tea berry-blue

On the way home from lunch, I worked out the chords to a song I wrote when I was fifteen.

FIFTEEN. It was the first song I wrote that I was really proud of. And I never had a way to play it. And now I can play it. Or will be able to with practice.

Songs I wrote that I can play now:

The Sea Song
Summer
Rattle
Grand Central Circus
I Love You
Brazen Angels

Ones I haven't recorded yet, but know the chords:

Antoine
Stay
4 & 20

Ones I am close to having the chords for:

Don't Be Cruel (Yes, it's a response to the Elvis Presley song of the same name)

That's ten songs. Ten songs I've written over a twenty year period that I couldn't play before now.

Ones I want to work on:

Coffeeshop Boyfriend
Raindancer
Out
Hot Potato
Immovable Object
Perfect Like The Sun
Bianca Never

So anyway, here's a link to the very very very old archive of song lyrics I wrote a long time ago:

http://www.antagonia.net/old%20shit/songs/

I'm a little...hesitant to show them around. A lot of them are bad, angsty things I wrote in my college days. But if any of you particularly like any of the lyrics, I will try to learn music for them.

Oh my god I am so in love with this thing.

Six weeks with the ukulele. I am delving deeper and deeper into the unexplored territory of angry!ukulele, which I do not think is a very broad genre. This song is intended as a counterpiece to The Sea Song: one is about fire, and one is about water. One of them is about feeling safe and one is about feeling broken. Both of them are about letting down defenses and allowing life to happen as it will.

I wrote a song about the NYC subway and circus animals.

Three weeks today. I wrote another song!

I JUST STUMBLED MY WAY THROUGH PLAYING A SONG I WROTE ON UKE.

Sometimes I like to change the lyrics to famous songs. Especially when a song doesn't have much variation in the verses, and I think the music is darker than the lyrics imply.

( Come with me, my love )

I wrote a poem this morning again, but it's intensely personal, about a thing that happened yesterday, and I kind of want to keep it a tiny secret to myself for now. (Yes, it was good. But the kind of good you want to hold in your hand like a small jewel and let it build up warmth.)

Anyway, in lieu of reading my poem about yesterday, I wanted to direct your attention back to this entry from a while back: The Truth About Music.

I have been playing with the song from that dream now for a while and I rearranged some of the lyrics and added more and now I have a complete song.

Warning for puns and silly references and metaphors all over the place.

( Rattle )

I'm bad at listening to music.

( Music in my head )

I've been writing a lot of song lyrics lately.

This one is actually one I've had in my back pocket for years and finally finished, taking a divergent direction from the Elvis Presley song. I had the rhyme scheme and the first four lines of the chorus worked out for the longest time, but hadn't quite fleshed out the rest of the lyrics.

( Don't Be Cruel )

And the two are variations on the same basic musical theme taken in two separate directions. The first one, all I had for a long time was the "...in the summer" bit. Like, I would have "in the summer" pop into my head all the time, and knew that there were words that were meant to precede those ones, but not what they were supposed to be.

( Summer )

( Oceania )

and if that weren't already complicated
it seems like i'm the only one
who sees her lighting up a million faces
she travels on a roto band
gliding past because she has no friends
home alone when day is done
because she's perfect like the sun

she eats her dinner at the diner counter
grilled cheese and a glass of ice water.
men who stare repulsed because they want her.
all they can think is she's someone's daughter.

can't keep their eyes off her
though she would never take an offer.
she doesn't need another stalker.
so it seems i'm the only one.
because she's perfect like the sun.

and if that weren't the strangest problem to solve
it seems like i'm the only one
who's going after her with any resolve
she could be pretty as the day
no one would be compelled to turn away
but her phaser's set to stun
because she's perfect like the sun.