New Tune - With a Story

For the most part, the titles I use for songs have nothing to do with the songs themselves. In fact, I have a Word file filled with song title ideas that amuse me, collected from various sources. This new one is a little different, as the title came to me a long time ago and suggested a musical structure, if not the music itself. In all it's glory, the title is:

"Perpetuities (including 'The Dance of the Fertile Octogenarian')"

Lemme explain.

First year law students learn all about the Rule Against Perpetuities in their basic property class. It's the type of confusing legalism that makes lawyers feel confused and lay persons feel stupid. It's so convoluted that a California court famously held that an attorney doesn't commit malpractice when he whiffs on the Rule in court. The Rule's purpose is to prevent a person in a will or trust from controlling the use of land from beyond the grave. As such, it involves detailed calculations about who might inherit said land. Such calculations are done presuming that any person is capable of generating offspring, regardless of age - hence, the Fertile Octogenarian.

So I had these terms floating around in my head. I put them together as a sort of homage to the song titles on the first King Crimson album - 4 of the 5 are things like "Epitaph (including 'March for No Reason' and 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow')." Put the two together and - voila - "Perpetuities (including 'The Dance of the Fertile Octogenarian')". The musical idea was to take two more lush ambient sections and sandwich them around a more up-tempo middle section. It sort of worked.

With that overlong backstory - enjoy!