Was running just a little bit late to Bell Labs Studios the other day. It was our last day to mix the VAGABONDE record-- finally! But I was also running out of gas, so stopped at the Love's at Exit 120 where the sign said the price for unleaded was $1.99..... By the time I finished filling up and was pulling away, the sign then said the price was $1.97. I looked at the receipt, and damn, missed it.
Everything is in the Timing.
I'm out of time. Out of money. Out of patience with the time that it's taken to make this record. But there's still so much to do. And I'm afraid I've proverbially bit off way more than I can chew.
One summer, I was living and working in Greece, on the island of Paros and just outside the window of my apartment there was a big beautiful fig tree. It looked to be about 100 years old. The month before I had to leave, I watched these figs ripen. Every day I looked at them and counted my days left on the island and prayed they'd ripen before my departure date....but no such luck. I had to leave and although they were all pretty plump, they still needed what looked like another 10 days or so......
So I was thrilled this past summer when the fig tree I planted in my garden several years ago gave me about 10 figs and I didn't have to leave before I ate almost every one of them. There was one left, still unripe, but then I had to leave for a trip....
Timing is Everything.
I played a club recently and I couldn't help but overhear a group of girls who were sitting nearby exclaim how much fun they were having. I glanced over at them as I was setting up to play and about six of them were looking at their phones, agreeing how much fun.....
"I just wasn't made for these times........" I thought to myself, feeling completely overripe.
Anyway, this VAGABONDE record has taken waaaaay longer than I ever imagined it would. About a half a dozen of the dates we had scheduled to record and to mix had to be postponed because of "le temps" --the weather, that is. Then there's being at the mercy of studio availability, and other peoples' schedules.
Tom Petty is right, "The waiting is the hardest part."
The fact is, I am extremely stressed that I have promised all of the wonderful folks who contributed to my Kickstarter that the release date for the album and for their rewards would be October, and here it is December. And there's still mastering and manufacturing to do, not to mention all of the design and layout and the publishing rights to obtain and a zillion other secretarial duties to take care of.
So, as I was driving away from Bell Labs Studios, with the final mix under my proverbial belt, fretting about what all there is still yet to do and that I'm going to be about six months behind schedule, i turn the radio on-- and I hear a preacher say: " All things are in God's Time.....you must be patient for God's Glory.....'to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven'......"