The inspiration to write a song can be found in the most unlikeliest of places. On the odd occasion when it can’t be found, one must occasionally look to the more likelier places, or at least, take into consideration whatever happens to be in front of you. “Lilly Likes Leanin’ On the Piano”, the new single from Dartmouth-based musician Ted Simmons, fortunately, didn’t require him to go looking too far.
“Lilly Likes Leanin’ On the Piano” is the final song to be released from Vol 3. of The Real Ted Stevens, the three-part series that’s been attributed to his alter ego—a long-running joke after Ronok Sarkar once misintroduced him at a performance—that occasionally makes an appearance whenever some project doesn’t quite fit his character.
Recorded last winter at Ocean Floor Recording, Simmons found his muse not quite at his shoulder but close at hand, taking the idea for his new single not from a lady of the lounge, but from a plant that had been leaning on the piano: quite literally a lily.
“I would sit at the piano every night for like a week, playing the main sort of piano that goes throughout the song, wondering what I should write about,” says Simmons. “Then, one night, looked over and just said the words and it fit. I kind of had a few other lines and I went out and saw a girl wearing a loud pink outfit, so I came up with all ‘the other girls are dressed in pink’. I still didn’t really have a song, so I texted my friend Ronok with what I had and he came up with ‘she whispers to me and the boys play something blue’.”
From there, the song wrote itself, drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s epic narrative-heavy albums of the 1970s like Desire and Blood on the Tracks.
“In my head, it’s kind of a collection of characters I have seen during my life as a tavern frequenter over the years. I always think they must have a story that is not that obvious,” says Simmons. “Then I played it for Nick Maclean, who plays on the recording, and he immediately said it needs a strings arrangement so he actually charted one.”
The new single comes complete with a B-side as part of Simmons’ original intention of releasing the series as 45s. “Runnin’ Into The Fire” similarly involves many of the same people; Jordi Comstock on drums and Nick Maclean playing most everything else.
“We did a thing that we did a few times during the pandemic where I would record the base track at Ocean Floor and they record their stuff at Jordi’s house actually and then I would go back to Ocean Floor to finish it and put it all together,” says Simmons. “I unapologetically wrote that one to be, lyrically, like a Springsteen song; that idea of ‘regular peoples’ stories’ kind of thing.”
Both songs sound like they might have been traditional piano ballads, dusted off and spruced up—wedged somewhere between Dylan and Randy Newman with a pedigree that stretches back to Scott Joplin—which might just be a regret sign for their potential longevity.
Simmons says hasn’t entirely abandoned the idea of having The Real Ted Stevens pressed to vinyl, though hasn’t any specific dates in mind. Apparently, he’s just waiting for Adele to let everyone else have a chance.