This just in from the universe where "them" rhymes with "from"...
Another week, another songwriting challenge: "Tell a story in song involving at least 3 people & have each person represented by a different instrument." The basic idea came to me only a couple days in, and yet with 2 days to go I found myself without a song. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was on a very busy vacation full of music that was not this.
Because the song insisted on a double-length 1st verse, I ended up with 4 "characters", those being 4 of the personalities within me that make my life difficult. There are many more, but a song should only be so long. The instruments:
Morning Me: piano
Deadline Me: trumpets
Mortgage Me: organ
Poser Me: cello
...all acting as accents over a basic rock band. During the choruses I bring in the accent instruments I've introduced thus far in the song, so that as we move forward it gets busier and busier until it all cuts out at "plain old Happy Me". That's the basic idea.
The verses, including the 1-measure IV/IV part were quite solid in my head, which made it easier to write lyrics on the plane home. The chorus though was a pain in the ass that made no sense to me for a long time. I just couldn't hold the harmonies in my head, so I scribbled out chords and candidate melodies so many times and with so many different lengths that no lyrics ever fit and I felt like I was going backwards (decomposing?). Finally I settled on a chromatically descending line where I knew where to start and where to end, and could at least fit lyrics. Then when I got home I was able to play and hear harmonies over the melody I'd already written and settle on the chords. Recording went thankfully very smoothly, and didn't require more than 4 takes for any 1 line. On a couple segments I was even good enough on the first take!
Still, at midnight I called it and sent in a bounce before being truly satisfied with the work. What you have here is a revised version including more variations in the drums, slightly tweaked timings to line up doubling and harmonies, and I think a better mastering job.
lyrics
Morning Me is a me who can be unpleasant.
Ride the train, get to work, don't engage with anyone ‘til the morning’s done.
Morning Me, typically, hasn't had his coffee.
No I'm not interested in your petition at this time. Find some other guy to sign.
Don't talk to Morning Me.
Deadline Me is a me holding it together
Late at night, in the dark, just a keyboard and a screen, locked in quarantine.
Deadline Me used to be from the distant future,
Future Me holding strong, absent any doubt. Now he’s freaking out.
No one likes Deadline Me.
[Chorus]
Made of all the Mes and none of them.
Then I’m with you, and somehow you take me from
Swarmed by the cacophany of the drum
And you do your magic and I become
Just plain old Happy Me.
Mortgage Me is a me buzzing in a low key
Little bit everyday like a chorusing of moans discussing student loans.
Mortgage Me proffers we maybe jigsaw it a bit,
Borrow this, pay for that, try to sleep with fewer fears 'til the paycheck clears.
God help Mortgage Me
[Chorus]
Poser Me is a me sure I'm kidding myself.
And it's like who am I thinking I can be enough to handle all this stuff?
Poser Me likes to see if in psyching me out
He can make me believe that there's nowhere left to go then say, "I told you so."
What's up with Poser Me?
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