I actually like this song. In fact, years and years after I completed this tape and had forgotten how the songs went, I was still able to easily figure out the guitar part and played it for a few friends because I like the sound of crickets. The sound of crickets is so much more prevalent after I play a song for people.
I had the chords for the A and B sections and the first verse kicking around for years before I finally decided to try to complete the song for this collection.
And it kinda shows, the first verse is existential angst (with theatrical and angel references) and tries to have some clever (sometimes called 'pretentious') turns of phrase or plays on words, characteristic of influences from Marillion and Genesis (I would maintain that the chameleon reference has nothing to do with the Marillion song "She Chameleon", because it doesn't).
The inspiration for the verse was from the idea that our lives are like plays on a stage, and dying is nothing more than walking off stage and then we change characters and that's reincarnation. Sometimes we're not thrilled by the roles we take.
Then the second A/B section is straight-forward about Amina :p (the "means lead to ends" was not-so-cleverly derived from the sound of her name, believe it or not. It's a hidden MEANing, hahaha! not).
The first of the break verses wasn't targeted at anyone but was supposed to, I suppose, characterize a dichotomy between Amina and me. It started with the "there was a death in the family" line that I think I also had been wanting to use for a long time and once I had the chords, the rest of the verse fell into place. The second break verse reverts to Amina. No mystery there.
The final B verse references an idea I had about reincarnation and how I may have been aiming to be reborn in Japan and ended up in a womb that would within 9 months be taken to the U.S., and also a reference to how my parents used to tell me that I wasn't theirs and they had found me on a rock in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a joke. I thought they were serious. I was very disappointed when I found out it was supposed to be a joke. I did not find it very funny.
The main rhythm guitar part was my Takamine run through the Small Clone and with a capo on the 2nd fret. I had a rough relationship with the bass line. The final bass line is the same or very similar to the initial one I came up with, but for a long time I didn't think it was right.
I dunno, it was too distinct? Distracting? After vacillating for a long time and trying other ideas, I decided I liked the original idea. Or I had just gotten used to hearing it like that. These are the pitfalls of working alone. I didn't have anyone else to give me an opinion either way.
The guitar solo was my Peavey run prominently through a Boss Super Phaser (I love that box), and I think was recorded pretty late in the process, and I wasn't trying for anything elaborate or sounding very "solo-ish", so it's a more textural solo with not a lot of notes.
No audition, typecast in doubt
In a strange role-reversal, costume inside-out
Red lights, dead ends, I try to forget my lines again
Step into wings to change what my character has been
Up to my knees, concrete conformity
Chameleon fit to what's surrounding me
And chameleon fit to what I would never dream
Chameleon dropped in a quicksand box
Let my guard down, let you too far in
Didn't know you didn't know me and means lead to ends
I could have laughed at how you tried to sound sincere
Using all the same excuses that I used for years
Your family, models of chemistry
Chameleon fit to what you're supposed to be
And chameleon fit to how people want to see
Chameleon dropped in a quicksand box
There was a death in the family that you never knew about
A crime of principle that you never cared about
A breach of confession that you never told about
A death that no one knew, no one cared, no one came to tell me
I couldn't do a thing that you ask
You ask too much of my limited past
I can't make much sense of what you made us to be
Or how you made it to depend on me
So me I'm faced with what I could never have been
Never have hoped and never could believe in
The ground dissolves, look to the clouds above
Chameleon dragged by its tail across the sea
And chameleon found on a rock right next to me
Chameleon dropped in a quicksand box
