I like to think that most of the songs I write, if not eventually classified as “classics,” can at least be considered timeless because they mainly deal with weather and space topics that will likely still be around when I’m too old to sing them anymore.
But I do have a few with definite expiration dates. My song about my SOFIA experience — “Infra-Ready (Set to Go!)” — is a little less current now that NASA discontinued funding for the program.
Similarly, my song about solar eclipses, “Totality Awesome,” has an expiration date — for two reasons. First of all, I wrote it in the wake of the “Great American Eclipse” of August 21, 2017 with an eye toward the next “Great American Eclipse” of April 8, 2024. Once that date has passed, the song won’t make sense.
Secondly, I wrote it to be sung by my eldest son, Daniel. Now six years later, Daniel is sixteen and no longer able to hit those falsetto notes in the bridge. Thankfully, his younger brother, Henry, will be filling in for him on vocal duties as we knock the dust off the song and play it live during some upcoming “solar eclipse preview” events I have on the calendar. Even better, my middle son, Nate, can now play drums and is replacing the drum track I used in the original recording. So we’ll have live drums when we come to your school or library. Here’s a sneak peek at the “Henry & The Dynamite” version of the song.
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