Late in 1988, having some free time on my hand after getting divorced, I thought it might be a good idea to begin to write an opera. I'd been thinking about writing one since the mid-seventies. Well, I couldn't think of an operatic idea. And then I figured, if you're going to write an opera, you're going to have to write a lot of songs. So I decided to see if I could write a lot of songs. It would give me good practice until the operatic idea came along.

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So I began with "Sometimes"... And then I forget which came next or next. After I had about four  or five, I decided to ressurrect an old love song from 1971, The Wolfman's Driver". I had to update the lyrics, and also added a couple of sections. Another old one that got resurrected was the first part of "Six A.M. In Yorkville." The beginning part was written on piano when I was fifteen. I wrote that because I wanted to be able to play something decently on piano.

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In the end, ten songs were entirely new, and I got to play around with time signatures (This Red White is Blue is 5/4; Nothing Endures But Change is 6/4, and Rosalind  is 7/4).

After the songs were written they had to be put into sheet music, which led to the purchase of my first mac (an SE30), and the first version of FInale.  Then it had to be arranged and scored and that took the rest of 1989. Financial considerations persuaded me that it was much cheaper to record in my apartment. And it was all done by May 1990. It took fifteen years and another divorce to get me to think about the opera again. Since I don't expect another divorce, I suppose my career in composition is over.