DC - Win Or Lose

The third DC song, I have no idea what I may have contributed to this, but I'm down as having a writing credit for it, so I assume I must have written something for it. This one actually has 4 writing credits: me, Adrian, and two other users, again I think the actual main writer was probably Adrian

Win Or Lose - Me, Adrian, Allmike, Tawtami - Sometime in 2003

You want to know how to live?
The future's so far away
I've got these words for you
Try to live in today
whats to come
It doesn't matter
Right here right now
Not what comes after
Not all winners win
And not all losers lose
Sometimes it'll be hard
But the price to win is truth

Chorus:
You can hope
You can pray
But all the good things
Have to change
It doesn't matter if you Win Or Lose
Its how you
play the game today
All you try
and all you say
It doesn't matter what you do
Its how you play the game...
Not if you Win Or Lose

This has never been a game
Yet it always is
You better play it hard
Its all you get
All the pain you're going through
It doesn't matter in the end
If you get knocked down
Do you get back up again?

Chorus:
You can hope
You can pray
But all the good things
Have to change
It doesn't matter if you Win Or Lose
Its how you
play the game today
All you try
and all you say
It doesn't matter what you do
Its how you play the game...
Not if you Win Or Lose

You want to know how to live?
I've got these words for you
I know it'll be hard
But sometimes the price to win is truth

Chorus:
You can hope
You can pray
But all the good things
Have to change
It doesn't matter if you Win Or Lose
Its how you
play the game today
All you try
and all you say
It doesn't matter what you do
Its how you play the game...
Not if you Win Or Lose

All the struggle
All your pain
Don't you think
It was in vain
When all of this is though
It doesn't matter if you Win Or Lose
Its how you've played the game

DC - I'd Do Anything For You

The second of the DC songs, again the idea was Adrian's, but I had slightly more input on this one. The first verse is definetly mine, as is the prechorus ... from what I remember, the "we can live and die together, but our fight will last forever" couplet in the chorus was mine .... I'm not sure if some of the second verse (the "Remember the old days ... " verse) is mine or not ... hmmmm, maybe I didn't write a great deal of it. Oh well, here it is anyway:

I'd Do Anything For You - Adrian and Me - Sometime in 2003

Standin' here
Side by side
No one said it's an easy ride
Don't worry, cos I've got your back
Standin' tall
We're still free
Together we'll fight for the dream
One for all
and All for one
And all thats in between

Remember the old days
Shootin the breeze
Not carin' bout right or wrong
Seemed like everything
Was ours for the taking
Guess I should have known all along
This couldn't last forever

Back then it seemed we were always winning
But now our teams been torn apart
I wish we could go back to the beginning
Can't you take us back to the start?

Chorus:
I swear, as I stand here
I'd Do Anything For You
Cos I know that you'd do the same for me
We can live and die together
But our fight will last forever
If you'll let me
I'll stand with you till the end
Because I call you friend

They say they honor loyalty
It don't look that way to me
But I'm not giving in
I won't let go of what I believe
For all the shit that we been through
I never let 'em change my mind
I'll always be here for you
We'll come through this side by side

Back then it seemed we were always winning
But now our teams been torn apart
I wish we could go back to the beginning
Can't you take us back to the start?

Chorus:
I swear, as I stand here
I'd Do Anything For You
Cos I know that you'd do the same for me
We can live and die together
But our fight will last forever
If you'll let me
I'll stand with you till the end
Because I call you friend

I know we're seperated
By time and space, laws and rules
But I swear I'll fight
I'll stand by you
I'd do anything for you
Anything at all
And that's the truth

Its all I can do
I gotta stand by you
Cause when you're loyal to someone...
You can't help it

Back then it seemed we were always winning
But now our teams been torn apart
I wish we could go back to the beginning
Can't you take us back to the start?

Chorus:
I swear, as I stand here
I'd Do Anything For You
Cos I know that you'd do the same for me
We can live and die together
But our fight will last forever
If you'll let me
I'll stand with you till the end
Because I call you friend

DC - Back Into Dry County

Dry County is a Bon Jovi song. It's also, in my opinion (and the opinion of many Bon Jovi fans), one of the greatest songs ever written, a 10 minute epic with the most exciting guitar solo I've ever heard. The lyrics are as follows, you kind of need to read them to make sense of what we wrote:

Dry County - Bon Jovi

Across the border they turn
Water into wine
Some say it's the devil's blood
They're squeezing from the vine
Some say it's a saviour
In these hard and desperate times
For me it helps me to forget
That we're just born to die

I came here like so many did
To find that better life
To find my piece of easy street
And finally be alive
I know nothing good comes easy
All good things take some time
I've made my bed, I'll lie in it
To die in it's the crime

You can't help but prosper
Where the streets are paved with gold
They say the oil wells ran deeper here
Than anybody's known
I packed up on my wife and kid
And left them back at home
Now there's nothing in this paydirt
The ghosts are all I know

Now the oil's gone
And the money's gone
All the jobs are gone
Still we're hangin' on

Chorus:
Down in dry county
Where we're swimming in the sand
Praying for some holy water
To wash the sins from off our hands
In dry county
The promise has run dry
Where nobody cries
And no one's getting out of here alive

Not this time

In the blessed name of Jesus
I heard a preacher say
That we are all God's children
And He'd be back, be back someday
And I hoped that he knew
Something as he drank his cup of wine
I didn't have too good a feeling
As I head out to the night

I cursed the sky to open
I begged the clouds for rain
I prayed all night for water
For this burning in my veins
(Every night the same)
It was like my soul's on fire
And I had to watch the flames
All my dreams went up in ashes
And my future blew away

Now the oil's gone
And the money's gone
And the jobs are gone
Still we're hangin' on

Chorus:
Down in dry county
They're swimming in the sand
Praying for some holy water
To wash the sins from off our hand
Here in dry county
The promise has run dry
Where nobody cries
And no one's getting out of here alive

Men spend their whole lives
Waiting praying for their big reward
But it seems sometimes
The payoff leaves you feeling
Like a dirty whore
If I could choose the way I'll die
Make it by the gun or knife
'Cause the other way there's too much pain
Night after night after night

Chorus:
Down in dry county
They're swimming in the sand
Praying for some holy water
To wash the sins from off our hand
Here in dry county
The promise has run dry
Where nobody cries
And no one's getting out of here alive

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrian (I think) came up with the idea of writing two 'follow up' songs to it: Straight Out Of Dry County, which documents the protaganist finally escaping, and Back Into Dry County, which see's him returning. Why we decided to write them out of synch I have no idea, but Back Into Dry County became our first co-written song. As far as I can remember, Adrian wrote most of this one ... my main contribution was the first 9 lines, the last two lines of the chorus, and the "finally it all fits" bit in the last verse.

It goes a little something like this:

Back Into Dry County - Adrian and Me - Sometime in 2003

The sand still haunts me
In every one of my nightmares
Breathing deep I still can taste
That dusty desert air
Would you ever go back into Hell
If you got the chance to leave?
Would you miss the pain
Miss the burnin' heat
Miss the people who can't breathe?
Walking out
It felt so clean
Like coming home
Just like a dream
But I couldn't stay away
I just couldn't stay gone
I left my soul in the fields
Its the place I belong
I'm riding day and night
On these wings of steel
Heading back for my destiny
All I've got are these two wheels
Riding day and night
On wings of steel


They wanted our blood for oil
But all that's in the past
I'm stronger now
Now I'm going back

Chorus:
I'm going
Back Into Dry County
Heading back to the sands
Back Into Dry County
Back to where it all began
(Down in Dry County)
So many looking for a reason to live
Too many finding a reason to die
We gotta hang on
We gotta stay alive
(Down in Dry County)
No use tryin' to pretend
This is where it began
And this is where its gonna end

Countin' every second
Until I reack those fiery gates
Just tryin' to numb myself off so
The pain don't get too great
I know I can't escape it
Gotta burn down there again
Goin' back once more
Burning down the door
Gonna live inside my pain
Missing out
On all my dreams
Because they came up
With this scheme
But now I'm on that road again
I thought I could be strong
But I left my soul in the fields
In the place I belong
I'm paying back my sins
Just to stay alive
Heading back to face my demons
Hoping they'll let me survive
Paying back my sins
To stay alive

They wanted our blood for oil
But all that's in the past
I'm stronger now
Now I'm going back

Chorus:
I'm going
Back Into Dry County
Heading back to the sands
Back Into Dry County
Back to where it all began
(Down in Dry County)
So many looking for a reason to live
Too many finding a reason to die
We gotta hang on
We gotta stay alive
(Down in Dry County)
No use tryin' to pretend
This is where it began
And this is where its gonna end

The howling wind of the desert
Can't match the howling in my mind
I can see the faces, the flames
Sometimes I wish it was me that died
My memories burn me
Every night I lay down to sleep
on the cold, hard ground
You ask why my bed is burning
It was on fire when I layed down

They wanted our blood for oil
But all that's in the past
I'm stronger now
Now I'm going back

Chorus:
I'm going
Back Into Dry County
Heading back to the sands
Back Into Dry County
Back to where it all began
(Down in Dry County)
So many looking for a reason to live
Too many finding a reason to die
We gotta hang on
We gotta stay alive
(Down in Dry County)
No use tryin' to pretend
This is where it began
And this is where its gonna end

I saw the sign
Dry County limit
Never saw the car
But I felt the hit
Looking up into the sky
Now I know
This is it
And now it makes more sense to me
Finally it all fits
This is it
I'm Back In Dry County

DC Songs

If you've been following this blog, you'll have discovered that I post on a Bon Jovi fansite messageboard regularly, and before the days of this blog and MySpace, that was the only place where I shared my work online. There's a cool little musicians and songwriters forum on there (which is where the songwriting competition from the last entry happened), and we all post our work and ask others to review it.

Sometime in 2003, we started to come up with the idea of trying to actually form a band over the Internet: some people would write the lyrics, others would record the instrumental parts, or the vocals, and someone would put it all together. It didn't exactly succeed ... as far as I can remember, it resulted in a grand total of one song being recorded, one that I don't think I even had a co-writing credit in. The 'band' was originally named Dry County, after the messageboard and the Bon Jovi song, but we later decided that just DC would be better.

It was interesting to co-write with others, and some pretty good stuff came out of it.
The way it usually worked was that a guy from the USA called Adrian, who's probably the board's most prolific writer, would post an idea for a song, and usually a chorus and a verse or two, and then others, usually me, would come up with more for it until we had a finished song.

I think there were 10 songs written in all. Of these, 2 of them seem to have got lost somewhere, and I had co-writing credits in 6 of the ones that are still knocking about. I think I'll post the ones that I didn't co-write as well though, it'll be nice to document them, I'll just make sure that credit is given where it's due. I'm gonna post each of them as a seperate entry, so the next 8 entries should all be DC songs rather than solo ones

Fade Into The Sun

This was written for a lyric writing competition on a message board I post on ... the title was chosen by members of the board, everyone involved submitted a song anonymously, and the members of the board chose the winner. There were some good songs came out of that, mine didn't even get voted into the top 3, but ah well, my time would come about a year and a half later :p I wish I'd thought about the chorus a bit more though, I think that's what let's it down a bit

After I wrote this, I came up with an alternative second verse that I thought was probably better than the one I originally wrote, but I'll post both versions here anyways. Incidentally, I used this title for another song in 2005, which I'll make a seperate post on eventually

Comments welcome

Fade Into The Sun - May 2004

First thing in the morning
Gonna saddle up my ride
And set sail for pastures new
As the day is dawning
Tear down the backstreets of my life
But I'll just be passing through

Though there's so much left for me here
It's time for me to get away
And leave behind the life I've made
You may be what I wanted
But you're better off this way
Don't watch me as I fade

My heart's ablaze
Go our seperate ways
And I'll save you...

Chorus:
I'm breaking you out
As I plan my escape
Control of your future
Will be yours to take
I'm returning your life
As I plan my escape
From this bad dream
You may finally awake

Look, we both know I aint perfect
So I've got to get away
Or I could end up killing you
Now the place where new life grows
Is the place I have to go
To let you start over anew
Please don't watch me as I fade into....

(Alternative 2nd verse:
When you wake up in the morning
You will find youself alone
And at first maybe you won't know what to do
But before long you will see
How you can have much more than me
Live out your dreams with someone new
Please don't watch me as I fade into ... )

Though it breaks my heart
I'll tear us apart
To save you....

Chorus:
I'm breaking you out
As I plan my escape
Control of your future
Will be yours to take
I'm returning your life
As I plan my escape
From this bad dream
You may finally awake

I gave you everything I was
But it wasn't enough for me
And if I can't be more for you
Instead I'll set you free
Just don't watch me as I fade into the...

My heart's ablaze
Go our seperate ways
And I'll save you...

Chorus:
I'm breaking you out
As I plan my escape
Control of your future
Will be yours to take
I'm returning your life
As I plan my escape
From this bad dream
You may finally awake

From this bad dream...

First thing in the morning
Gonna climb onto my steed
I love you, but now I've got to run
I'm sorry for the bad times
Hell, I'm sorry that I'm me
Just don't watch me as I Fade Into The Sun
Don't watch me as I Fade Into The Sun
Please don't watch me as I Fade Into The Sun

But I'll watch as our love burns up in the sun

Between Heaven And Hell

This is a very short song, that I think I actually wrote while I was at work (used to work in Sainsbury's .... ). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've always had the idea for an album called Angels / Devils, and this song would be the opening track, one of those short introductory tracks that you get opening some albums. The theme seems appropriate for the opening of such an album

The idea is that is has no instruments .... just voices. After being in a school play of The Tempest where we used this technique, I decided it would be cool to use a soundscape ... a lot of voices, maybe around a hundred or so, all singing different notes at different times, and holding them for as long as possible .. trust me, if you've never heard this before, it sounds absolutely magical. Then the song would be sung over the top, and then at the end the next song would kick in straightaway

Man, I'm a genius :b

Incidentally, one day I might actually go back and write more to this song, but at the moment I think it works fine. Comments are welcome

Between Heaven And Hell - May 2004

Now I'm caught between
The place I love
And the heavens above

The skies beckoning
But the depths
Draw me in

Now I'm caught Between Heaven and Hell
Caught Between Heaven and Hell
Caught Between Heaven and Hell
And I never can tell
The difference
Between
Heaven
And
Hell

Hold

Not long after I'd written Devils, I began to write a song called Turning Point ... infact, I started writing it on New Years Eve 2003. I'll explain more about it in the entry for it later, but it's basically, as a lot of my stuff tends to be, about relationships, and especially the fact that, at that time, I really liked a girl, she really liked me, but because I'd been hurt in the past, I had trouble letting go and just giving it a try. We got together a few days into 2004 though, and it turned out to be my longest relationship to date, about a year and 10 months. With my life being in a different situation to when I started writing Turning Point came all sorts of new stuff to write about, and as such it didn't get finished until July 2004.

When I'd posted Devils on a messageboard, one guy had commented about how all songs nowadays seemed to be angsty, and no one ever wrote anything fun anymore. I took this as a personal challenge. A few day's after Valentine's Day in 2004, my college had run a Valentine's Ball on a boat cruising up and down the Thames. I was there with my girlfriend, and it was a great night. And that's where this song came from, although I didn't write it for a couple of months afterwards. It originally started as just a party song, which explains the first four lines, but then morphed into a song about this Valentine's Ball.

I think this is a song to dance to. Lyrically it's nothing stunning, and the rhyming is pretty simple, but it's got quite a good, vibrant rhythm, if I do say so myself (seeing as this wil only come across in a limited manner here, you're just going to have to take my word for it). Basically, it was just a short, fun, simple song that I wanted to write to remind me and my girlfriend of this great night we had. Feel free to comment.

Hold - April 2004

The bass is still pounding through my head
Long after I know how it feels to be dead
All of my friends are down on the floor
But I'm still up and needing some more
You're there beside me, cold air on your skin
I know you can feel it through the silk so thin
As I draw closer, your voice is lost in the sound
As I touch you, the whole place starts to spin round

We can make this night last forever
Just one more drink out of this cup of fire
We picked a hell of a night to dance the dance of lovers
A hell of a time to connect to this live wire

Chorus:
Dance in the shadows
And live in the light
Gonna please you in all that we do
Tonight
This fire in my stomach will run through my veins
And soon I might give some to you
Hold on tight!

This burning sensation lifts us through the air
As I'm runing my fingers all through your hair
The fog starts to clear as my senses arise
All burnt away by the pierce of your eyes
And as we are soaring away through the night
You hold on to me in a grip so tight

We can make this night last forever
Just one more drink out of this cup of fire
We picked a hell of a night to dance the dance of lovers
A hell of a time to connect to this live wire

Chorus:
Dance in the shadows
And live in the light
Gonna please you in all that we do
Tonight
This fire in my stomach will run through my veins
And soon I might give some to you
Hold on tight!

If this night will never end
Then this life is good again
Then we'll burst through the clouds
Like a ray of light
So bright

Chorus:
Dance in the shadows
And live in the light
Gonna please you in all that we do
Tonight
This fire in my stomach will run through my veins
And soon I might give some to you

Chorus:
Dance in the shadows
And live in the light
Gonna please you in all that we do
Tonight
This fire in my stomach will run through my veins
And soon I might give some to you

HOLD ON TIGHT!

Some unfinished projects to this point

I remembered this morning that in between Step On The Gas and Devils, while I was still with my first girlfriend, I actually almost finished writing her a love song called This Is My Heart ... it never got finished though, because things started to go wrong before then. I think after we split up, I tore the pages with it on out of my notebook, and I think they may be lost now. I can't remember how the whole song goes, but I remember bits of it, and I figured I might finally post it somewhere ... to date, no ones seen any of it except me and her. I also thought I'd post the choruses I'd come up with for two of the unfinished songs I mentioned earlier: Infected and What We Make It, just to give an idea of how , er, undeveloped (and perhaps bad) some of my lyrics were at that point ... there's really not a lot of those two songs though, I just felt like writing them down to reminisce a bit

Infected (Chorus) - February - March 2003

Infected, injected
This isn't what I expected
Infected, rejected
I will never be respected
Now


What We Make It (Chorus) - February - March 2003

And sometimes it's real
Sometimes we fake it
But believe me when I say
Life's What We Make It
If you see an oppurtunity
Then take it
And believe me when I say
Life's What We Make it

(Those really weren't too great were they? Heh, here is what I can remember of This Is Your Heart ... sure, it's a bit sappy, but I wrote it for my girlfriend, what dyou expect?)

This Is My Heart (Fragments) - I'd guess around August - October 2003

They say nobody lives happily ever after any more
But I say no one knows what this crazy life has in store
They say there ain't no way
We're gonna ride into the sunset
But I don't need no sunset, I've got you

We met some time ago, feels like another life
I'm sorry to say that for us babe
It wasn't love at first sight
But as time went on, our bond grew strong
And before I knew what was happening
All I wanted was a time
When you would be mine

Chorus:
This Is My Heart
Now show me yours
Take it and keep it forevermore
Deny it and I will fade away
But as long as you hold it I'll always stay
(I think there were two more lines here, but I can't remember them)
This Is My Heart
Once that was true
This was my heart, but now ...
It only beats for you

(Wow, now that was a trip down Memory Lane, let me tell ya! I'm not gonna blog about every unfinished song I have ... a) because I might one day actually finished them, and b) because there's so damn many of them! But I posted those ones just because ... well, I wanted to! And tis my blog, I'm allowed to! :D)

Devils

Sometime in 2003, I started writing this. 2003 was the year that I got into two of my biggest musical influences: Pearl Jam and Iron Maiden. I'd liked songs by each of the before (I Am Mine by Pearl Jam, and the obvious two by Maiden), but it was only after impulsively buying Ten while in America, and hearing Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter and songs from Maiden's then new album Dance Of Death that I really started to love them.

At first, this was pretty much just my attempt to write something Maiden-esque. By November though, things had changed a bit. I'd split up with the girl I'd been going out with for 6 months, and gone into another relationship almost straightaway (and no, I didn't split up with one girl just to get with another, there's a whole deeper story behind it ... incidentally, the second relationship only lasted 7 weeks). I think it was in the period just before splitting up with my first girlfriend that I began to develop this a bit more, as I was pretty depressed a lot of the time, and needed to get it out.

In November something else happened involving this first girl as well. Basically, she decided to run away from home, and proceeded to phone me and tell me this. Despite me telling her to go home, she ran away and to the best of my knowledge slept somewhere in a park or something, miles away, for the night, before going home again. Until I found out that she had got home safely, I was pretty much out of my mind with worry about her, all the while constantly trying to tell myself that it wasn't my responsibility to worry, but not being able to help it. A few days later I finished this song off.

It's actually still one of my favourite songs I've ever written, I like the creepiness and general weirdness of it ... was told it reads a bit like a Metallica song. Have also been told that the verse at the very end reads like it's being spoken by a child, which I agree would sound effective. It starts off piano driven, and very slow and ... macabre sounding, before kicking off into a heavier and faster sound with the last word of the first chorus. In between the last chorus and the verse at the end, there's supposed to be quite a long outro-style instrumental, sort of a deceptive ending, which fades back into the piano again for the final verse, building back up to a final crescendo throughout that verse.

I think just about ever since I came up with the idea for this song, I've also had the idea that, should I ever actually record these songs and make an album, my first album is going to be called Angels/Devils, and it'll basically be about good and evil, and will include this song, another one called Angels, and will finish with one called Holy Wars. Ever since finishing Devils, I've been trying to write Angels, but I've never managed to get anything I like for it ... maybe one day. I have bits and pieces for Holy Wars, but not enough for a full song.

Comments are welcome as usual:

Devils - Sometime in 2003 - November 2003

If you saw me
You would never suspect
All the things that
Go on inside my head
This world is filled
With little bits of shadow
And everytime I take one in
The darkness inside me grows
And someday it will win

Still I try to hide it
Like you try to cover up
A stain
That won't go away
By hiding it beneath a
Pretty new colour
But it's still there
It bides its time
And waits for someone
To come and make it
Uncovered

But don't condemn
This happy mask
That I present
It's the only shield
Between you
And the Devils
And their evil intent

Chorus 1:
Deep in my mind in a cold dark cell
I can feel it trying to rise again
It's taking over, my own personal Hell
And the Devils that lie within

Come on in and you can see
But your soul will remain with me
Just a hint of fear, a spot of pain
And the demons inside will feed

The Devils are inside

And strength they gain with every meal
These wounds inside will never heal
And while I wish it wasn't true
They are only too real

There's nowhere I can hide

Release me
I have waited so long
Release me
But their hold is too strong
Release me
Release me
Release me
Release me, release me, release me, release me, release me

Chorus 2:
Deep in my mind in a cold dark cell
I can feel it trying to rise again
It's taking over, my own personal Hell
And the Devils that lie within
Darkness
As far as the eye can see
Or the burning flame
I try to flee
And I can't hate the Devils
Because they're just me

Now these monsters are part of me
There is nowhere I belong
But I never can be lonely
As I'll never be alone
They're waiting there inside me
Lying just behind my eyes
And when it reaches meltdown
The army will arise
And break out of my body
With a darkness in their heart
The evil I created
Will tear me apart

Full Chorus:
Deep in my mind in a cold dark cell
I can feel it trying to rise again
It's taking over, my own personal Hell
And the Devils that lie within
Darkness
As far as the eye can see
Or the burning flame
I try to flee
And I can't hate the Devils
Because they're just me
I am their teacher
Their feeder
Their lover
Their hater
Their one true friend
And their fucking creator
I'm a Devil in all but name
And there's only myself to blame

Angels, Angels, hear my plea
Come along and rescue me
Let the darkness end tonight
Vanquish it in holy light
Save my sanity and health
And break the hold I have over
And save my sanity and health
And break the hold I have over
And save my sanity and health
And break the hold I have over
Myself!

Step On The Gas

There's actually not much of a backstory that I can remember behind this one. I started off just writing it as an attempt at a rap song, and not a particularly serious attempt, just a bit of a joke really. Eventually I managed to develop it a bit ... quite why it became a song that's blatantly at least partially about sex I'm not sure, but I had begun my first proper relationship in April of 2003 (yah I was a late starter, I know), so perhaps I had it on the brain ;) I finished this while on holiday in Nottingham in roughly July or August 2003.

I quite like some of the lyrics in this one, especially in Chorus 1, but I think I tried to make it far too complicated ... it possibly didn't help that it started life as a completely different song. As usual, comments are welcome.

This is a bit difficult to write out ... it has what I originally called a "rap section", but I'm not sure if it really is ... it's hard to describe! Perhaps with vocals that are ever so slightly industrial / rap? With more of a ... groove ... than the rest of the song? Gah, even after all these years I can't quite explain it. I'll highlight the "rap" sections in red. The final chorus is a mixture of the two choruses, with multitracked vocals (or obviously on the offchance it was ever to be played live, with a second person sharing lead vocal duties) singing both choruses at the same time ... I'm going to just write it like it is in my notebook ... I appreciate that it's not going to make much sense in writing, but I've got a rough idea of what it's supposed to sound like in my head ... you'll just have to use your imagination! There's also supposed to be a short drum solo just before Chorus 1 is repeated ... just thought that was necessary for you to know :D The rest of it is pretty much a standard hard rock song.

Step On The Gas - Summer 2003

Back on the road again
But this time don't feel strange
When it seems like I belong here
I know something in me's changed
Back in the driver's seat
After taking quite a fall
Now time's moved on
And the time draws nearer
When I can claim it all

Riding high on my purring machine
For the first time in way
Too long
I'll shove my key in your ignition
And turn the engine on

Chorus 1:
Step On The Gas
Let the highway take control
Let the vehicle be your body
And the journey be your soul
Step On The Gas
Leave your shattered world behind
When you're blasting down the road there
Will only be one state of mind
And if you want to, you can take it real slow
Cos I've always got another mile to go

And we can ride
Side by side
Cos there's no where left for
Us to hide
If the world has turned against you
Then we'll just roll on through

Riding high on my purring machine
For the first time in way
Too long
I'll shove my key in your ignition
And turn the engine on

Throw down your weapons
And baby surrender
Lay down your arms there ain't no more you can do
But if you think your resistance
Can make all the difference
Then you'd better fight on til' the battle is through

Chorus 2:
Step On The Gas
If you wanna come with me
Step On The Gas
You can find your own way
Step On The Gas
If you listen then you'll see
Step On The Gas
That we've got something to say
Step On The Gas
If there's one thing I know
Its that there's only one way to go

On the Gas

Chorus 1:
Step On The Gas
Let the highway take control
Let the vehicle be your body
And the journey be your soul
Step On The Gas
Leave your shattered world behind
When you're blasting down the road there
Will only be one state of mind
And if you want to, you can take it real slow
Cos I've always got another mile to go

On the gas, on the gas, on the gas, on the gas

Chorus 3:
Step On The Gas / Step On The Gas
Let the highway take control / If you wanna come with me
Let the vehicle be your body / Step On The Gas, you can find your own way
And the journey be your soul / Step On The Gas, if you listen then you'll see
Step On The Gas / Step On The Gas
Leave your shattered world behind / That we've got something to say
When you're blasting down the road there / Step On The Gas, if there's one
Will only be one state of mind / Thing that I know
And if you want to, you can take it real slow / It's that there's only one way to go
Cos I'll always have
Another mile to go / On the gas

Step On The Gas
Step On The Gas
Just Step On The Gas

After The Storm

Later in March 2003, I got into a big argument with the girl that Still Holding On was the subject of ... I can't remember what it was about, but it started over MSN, so quite possibly some misunderstanding of not being able to see the expression behind the words. Anyway, I was in quite a sensitive headspace with relation to the female race right then, so afterwards I went upstairs and wrote this in about an hour and a half ... the quickest I'd ever written a song at the point, seeing as the first one had taken me about a year, and the second one at least a few days. This is also the first song I wrote that I'm really proud of, the last two lines of the second verse (the verse that begins "And when I get these feelings out") are two of my favourite lines I've ever written, and I think that this is the point that my writing took a departure for the better ... Some people will probably nowadays see this and think "emo", but that doesn't really bother me ... in March 2003, "emo" wasn't being used as a perjorative term, and also, I did write this when I was 16 years old. Finally, someone I showed this to said it reminded them of Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley, which overpowers any baseless condemnation of it :b

As usual any thoughts are welcome

(As an aside note, this is the last song I wrote about this particular girl. We later made up and went back to being really good friends ... we're still good friends, although since going to Uni we've drifted apart a little bit. She also, last time I checked, still likes Still Holding On :b)


After The Storm - March 2003

The pen touches the paper
But thats all that I can do
Somewhere in my memory
Lies the girl that I once knew
But I can't write about her
Because none of it is true
Where you once were that little girl
Now all you are is you

I thought we could still be friends
Through thick and thin
To the bitter end
But what a fool I must be
To think that could happen to me

Chorus:
Why?
Oh why did she have to lie?
She said that we could still be friends
And then she said goodbye
Left me sitting in the dark
Staring into the night
Trying to sort my confused thoughts
Into something I can write
Why?
Why oh why?

And when I get these feelings out
To fill all this white space
Well thats the time I can scream and shout
Like I'm telling it to your face
And I feel so small and lonely
Just a little out of place
I still hear you, smell you, see you, feel you
And I'm dreaming of your taste

And sometimes I think that maybe you're right
That I've been wrong
Through every fight
But what a cruel thing to do
To leave me thinking of you

Chorus:
Why?
Oh why did she have to lie?
She said that we could still be friends
And then she said goodbye
Left me sitting in the dark
Staring into the night
Trying to sort my confused thoughts
Into something I can write
Why?
Oh why oh why?

If you were back here with me
Well I don't know just how I'd be
Would I like you, love you, hate you
Or all three?
But at least once more we could be 'we'

Chorus:
Why?
Oh why did she have to lie?
She said that we could still be friends
And then she said goodbye
Left me sitting in the dark
Staring into the night
Trying to sort my confused thoughts
Into something I can write
Why oh why oh why
Did she have to lie?
Why oh why oh why oh why?
All alone
I start to cry
As I wonder
Why oh why oh why?

Some notes about this blog

Just a few notes about this blog that wouldn't fit in the description box

Note # 1: This blog is currently a work in progress. At the moment I have 30 finished songs, and I write new ones fairly regularly, so it's gonna take a fair while to get them all up here

Note # 2: These are intended to be the lyrics to songs, usually songs of a rock / metal / alternative nature, rather than poems. As such, if, for example two choruses appear very close together, there's probably supposed to be an instrumental break between them or something

Note # 3: I would describe my main musical / lyrical influences at the time of writing as Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Chris Cornell, Guns N' Roses and The Sisters Of Mercy

Seeing Stars

Song number 2 ... After finishing my first song, I started coming up with a few more song ideas, most of which I got as far as writing a chorus and perhaps a verse for before moving getting a new idea and moving on to that ... which is something that I still do a lot. A couple of titles for those songs that never got finished included Infected, Confusion, and What We Make It. My influences were very limited in those days ... I only listened to a very small number of bands: Bon Jovi of course, modern rock stuff like Nickelback and The Calling, and nu-metal such as Linkin Park, Papa Roach and Limp Bizkit. As such a lot of what I was writing was either very ballady or agressive nu-metally.

In February to March 2003 I went on a skiing trip to America with my school. We all took absolute tonnes of money with us (mostly given to us by our parents), and all bought absolutely loads of CDs out there, and in our downtime watched some American music channels on TV ... possibly this is where my musical tastes began to develop. It's also the time and place I bought THE GREATEST ALBUM EVER ... Ten by Pearl Jam :)

At the time, I'd been pretty much well and truly rejected by the girl I wrote the first song about, and back then (in fact, still now to an extent) I had a lot of trouble letting go ... although, just before the skiing trip, I'd started to like someone else that I'd been hanging out with a lot doing a school play (this is what the Confusion song was going to be about, had it ever been finished).

While skiing one day (and this really did happen), someone skiing in front of me fell over, and I had no time to dodge ... I tripped over them and smacked my head on the snow, which was pretty compacted .... and got a mild concussion, which literally made me lose most of my memory for about the next half hour. I remember seeing an explosion of colours when my head hit, and I remember an instructor saying something like "You're probably seeing stars, right?". What I can't remember is actually skiing down the rest of the mountain .... to this day I can't remember that, I guess I must have though. I remember being at the bottom though, and my memory had got just a little better by then ... I remember a friend of mine asking me who my favourite singer was to test my memory, and me replying "Jon Bon Jovi". And I remember another friend asking me who I liked, and me saying "I'm not telling you", him saying "I know who it is though", and me saying "Ah, but there's someone else now".

And all of that came together to make this song. Again, it's from my more naive writing days, but again, I'd be interested in hearing any feedback

Seeing Stars - March 2003

The speed at which we're going
Leaves no room to turn
And I can feel us getting faster now
As the trail we blaze
Begins to burn

Its a slippery slope we're sliding down
And there'll be obstacles in our way
But if you're here to guide me down
I know we'll live to fight
Another day

Together
We can make it through
Together
Just me and you
Without you
My world keeps spinning round
And round and

Chorus:
Seein' Stars, when we're apart now
Seein' Stars, you know its true
Seein' Stars, and its forever
I lose my way without you
Seein' Stars, so take my hand babe
Seein' Stars, and you'll guide me
Won't be Seein' Stars, when we make it down
Cos you'll be all I see

Well sometimes things just happen
Just fall into your path
And there's no way you can stop 'em
Cos you expected the calm
To last
And before you know what's happening
You could trip and lose it all
But as long as you're here with me
I know that I'll
Never fall

Baby if I slide through a world of pain
And forget all I once had
Well, you would still be here beside me
And it wouldn't be that bad

Without you
I know I'd slip
Without you
I'd lose my grip
Together
Is the only way to go
And go and

Chorus:
Seein' Stars, when we're apart now
Seein' Stars, you know its true
Seein' Stars, and its forever
I lose my way without you
Seein' Stars, so take my hand babe
Seein' Stars, and you'll guide me
Won't be Seein' Stars, when we make it down
Cos you'll be all I see

Together
I know we'll make it through

Chorus:
Seein' Stars, when we're apart now
Seein' Stars, you know its true
Seein' Stars, and its forever
I lose my way without you
Seein' Stars, so take my hand babe
Seein' Stars, and you'll guide me
Won't be Seein' Stars, when we make it down
Cos you'll be all I see

Seein' Stars
Seein' Stars, you know its true
Seein' Stars
And all I need is you
Or I'll be Seein' Stars

Still Holding On

First song I ever finished writing (I'd previously written a chorus for the theme tune of a James Bond film I was making up ... maybe one day I'll finish that :p but be warned, it was terrible). I started writing this song sometime around the beginning of 2002, then forgot about it for ages, then at the beginning of 2003 finished it off to give to a girl that I really liked at the time for Valentine's Day. It actually has a reasonably decent melody, which is something of a rarity in my writing ... I'm a lyricist, writing music isn't my strong point. At the time, the people I showed it to actually gave me relatively good comments on it - one friend of mine was seriously pushing me to send it off to a record company or something. Nowadays though I think it's a bit simplistic and naive, but if anyone reading this does have any comments on it, positive or negative, do let me know:

Still Holding On - Early 2002 - February 2003

It was just a little while ago
When I thought I had it all
I was the king of my castle now
Never knew that I could fall
I thought that I had everything
Or thats the way it seemed
But I was really missing anything
And all I had was dreams

That life was like a burning candle
In the heat of the flame
And the same wind that blew it out
Lifted out my heart
And tore it all away

I lost that life
I left it all behind
One fateful night
And now I need something to get my feet back down to Earth
Or whats it all worth now?

Chorus:
Everything you do
Makes me think of you
And everywhere you go, I know
And every word you say
Is with me every day
Reminds me why I'm alive
Glad I didn't die
Everything else has gone
But your love is why I'm
Still Holding On

And just when it felt like
I was drowning in my tears
You flew my way on your wings of gold
You took away my fears

You were everything that I had
What was left belonged to you
But baby if you ever leave
Well then I don't know what I'd do

So I tried to keep my distance now
But the harder that I tried
The harder it got for me to deny
Just what I felt inside

Chorus:
Everything you do
Makes me think of you
And everywhere you go, I know
And every word you say
Is with me every day
Reminds me why I'm alive
Glad I didn't die
Everything else has gone
But your love is why I'm
Still Holding On

I'm Still Holding On

Now I can't escape from your love baby
But thats OK with me
Cos if love is a lock back to my dreams
Well darlin' you're the key
And every night, I sit at home
I hope, I dream, I pray
That with your love
Everything I had
Will come back to me someday

Chorus:
Everything you do
Makes me think of you
And everywhere you go, I know
And every word you say
Is with me every day
Reminds me why I'm alive
Glad I didn't die
Everything else has gone
But your love is why I'm

I lost that life
I left it all behind
One fateful night
And now there's only one thing in my life thats true
And that thing is you baby

Chorus:
And everything you do
Makes me think of you
And everywhere you go, I know
And every word you say
Is with me every day
Reminds me why I'm alive
Glad I didn't die
Everything else has gone
But you're love is why I'm
Still Holding On

I'm Still Holding On
Still Holding On