Feature: Tim Buck Day 4

Nearly octahedral diamond crystal in matrix (in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the United States Geological Survey)
___


____


Diamond in the Rough

I’m looking for a diamond under the ground

Every day I go down into the mine

Digging with a pick digging with a shovel

I want to see it glitter in the bright sunshine

I’d be grateful enough for a diamond in the rough

I’m looking for that love down in her heart

It’s got to be hiding there

So every day I work a little harder

Got to find that solitaire

I’m faithful enough for a diamond in the rough

Sometimes it gets so lonely down in this cavern of love

But I have lost all interest in that world above

I’m searching for a diamond, I’m digging every day

When that treasure’s mine I will keep it real safe

She plays it aloof and so hard to get

A sparkle in her eye might dull just as fast

Sifting through her moods I work up a sweat

I’ll keep on a-siftin’ while my energy lasts

I’ll be grateful enough for a diamond in the rough

I know she doesn’t want me at least not right now

It will take some time and a few hard defeats

But I know one day she will come around

When she’s persuaded by volcanic heat

I’m faithful enough for a diamond in the rough

Sometimes I get discouraged and my lantern burns low

When I think she’s just a figment, a gem I’ll never get to hold

I’m searching for a diamond, I’m digging everyday

Those jewels in her eyes, I want them flashing my way

Music & Lyrics © Tim Buck
Diamond in the Rough -- featuring Robin Willhite on lead guitar and bass

**** **** **** ****
Q&A

6. Do you first create the song in your head and then go ahead to write the lyrics down or is it the reverse?

It's almost always simultaneous. And I rarely have ideas for songs. I have moods for songs, and something usually emerges from the psychological perturbations. And it's not pretty. Squeezing out rhythms, melodies, and lyrics is a lot like psychic surgery – you know, those weirdo hands-on healers who somehow “reach” into your stomach and pull out a gory hunk of tumor or something. Yeah, it's like that. The words do not flow thoughtfully or rationally. It's a trance state, and as I say, it's not pretty. Most times, you would hear me moaning or groaning toward the musical mood. And slowly those moans will transform into a few actual words. Once those real words, dripping with emotional gore, come out, then a theme begins taking shape, with more words following.

7. What genres of music are your favorites and in which genres are you comfortable performing?

From the sixties, all those great garage bands and Motown. And of course Dylan, The Beatles, The Who, CCR. Later, British pub and punk, Springsteen. So, pop and rock are the genres, though with the Gothic Rangers, I've had fun and exploring some country and folk veins. Yeah, I think I could pass as a kind of alternate-country singer, on occasion.