Key Lyric: “Yeah… ur pretty old”
The first song I worked on for this project. The dinosaur in question is my alma mater’s current president. For over twenty years, he has been a barrier to queer resources as he has publicly and shamelessly prioritized bigoted donors over his own student body. He embodies the kind of religious homophobia that twists the teachings of Faith to discriminate against people that Jesus would’ve called his kin. This is my way of letting him know what I think before he retires this summer… His beliefs belong in the nursing home, or the MUSEUM! And just saying: Prep would never, and I think Iggy (of Peter Faber-Francis-Xaiver-Two-Boyfriend Fame) would have some thoughts…
Purpose (Why this song?)
As mentioned, this was the first track I worked on for the project. I felt a strong urge to begin recording music of my own, and wanted to craft something up as a proof of concept. Something that proved I could do it, you know? I thought about my favorite songs, and decided I’d record Dinosaur by Kesha. I built the punk-y beat up out of a few Logic Pro loops, laid Kesha’s original vocals down, and just began to record takes of my own. At first, I was too scared to mute Kesha and exported it as a remix that simply featured my vocals. But as I listened back, I realized that it actually had a lot of potential. From there, I cleaned up the mix and found that I had a genuine song on my hands. Something I could publish. And from there, inspiration bloomed for the album ahead.
I’d return to Dinosaur a few times throughout the process, but interestingly enough, never to re-record vocals. The finished track features the same recordings as the track had on its first day! The growth came through the song’s production, which I aimed to spruce up in an effort to help it stand out from the loops I had been using This is when I recorded myself whistling and added the strings/bass that now define the song: At this point, the album’s identity as For Boston was already set. And it was here that I got the idea to start incorporating the melody of “For Boston” into the track, somehow. Through my time as a musician, I’ve grown really experienced with mashing up melodic instrumentals with pop tracks. It was really fun to take the punk sound of BC Era Dinosaur and mash it up with the melody of the Fight Song!
The Creative Process:
Sonic Identity
From this track’s conception, my goal with its sonic identity was to emulate the sounds of a “Boston Basement Party.” See, my school nearby the Boston city neighborhood of Allston. Throughout Allston, there are small colonials that have been renovated into apartments, multi-family homes, and student housing. Among these houses, you’ll find concrete basements that are a bit rough around the edges. And in these basements, you’ll find drunk college kids rocking out with electric guitars, throwing mini concerts.
I found myself at a few of these during my time up in MA and specifically can remember a couple from when I was going through the events that inspired this album during the Spring of my Junior Year. Had some really interesting run-in with a guy who wanted to prove that he was “the #1 Jack at our school.” I said I was fine being number 2. What a guy! They’re funny memories, so for the song, I wanted to embody the sound I remember from ‘em best I could.
Core Sounds
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One could argue that the most iconic part of Kesha’s original song is the dinosaur roar that starts the song off. Personally, I think it’s the cowbell. But one could argue!
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This is reference to an old record, which you can read about here.
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Not originally part of the song, the For Boston Bass is honestly the most iconic part of the production. Added about halfway through the album process, I decided I wanted to reintroduce the melody of For Boston somehow. Originally the whistling line was my idea, but after some playing around, I realized that the melody actually worked pretty well as a bass line. As it is in the public domain, I’m in my full rights to interpolate the jingle as if it were Beethoven. Think that it helps deliver the message that this is about an institution, despite lyrics referring to dating.
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As mentioned, I was interested in emulating the sounds of basement party concert. I remember the drums to be pretty messy with it, so it was fun to program the digital kit here to go for that sound. And thank goodness for the sound library found within Logic Pro haha cuz all I’ve actually got in that department is a set of bongos lol
Ugh. This song has remained relevant throughout my life in a way that I’ve really grown quite exhausted of. Since before I was 18, I’ve been dealing with creepy old men time and time again. Kesha’s Animal album was always a favorite of mine, so when I started to get wrapped up with those old losers, this song became cathartic for me to sing along to. When I went to college, I thought it’d be a new era, one free from that kinda stuff. But alas, the Dinosaurs of it all would come to dominate in two ways.
The first was in my frustrations around my school’s social progress as a Jesuit Institution. Other schools, like Fordham and Georgetown, far surpassed us in terms of administrative support of queer students through resources, and as someone who regularly attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Social Justice down in DC, I knew that my school had an imperative to match the progress of the Jesuit community at large… Or I certainly believed, so. Unfortunately, my school’s administration was interested in staying in the past. When I think about things that exist in the past, well, I think about Dinosaurs. So even though the lyrics speak about “Dinosaur Behavior” in terms of dating, I hope that the message can land for this institutional situation I’m concerned with, too.
The second was in the continued interactions I had with old men in my dating sphere. See, I had met a wonderful guy when I was at college. I loved the conversations we had, laughter we shared, and especially the ways our personal relationships to religion and sexuality intersected beyond simply being gay men at a Catholic school. Both of us had a history of being wrapped up in situations with older men, which nuanced our relationship to queerness in such an interesting way and certainly would’ve had us set on an exciting adulthood together. Heal through each other. But sure enough, there was an old man wrapped up with our relationship. The man was wrapped up with him before quickly becoming wrapped up with me and destabilized the way I was getting to know and falling in love with the guy that I was in a relationship with… to say the least. I could sing a whole album about this, probably write one with my own lyrics, too. But that’s enough of that.
Storyline
Key Moments
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As previously mentioned, the For Boston melody reappears during Dinosaur in the form of its bassline. However, during the whistling sections, I’ve also tried to incorporate a larger orchestra as well. You might be able to hear some strings and even a saxophone playing the little jingle.
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I went back and forth on this one. The spelling of Dinosaur makes up the iconic chorus of this song, and I think its so silly. While recording, I already latched onto the idea of D-I-N-O-SA, in reference to what happened on my spring break. But the dinosaur I’m singing about is not that dinosaur, it’s the persistence of religious homophobia and its effect on institutions like my alma mater. A Jesuit school.
Not too crazy for the idea to switch that SA into SJ to arise, then. It’s disrespectful, absolutely. But it’s not disrespect without a story behind it… & I saved it for the end, anyway. My only hope is that this is not taken as an insult to all Jesuit priests. I’ve known more than many kind men in my time who are & were Jesuits, and I have Faith that it will be a Jesuit priest who becomes the first to marry a gay couple and end sacramental discrimination. Maybe it’ll even be me.
Actually no, lol I wouldn’t join before the marriage rules change for gays and for priests. And who I am kidding there.
