Won’t Be Long  –  listen[mp3]

Some folks on Songfight put together a songwriting contest called NUR EIN. It’s half Survivor, half Idol, with judges for the first few rounds and a jury-of-the-ousted for the finale. There are more details at the NUR EIN site.

This song is my entry for round one, “Pencil Me In.” (And note that the hand claps in the intro were a requirement of the contest …)

UPDATE: I subsequently re-tracked the drums for this and dropped the hand claps.

STORY
This song’s for you if you’ve ever made a drunken first impression that you later regretted.
PRODUCTION
I broke a brush (though I have no idea how) while figuring out the drum part so I had to improvise a little when recording: I played the unbroken brush in my left hand (the snare drum on the back beat) and used a bundle stick in my right hand. This approach might be obvious to some, but it never occurred to me. And I like it a lot. The bundle stick still sounds like a brush for the triplets on the snare, but it bounces a little off the hat and cymbals, so those parts are more expressive than if I’d had brushes in both hands.

I also tried using the acoustic guitar as a rhythmic instrument, something I hear in a lot of alt-country tunes. Boosting that part around 8Khz brings out the sound of the pick hitting the strings which adds to the verses some of the high frequencies missing because there’s no hi hat.

LYRICS
Saying the wrong thing
has always been my thing.
8 months, I still ain’t got it right.
I wouldn’t say you’re cavin’
or blame you for leavin’.
Believe me, I go through this every night.

  We’re two of a kind, but we’re no good together.
  It won’t be long
  ’til you change your mind, and leave me forever.
  It won’t be long.

It’s not your fault
that I’m so awful
at telling folks what’s on my mind.
I can’t unsay the things I’ve said
but I should add in my defense:
I might have just been loaded at the time.

It’s ok if you don’t want to commit to us.
I don’t mind if you just pencil me in.
I know that I ain’t never been good for much,
so it’s OK, just pencil me in …


# - Songs by des

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 11:03 am and is filed under Songs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Wont Be Long”

  1. Boltoph on May 2nd, 2006 at 11:23 am :

    Well, mandatory handclaps in a song is just about the stupidest thing I ever heard of, but your tune is great, Des.

  2. Boltoph on January 31st, 2007 at 2:40 pm :

    Now there is a song here somewhere about a drunken fist fight?

    Who needs friends…when I’ve got whiskey…

  3. Stan on May 11th, 2007 at 12:57 pm :

    The contest was so sweet, so sweet, in fact, that it was actually no contest.