Shut Up And Sit Down –
listen[mp3]
I wrote this for the Shut Up And Sit Down Songfight. I made a few changes after submitting it to Songfight - most significantly, the lead guitar is fatter and sits better in the mix.
I’ve never known what to call the genre in which this tune belongs. It’s like a slew of my favorite songs, all built around a variation on Em-B7-A-C7, but none of them quite fitting the same HMV category. There’s Big Rude Jake’s Song For Lilly Christine, which is close to straight-up swing, but also close to Stray Cat Strut which can probably safely be called “swing punk”. The Stray Cats, in turn, have a sound like the Old 97’s Just Like California which is closer to rockabilly than anything else, yet also similar to Ron Hawkins’ Three Penny Operator, especially the live version, which is what? … Blues?
The songs, mine included, all have a resolution (with key adjusted) from C7 to B7. Strip away the trumpets and saxes and Setzers and Millers, maybe that’s what ties them together. So, VI7-III7-a-billy?
“I can teach you to smile but I can’t change myself” is a sentiment I think everyone relates to. People are much better at giving advice than taking it. I’m certainly guilty of that, and this song recounts the events (albeit somewhat ambiguously) of an evening I failed to take some good advice.
- The Shut Up And Sit Down Songfight
- Big Rude Jake - The Stray Cats - Old 97s - Ron Hawkins & The Rusty Nails
Some nights I’m better left alone.
She was on to me, I wish I’d known.
She followed me around the room,
I’d tell myself, if I had a clue,
“oh shut up and sit down, boy, you fool”
I woke up in a cold familiar place,
creeping sun light falling on her face.
There’s things I said I’d never do,
but she followed me around the room …
Oh shut up and sit down, boy, you fool
We are all the same,
We’re all fools, in a sense.
I can teach you to smile
but I can’t change myself.
She laughed, it didn’t help my cause
and she was looking’ at me, God she was.
Like the southern end of a northbound train
I’m starin’ back where I was, in vain.
Oh shut up and sit down, boy,
I said oh shut up and sit down, boy,
Oh shut up and sit down, boy, you fool.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 11th, 2005 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Songs.
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