box?" This one's a bit slow, too, but with a bit of a lilt that keeps it moving. So that's two unearthed gems for Candidate For Absorption - might there be more?

Actually, there is, and it's a song that, while a model of pop craftmanship, is also a very painful listen. It's the tale of my own misbehavior toward an undeserving friend told from the point of view of the victim, and unsparing in its skewering of the victimizer (which was me). 

It was difficult to listen to, and forced me to recall that particularly unpleasant evening and its aftermath, and ponder those awful events that I alone brought on myself. But, here we are years later; and after karma has dealt me successive blows again and again, I'm still standing, still deluded in all the right places, and now the proud owner of "The Passenger," a tune wrought out of a young man's folly and soon to be an only slightly less young man's triumph.