MussoLOLen is Always Right! |

Dictating the Internet since 1996

Checkmate

Thursday Dec 20, 2007

Being unable to write songs is one of my biggest creative frustrations. Wait, let me correct that statement. Being unable to write songs when I’m NOT madly in love with someone or depressed enough to want to be dead when I grow up is one of my biggest creative frustrations. Unlike plain old creative writing, something I can do fairly well no matter what the state of my mind is, I can only write songs when my emotions are on the negative extreme of the spectrum. And by “write songs” I mean “Come up with a bunch of random chord progressions, even though I don’t know what most of these chords are called.” I wish I could write lyrics as well, but I’ve seen sixteen year old goth girls with better angst, so I stopped trying.

I sort of wrote something new, though. Or rather, I rewrote something old. Yesterday, I was looking through the bowels of my Livejournal when I came across a poem from an Almost Boyfriend. It was the first poem anyone has EVER written for me and I remember being touched to the point of tears when I got it. Almost Boyfriend isn’t the creative type, let alone the (decent) poetry-writing type. I didn’t know what to say, so I thanked him the only way I could. On the very same day he gave me the poem, I turned it into a song, recorded it, and gave it to him.

The scratchy old recording was still in my hard drive, completely untouched by the ravages of time and the death of the last love affair. After listening to the recording several times (and trying to ignore my inability to sing), I figured out the chords, re-recorded the song, and added a solo part.

So here it is. Lyrics are by the Almost Boyfriend, melody and guitar arrangement done by me. If I were you I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the vocal quality and the fact that I sound like a six-year old girl with a terrible cold. Don’t even try to bullshit me – I know what I’m good at and I know where I suck, and I suck at singing. -_-

Checkmate
Download song

Seeing you move in all directions,
Peasantly innocence, my protection,
The trick lies in my hiding,
Directly out of the text book,
Castling behind my rook.

We’re King and Queen,
Standing side by side,
Don’t ever leave me,
I won’t survive.

Running out of tiles,
Behind me, diabolical smiles,
A knight is on my back,
Don’t want to get knocked down
and have to relinquish my crown.

We’re King and Queen,
Standing side by side,
Don’t ever leave me,
I won’t survive.

The proverbial standstill,
A stale mate against our will,
Feeling like a duffer in this game,

We’re King and Queen,
Standing side by side,
Don’t ever leave me,
I won’t survive.
We’re King and Queen,
Standing side by side
Don’t ever leave

Lets keep each other awake,
There’s no more moves left to make.

What happened to the Almost Boyfriend, you ask? Well despite what the poem says about please never leaving him, HE was the one who left me. Apparently, he didn’t like that I kept nagging him about going back to school and getting his life together so he could become a responsible adult. Gee, so much for not being able to survive without me around.

In any case, that guitar solo is the closest thing I’ve come to writing a new song these days. I’m happy that I’m happy, but must I really be insanely in love or insane enough to want to kill myself to get touched by the songwriting muse?

RSS feed | Trackback URI

14 Comments »

Comment by kawaii
2007-12-20 23:11:25

i like it.

^_^

 
Comment by benj
2007-12-20 23:46:53

I like it. It could feel the yearning. I love the guitar bridge as well. Makes me want to pick up a guitar and try to learn this song by ear. ;)

Good job.

 
Comment by benj
2007-12-20 23:48:38

My comment disappeared. :(

 
Comment by Ade
2007-12-21 00:02:33

Yeaaaah, singing is not your strong suit (but you sure sing great at the other mp3 you sent me). But I like it!

 
Comment by Mom
2007-12-21 09:45:55

You sing well and have been since you were two though it’s harder for you to hit the high notes now. trust me if you stop smoking your voice quality will improve.

 
Comment by Lauren
2007-12-21 10:13:44

Well of course you’d say that. You’re my mom. Even when I was a kid I didn’t like how I sounded when I sing. :P

 
Comment by Lauren
2007-12-21 10:14:13

Yay, thanks! :D :D

 
Comment by Lauren
2007-12-21 10:14:46

Thank you for putting that in the most diplomatic way possible. :P

 
Comment by Lauren
2007-12-21 10:15:10

Yay, I’m glad you do. :D

 
Comment by Fritz
2007-12-21 10:19:57

This is the first time I heard you sing and the first time I heard your material. You have every right to be proud of that guitar solo, w00t!

 
Comment by Derek Houck
2007-12-21 10:51:13

Your mom’s right about the smoking. ;-) And so what if you don’t have the voice of Celine Dion. (Am I dating myself with that one?) I can’t play a guitar to save my life, but that’s something you got down good. Great recording.

 
Comment by alohapenny
2007-12-21 17:59:00

Nice song LOLen, i lurvve the guitar solo! Oh you know what else im loving? This template, HOT tsss

 
Comment by Cois
2007-12-26 20:06:53

Off topic!
Great blog, although I regret that my pc can’t seem to download the song. Anyway, been browsing through your archives. Great reads. Can I link you up? Thanks..

 
Comment by Anthony
2007-12-29 12:26:59

Hey Lauren.
It’s Anthony again.
I still visit your blog every once in a while, and I’m glad to see that you’re still blogging.
Anyways, somethings wrong with KCI, and I don’t know what happened, and I’m not familiar with SQL at all or anything but yeah…. You might wanna check it out or something, and get back to me (my e-mail is panic.92@gmail.com).

 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.
CommentLuv Enabled

Trackback responses to this post