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The remastered version of this sounds much better (with many of the issues mentioned below being resolved in post-production) and is also available for download. Just go to the Love or Freedom compilation featured at this site!

This would have been one of my personal favorites if we'd finished it. The lyrics, about the temporary nature of pretty much everything, seem (in hindsight) to foreshadow the reversal of fortune the band was soon to encounter. The Mayfly is the ultimate symbol of fleetingness - it lives for only one day. February lasts a little longer and sometimes it even gives you an extra day, but when it's gone, it's gone. Until next time that is.

This is one of the tunes that were initiated by me and Tim continuing to work together when Michael was out on tour with his other band.

Without Michael's guitar washes to kick things off, I needed a riff to hang some lyrics on. I'm no pianist, but those childhood lessons do pay off from time to time as I can find my way around a keyboard if needs be. Anyway it's only a few notes, but played on the distinctive-sounding Rhodes electric piano which was in Tim and Joe's studio, (crunched up significantly), it was enough to set things in motion.

Then Joe came up with a fat dubby bassline which was perfect. Only the best bass players can come up with these deceptively simple licks. The bass line actually ends up being the hook in this tune. I also love the dub-stylee work that it inspired Tim to do on the drums here, his dynamics and how he brings in a completely new theme right at the end. Michael's jangly guitar layers build up the tension at just the right moment and have an ineffably sad sound that I can't quite put my finger on but which I find poignant. Not sure what that whistling atonal synth in the background is all about, but it adds an unsettling feeling to the whole thing, which is maybe appropriate, but maybe it doesn't need to be there.

Basically, there's a lot going on and I really wish we'd had a chance to play around with different mixes cuz I think it's a good song with the right approach, only it could have been realized better.

lyrics

Words
Tears
Palaces
Fireworks
Contours of the body
Coastlines curved by time's erosion
All will be gone
As goes the Mayfly

War
Rain
Innocence
Long eyelashes
Fame
Joy
February and the Mayfly

Sieze all there is
And hold it
And then
Release it

See all there is
To hear
To taste
To feel
Because you know

It's only temporary
It'll all be over
Nothing lasts forever
Whatever it is
Sieze it and release it
Feel it all and let it
Go

credits

from The Tragic Tale of Lil Tiger or How the Music Bizniz Destroyed My Best Recording and Derailed My Life (San Francisco 1999​-​2001), track released April 30, 1998
Tim Mooney - drums
Michael Belfer - guitar, synths,
Joe Goldring - bass
Diana Trimble - voice, Rhodes electric piano
Craig Silvey - production, Toast Studios, San Francisco
1999

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Diana Rosalind New Orleans, Louisiana

After being discovered by Bobby McFerrin as a young vocal improviser in San Francisco, I spent some years writing and performing with ensembles that remain important in the history of Bay Area arts, then did time tangling with the music biz in LA & NYC, followed by a decade in Europe, recording all the while, before coming "home" to NOLA. This is a partial musical record of that journey. ... more

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Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
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