Retro – The fairy tale to the corresponding music album

The whole plot of this story is imaginary.

Similarity to real persons is an accidental occurrence and is not desired by the author.

Once upon ago there was a musician, who always tried to compose something of his own, which would be accepted by most people of the world. Unfortunately the luck was not on his side because of lack of free time and mainly missing inspiration. He tried and tried, but all that came out was either a sag song or a song which violates the actual law for the protection of the youth at extreme level.

On a cool day in autumn while he took a walk along the river in the capital city in his federal state he saw two homeless men sleeping under an old bridge in a big cardboard box and both of them are really sparingly clothed. After he made a noble donation to the cap in front of the cardboard box he remembered of an old song which touched his mind deeply just in his early days. The song was presented to him those early days by the original artist, but the musical and vocal performance of the song-writer was anything else than acceptable. For this reason he could absolutely not understand why the crowd gave standing ovation for the music of this man. Some time later he was told that this artist was highly prominent and after a while he became a fan for this outstanding ambitious lyrics. Inspired by this impression he thought it would be just a good idea to present the sensibility of this song to the rest of the world because the original lyrics were only available in his native language. So he translated the song to an universal language which was spoken by people all over the world.

The following winter was very cold and long. The musician remembered again about the two homeless and he wished to be able to drive the cold winter away forever. His wife, who also hated the winter time, fully agreed with him.

Although he enjoyed the constant harmony and happiness with his wife he really liked to remember about the times where life had to offer more highs and lows than the current complete satisfaction. Those days he met his friends regularly for drinking a glass or two while discussing about different useful but also stupid things. Each of them had his own dreams what to do in their lives if they were just older and wiser. Snapped out of his dreams he realized that most dreams were still there but not converted to reality through the years.

Those thoughts vanished immediately as he looked at his wife. She was the most beautiful girl for him, the best which ever happened in his life, also after so many years of relationship.

Although the musician was a convinced atheist because of a bad experience in his childhood he liked to remember back to a certain lovely Christmas Eve where he walked at snowfall with his family to the traditional holy mass at church. The impressing full sound of the church organ let forget him about the crucifying holy mass and the hated aroma of incense. Oh yes, and years later this impression lead him also to try playing this mighty instrument for himself. Although the local priest refused this wish at first, but in the end they made a fair compromise, and after a small donation to the catholic organization the holy house turns to a concert hall for a single person for at least three hours. While the musician played the organ with passion, a smile could be seen on his face, certainly just because of the satisfaction of a clever done corruption.

Afterwards he left very satisfied the house of god, how the people called it, to honor himself with a few good drinks in his favourite tavern. In front of this tavern there stood an old discarded steam locomotive. Wasn’t there a story about a locomotive driver whose wife cheated on him with his best friend and because of his anger he manipulated the locomotive which caused the death of many people ?

The musician interrupted his thoughts and went in where the owner of the tavern, who seemed never to grow older, welcomes him in his usual friendly way. Although he had not much money in his pocket, hours later he left the tavern a little bit pixilated, but not in deficit. The tavern was very popular, because you could hear very good music inside all the time, except on Pancake Day whatever that means.

At night the musician had bad dreams called nightmares. At first he dreamed about his wife leaving him because of better alternatives and he had to live alone for a long time with the bitter yearning for cosy togetherness. Secondly the devil wanted to convince him to do a contract, but he fortunately cancelled it at last because of the inferior hidden clauses in the fine-printed part.

The musician woke up next day and he was very glad that it was just a dream. He also welcomed the disappearance of his reasonable aerophobia, the feeling before he went to bed the evening before.

In the following afternoon he spent some time again with his beloved 6-stringer, called guitar. Again the two homeless men came to mind and while he was playing the corresponding song he realized that performing the song in his native language the lyrics expressed much more feel and character than every international version would ever do.

Then he tried again as many times before to do an own composition. 20 years before it was also possible, he thought. But after one or two hours without any inspiration he quitted.

A little bit frustrated he took a relaxing bath afterwards. While he sat in the bath tube doing his missed shave from the morning he had a short look at the razor blade. He didn’t know why, but this moment a vision of his schoolmate came to mind and he remembered that he had great fun with him in his childhood inside and outside the school. He became a little bit sad, because years later his friend hanged himself with a rope.

Lost in thought he wondered why so many people decide for this kind of suicide although there are less painful alternatives. For instance a gun optimized handled would only cause a split second of pain. But it’s not worth the financial investment just for one single shot. Maybe for this reason many suicidal people prefer to run amok before this final step, because officially no one sells a single cartridge. Further there is no ability to bequeath the weapon because for sure this thing will be stored forever in an evidence room. Less expensive would be a razor blade. The pain of a small cut is negligible and you fall asleep before the water in the bath is getting cold.

Before the water in the bath got cold, the musician removed the rest of his hair below his throat and left the bath tube. His wife who missed all these crazy thoughts liked the result of this extended male grooming. And a few hours later when the musician fell asleep quite relaxed, his last thought was: A few small deaths are by far better than a big one.

At night in his dreams the devil appeared again and invited him to a concert of his personal guitarist. After the concert the devil took him to his side and whispered a new approach for a contract in his ear: ”You can choose one musical piece of my guitarist and I will teach you to play it like no one else. After the lesson you have 3 years to give me the song back recorded on an audio media of your choice, but you have to reach the goal just with 150 takes at maximum. If you fail, your soul will be mine. You have nothing to lose, because if you really fail, you will come to me to hell, but you will be able to continue making music and I will give you also a job as producer.”

The musician didn’t want to accept firstly, but with smart negotiation that he were allowed to have a happy and long life with his wife, finally he made the deal.

The contract was sealed in the way that the devil slightly ran his claw over the musicians back which hurt like hell.

When he woke up in the morning, the musician was startled, because his back burned like fire.

But as his wife apologized that the claw marks were probably her fault, he was visibly relieved.

Inspired by this dream the musician exercised every single day on his stringed instrument.

One and a half year later it was the day of the days and he believed that he would be ready to start with recording. But no, not until the second day he could finish the recording, but he needed 184 takes instead of the agreed 150 ones and he was visibly at the end of his motivation and power.

Nonetheless finally he was satisfied with the result, because he knew that the dream of the contract with the devil was even just a dream.

Again one and a half year later the complete works have been finished and the result was a silver disk which contained his music, produced contrary to all hated common commercial mixing techniques.

Although the musician didn’t wrote any own composition until his death, he enjoyed a long and happy life with his wife and survived most of the same aged wellness freaks.

But one thing he didn’t know until he passed away: The contract with devil was not a dream !

The musician has failed in two points out of three to fulfill the contract.

Firstly he needed 184 instead of 150 takes for the recording of the devilish song. Secondly the devil didn’t get a record ever, because they didn’t met each other at life time and after death the devil didn’t want to pay the 10 requested bucks for the silver disk. For this reason the musician had to follow the devil to hell and he is still playing and producing music until eternity.

But there was one very fine-printed clause in the contract which the musician was not aware of:

Any musical performance or producer work is only allowed for a style called Country.