Song Origins
Second Skin
“When Jerry came to Athens, I told him that you’re not allowed to write about sex, drugs, death, religion, politics or Jesus,” Schools says with a laugh glancing at Joseph. “Jerry kind of looked at me and said, ‘Well, you took all my safety nets away, the things I’m used to drawing from. If I can’t write about things that make me [tick] as a songwriter, what are some things that I can write about?’ We both have a pretty well developed sense of what J.B. feels comfortable singing, so I suggested concepts like rebirth, traveling, animals…take ‘Second Skin,’ for example. I mean, what do snakes do? They shed their skin and start anew. We all knew a little something about that. So it was an experiment to try and write for John Bell about things he’d be comfortable singing about.”
“The experience of doing this sort of thing was pretty daunting for me, because it’s wasn’t just the song titles or subject matter that were pretty different from my songwriting, it was also the perspective and style,” Joseph explains. “I’ve made an entire fucking career out of writing songs from either the first person…I feel, I think, I am…or the second person…you should, you ought to, you are…That’s been my whole thing for years; you do this or think this. All of that was out the window for this experiment because J.B. doesn’t do that as a songwriter and never really has.”
Widespread Panic: New Frontiers (American Songwriter http://bit.ly/1G65I9n)
We were all told to work on ideas and present them in any fashion. JoJo presented these rough demos, with drum loops and overdubs. Todd did a little songwriting on the guitar. During the break, Jerry Joseph and I wrote a handful of songs with Widespread Panic in mind, like “Crazy” and “Second Skin.” We discussed motifs that John Bell likes to use. “Crazy” is about angels and traveling, two of J.B.‘s favorite things to sing about. With “Second Skin,” you can get literary or bring in all the rebirth of Panic stuff you want, but it’s really about shedding skin. It has always been very important for us to keep the meanings of our songs as wide-ranging as possible. If a song is so obvious that it only has one meaning, I don’t think it holds as much weight.
The Core: Dave Schools (Relix http://bit.ly/1G65wHs)
Editor’s note: I was told the song is really about a breakup.
# of times played: 119
First time played: 03/24/05
Frequency: 1 in every 6.43 shows
Longest drought: 29 shows (04/12/2013)
Most common lead in: Disco (7 times)
Most common lead out: Goin’ Out West (11 times)
Most common set position: 2nd set, song 3 (16 times)
Notes: Appears on ‘Earth To America’ Song Credits: Widespread Panic/Jerry Joseph
Chords: http://bit.ly/1G5TtK4
Lyrics: http://bit.ly/1G5Tn5g
Burnthday's Picks:
10/06/09 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD http://bit.ly/1Fujxe2
07/15/11 The Joint, Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, NV http://bit.ly/1Fuj9fJ
04/12/13 The UIC Pavillion Chicago, IL http://bit.ly/1FujKhB
3/17/14 Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Punta Cana, DR http://bit.ly/1FujWxg