Saturday 30 January 2010

Curries

VERSE
G (plucked)
I'm just an Indian guy
C
I don't get it from Chinese or Thai
G
I'm always going mental for lentils
C
Even though it's only a rental

CHORUS
D
I don't have no worries
C                                         D
So long as I've got my curry inside

VERSE
I'm just an Indian guy
It's the one that thing I most like to buy
I don't even care if it's pricey
Just as long as they make it lovely and spicy

CHORUS

G
I'm an Indian guy
C
I don't get it from Chinese or Thai
G
None of the other orientals
C
Are doing very much with lentils
D
I don't have no worries
C
When I've got a curry
G
I'm just an Indian guy

I find no other food surfices
They're just working so well with the spices

Monday 18 January 2010

A self respected man

I got the idea from different people I've stayed with who had self-help books on their shelves. Fellow searchers. In fact it's the first song to arise from my experience of travelling. 

This song looks pretty simple at first, just including every word in the dictionary with self in it. But it's based on some deeper thinking. The simple ideas often have the longest history. I only got the idea for the structure when I found the huge list of self words on rhymezone.com and started to divide them into categories and then I put the categories in order and it became story. Songs often write themselves like this. Logic takes over.


It's really the idea for the song that requires inspiration and makes a song special. Melodies and rhythms are two-a-penny. The songs that go down well live and make it to albums are ones actually about something people can relate to.

VERSE
E
I used to be self-loathing with some self-restraint
A
My self-depreciation was a form of self-harm
E
I was in self-denial about my self-abuse
A
And all this self-pity made me feel self-disgust

CHORUS
D / A / E
I'm was a self-made man

VERSE
To stop this self-destruction I learnt self-defence
Learnt self-preservation against my own self-doubt
Selfless self-sacrifice and self-examination
Lead me to self acceptance

CHORUS

VERSE
I learnt self-control and practiced self-restraint
I read self-help books and became more self-aware
I became self-employed and I learnt self-sufficient
I learnt self-will, and now I'm completely self-contained

CHORUS

MIDDLE
Going to write me a self-help bible
With the things that took years to find
It'll have a complete index
And a quick reference guide

VERSE
Now I've got self-esteem I've built self-respect
My self-regard grew and it's self-evident
That I've got self-assurance and self-confidence
My self-

CHORUS

VERSE
Unfortunately.....
I'm a self-confessed self-obsessive and truly self-indulgent
I get self-absorbed and I'm self-involved
Self-centered around my own self-worship
I'm self-opinionated and angrily self-righteous

CHORUS

Saturday 2 January 2010

Vagabond gone

VERSE
A
I was once like you are now
E
Living a holding pattern of a life
D                                  E
Driving a vicious circle just to pay for the wheels

Now I travel from town to town
My home is wherever my hat's put down
I only got what I need, and I don't want what I don't have

I was raised in the city of greed
Taught I had to spend to satisfy my needs
There was an appliance for everything and happiness the right attachment

It was being spelled out every night
Get yourself a wife boy, get a family
Or you'll live alone and you'll die a sad forgotten death

Finally I got wise
I'd bought into the big lie in a big way
I saw that nothing much I did made much of a difference anyway

CHORUS
You don't need the car
You don't need the house
You don't need the weatherman to know the birds go south

You don't need the money
And you don't need to save
You're working for the system, and you've become your slave

VERSE
And it's with this new attitude that I roam
Meeting people that I would never have known
Strangers are friends that I just haven't met yet

If you've been brought up on the papers of fear
You might be pretty surprised to hear
That most people aren't killers and they're not all out to rape you

They all say well you must get tired
You must miss some of the life you left
You can't be homesick if you don't have a home

CHORUS

I meet the odd big mouth with deaf ears
Who preaches the benefits of the capitalist scheme
It's mainly when you buy the ears that they throw in the mouth for free

People don't like to hear there's another way
How long can you keep up people say
If I ask them that back then they usually walk away

Put your mind in your shoes down the line
When you've worked up to 70 and looking back
And your pension's worth a pittance and you wish you had the body for travelling

CHORUS



Spare lyrics:
It's not like I've dropped out and living a tree
I'm still a paid up member of society
In fact I meet more people than that homeboy ever used to

Friday 1 January 2010

The alturistic artisan (or The morning after the year before)

VERSE
G
I was the self-appointed clown
C
Spreading goodwill and rolling all around

I threw my dignity on the fire
A selfless act that few seemed to admire
In fact...

CHORUS
G                       D              C              G
It seems that I, was an embarrassing fool again
It seems that I, was acting the ass again

VERSE
Nobody else was any fun
The party just wasn't going on

So I said what needed to be said
Followed by every thought inside my head

CHORUS

MIDDLE
C                                     G
Perhaps I went a little too far
Am                     C                            D
Some of the sensitive ladies I know they made complaints

At least it will give them something to talk about
When they've finished talking about their hair

CHORUS

The alturistic artisan by thejackstaffordfoundation