CSB had been together, in varying forms, for the better part of 10 years. With this album Brian Harrison-drums, Sonny Larsen-bass, and myself sought to accumulate the best of those years and put them on an album. The total tally was 12 songs. Collectively they became known as “Holding on to Venus.”

I’m a big fan of finding a pattern, or a theme, or a concept when given a collection of songs. I find this theme or concept to be extremely revealing when going through the process of resolving the track order.

When I started looking at the lyrical content of the songs for Venus, the theme that popped out to me was simply, “love.” All the songs, I felt, discussed or painted a picture of different shades, temperaments and situations of love. The triumph, the longing songs, the desperation, the regret, they all seemed to find cohesion in this concept of love.

I started thinking of possible titles. It wasn’t long into my search when I stumbled upon Venus, the Roman goddess of love. The thought occurred to me, the message needs to be something like, no matter what love has dealt me thus far, or no matter what lack of love situations I’ve found myself in, I’m going to keep holding on to find real love. To me that’s what “holding on to Venus” means, holding on to the hope, that one day real love will find me.

The track ordering was a difficult task, mostly due to the fact there were quite a few slower or mellower songs in the collection, though we were known more as an energetic, power-pop band. At first I tried focusing on the musical aspect alone, fast song, medium song, slow song. The key was to put distance between the slowest songs on the album. I never found peace in any of the results using this method. So I changed my ways.

Next I tried to come up with a story line that would link all the songs together.

Before I tried to discover the story, I knew something was missing on the album. If this was to be an album revolving around the concept of love, the album had to have that timeless jazz crooner song, There’s something about those “timeless” crooners that conjure up the beauty of love when I listen to them: I was listening to the commentary from When Harry met Sally. Rob Reiner wanted a soundtrack that was timeless. He went with Harry Connick Jr. So after a bit of time, I worked up the progression on the guitar and started humming a melody line. I ended up calling it “Timeless.” This was the last song written for the album.

The way the story finished.

Timeless- daydreaming about love, all the joys and good feelings that go with it.

Intro to Daisy- rudely awakened from the daydream, snapped back to the unrest of reality

Daisy- seeing someone that brings about inspiration, a possible pursuit

Venus- flash back to an experience of love that left

Crushed- remembering the broken state being alone again

Strange- remembering the confusion

News- the lowest point, the moment of realization, this love won’t return

Killer- overcoming self-pity, maybe the killer of my dreams isn’t someone else, maybe the killer of my dreams is me

Morning- longing for real love for the first time

Charmed- watching someone choose other people and getting hurt time and time again, and for some reason they don’t choose you

Wasted- 2 nd lowest point, remembering again, the hurt that love leaves behind

Purple- gaining a fresh look by looking up at the moon and making a few observations about the sea of life around us

Freakshow- back to seeing “Daisy,” the pivotal point, what am you going to do about what you want, “it’s your freakshow.”

The whole story takes place in a matter of seconds, seeing someone who inspires your heart, flashing back through past hurts, weighing the consequences, gaining a positive outlook by looking up, it’s my freakshow, “if you really want it.”


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