*Song Description By Noles*
The music for "I Can't Complain" was written on February 14, 2013. I had just started recording the 13th song for the Mission Of Mercy album "Emergency", and I was gearing up to write the remaining material for the album. "I Can't Complain" is driven by a guitar riff that moves it's way through the F# and A chords in the verses of the tune. I knew this movement would be a big part of the song when I wrote the music for it. With different chord variations in the choruses and bridge.
I wrote the lyrics for "I Can't Complain" on February 23, 2013. It might be the only tune in the Plaidalog with 4 full verses. The songs I write usually have 2-3 verses. I was bringing out my inner-Bob Dylan for the lyrics of this tune. "I Can't Complain" is a song about gratitude and perspective. The tune deals with one's mindset on life. People who complain under any circumstances usually live the worst lives. All because of the lens that they look through every day. "I Can't Complain" is really about appreciating what you do have. And knowing that being alive is the greatest victory of all. The line "Sometimes it's way too cold" in the choruses references the Canadian climate that I live in.
I began recording "I Can't Complain" on February 25, 2013. There's a megaphone effect on the lead vocal in the final verse and chorus of "I Can't Complain". For this, I was inspired by the megaphone effect used on the 3rd verse of "Feeling Good" by The Sheepdogs. Which was a new song at the time. I completed the recording of "I Can't Complain" on March 5, 2013, and the entire Mission Of Mercy album was released on May 20, 2013.
After I moved to Toronto from Peterborough in September of 2013, the Plaid On Flannel band started on February 15, 2014 as a 3-piece. "I Can't Complain" was part of the first batch of my original songs that I brought to the band. We soon began playing it live, and Les Cassling's bass on the tune made it more funk oriented. Keyboardist Jen Doyon joined Plaid On Flannel the next year on February 22, 2015, and we continued to play "I Can't Complain" at shows. Here's a version of us playing the song at The Pig's Ear Tavern in Peterborough on July 16, 2016...
youtu.be/GJHbPCBLKG0 "I Can't Complain" is a tune I've basically retired from POF's live repertoire. While it's a song that stands on it's own, I feel like it's better suited to stay strictly on the Mission Of Mercy album.