I learned the truth at seventeen...

Forums: Original Writing
Email this Topic • Print this Page

This was a laugh riot. I just found my very first demo tape, recorded at 17 (most of the songs written between 15-16). I had a pseudo band at the time called Plastic Fetish, and our demo was titled Pigment of the Imagination. I picked up a copy of the free Today's Senior magazine at the time and found a very surreal picture of one old bald guy giving another old bald guy who looked like his twin a swimming lesson, and used it for the cover of the cassette. To this day it's still surreal. Anyhow, in hindsight, I think that most of the writing is a pile of trite adolescent crap, but what amazed me was how memorable/singable the songs were. So...for my own self-indulgence, and for the amusement of others, I will begin to post the lyrics here, one song at a time, as I need to transcribe them from the cassette itself. I lost the written lyrics years ago.

This one had a great medium-tempo bluesy feel to it which makes it one of my faves:

THE VIGOR OF YOUTH

I am old, my touch turns leaves to dust.
My hands are withered, but they hold a rose close to my breast.

Chorus:
My kiss turns love into ashes,
like a virgin disappointed with her first time.

Will you see me before I leave for another world?
Outside my window I can hear the children laughing.

Chorus:
My kiss turns love into ashes,
like a hero no one remembers.

Bridge:
I was just a young boy taken in by your sweet charms.
You took me away and called it love, and held me in your arms.
So I took you to my room and caught you with my love...
Caught you...with my love (X2)

(Bluesy keyboard solo)

Chorus:
My kiss turns love into ashes,
like a baby crowned with thorns.

I see you standing by my full length mirror.
I want to touch you, but I can't, I can't 'cause you're so far away.

Chorus:
My kiss turns love into ashes,
like so many stories without an end.

I am spent, I'm through with looking for you.
I am bored with the morbid thought of living.

Chorus:
My kiss turns love into ashes,
like Christians thrown to hungry lions.

(The sincerity in the delivery of 'my kiss turns love into ashes' was definitely the hook here.) Very Happy

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,012 • Replies: 19

No top replies

it seems Cav, that as the years pass, you get slowly younger.

If you where to attempt transcribing those emotions into song today, what would you come up with?

0 Replies

Well, I don't mind getting younger with age Bo. What more could a person ask for? Interesting question. Given that I didn't have much of a childhood, I often ask myself that question. The last song I wrote was for my brother, for his wedding. It was written as three haiku, set to a lovely modal riff. It was also the first piece of writing I actually wrote by hand in years. The first verse was this:

One love, two heartbeats,
Two hearts now beating as one
to the end of time.

0 Replies

ah, such buoyant optimism!

0 Replies

I want a band. You sure had a lot of choruses.

0 Replies

Yeah, they weren't all like that. I was caught up with the idea that a chorus didn't have to be the exact same words every time it was sung, just the same melody. Being in a band is really cool. Once, at a live gig, promoting this fine cassette, I promised an encore of Zeppelin's Rock and Roll, and said that if I forgot the words, the women in the audience could pull my pants down and fondle me. I happened to forget the words that night.

0 Replies

I'm thinking of trying out for american idol... because I can't play an instrument.

0 Replies

er, did the women forget your words???? Cool

0 Replies

BoGoWo wrote:

er, did the women forget your words????

Heh heh, apparently not, if memory serves.

0 Replies

The question is; 'did everything 'else' serve'? Confused

0 Replies

ah, sweet cliche teenage emotions.

0 Replies

Love?... cliche? POSH!

0 Replies

Yep. Here's a monumental piece of bullshit wrapped in an enigma from the same demo:

NINE TIMES NINE

Standing at the foot of the cross
I see you in your victim's loss.
You run towards me but start to fall,
I'm sorry, your virgin eyes tell all.

Chorus:
You don't care whether I live or die,
your story unfolds like a ball of twine.
Sitting there in your rocking chair
my love unfolds like nine times nine.

Up to our necks in a pit of lime,
politely you ask me for the time.
I see your eyes are turning red,
a member of the living dead.

Chorus:
You don't care......
.....my love unfolds like nine times nine nine times nine.

Bridge:
Straying from the flock like a little lost lamb
straight into the hunter's hands,
knowing that the trap was set for me.
Time waits for no one until the dirty deed is done,
then you'll start writing in your book.

Staring at me through a string of beads,
this is where temptation leads.
Glaring at you with eyes of lead,
is this where your victims said:

(Chorus)

The nature of your youthful zest
disguise the pleasures of your flesh.
Making love in the same damn place,
your tender years disguise your face.

(Chorus)

0 Replies