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I arrived at WUZZ studios in Meadville, PA this morning at the scheduled 6:30 AM for a radio interview and was greeted by Rockin’ Rich, who informed me that no one told HIM about our pre-arranged chat and he couldn’t fit me in… sorry. I said, “I’m here to promote the comedy shows at Hotel Conneaut,” and a weird smile crept over his face. After many hushed phone calls between “Rockin’ Rich” and his program director, the interview was back on. After we exchanged pleasantries on the air, he told me that he didn’t know they were doing anything at the Hotel Conneaut, seeing as it was being renovated and they were having a hard time getting guests because it was haunted. Haunted, you say? He told me legend has it that a woman named Elizabeth died in a fire in the hotel’s bridal suite on her wedding night many years ago and took up permanent residency in it’s peeling, antiquated halls. The hotel was featured on A & E’s “Paranormal State” last year and you can watch that episode on their website. Creepy old hotel, paranormal activity, charred ghosts, Stand-up comedy, and me… perfect! Rockin’ rich, you son of a bitch, I wish you wouldn’t have told me that. Now I’m going to be scared sleepless the whole weekend, trying to get some shuteye with one eye wide open and a foot on the floor.
I decided what the hell, let’s make the best of these spirits and revisit a ghost of my own past. Day 9 of “90 Songs in 90 Days” will feature the dark, depressing, and achingly beautiful song, “Circle City,” with it’s “poor me” lyrics and haunting melody. This relic from the past was one of the first songs I’d ever written, and one of the most popular in the bars that I was playing in at the time. The demo even got some heavy local airplay on WKRZ in Wilkes Barre, PA for a while. The song dates back to the early 80′s and has a rather strange birth, aided by medicine. I was listening to a lot of John Martyn at the time and was fascinated with the way he fingerpicked, pulled, and slapped the guitar when he played, especially on the song, “May You Never“. I had a melodic idea that started in Indianapolis, IN (aka Circle City), and came with me on the Volkswagen Bug that I drove to my father’s house in Dallas, PA. I called it “Lost In The Indianapolis Ocean” and I started to toy around with the down on-my-luck lyrics, moody e-minor melody and John Martyn’s guitar style, but just couldn’t marry the three. I had only been playing the guitar for a short while, and my skills were not quite up to the sound I heard in my head.
Here’s where the strange drug induced birth comes in. I was asked to play in a pickup wedding band in Tunkhannock, PA on a Saturday night, and seeing as I was living in my Dad’s basement and obviously needed cash, I jumped at the chance to make some money singing and playing guitar. My ragamuffin bandmates were partiers, and at the time my only mood altering substances were letters regarding my student loan. Halfway through the gig, the bass player, Phil, took me aside and asked me if I wanted a bump, and not knowing what a bump was, I idiotically said yes. I found out later that a bump is USUALLY cocaine, but on this particular night it was CRYSTAL METH, the King Daddy of all stimulants. Cocaine to the 10th power… biker crank, the home-wrecker, the teeth rotter, the Rock n Roll all night and party every day enhancer. Holy trailer park Batman, I just snorted what… meth? I’m going to have a heart attack and die! I didn’t die, but I was jacked-up enough to stay awake for 2 whole days until that guitar part to “Circle City” was perfect.
It’s odd to reexamine my teenage lyrics with wiser, older, in-need-of-reading-glasses eyes. I didn’t want to mess around too much with the naive prose of a situationally depressed boy who needed emotional and financial help, had no one to turn to and felt a strong need to express those thoughts in song. Someone get me some tissues, for Christ’s sake, my younger self could use some help. I toyed around with the idea of changing it to a first person narrative, but ended up leaving it the way it was… me looking down on the disaster below. The “Throw him a line” line should have been, “Throw ME a line”, but I needed to distance myself at the time, and still do. I played the original version for Alan Johnson, co-producer of my album, “Under The Bed” and song mechanic extraordinaire, and his comment was, “Great, but write different lyrics for the second chorus and add a bridge.” And So I did.
While I was writing the bridge to “Circle City,” someone knocked on my hotel door and in a cracking voice announced that they were housekeeping and did I need anything. I opened the door to find a boy, about 16 years old, with wet hair, a whistle around his neck, and wearing an old fashioned swimsuit. He asked me if I wanted any towels, and I said, “No, but you look like you could use one.” He didn’t even smile and just walked away. I closed the door and then thought for a moment… holy Casper, that kid probably drowned in Lake Conneaut way back in the 1920′s, and he’s come back to scare the living song right out of me. I walked briskly down to the front desk and asked the person behind it if they had a wet young kid dressed in an old style swimsuit, with a whistle around his neck cleaning their rooms. Just at the moment the lake drenched boy appeared, and the desk clerk said, “Yeah, that’s Johnny, he’s on the High School swim team and before work he does laps around the lake. The whole team wears those vintage suits and he has the whistle in case he gets in trouble out on the lake.” I said to alive Johnny, “I’ll take that towel now, I’m going to need it to clean my pants.”
After I regained my composure and checked my shorts, I went back to work and quickly finished the bridge on my haunted shipwreck of a song. When you read the lyrics, I know what you’ll think. Vague beach poetry in Indianapolis, IN. What gives? I don’t know, give me a break… I was 19. What does Steely Dan’s “Bad sneakers and a Pina Colada, my friend” mean? They don’t know either. This is one of those songs that needs to be heard, not read, and I will post the original demo from the eighties and the new version soon. I have to go now, someone’s knocking on my hotel door again and I’ll bet it’s the badly burned Elizabeth telling me to stop playing my damned guitar, because she’s trying to spook.
Throw the seed among the stone
And watch how wild it’s grown
Tough and twisted, double fisted
Muscle and bone
Johnny loud one, loads of fun
Who’d have thought he’d be the one
To be drowning, no more clowning
Throw him a line
But there’s no one on the beach
No one in the boat
I guess it’s sink or swim
To tired too float
All the lifeguards left their chair
Hey anybody there?
‘Cause it sure ain’t lookin’ pretty
Here in Circle City tonight
Oh, and when it rains it pours
Salt on open sores
Yes, everything at once
Never one at a time
And the calls catch no one’s ear
‘Cause no one wants to hear
He keeps on trying, feels like dying
Throw him a bone
But there’s no one there to help
No one with a rope
I guess it’s stay or flee
Too tired to hope
All the cops have left their beat
No one on the street
And it sure ain’t lookin’ pretty
Here in Circle City tonight
Yeah, it sure ain’t looking pretty
Here in Circle City tonight
And round and round and round she goes
The city never sleeps, but the kitchen’s closed
Windows are shuttered and the doors are locked up tight
You can scream and shout, bitch and curse
But the next guy’s louder and his pain is worse
Yeah, it sure ain’t looking pretty
Here in Circle City tonight
It sure ain’t looking pretty
Here in Circle City tonight
Words & Music by J. Patrick Godwin
Good 1 Music ASCAP 2010
Winona Armas said on December 28, 2010
Hello, I am a long time lecturer but first time commentator. Please don’t stop writing.
Rick said on September 2, 2010
You neglected to mention that besides being one of your best penned songs it occasionally resulted in getting you laid by Miseri girls at Dave’s place!! How have you been? I truly am honored that you sent me a friend request via Facebook. Your blog makes for an interesting read each day before I settle into the boredom of the real world!