I have always loved music. Songs tell stories too, and many of my own tales have been sparked by a single piece of sound.
The Sitarist’s Requiem began after listening to Paint It Black—that sitar line was dark, frantic, searching. The story mirrors the grief that the song is about.
The Mask and Chain came together while Brown Sugar was playing and I found myself wondering, What if this energy belonged to a woman who knows exactly what she wants, and what it costs?
Usually, the music comes first. It's my spark.
But this time, I reversed the order. I wanted to see if I could craft a song that grew out of a story instead of the other way around.
That experiment became Tongue Tied and Terrified—a story about obsession, a man addicted to “dining at the Y,” and the lessons he learns from three very different women.
To follow that energy, I wrote a blues lyric to match the narrator’s voice and heartbeat, and used Suno to set it to music:
Woke Up This Morning (Tongue Tied & Satisfied).
It’s old-fashioned juke-joint "dirty" blues--rough, hungry, and full of the kind of double-entendre the old blues greats understood perfectly.
I’ve included the track with the story. It’s available as a standard MP3—
stream it if your browser allows, download it if it doesn’t.
Either way, I hope you hear the same rhythm I felt while writing.
Enjoy—and let me know what you think of this little creative detour.
-Eric
P.S. Many thanks to Laz for indulging my experiment and hosting the song file for me here on SOL. I could have hosted it offline somewhere, but he very kindly agreed to host it here.