SONG: “Starts Beating”

SONG:

“Starts Beating” [Download]
(To download: double right-click & “Save As”)

ARTIST: grant.

SOURCE: Based on “Scientists build a biological pacemaker by injecting a modified virus into the heart”, io9.com, 17 December 2012, as used in the post “Virus rebuilds unhealthy hearts.”

ABSTRACT: I like thinking about the metaphor of hearts being broken, because what everyone thinks of is that it hurts but the unspoken part of what it means is that it doesn’t work any more. So sometimes the one inflicting the pain is really the one with the broken heart, because something isn’t functioning any more.

And the best revenge, of course, would be to make it function. To inject the gene-carrying virus that reactivates the cells responsible for the regular heartbeat. For empathy. For affection. For the need of another person.

I wrote this song nearly entirely in my head while driving from West Palm Beach to Kendall. The instruments didn’t turn out exactly as I heard them, but that’s what happens when you “play” the piano by drawing each note out on the MIDI grid one at a time.

I also kind of imagined there’d be a chorus in a major key that explained what was going on and that had a cheerful energy to it, as life returned to the rejector. But it never quite fit, and the words never came.

It’s better this way.

(Last month’s penitential cover still coming.)