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Patriot/Expatriate
Sick-ceeding of reading lies today
Check baggage down a run-a-way
Dust off a plain tomorrow
My country left in yesterday
No view and nothing left to say
I'll sit it out
Politics!
I'll sit it out
It isn't meaning so much then
I'm leaving my views at customs
Patriot/Expatriate
My ailing is an alien kind of truth
My stars and stripes they serve no use
My tongue among the heathen
They keep my soul among the fruits
No information is no truth
I'll wait it out
Ignorance!
I'll wait it out
All heads asleep I'll find myself
My mind wanders for its health
Save one more day for travel
Flying one way: unravel
Struck out alone:
Together, returned home
This was the first song written after "A Piece" which I guess makes it the first song for "White Collar Punk", although I didn't come up with the concept of WCP till after "Hello Sailor" was recorded. At that point the new record was to be called "Need Information" after a song which I later scrapped.
At the time I was very disappointed by the results of the 1996 presidential election and was harboring a fantasy about ditching the country for a while. The song is about working through that fantasy and the solid reasons why I ultimately rejected it.
Ironically, after writing the song I took off for a month-long sabattical to Japan. Perhaps it is even more ironic that I contracted the chicken-pox while there and was quarantined for half the trip...
I am especially proud of this song because every line has multiple interpretations,
all of which are correct.
The opening line's "Sick-ceeding" is a combination of the words
"sick" and "succeed", which was inspired by the "Dissociated
Press" feature of the EMACS editor on UNIX. "Reading" could
also be written "Redding" to refer to the town where I was currently
living. "Lies" could also be a miswriting of "lays"
meaning to exist in a place. "Check baggage" is what you do
at the airport, but with the rest of the sentence "down a run-a-way"
perhaps it should be written "chuck baggage", "run-a-way"
obviously meaning both "runway" for airplanes, and "running
away" which is what is happening... etc., etc.
Those are not even all of the interpretations for those lines, I'm not even going to bother to disect the whole song for you. Careful reading and creativity are essential to understanding this song.
Here's what people had to say about the song on www.garageband.com :
Anonymous - West Chester, Pennsylvania
Cure-like nervousness, good stuff
I have nominated you for originality and I give you very high marks for going for those high notes at the end. They were by no means pretty but you went for it and I salute you.
Thanks! I was really proud of the lyrics to this song, because even though they are short, there are a lot of different meanings packed into every word. The reason the part at the end is so high is that my voice would have really been cracking all over the place if I moved it down by octaves to the edge of my range. So I decided I'd pitch it up so that it was completely past the danger zone and into the range of falsetto, which isn't pretty either, but is better than my voice actually cracking...
theherb00 - Mclean, Virginia
Yeah, that was a little too short
Ok well, it was a bit short.,,and I hate to admit it, but the production wasn't too hot either. But it's not a bad song at all..I think the singer needs to try and articulate his vocals so it's a bit more appealing to the avg. listener...past that--it's fine...good poppy feel
Anonymous - West Helena, Arkansas
They must be on some good drugs!
no comment
If you'd like to talk trash about songs from aspiring musicians, be sure to check out www.garageband.com . If you join, don't forget to say that Timon Marmex sent you in the field where it asks.
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