Jungle Love (a writer’s recycling story)

One of the central plot points in Border Field Blues revolves around a song titled “Jungle Love”. My protagonist, Rolly Waters, finds a discarded CD case at the crime scene. It has the title “Jungle Love” on the cover. Later he hears a version of the song played, and learns about a hip-hop hit that samples the central riff from the original recording.

Since Rolly is a songwriter, I’ve often dipped into my own back catalog when I need a few lines to fill out a chapter, or hint at his state of mind. Like this bit at the end of the “La Madre” chapter, where Rolly sings.

A wave is coming at us.
There’s nothing else in sight.
On this dark, deserted ocean,
We’re about to face the night.

Those lines are from a song called “Fishermen” that I wrote but never recorded. But the song Jungle Love really does exist in recorded form and you can hear it for yourself below. I wrote it with my brother, many years ago, when we performed with our band Bad Dog. In our personal mythology at least, it’s the song that ruined our chances for a record contract with Columbia. The rep there who had previously expressed interest in our band hated it. We never heard from him again.

So I did a little recycling when I wrote Border Field Blues. I thought the title worked for the title of the song that’s central to plot. Here’s the original recording. I have to admit it was a very different song, and sound, from most of the stuff my brother and I were writing at the time. It’s certainly not my favorite song I ever wrote. I still kind of like the little piano riff and baseline, though. Maybe I can recycle it musically someday. Or maybe some hip-hop artist can sample it. Tell me what you think. I can take it.

Nowadays I use this for my ringtone. It’s a pretty good ringtone. You can download it here in ringtone format for iPhone and Android phones if you’re interested.

And if you have the least bit of interest in what my band sounded like when it didn’t sound like this, you can check out the “Best of Bad Dog” at Amazon or iTunes.