SUNDAY SONGS #3
A date from hell and finding my voice with "Black Diamond Day."
Sunday Songs is a new series where I revisit songs from my music catalog. While most of you know me as a writer, I’m a musician first. Here are the stories behind the songs. Stay tuned for new music news. Thanks for listening!
I was twenty-four and dating a much older artist-type we’ll call the Tom Cat. He sold antiques at the flea market, quoted Jack Kerouac, and always needed to borrow my guitar. The guitar situation was the worst of it, as I had just started booking my first shows and I needed my guitar! So I went on one last date with him just to get my guitar back. I wore a polka dot dress and a bored expression on my face. These are the sorts of *questionable* things one does when they are young and don’t know any better. But I did get a song out of it!
“Black Diamond Day” was a hit at my first shows in the East Village, a real deranged crowd pleaser. But the song didn’t really come together until Tim Foljahn joined me onstage with his menacing slide guitar, adding just the right amount of New York noir to my tiny tale. Television’s Fred Smith joined us on bass. Listening to “Black Diamond Day” now, I don’t think about the Tom Cat, I never saw him again. Instead, I remember the excitement of those first shows; Tim and Fred, calm and steady beside me; and the thrill of finally finding my voice.
I never let anyone borrow my guitar again!
So, here’s “Black Diamond Day,” and the super fun Yayoi Kusama-inspired video from Ivana Helsinki’s Paola Suhonen. We stayed up all night cutting those polka dots out! The song became the first single from my 2009 debut, Alexa Wilding. It’s rated R but, come on, we’re all grown ups now.
Enjoy!
xx Alexa
PS. Feel free to share a *questionable* story from your past, or the moment you found your voice. May we have compassion for our younger selves (and the characters we met along the way). We were just trying to figure it all out.
Black Diamond Day
Oh you cat with the devil ‘tween your legs / Tall dark forest filled with mistakes
I’ll obey whatever you say / Why do you think I come here today?
Can I invite you to walk in the park? / Can I invite you to love me in the dark?
Come this way, you’ll take to my sway / And then we can transform the day
We’ll go back to your humble home / Where you can take me down from my throne
And lay me down covered by you / I don’t have to tell you what to do
Take me to your Sicilian haunts / Tell me of your regrets, fears, and wants
‘Cuz I’ll obey whatever you say / Why do you think I come here today?
You make my day a black diamond day.
💖💖💖
You met someone, never see him again and what’s left are memories, a story and a song. Well I know this.
Congratulations to this wonderful piece of music. And the video is extremely beautiful!