(diaryland) June 17, 2009 - 2:09 p.m.

Paola gave me a choice of a Wings song or Xanadu to do as a cover for our gig next week. She kind of likes to give me not a lot of time to learn how to do covers. I picked Xanadu because all I could remember about the song was the prominent piano part in the chorus because that's what I'd end up doing. The only other thing I could remember about the song was the movie itself - how much the guy in it was the most uncharismatic human to ever walk the planet, complete with an early mullet, and also that when my Dad saw me watching it one time on the TV, he said, "Oh, I hate this film."

So the song's in the key of F sharp which for some unknown reason is way harder in my mind than G flat, even though it's exactly the same thing. I am completely at one with G flat.

So, in our practice session, while Paola was breezing away with her little capo on her little guitar, there I was, fumbling with the dinky bassline. They don't make capos for my piano yet.

Anyway, why I mention this is because of the end - I finally figured out how to play the song, and it gets more and more happy as the song goes on, and I broke into a barrage of exciting quavers, and then it finishes on a very appropriate and self-satisfying chord in the home key, F sharp.

THEN, a D major 7 chord, spread thinly over the keyboard, held for ages. It's like an arctic wind blowing icicles onto a circus tent. It's like the senseless murder of dolphins. It's the dint in the pillow your Nana made in the hospital. It kills me in my heart, man. I love it. It's like, you thought you were having a pretty good time, but really you're just the space between sub-atomic particles. You don't mean shit. It's fucking genius.

Hats off, guy from ELO who wrote it. I had no respect, to be honest, until last night.

Go check it out.