Original Song: Kevin Sits At Home

Month 60 – yep, five years – of the original-song-a-month project! I never thought I’d keep it going so long, but now I can’t think of ever stopping. This month it’s a song called Kevin Sits At Home that was inspired by a story told to me about a guy who’d made a heap of money but just spent his life sitting at home reading books. The lines about the other characters come from true stories (names changed!) that I found online. The actual process of writing it was very quick. I had the title line as I sat waiting in the departure lounge at Sydney Airport for a trip to Adelaide, and the rest of the lyrics just poured out and were pretty much complete by the time we hit cruising altitude (I have this thing about always writing a song on every flight I take – this one was so quick I got to enjoy a book for a change). That night I sketched out a chord pattern in Logic, then used a nifty little mic I attach to the MacBook (a Samson Go – check ‘em out) to record the lyrics. I sent the demo off to Will at Compañeros HQ that night, and by Saturday he’d created an amazing piece of music from my template. A couple of days later the version you here had emerged – a six day end-to-end process, and perhaps the earliest a track has appeared in the song-a-month process. By the time it lands on a Compañeros album it will no doubt have been polished some more, but you’ll have to buy the album to hear that version!

KEVIN SITS AT HOME
© 2016 Chuck Smeeton

Dm                                         F
Kevin sits at home and reads his latest book
Dm                                         F
Outside the sun is shining but he never takes a look
C                                             Em
All alone in an empty room, a single chair and table
C                                             Em
Doesn’t want to challenge life, everything is stable

Sally has her cats, the focus of her life
Never had a child, never been a wife
Nigel doesn’t leave the house he’s scared of what he’ll find
The thought of what is out there messes with his mind

(Chorus)
Gm                                                Am
All alone in an empty room, a single chair and table
Gm                                                Am
Doesn’t want to challenge life, everything is stable
Bb                                                 Am
All alone in an empty room, a single chair and and table
Bb                                                 C
Doesn’t want to challenge life, everything is stable

Roger stares at a plasma screen, his most prized possession
What he watches doesn’t matter, it’s his sole obsession
Susan has a phobia but she’s not sure when it started
but she thinks it’s linked to the day when her husband left her, broken hearted

(Bridge)
Bb
The pursuit of happiness
Am
Devoid of drive and passion
Gm
Trapped within a cycle
F
With little satisfaction
Bb
Somehow life has passed them by
Am
An empty shell remains
Gm
Living day to day
F
With unspoken pains

(Chorus)
All alone in an empty room, a single chair and table
Doesn’t want to challenge life, everything is stable
All alone in an empty room, a single chair and table
Doesn’t want to challenge life, everything is stable

Ann picks up her knitting to start another day
The only sound is click and clack, she knows no other way
Simon thinks there’s trouble everywhere outside
So he’s blocked out all the world, he just wants to hide

(Chorus)
All alone in an empty room, a single chair and table
Doesn’t want to challenge life, everything is stable
All alone in an empty room, a single chair and table
Doesn’t want to challenge life, everything is stable

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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