#632: Early Attempts at Songwriting

GETTING MORE TALE #632: Early Attempts at Songwriting

Because nothing we did in highschool lasts forever, I chose to keep as much stuff as possible.  I have an entire binder full of our highschool comic book “Brett-Lore”.  Everybody knew that it needed to be kept safe and sound, and so I was the one to do it.  27 years after graduation, I still have Brett-Lore safe and sound.  I would never get rid of it.  Too many great memories.

I also kept some early attempts at songwriting.  Specifically:  lyrics.  Some of these songs had music written or recorded for them, but it is now lost.  Not that it matters, since the lyrics are so hot.

On a page of lyrics “by Mike + Dan”, I found this potential smash hit song.

“Fuck, Hell is Hot”

Fuck it’s hot in this pit,

So damn hot I feel like shit,

I wake up in the morning,

From the torment of my bed,

I had spikes for my pillow,

That went straight through my head.

Guitar solo – end

This was a thrash metal song, which was all the rage in 1990.  Obviously a novelty song, it was based off other joke thrash songs I’d heard.  A local band called F.U.H.Q. had a song called “Jimi Hendrix Falling Off a Roof”.  It was basically just them screaming “AHHHHHH!” and then “I’m dead!”

The next song down is scribbled next to a half-assed Van Halen logo.  It’s another novelty song:

“Snake in my Pants”

I  got a snake in my pants,

And it loves to dance,

Sometimes it spits venom,

Sometimes it bites victims,

But all the time my snake’s alive.

I remember that one.  Definitely my work, not Dan’s.  You can tell by the subtle use of metaphor.

Dan and I were really into Led Zeppelin at this time, because they had just released their first box set.  We both found Robert Plant’s lyrics a little comical, so over-the-top they were with symbolism.  We attempted to write our own version of a Led Zeppelin song.  We called it “Abbis’ Stomp”.  Abbis was a nickname for a guy in class who was actually named Andrew.  I don’t know why they called him Abbis, but he too loved Zeppelin and we named it after him.

“Abbis’ Stomp” was recorded and I still have it on cassette.  I sang it and a guy named Dave played guitar.  There was a 20 minute instrumental section if I remember correctly.

“Abbis’ Stomp”

The forest is alive and vibrant green,

And here she comes: the reigning Queen,

The moon is bright and over the lake,

And the Queen is on the make.

Oh, oh, ah!

The beat, it pounds in my heart,

The Stallion takes off like a dart,

The streets are deadly in these times,

But killing dwarves is a crime.

Oh, oh, ah!

Great Christmas Tree,

Someday you’ll come back to me,

Beautiful Christmas Tree….

I open the Book of Life and see,

The pages staring back at me,

The dragon breathes its acrid breath,

And fries the Christmas Tree to death.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ahh!

Reading back, and singing the melody in my head, I understand now why Robert Plant never contacted us for songwriting help.  And I see bits of lines that were directly ripped off from Iron Maiden.  See if you can spot them.

There was better stuff on other pages.  “Unleashed in the Middle East” was a topical song about the Gulf War, written by Dan, myself and a third guy named Andy.  It was a more innocent time and this song reflects it.  It’s all about driving out evil Saddam.  “From this chaos rose a man, a tyrant for all to see…”  Then there is “Night of the Serpent”, a lyric Dan wrote solo.  It has religious overtones and it’s by far the best thing in the binder.  He was a talented writer.

I should contact the guys.  We should complete these songs and make an album!  I know the binder alone contains more than enough material for one record.  We always talked about sitting down and properly recording some originals and covers.  We never did because we weren’t good enough.  But in the glowing light of nostalgia, anything can have value.

33 comments

  1. Just think of all the great music we would have missed out on if people didn’t record because they weren’t good enough? No Ramones! No Milli Vanilli! No Kittie! No Korn or Limp Bizkit!
    You gotta embrace the suck, and keep sucking until you don’t suck anymore!

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  2. Cool dude! I remember writing lyrics as a kid. I modeled them after Kiss songs. Same notebook had drawings on how to style my future leather jacket. Such memories…

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  3. Man! That’s a pretty awesome to have kept that stuff. I don’t have anything from my school days other than a handful of sketches. All lyrics and recordings from my first ‘band’ (Sulk) are gone.

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  4. I dunno, I love that D&D shit! Reckon Percy would be right into it. Yesterday, I noticed a new band that has released an album called “Roll For Initiative”. Genius.

    Also, sounds like F.U.H.Q. might have been listening to a bit too much S.O.D!

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  6. My first attempt at songwriting was reworking Iron Maiden’s “Man on the edge” into “a man called Ove”.

    My second was reworking the chorus of “can I play with madness” into “can I play with magnets”

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      1. I’ve got to give credit to Blaze and Janick on this one as well (apart from writing the song in the first place). Man on the Edge was an incredibly easy rewrite. The melody remained virtually unchanged and some of the lines fitted perfectly without any changes

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  7. Actually, that Zeppelinesque song might have made a pretty good poem, especially if you recited it to a room full of stoners. I wrote a song once in the mid 1980s, it was called “Death to the Yuppies,” which was how I was feeling about them at the time.

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  9. In accept your challenge on identifying the Maiden rip offs. In the last verse you borrow some lyrical ideas from The Evil That Men Do.

    Circle of fire my baptism of joy at an end it seems
    The seventh lamb slain, the book of life opens before me
    And I will pray for you, someday I may return
    Don’t you cry for me, beyond is where I learn 
    Overall a really cool post.

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