After

by J. Bice/K. Dorner

This is an instrumental named after a dog named After.

From Kathy Dorner, my brother Dan’s widow:

I wrote the first part of the mostly instrumental piece called After. When Jennie Bice joined the Dharma Bums, we worked together to add a couple more sections to the tune and had fun in the studio overlaying various instruments and wordless vocals. I can’t remember who suggested calling it After but I think it was Jennie. In any case, the tune was named after our dog “After,” a very bouncy collie-spaniel cross. She had been a Christmas gift for Danny a few years earlier and her full name was “After The War”. Danny really liked the art of René Magritte, and the name was inspired by the song on Paul Simon’s Hearts and Bones album called René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War. When questioned about our dog’s name, he would say “if it’s good enough for René and Georgette Magritte’s dog, it’s good enough for mine.”

I remember getting some funny looks at a homeschooling meeting when a friend handed me a package of dog biscuits and told me to bring them home as a treat for After.

The song is a rather bouncy one, ensuing and subsequent to a later doggie.

Lyric is “aaa, aaa, ah, ah, ah.”

P.S. Happy 32nd birthday to my son, John.