This song was never meant to be. At least, it was never meant to be a song.

See, I went to Careleton University, "where the K stands for Kwality." I was in residence (Glengarry, 3^rd floor), and that meant the Cafeteria.

Our cafeteria was called Saga, although that was no longer its real name. And the food was crap. The processed-cheese-and-ham sandwiches were a perfect example of the genre. I know, because I ate them--there were worse alternatives.

Eric, one of the guys on our floor, wrote a poem about Saga. It was sarcastic and silly, but I thought I could do a better one. (Hell, I was in the middle of writing a book.) So I wrote "Saga Tonite".

A few years later, I was playing around, and I came up with the melody and chords. The melody also works for "Stairway to Heaven", or at least it does until the "ooh and it makes me wonder" bit. When I wrote melody for that bit, I used it later in "Stuck in a Rut", for "Oooh, and I'm going under". I'm not the only one to do this: Tony Hightower has been known to perform a country version called "Hairway to Steven".

Because it was originally, poem, "Saga Tonite" has a much stricter rhyme scheme. It runs 2/2/3, but the foot is a three-syllable foot with the stress on the final syllable. The bizarre reference to Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is meant to show my literary knowledge. Fortunately, it fits rather well into a three-syllable beat.

The melody is as close as I've come to ska. I don't really worry about the words being understood, 'cause they're silly. The fit between words and music is a bit strained because the music's in 4/4 time, not 3/4, which would match the syllable/foot count.

Maybe not my proudest work, certainly none too meaningful, but you've got to have a little fun, once in a while.

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