About
Key of E, Tempo 110
1978
Ah yes, Destiny…another hard rock song I wrote in the 70s. It was actually the theme song for a short lived band I fronted with a friend. Heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin and Queen, we were terrible. We actually played one concert at a recreation center on the army base my stepfather was stationed at. The set included Wild Thing, Stairway to Heaven (??), and this song. I repeat, we were terrible. I remember afterwards how me and the other guitarist, whom I had nicknamed “Beast”, snuck off with our girlfriends and hid in some bushes, waiting for the people to disperse and the laughter to die down. That embarrassment made me practice even harder.
This is a very simple guitar riff I played for years. For this mix, I played it on the guitar in GarageBand, along with the bass and drums, and then exported into Logic Pro X. I used lots of reverb and distortion to give it a heavy sound. It’s such a Zeppelin rip off, with its heavy riffs and Medieval imagery, that I can’t help but think of the movie “This is Spinal Tap” when I listen to it. (During verse 4 is when the undersized Stonehenge replica drops from the ceiling…). But, it is what it is – a very accurate portrait of who I was as a teenage male in the 70s, when we all idolized rock bands like Zeppelin, who flew around the world in a private plane that had a fireplace, for christ’s sake!
The paintings are by Polish horror painter Zdzislaw Beksinski. For a great overview of his work, check out “The Nightmare Artist” on YouTube on the very fine “In Praise of Shadows” channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRB4sdbIcw&ab_channel=InPraiseofShadows
NOTE: This song was remixed in July of 2023 and added to the Happiness is a Warm Guitar album.
Music available on all major streaming and social platforms. Watch video below.