Rainbow Wednesday

Rainbow Wednesday

By Gary Grissom

I’ve always felt that each day of the week has its own color. Monday is deep blue, Tuesday is turquoise, Wednesday is rainbow colored ,Thursday is tangerine, Friday is scarlet, Saturday is dark green and Sunday is yellow. But originally, I thought Wednesday was purple until I shared these thoughts with a woman in my creative writing class at Mesa College. Her name was Diane and she told me she had always envisioned Wednesday as being rainbow colored. I said I loved that image and made the change in my mind. Diane and I became close friends. She was a classic red haired beauty with green eyes. Of course, I had a crush on her but she was happily married to a successful lawyer. But still, we enjoyed long conversations between classes in the school cafeteria and critiqued each other’s stories. When the semester ended, we said goodbye and that we hoped to see each other in the fall and, perhaps, share another class. But, sadly, we never saw each other again.

A few years later, a friend named Kevin told me about a songwriting contest being held by a radio station called KGB here in San Diego. He had listened to me at parties as I played my guitar and sang original songs.

“Gary! You should really enter the contest. I think you’d have a good chance of winning. All you have to do is write a song about San Diego.”

“Hey that sounds pretty cool. How much time do I have before the deadline?”

“I think the DJ said the entries need to be taken to the KGB station in about two weeks. By the way, I could record you playing your song on my tape recorder. I have a pretty good one. It’s almost studio quality.”

“Thanks Kevin! I really appreciate that. By the way, is there a prize for winning the contest?”

“I’m not sure. But I do know that the 12 best songs will be put on an album that will be titled “Homegrown.” I've also heard that all the proceeds of the sales of the album will go to United Way. So there probably won't be any cash awards. But still it will be great exposure for the winners and they will have the satisfaction of doing something good for charity.

“Oh I’d love to be put on an album. Sure...I’ll do it. That would be an honor in its self. Thanks again Kevin. I’ll give you a call as soon as I write the song about San Diego.”

For the next few days, I wrote a few rough drafts of songs that were too ordinary and contrived. I realized that I needed to “think outside the box” and come up with something different...something unique. Then it hit me – I needed to write a song about the colors of the week days and I needed to title it “Rainbow Wednesday.” But how would it be about San Diego? No problem…I would simply insert “San Diego” in a line or two. After several rewrites and singing into my cassette tape recorder, I completed my song to my satisfaction. I composed it in the key of E minor and the lyrics are below:

Rainbow Wednesday

Copyright 1973 by Gary E. Grissom

So many colors all around,

in San Diego where I found

a girl who has a lovely way

of renaming all the days.

And today is Rainbow Wednesday.

Rainbow Wednesday, tangerine Thursday,

scarlet Friday, dark green Saturday,

yellow Sunday, turquoise Tuesday,

and Rainbow Wednesday-ay,ay!

Diane’s wearing rainbow clothes.

She smiles at me ‘cos I know

that today’s her favorite day

and I hear her softly say

“Today is Rainbow Wednesday.

Yes, today is Rainbow Wednesday

In San Diego.”

I called Kevin and told him I had finished the song and we arranged to record it a couple of days later. Then I called an old friend named Steve to play some background notes on his bass. He was in agreement if I provided a 12 pack of Budweiser. 

I picked up Steve in my ’62 Ford Falcon that I had named “Bird Guts”, and we drove to Kevin’s apartment on a pearl gray Saturday morning. As we got our instruments out of the trunk of my car, the sun burst through the clouds and I thought of it as being a good omen for a good recording session.

“Come in guys.” Kevin said. “I have the tape recorder loaded with a new reel to reel tape and we can start as soon as you’ve tuned your instruments.

I introduced Steve to Kevin and they shook hands warmly.

“Do you two want something to drink?”

“No thanks Kevin. I have a 12 pack of Bud in my ice chest in my car that we can get after our recording session.”

“Sounds good.”

A few minutes later, Steve and I sat on two metal folding chairs Kevin had put in front of the tape recorder and microphones in his living room. We put our instruments comfortably in our hands and we were ready to record.

“Gary, I suggest you play a verse or two of your song while I check the levels on my machine.”

“Good idea Kevin.”

Kevin pushed the record button on his tape recorder and then nodded to us that he was ready for us to start.

I noticed my hands were shaking a little as I played the intro to my song; but I took a deep breath and was error free before starting to sing the first verse.

A minute later, Kevin said “Okay! That sounds good. Now let’s go for a complete take.”

“All right Kevin. But could we hear how that sounded? I want to make sure that my voice is loud enough over our instruments and so forth.”

“Oh sure no problem. Just let me rewind it and I’ll let you hear it.”

We listened carefully and were surprised and pleased at the balance of the guitar and bass and my vocal.

“Wow Kevin! You were right about your tape recorder sounding like studio quality. And the balance of our instruments and my voice are actually good.”

“Of course Gary. I’ve done a lot of recording so I know how to find a good balance. By the way, I like what I’ve heard of your song so far.”

“Thanks.”

The next take went well until we were interrupted by the ringing of Kevin’s phone.

“Damn it! I’m sorry guys, I forgot to unplug my phone!”

“It’s okay buddy. I think I can sing better than that anyway.”

Kevin answered his phone and told a telemarketer that he didn’t want to buy anything over the phone. Then he pulled his plug out of the wall.

As we started another take, an airplane flew overhead and we had to start over. But we finally got a good recording on the fourth try and we were satisfied.

“It’s beer time!” Steve said and I walked out to my car to get my ice chest.

On Monday morning I drove down to the KGB radio station and gave my taped recording of Rainbow Wednesday to a young woman behind a counter. She was very friendly and handed me a form to fill out in which I entered the title of my song, my name and so forth.

“Good luck on your entry.” She said with a pretty smile. “I hope you win!”

It was about a week before KGB started playing the Homegrown entries. I listened with great anticipation as the DJ’s usually stated that they would be playing a Homegrown entry within the next hour. But I was disappointed when the song entry that was finally played wasn’t mine. I thought some of the songs were quite good and I began to doubt if mine would ever be played. But when I arrived at my job at Avis one afternoon, two of my coworkers excitedly said they had heard Rainbow Wednesday on the KGB radio station a few minutes before I arrived. They added that the DJ said it was one of his favorite entries. I was thrilled but sorry that I hadn’t heard myself on the radio. However, two days later, while driving on Sports Arena Drive, I heard the DJ say “Here’s another Homegrown entry for you. It’s called Rainbow Wednesday by Gary Grissom.”

It was a perfect moment frozen in time. Absolute joy permeated from every inch of my soul, mind and body. A few seconds later I came to a red light and as I listened to my song, I heard it being played through the open window of the sports car next to me. I looked over at the two beautiful women in the car and I said “HI! You’re listening to my song that I entered into the Homegrown contest.”

“You’re kidding! Is that really you?”

“Yes! That’s me and my friend.”

“You rock baby!”

When the light turned green, I drove through the intersection and pulled to the side of the road, opposite Genie Car Wash, and basked in my precious moment of glory.