Steve Stearns - Surf Or Die

from SpinTunes 16 Round 4 by Spintunes

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about

This is my entry for the final round of SpinTunes 16 -- Darwin Awards. Originally, this was going to be a very Steely Dan-ish sounding song, in a minor mood and jazzy slash chords set to a half-time shuffle. Unfortunately that didn't pan out for a number of reasons both musical and lyrical; I didn't have time during the week to think through who the protagonist was and what was their story. Musically, there was no B part after the first 8 bars or so, so I had to abandon that Friday and start all over from scratch.

It's pretty hard to go wrong with uptempo numbers in SpinTunes, so armed with a different outlook and using Billy Preston as my musical north star, I put together the tune. Lyrically, I was still at a loss til I saw the well known picture of a great white shark photobombing a guy in swim goggles. Instantly, the story wrote itself, including the surfer-dude slang and his rather blasé outlook on life ... and death.

lyrics

Sign says "Beach Closed Due To Sharks," but buddy look at those waves
Wax up your flipboard, I'll grab my boogie
Screw what that sign says, anyways
Don't give me aggro, you know me bro
I smoke my buds by the pound
Here, smoke this pre-roll
We'll surf the dawn patrol
That way no one else will be around

You may think I'm crazy or stupid but I'm really not that kind of guy
You only live once ... time to surf or die

Next morning the surf is firin'
It's gonna be an epic day
My bro's in heaven, hanging eleven
The beats the square life any day

You may think I'm crazy or stupid but I'm really not that kind of guy
You only live once ... time to surf or die

Breaks were mackin', shark was trackin'
I never saw that great white fin
Pulled me under, call it a blunder
I went down with a simp eatin' grin

You may think I'm crazy or stupid but I'm really not that kind of guy
You only live once ... time to surf or die

Surf or die ...
Surf or die ...
Surf or die ...

credits

from SpinTunes 16 Round 4, released March 16, 2020
Steve Stearns: Keyboards, guitar, synths, programming, percussion, vocals.

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Each album on this site contains the responses to a single challenge.