Song #233 of 9999 - Spider to the Fly by Frankie Big Face

As mentioned in my post of July 20, I'm going to write about my own music for a few weeks as a way to get some song comments together for an updated website. My goal is eventually to have a few paragraphs written for every song on my website and I figured I'd start with all the Nur Ein songs I've written over the past six years. Nur Ein is a songwriting competition in the same vein as Song Fight!, wherein a title is presented each week and participants must write and record a song using that title. The songs are posted and listeners vote for their favorites. In the case of Nur Ein, there is a judging panel that ranks the songs and participants are eliminated each week until "only one" (nur ein) remains. There are also additional challenges that must be incorporated such as "lyrics in the form of a sonnet" or "guest rapper." Nur Ein has been around for seven years and I've entered four times and won twice. NBD. :D  This is post #17.

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Song #233 of 9999 

Title: Spider to the Fly
Artist: Frankie Big Face
Year: 2009
Album: Nur Ein 4

Click here to listen!

Spider to the Fly is a song that has grown on me over the years. Well, three-quarters of it has. That ending is still pretty lame. I found myself in a precarious position following the sonnet challenge of What Once Was Grand. This time around, we were asked to write a through-composed composition, meaning none of the sections repeat. Obviously, this is unusual for a pop song, which is typically in verse-chorus form with a lot of repetition. My issue was that the sonnet had pretty much pushed me in that very direction the previous week (there is very little repetition in What Once Was Grand) and I was concerned that repeating myself would result in my elimination. (And it almost did—I made the cut just barely). The challenge also took away my strength, which is writing catchy hooks. I really struggled with this song and almost quit in the middle but my wife basically forced me back into the studio to finish so I have her to thank for that. (Thanks Chris!)

I like a lot of things about this song. The lyrics are evocative yet it's not clear what they're about. I think it's about a metamorphosis, which seems to make sense in the context of a through-composition. The second section, with the guitar riff in 7/8 time, is interesting in that it consists of two layered drum loops, one in 7/8 and one in 7/4 so there this slight windshield wiper effect. I employed some choice Logic brass samples to serve as connecting devices between the rock sections. And then there's the ending. I was trying to create a feeling of stasis—being caught in a web—with this endless cycle of ascending major chords and ambient sound. I just never really got it to be as effective as I had hoped. I have considered returning to this song to rework it but it's doubtful that I will. I find the imperfections to be somewhat charming now. Such an odd song. Not a single, but maybe a surprising deep cut!