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I'm trying out something: I'm going to shadow SpinTunes for a while and see how that works out. See, I've got this theory that I'll end up with better songs if I play it fast and loose with the challenges, and maybe even take advantage of the opportunity to finish a song I already had in progress.
Exhibit A: A New Story. The challenge was to write a song based on a scene from a movie. But you know what? I wrote a (very late) shadow to a prior challenge to write about a news story. For that one, since I wouldn't be docked point for it, I wrote "News to Me", about all news stories, and went meta about news itself, and it's one of my favorite songs. For this one, you can say my scene is the end of "Night of the Living Dead", where the ghouls eat everyone. But the song isn't really about that, it's a more meta thing about the overexposure of zombies in recent popular culture, and by extension the need for more representation in media across the board.
It was either this or people in a space colony acting out a movie for children who had never seen one. But that was just sooo derivative of a play called "Mr. Burns"…
I actually wrote most of this about a year ago. It was rushed, I performed it once on ukulele, and hated about half the lyrics. This was my opportunity to clean it up, rewrite it, and produce it so it sounds about like it did in my head. The real experiment here was an attempt to use key changes to amp up the energy as the song went on. Verse-to-chorus, chorus-to-verse, every transition modulates up a half step until we're in our 4th key (Bb), where we stay the rest of the way.
lyrics
[Verse 1]
We’ve had a good run, but prob’ly still could do better yet.
A day in the sun is something others can never get.
Times have been good for zombies.
We’ve all had our fun. Remember eating that Barbra kid?
But Romero’s been done, and what has been done can be undid.
Maybe now’s the time for someone
[Chorus 1]
To write a new story for the banshees and the bigfeet and the blobs out there.
Let’s write a new story; rule the darkness in a spotlight wide enough to share.
Come and give ‘em all a good scare.
[Verse 2]
There’s so much out there that’s calling out from beyond the graves
For you if you dare to break new ground that the story paves.
(Metaphor’s kind of mixed here)
We know to beware the megs and jawses and sharktopi,
But if we’re being fair, we’ll see there’s much bigger fish to fry.
Ghoulies, huddle up and ally
[Chorus 2]
To write a new story for the jackalopes and djinns and jotai left behind.
Go write a new story, taking comfort in a different sort of piece of mind.
[Bridge]
I’m not saying, I’m just saying we the horde collective
Could start paying time to playing with some forced perspective
[Chorus 3]
And write a new story. In a world of good ideas no one thought to use,
Let’s write a new story, past the Psycho 5’s and Purge 18’s and Audrey II’s.
Write a new story.
[Chorus 4]
Write a new story, sinking notions under houses that were built on sands.
Let’s write a new story, one we never seem to scribble out with rotting hands.
Time for busting out the “yes, and”s.
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