The Devil And The Jinn

Love is a shoeless charlatan
A silver-tongued huckster with a sadist's lipless grin.
Love is the breaking of a bone
A burning cauliflower ear still throbbing a the telephone.
No matter what you do
It slithers back to you.
It's not enough to leave.
It's not enough to be left.

Love is the devil and the jinn
A brazen, changing problem. It's a fight you'll never, ever win.
Love is a cruel company store.
A transglobal disaster. It's a meltdown to the core.
No matter what you do
It slithers back to you.
It's not enough to leave.
It's not enough to be left.
Despite a college try, it paints a sorry sight.
You piss away your life
writing stupid songs that try to say what love is.

And when it comes you'd better let it in.
Go wipe the lamb's blood off your door.
Novenas don't work any more.
And when it comes you'd better
kiss its feet and beg, "Please, let me come with you
from love-me-not to love-me-do."

Love is the devil and the Jinn.

Joe Pernice, Bony Gap Music (BMI), admin. by BUG/BMG

I don’t really remember writing this one, but it had to be around 2010. I do recall talking to my brother on the phone about the demo I’d sent him. He was really excited that I’d managed to get “jinn” in the title and hook of a song. But other than that, the writing of the tune is a blur. (Not to keep harping on it, but at the time my kid was almost three years old. Overnight he went from a sweet little guy who would eat anything put in front of him to a fire-breathing monster who demanded chicken cutlets at every meal. I remember frying cutlets then way more clearly than I do writing song. I smelled the way I imagine Mel Sharpels from TV’s Alice did.

My band ended up recording the song (and 10 or 11 others) in Dorchester, MA in the studio we had above the old offices of Ashmont Records, Inc., offices. I believe those sessions took place in early 2011. To be honest, I blocked out a lot of that time. My heart and head were not completely in it. I felt like a was beating a dead horse musically. I ended up tossing out an album’s worth of recordings. Only three of those recordings would survive: The Devil And The Jinn, Skinny Jeanne and Throw Me to The Lions. I pulled them out of the garbage and retooled the 2011 recordings in early 2019. The songs would appear on 2019’s Spread The Feeling.
A few people have asked me how I could scrap 75% of a recorded album. Well, it’s easy. The songs were not good. The band’s playing was great as always. The songs kind of stunk. So I perfected my chicken cutlet game. I also began to seriously collect bicycles. As my good bud Warren Zanes said to me around that time, “Ah, Joey. Revisiting the boy to discover the man.”

Sometime in the Spring of 2011 I asked Neko Case if she would sing on The Devil And The Jinn, and she agreed. I didn’t really know her well at the time. I had opened a few shows for her here and there, but that was about it. My great old friend Mike Belitsky (who played with me and whose band The Sadies had collaborated with Neko) connected us.

The session took place in a studio in Williamsburg. I don’t know the exact date, but could easily find out. I’m from Boston. Neko had lived in Vancouver for a while. We were both BIG hockey fans. The day of the session took place on the first night of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. Neither Neko or I could know that in a month’s time out teams would face each other in the finals. But on day-one, we broke each others balls like we had an ownership stake in our respective teams. (I think I’ll text her after this and ask her if she remembers who won the Cup in 2011.)

All kidding aside, I recall the recording session vividly. I gifted her a dense encyclopedia of horticulture. I watched and listened from the control room as she found the part and nailed it. Gave me chills. I have always thought (and still think) that Neko’s is a singular voice of historical significance. And I’m stoked to have that voice inextricably woven into my music.

I’m glad The Devil And The Jinn survived my personal music massacre.

Oh, there’s another loose Boston sports connection to The Devil And The Jinn recording. Fenway Park organist Josh Cantor plays organ on the track.

Oh, and Larry Bird himself plays 12-string and tuba.

We all had such a great time.

As for the recording included here, I sang and played live into my computer. I’m doing a bunch of demos, and the gear was set up. I figured, why not. I used a single SM58 mic. I added a hair of EQ and compression, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As always, thanks a lot for listening and reading. Take care of yourselves and those around you.

JP