This song is a test case for the distance between an initial idea for a song and its execution. Through two completely different drafts, the idea remained the same, but the execution and treatment went on a twisted journey.

A bad first draft

The original idea was to write a song about the pervasive vocabulary errors I see in emails, on social media, in memes and even on blogs. I thought it would be clever to play with homonyms in a song, and made a list of the primary offenders:

• your / you’re
• too / to / two
• its / it’s
• there / their / they’re
• affect / effect
• for / four
• right / write

Then I wrote a lyric that used as many homonyms as possible while criticizing their incorrect use:

It’s your choice
You’re the one
There they go
Their mistakes are done

It’s their choice
For them too
Proper grammar
Easy to do

Helps to write the right way
To effect the affect you have
It’s all there to see
Four rules you need to abide

Proper grammar is good
Its value must be understood
It’s there whether you like it or not
Like t’s with crosses and I’s with dots

Developing the song

Upon some (very brief) reflection, I concluded this lyric was not good. Terrible, in fact. Didactic, finger-pointing, and not even clever about it. So I took a different approach, masking the homonyms behind a story:

There was a wicked queen
She would curse all that she saw
We four horsemen galloped in
To proclaim the new law

We said, “Your highness, we must take you in.”
She said, “You’re foolish, weak little men.”
She approached us in a dash
Then two were dead in a flash.

Their fear then took hold
For I held a flaming sword
“Your doom is at hand,”
“It’s too late to cry out ‘Dear Lord!’”

“The others are coming,” we did warn,
“They’re strong and they will destroy you!
Your reign is now at its end!”
“I curse you all! Your lives are through!”

The new story inspired me to take a classical, orchestral approach to the song. I also needed two strong singers, a male tenor, and a female soprano. Specifically, I wanted singers with strong vibrato to give the track an operatic quality. I told people I was working on a “pop-era” song.

I asked my friends Bruce and Sonja to collaborate on the song. Sonja and I came up with a chord structure and melody, including a key modulation for the third verse (all soprano). We recorded a quick demo with me playing piano and Bruce and Sonja singing their parts.

I took the demo recording as a base for building an epic orchestral arrangement with cinematic percussion, strings and brass. Usually I include a good deal of rhythmic syncopation in my music, but in this case, the song really wanted all the parts in straight rhythms. I syncopated the drums a bit, but all the brass, string and vocal melodies tended to follow downbeats and quarter notes.

Eventually Bruce and Sonja lost interested in finishing the song, and it was relegated to the unfinished files of my song library.

Final recording

Almost three years later, I met an amazing singer at the Songwriter’s Meetup, who happened to be a tenor. Ryan Wilkie volunteered to sing the male part, and was kind enough to record a couple of quick demos himself for my feedback. I also brought in my classically-trained singer friend Kira Braun, who was also a featured singer on my song Snake Oil.

Ryan and Kira met at my home studio and we recorded the vocal parts in short order.

Finally, I added a distorted synth bass to the orchestra to give it more grit and weight. I called it the Hans bass after composer Hans Zimmer.

I shared the song at a Songwriter’s Meetup and received largely positive feedback. Two negative points were against the broken lyrical phrases, and the lack of a story resolution. Good points, but I had gone too far with this song to change it.

Here’s the final recording of The Wicked Queen. Enjoy!