My career as a songwriter.

It was 1996 and I was in a band. We called ourselves Sharp Freeze, after the freezer manufactured by Sharpe at the ice cream store where we all worked. Though I was a classically trained upright bassist, I was a shitty bass guitar player. But nontheless, there I was with my Fender Jazz Special, the bassist and backup vocalist for the band. Eliese was on guitar. Self taught, she was halfway decent. Sadlly, her song writing skills weren't as good as her halfway decent guitar playing acumen. Molly was on drums. However, Molly had neither a drum set, nor any training or lessons in percussion. What Molly did have was a pair of old drumsticks and an upside-down plastic trashcan. She couldn't find the beat with both hands and a flashlight. The ability to keep a straight beat in 4/4? Forget it.

I lived in the attic of my parents' house, a veritable suite all to myself. It was two rooms and a small bathroom with no shower. We were sitting nearly on the stairway, and halfway into the bathroom. Why? I have no idea. With all the room, I had, this position made little sense. Eliese and I could actually read music and were taking Advanced Placement Music Theory together. We started noodling around and actually came up with something that sounded not atrociously horrible. Classic progression. Nothing difficult. Then Eliese added some asinine words having to do with a freshman (freshman!!) she had a crush on.

Yes! We had written a song!

We played "our song" for about an hour. Until something hit me. "Slow it down," I said. And we did. Less than half time. And then it dawned on me.

We'd written the love theme to the movie Top Gun.