A Bargain at Half the Price

Playing with a group of people on a very regular basis for a long time, you begin to work as a cohesive unit. That's the way Greg, Bob, and I clicking by the time we finally got Alan to sit in with us. Greg and I had already written a number of songs between us, some still missing lyrics, but we definitely had found our songwriters' grooves.

Alan was another physics student who had been the creative force behind Terra Cotta, a band that had been fairly active on the Dallas music circuit. For some reason that escapes me now, things happened with Terra Cotta, and Alan was pretty sure that it was pretty much over. So he asked to start sitting in with us, mostly because he had heard Greg and Bob talking so much about what was gonig on with Green Chili.

The first night Alan sat in with us, we got him up to speed on several tracks, and within a few hours, all four of us were running on a good vibe. Then, it happened. To this day, I do not know what sparked it, but basically all four of us starting playing this groove, then a rhythm developed, and within minutes we had a song. The creative juices that Alan brought with him from Terra Cotta mixed perfectly with the rest of us. the song name was even generated that magical night as well.

Unfortunately for Green Chili, Terra Cotta got over their momentary insanity, and Alan got back playing with them again. We kept Bargain in with Green Chili, however, and before too long, I had written the lyrics. The snappy, upbeat feel to the song camouflages the rather bitter lyrics, apparently dealing with another broken relationship. Really, I didn't have that many.

As we kept playing this tune during our rehearsals, it stayed one of our favorites. The song wasn't truly complete until we got into the studio. Alan put a guitar solo over this in one take, and it was pure gold. Then, while eating lunch at the Taco Villa, I had the inspiration that wrapped up the song completely - duelling kazoos. Now, if I hadn't told you there were kazoos in this song, you never would have known. But now you're going to listen for them, aren't you?