This song's about parts of my life. You know, there's good and bad in everything. My songs often emphasise the negative, though there are exceptions, like "Feeling Fine". But some things just bug me.

It's a Star Trek song. We need to say that straight off. Is writing a Star Trek song a bad idea? Well, it could get me classed as a nerd, I suppose. But I don't worry about that as much as I used to. It could get me typecast, but I don't plan on ever writing another Star Trek song. It could be inaccessable, but I figure the phrase "beam me up" is popular enough that anyone will get it.

Although my favourite Star Trek programs are The Next Generation and Voyager, this song is based on classic Trek. One of the endearing features of Star Trek: The Old Series is that it's hopelessly clunky, from the hundred-and-one alien races that look just like humans to the cardboard sets to Shatner's acting. It seemed like in every episode, they'd go down to some alien world, meet the natives, and then Kirk would teach them about kissing. Then, of course, they'd get the death sentence for littering. . .

The song's ironic. Even the escapist fantasy is based on the most commercialised Space Fantasy. (With phasers that make noise in space, and ships make banking turns, it's not really science fiction.) Like "Overtired", this song contains new chord patterns. It's a D song, so you'd expect to find D, G, Bmin and A. In fact, E usurps G in many places. F# takes over for Bmin occasionally. There's even a Gmin sometimes, which gives it a Beatles feel.

The verses are more regular than the chorus. Verses go 5/6/6/6, where the chorus is 4/5.5/5/4.

Beyond the first verse, there's not much connection between verse and chorus. The verses are about stinky aspects of my life, and the chorus is about Star Trek as the solution to all my problems.

Questions, comments or suggestions about this web site? Email me at aaron.bentley@utoronto.ca