In 2009, bandmate Michael purchased a set of guitar strings from Jeff's Music in Swartz Creek. They were branded "Jacque," and the packaging displayed a pencil drawing of Panama Jacque, a friendly looking tropical dude with an eyepatch and a neck wider than his head.
This, for whatever reason, got our creative juices flowing, and we set to work on a bit of a concept album based around a story we came up with. The project was quickly abandoned, but not before Michael wrote lyrics and I worked on a few tracks.
A whole ten years later, I made a plan to take all of the songs I have written and record new versions of them (sans vocals), thus providing myself some closure with this project, and to contribute to a finalized record of the music I have written.
Introducing Jacque, probably narration/dialogue.
From our notes:
• In his prime, very friendly. Lives in a hut on the beach, welcoming visitors (many friends), nightly bonfires, cooks for his guests.
A simple little vamp to be used between songs. This was probably to set up the next track.
Jacque's fall from grace.
From our notes:
• Introduced to rum by a shady visitor. Becomes rowdy and destroys his favorite tavern in a blind rage.
Two parts to this song. The first part is for when he wakes up, sick and remorseful, then caught in a trap. Second part starts when the ship rolls in.
From our notes:
• Wakes up the next morning on the beach, bleary-eyed and sick, to the sight of a large ship with black sails and the dreaded skull and crossbones logo emblazoned on the side.
• He scrambles up the beach only to stumble into a trap. (Caught in a net up in a tree). Jacque cries for help, but is not heard, as all friends have deserted him. (Sad lonely song)
• Pirates capture him and take him aboard, where they torture him for information about what happened to their favorite tavern, but he's too embarrassed to say.
I don't remember much about this one. Jacque had a love interest, Jill, and there were lyrics but I can't find them.
I've been pulling the notes from a piece of paper where we outlined the story. We tried to incorporate phrases that were on the packaging and in the company's catalogue, such as the "stretching your Jacque" phrase. Scrawled on our notes was also the phrase "Slicker Than Snot," which was used to describe the strings, and also "bumblefish," and I have no idea what that means.
From our notes:
• As they subject him to the painful agony of the rack, they chant "stretching your Jacque tighter will give you a higher pitch."
• After being tortured, Jacque is thrown into the brig to rot. After weeks at sea the pirates are running low on food.
• Jacque, using his amazing culinary skills, catches a bunch of fish and cooks them up for the pirates. The pirates befriend Jacque and accept him as one of their own.