I wrote the lyrics for Magician’s Plea after a 1987 or 1988 visit to Disney World with my parents.
We went on various theme rides and I just wanted to be entertained. I wanted to let go and believe in the magic, at least for the moment, and wanted to be wowed.
My dad was more cynical about the experience and was of the mindset that no one was going to fool him. He’d interject with comments like “that’s done with mirrors” or “that’s just a guy in a costume”.
I got the idea to write the lyrics from the perspective of the magician putting on a show. I took inspiration for the lyrical approach from the Larry Gowan song “Criminal Mind”. I love how it’s written in the first person; I think the song is much more compelling for it.
I wrote the music in, I think it was the early 2000’s I recorded a version of it – I had a sequencer program driving my Yamaha PSR-20 keyboard to generate the music.
By 2008 I was working with Steve Sherman. He’s a talented guitar player, sound engineer, and co-producer. We started a redux project – to record a new version of Magician’s Plea that would feature Steve’s guitars and take a more organic sound.
We got as far as one session before changes in life got in the way and I put the project on indefinite hold.
The pause period ended up being about ten years. There have been a lot of life changes in between. The end of one era is the start of another… in September 2019 I dusted off this project – unpaused it and set out to create something to be proud of!