Tuesday, March 18, 2014

An Early Chronology of Songs (Part 1 of 2)

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 26 August 2012.

Okay, here's a tentative chronology of some songs with the bands that played them underlined:

The Sweet World of Arthur White:

This is the far-off gaze on the object of love.  Some problems, but still highly idealized.  Would corresponds to the novice stage of religious life, courtship phase of romantic life.
  • Could I Be The One?
  • Message of Love
  • Head Over Heels
  • The Treatment
  • The Guarantee
  • Give You a Taste
Next seems to come some kind of commitment phase, profession of vows, married or religious. Continues with previous list of songs, but these feature more of a spiritual/existential horizon.  This is also a bit of a "Yoko" phase for the Sweet World as Arthur disappears into family life a bit more.   "Hands Reach Through the Haze" is written for his first daughter.  This tendency toward isolation--while relatively healthy and appropriate in the context of marriage and family--will become disordered later on as those things fall apart.
  • Bird's Eye View
  • One and Only
  • Hands Reach Through the Haze
After some initial success, he is approached by Serbian-American filmmaker Bohdan Damien...(can't remember his last name), and writes a partial score for the never-released movie Street Heat.  I like the thought that Arthur White, after the movie's demise, releasing the music under the album name: Music That I Wrote for the Movie Street Heat.
  • Sweet World Intro
  • Sweet World Genesis
  • Rocketship
Probably would name these songs something different for the movie, but when the movie didn't happen, that's what I ended up calling them.  Maybe "Theme from Street Heat" or "Arthur Plays It Cool" would suffice.

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