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When I was preparing my graduation concert at the conservatory in 1998, I had the incredibly hip idea of doing a kind of BandAid-y type of a sort of a thing. I even had written a sing-along for which the whole audience would hold headphones to one ear, singing:

We are the children of the universe

And we live on planet earth

So we all must make a stand

Live tomorrow hand in hand… Together

How corny is that!? I thought it was hilarious. That was going to be the grand finale. The rest of the program would consist of either lookalike- or soundalike artists and each would have a song, written by me, in their own genre.

Needless to say it didn’t go as planned, or hoped even. The guy who would do Prince was in jail, there is apparently no Brian Wilson look-

or soundalike, and the guy I asked to do Frank Sinatra wanted to be paid $1000 and no rehearsal, so I ended up with only Joni Mitchell, who was excellent!

This is the song I wrote for Frank, full bigband, although they cancelled an hour before the show, so we had to do it with a quartet.

Sweet Persuasion

Hello young lovers, gather round

There’s some things that I’ve found out

Won’t you listen closely to what I have got to say

It’s just a story, nothing new

And I can’t say every word is true

But there is a moral and the music is okay, they say

So I’ll kindly ask the band: Take it away

So there you have it

It would have happened anyway eventually

That’s clear to see

Though I’m in peace with all the facts

My heart overreacts

Well, wouldn’t yours if you’d forget

The child that lives inside you

There, I’ve said it

The word is out, my conscience cleared allegedly

But not for me, the mighty Flea?

It may have looked like a big chance

But now it doesn’t make much sense

What’s there to trust when you have lost

The innocence around you

We were playing out in the open field

Sweet persuasion, yes, you’re so good to me

We were making love, but suddenly

All what was so good to me

Was not what it appeared to be

You were a bit too close to me

To me

So there you have it

I know it could have been so great but what’s to say

Should I have waited

Or is it like they say in France

That there are differend kinds of romance

And that you don’t learn how to make love in a day

I was enchanted by her beauty

The answers lay before me

Somehow I doubt that it was innocent childsplay

What’s more, I don’t think I’d have waited anyway