Constellation #9, etc.

Writing lyrics to a song is not easy. At least not for me. But the process has some unexpected benefits, at least in my life.
The main riff for Constellation #9 was conceived by Steve. The band (mostly me) struggled with the arrangement, I found it hard to count to 9 and sing at the same time, so I had to dumb down my guitar part. But as I started to write the lyrics, the song really came together in my mind. I wanted the song to be about fatherhood. I thought it was ridiculous that I had been a dad for more than a year and hadn't managed to write a song about it. Granted, it's a huge, bewildering, totally amazing happening, becoming a parent, so it's not easy to encapsulate with words. But I gave it my best shot. The lyrics came to me over the course of many nights, getting Clovis to go to sleep on my shoulder. She has glow-in-the-dark stars on the wall in her room, and as I would rock Clovis to sleep, I would sort of zone out on these stars. In total darkness, they're hard to focus on.
Anyway, that was the genesis for the lyrics. The rest of the words sort of came elliptically from there. As I was writing the lyrics in my head, I would often sing them to Clovis, really slow and gentle, as a way of trying out different lines and remembering changes to the lyrics. I never knew, but I think she liked the way the words sounded, and many a night ended with her having been put to sleep by Constellation.
Now that the new album is almost done, I listen to the rough mixes at home a lot, and I generally listen with Clovis. She knows what Squeaky sounds like, as soon as she hears us, she says, "Daddy's band.. skeeeky". When a song ends, she looks at me very quickly and says, "daddy.. more coming?", to which I reply, "Yup." I've told her about the Constellation song, that it's about her. She actually recognizes the guitar riff that starts the song, every time she hears it, she says her name and points to her chest, as if to say, "this is my song". I always tell her that it's her song. But she really recognizes that song - she doesn't ever point to herself when other songs start. This is amazing to me, very gratifying that she hears music like that. She can pick out drums when they play by themselves, knows what guitars sound like. Amazing.
Night before last, she and I were waiting for the macaroni and cheese to be finished ("Daddy... roni ready???"), so were listening to Squeaky. Constellation #9 came on, and she again amazed me by recognizing the song. She said, "daddy singing". She's learning to differentiate between my voice and Karl's, at least I think she is. But then she started saying words back to me from the song. The word "shimmer" appears in the song a lot, and she has always liked to say that word over and over again, but on this occasion, she basically was saying the end of every line to me, almost in a sing-song voice. "Tonight.. shimmer... look back..." she just went on and on. It was amazing. It was like she was singing my song back to me, looking at me with those big, earnest eyes... I don't want to get too sappy, but suffice it to say that it brought a father-sized lump to my throat.
That's it.
H