Song with an attitude

[Marshall]

I'm working on a musical pattern that has gotten a hold of me. That's the usual way these things work. It's a bluesy pattern. Very much (chord wise) like "God Damn the Pusherman" by Steppenwolf.

At this point I don't have a clue what the lyrical theme should be. My opening lines for melody purposes are:

I've got a pistol in my pocket
It's a forty four
I know how to use it.

Of course those words may not appear in the final tune. They're just place holders for now. It could be a song about gun control, I suppose. But until I fixate on a story, I'm making no commitments. I've already thought about changing the last line from above to:

I can take it or leave it.

That might give more lee way story wise.

But the tune definitely has an attitude. That's all I know for sure. I have to find a story that can exploit that feel.

I gave a brief look at the Checkers story. But that would be too incongruous.

So, the hunt begins.

[Marshall]

PS - The sounding like "Pusherman" thing is a conscious decision on my part. Not that I set out to do this. But I am not shying away from references to known music. In fact I like the idea of pulling snippets from other well known works. It's a way for an audience to gain some immediate connection (familiarity ?) with a song.

Of course it puts a lot of pressure on you to come up with something that measures up to the original in some way.


But that's OK by me. I live for the PRESSURE.

Bring it ON !


(. . . , gee whiz. this song is already working on my persona. Talk about attitude ?)

[Marshall]

Well nothing happening on the lyric front. But musically this baby is really moving along. It's mostly an A - B thing. Probably the B part will be sort of chorus like. each turn around is more like A-A-B-B-A. (No it won't be about ABBA). There's an interesting turn-around too that I think I have forged into an intro and a closing. I've even got a nice instrumental interlude started too.

The basic pattern is the "Pusherman" progression. But everything seems to build up to a single repeated chord that crops up in several places. For those of you in DADGAD. The whole thing is ending up in capo 5. And the exciting chord is: 10, 10, 8,5,8,5 (The 5s being the capo'd notes).


Ooohhhh. Talk about attitude ! ! !

[Marshall]

There's a chance I might turn this one into a Georgia/Russia/US thing. Now, that kind of topic is dangerous, cause it's so topical today and so old hat a year later. But if I head that way i would probably do it similar to my last tune about man and the environment (World Away). That tune on the surface is a breakup song patterned after a real break up (brother-in-lay; sister-in-law). It's only in reading between the lines that it takes on teh double meaning.

If I did it in this one, it would have to be about a neighborhood bully character and make inferences to international politics. And the politics would have to be generic enough that it could apply to many nation-nation relations.

It might work.

[Marshall]

I think I will do the international relations metaphor with this tune. I'm thinking of making it a gang-banger story that has the double meaning. Hopefully showing no matter who wins, everybody looses in the end.

I even thought of doing it as a re-telling of West Side Story. We'll see.

With all that in mind, the first verse could be:

I've got a pistol in my pocket
It's a forty four
I know how to use it

I've got friends round the 'hood
Who will cover my back
If I should choose it.

[Marshall]

Just a couple thoughts.

I expect the first verse to be the opening bravado (What you see is the AA of the AABA stuff)

Second verse will possible center around a typical inciident that has happened around here all too often where some innocent inner city kids (model children academically and involved in their community) get shot and killed in a crossfire of gang related activity.

Third verse I want to show how the bad-boy protagonist ends up being a marked man by the other gang, the cops, and a pariah to his own gang, because of the heat brought down on them for his irrevocable act.

Everybody looses.

[Marshall]

Day 8 of the "Attitude Song" hostage crisis.

Sitting on the train riding in today in a grumpy tired mood, I played some mental games with this tune and finished the first verse

I've got a pistol in my pocket
A forty four
I know how to use it

Got friends round the 'hood
Who’ll cover my back
If I should choose it.

Some bad boy’s crossing the line
And showin’ a bad sign

Gotta teach him you can’t do that
“Yeah, I can do it.”

First I started messing with the second verse and found it's going to have a lot crammed into it (Drive-by shooting. Innocent kids killed). And i realized I needed to set up that situation better in the first verse instead of just displaying bravado. So I went about the task of inserting the rival gang member (bad boy) into the first verse.

Second verse will have to be dramatic.

Third verse will be about how nothing goes right for the protagonist after the incident. Downward spiral.



have a nice day ;D


PS - The "B" part of the verse ends in a cool (in my mind) staccato chord pattern; chomp chomp. The bad sign part of the lyric And showin' a bad sign, fits that staccato chomp chomp pattern poifectly.

I just love it when something just falls into place like that.

[Marshall]

Hhheeeeeeeeeeeerrre'ssssss the second verse:

I know where he lives
I’m ready to ride
It’s time to go cruising

I stake out my place
I just want him scared
I don’t want to wound him

Door opens. He steps outside
I pull my gun, and aim it up high

A girl is upstairs reading a book
Bullet cuts right through her

That was fun. Came pretty quick. Only took a couple hours to bash it out on the anvil. I even got the chomp-chomp to work with "up high"

Now comes the third and final verse. It's gotta say something about the unforseen consequences of a show of force. Shock and awe rebounds right back attcha. (Thus the metaphor for internaional relations of nations).

Stay tuned to this channel for further developments.

[Marshall]

I'm in the home stretch. . . , literally.

I got up this morning and messed with the tune. But I didn't have a clue where to go next. I even panicked a little. I'm going to a songwriter party tonight, and I wanted to play this, even if it is not in presentation form. I've been so wrapped up in it that I can't NOT play it.

Then I decided to put it down and go get some exercise. So I went on an hour long bike ride. And as I was pumping along I kept churning the tune over in my head. Then as I was a couple blocks away from home (the home stretch) it popped into my head . . . , "Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide." After that, a chunk of words just dropped out of the sky and fell in place.


First part of third verse:

No where to run
I got no where to hide
They call me a loser

Gang wants revenge
Cops want my ass
Friends all refuse me

It's interesting how much of this tune came to me while away from the guitar. I'll have to make a mental note of that.

Just a few more concluding lines to come up with. I'll mess with those after my shower. (Maybe singing in the shower will help).

[Marshall]

Ok it's done. It wasn't the shower. It was just sitting around and poking at it. Full last verse will be:

No where to run
I got no where to hide
Call me a loser

Gang wants revenge
Cops want my ass
Friends all refuse me

Never knew there’d be so much pain
From playing war games.

The rest of my life, I’ll see her face
Wish I could undo it

War Games

The "From playing War Games" line ends on a chomp chomp. In fact the whole song ends on a repeated music phrase with it's own chomp chomp and then dead silence. I don't think I'll sing "War Games" on the last chomp chomp. But it fits.

Of course the tune will have to be titled : War Games.

There will probably be a lot of subtle changes over the next few days as i work on buring it into presentation mode. I'll try to work up an mp3 on theZoom H2 in a few days when I get more comfortable with the tune.

Later.

[Marshall]

OK

I made a quickie mp3 recording on the Zoom H2. The tune is coming along pretty well presentation-wise. But listening to simple recordings like this help me discover what really needs to be worked on.

I had to create a Soundclick account. But i didn't fill in any data I just parked the mp3.

As a bonus this recording is made using my new 1938 Kalamazoo KG-14

Here's the link:

www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=870281

[dradtke]

My, that was fun.