Original Song: The Verdict

the verdictMonth thirty-nine in this song-a-month caper has been quite fun! Lots of mucking around with the keyboard and yet more strange mashing together of assorted bits and pieces of lyrics. It’s been a very quick process pulling this one together using one of my favourite techniques. Often when I’m listening to random music streams on Pandora I’ll hear a track that has some elements I like. As long as it’s a reasonably obscure track (one that I won’t recall easily) I’ll google or work out the chord progression and then tuck it away. When the time comes to write a song, I’ll dip into my file of random chord progressions and simply grab one. I’ll then use the chords for the song – but obviously in a completely different way to how they were originally used (because I can’t remember how the original song goes!!). It’s a great way to be forced into using a chord progression you wouldn’t normally come up with.

This one isn’t exactly complicated, but I think it works well. The whole thing was put together using my Arturia synth (yep, even the bass part – which has been a no-no for me in the past). You can also tell I had fun with the solo – it’s probably (read: definitely) a bit indulgent, but it’s my party…!

The Verdict
© 2015 Chuck Smeeton

C                      F                      C                     F
It’s the demon in my mind, it’s the monkey on my back
It’s torturing my soul like ice expanding in a crack
Advice is what you really want but I can only imply
That maybe you’re the lucky one who doesn’t have to try

Wipe your brow and know that in this you’re not alone
Tell us something to save ourselves, to show that you have grown
The band keeps playing, you’ve surely had your fill
Lost track of time, can’t speak just mime, you’ve got no reason, got no will

[Chorus] C          Dm     Em      Dm
How much can you take away
C          Dm     Em      Dm
From a life that’s not a one act play
C          Dm     Em      G
Is it time to go, or is it time to stay

Each night the same, a rite of passage for the chosen one
Then I looked at it another way, as a father and a son
A warning of what is up ahead, or simply a mistake
From a spider who has spun his trap, and now whose heart I’ll break

How can you tell what it is that you really feel
When you heart and head don’t have time to sit and share a meal
The court is now is session and the jurys arrived in their own time
And now they sit and ponder, consider case, consider crime

About the original songs
In January 2012 I commenced a goal of trying to write and record at least one song from scratch each month – sometimes it comes easily, sometimes it’s a real challenge, but I love the discipline it creates. I managed to complete the year, but it was so much fun that I’ve decided to keep it rolling for as long as I can.

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