SONGS: #5 - Midnight Crisis - "Sister Vicodin"

To begin with, in the interest of full disclosure, yeah, I got the idea for this song from the Stones' "Sister Morphine"...and also, for that matter, from the Pillbox song, "Sister Caroline" (what does THAT rhyme with, again?). I simply thought that it might be a cool idea to write something that was making a similar statement, but put in a modern context. 

With that said, this concept of juxtaposing (and personifying) the intoxication & escapism that comes from the likes of chemicals & love, in a song, is hardly new or uncommon. Hell, everyone from Roxy Music to Vain to...(I don't know).....the fucking Lemonheads...have all done that successfully.

So, I figured it was worth a try.

But, it wasn't REALLY that well thought out, at first, to be honest. The title "SISTER VICODIN" popped into my head one day when I was washing my hair or some shit. I liked it, but, what was I gonna do with it? 

It didn't take long for me to formulate the chorus, in my head....."SIS-TER!! VIC-O-DIN!!!" In my imagination, I heard these chords behind it (which still sound a little bit to me like the KISS song, "Tears Are Falling", turned on its head). I kept turning it over & over in my head, and I've learned that if that happens, there's a distinct possibility that you might have something good. 

[I became so distracted by it that, one day, when we were walking around Flushing in search of Soup Dumplings, my girlfriend basically asked me what the hell my problem was. So, I sang her the chorus idea right there on the street! That cleared it up...]

A couple of weeks later, I went to Lase's house to do some writing, armed with this, and another idea or two (we also wrote "(Get Home) Dangerous" that night). It took us a good hour of me singing this guitar idea for the chorus to Lase before we got on the same page with it, but it finally clicked. Lase then started playing this...for lack of better terms, "druggy", "airy" guitar part, that became the basis for the verses. In my typically subtle way, I said something like, "THAT's FUCKING GREAT!" Lase didn't think it worked, for some reason I don't remember. "HOGWASH!!" It was fucking PERFECT, as far as I was concerned! I grabbed a pen & paper & scrawled down the lyrics for the verses right there. "Magic in disguise," indeed!

We had the lion's share of it finished, or so we thought, when Lase plugged in his guitar, hit these fucking ARENA-sized chords, and started sort-humming this cool melody....and it made me say something like, "HOLY FUCK!" That became that bridge part, which is my favorite part of the song, and might be my favorite few seconds of the album, for some reason I can't explain. (I kind of ripped off Deep Purple a little bit when I came up with the "Another wasted sunset..." lyric, but...I didn't think that they would mind).

Speaking of lyrics, they're pretty self-explanatory in this song, but my favorite ones are in the second verse, where I'm describing withdrawal symptoms, etc: "Boiling fevers, ice-cold sweats, My sheets are soaking wet, Daydream nightmares, for Christ's sake, DYIN' AWAY THE NIGHT AWAKE!"

I digress...

I've learned a lot from this song. For one thing, it was a really profound example of turning some stupid idea that exists nowhere but between ones ears into something tangible. That alone blows my mind sometimes.

Another thing I learned the HARD way from this song is that, just because you write a song in a lower register, one that fits your range extremely well, and all of that shit....that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be easy to sing. This song (along with "Make It Alright" - more on that one in a couple of weeks) has the most subtleties & vulnerabilities that need to come out in the vocal...which, along with the actual singing itself, has to be exactly right, or it's not worth bothering with. As such, I think I sang this song at least 15 times at Lase's studio before we had enough for him to piece together a good vocal. I wouldn't have known it when we wrote the song originally, but this song was a BITCH for me to record vocals on....but we finally got it, and...well, at least for me, it was worth all of that hard work and frustration. That's the kind of shit that's going to make you that much better during your next go-around...or at least, I hope so!

Enough.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening. It means a lot to me.

Three more songs to go...

Marty E.

"My world is spinnin', I don't look back
Earthquakes....heart attacks"

LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"  

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"  

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"

Stream/Download "Sister Vicodin on BandCamp

Download "Sister Vicodin" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)

Download "Sister Vicodin" on Apple iTunes

Download "Sister Vicodin" on Amazon

"Sister Vicodin" on Spotify

SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"

"Sunshine couldn't be so clever, the sidewalk sparkles in the midnight heat..."

I wrote the first two verses of this song about 15-fucking-years ago, when I was living in a bedbug-infested building made of Tinkertoys near the southern border of Hell's Kitchen. I'd been in New York City for a short time, and by all accounts, was struggling in virtually every way possible. 

[I mean, when I went out, I'd often bring a little bottle of Jim Beam in my pocket to "modify & fortify" my Friday nights, out in the East Village/Lower East Side, or when I lacked that kind of fore-site, I'd stop by a deli between bar stops & grab a can of Bud to slam on the rockin' stroll onward.]

But, I didn't care! I was becoming what I always wanted to be, or so I thought. I had a band, & I was going out a lot, getting to know cool & beautiful people, playing shows at Don Hill's, The Continental, & CBGB's,  and making my way, becoming part of the city I fell head-over-heels in love with. By day, I'd put my hair back into a pony-tail, caffeinate my hangovers away, and work as an "office temp" - which, essentially, allowed me to subsist & get reasonably "refreshed" while, in my mind, looking for my Street of Dreams and, ya know...all of that shit.

Also, I met a lot of "tragic types" along the way, who had their own stories to tell, and liked having someone to tell them to, even amidst the borderline squalor I was living in. That's what verse 2 is all about.

It really was a different world, then....anyway.... 

Anyway, all these years since I wrote the gist of the first two verses of this song, they always sort-of haunted me in my head, and I knew that I wanted to use them for something, but wasn't sure what, until Lase & I started writing. One night, it dawned on me (no pun intended) when, at bar time, someone typically said to me, "Get home safe!" 

"Fuck THAT," I thought, "Get home DANGEROUS!" 

I guess the point is, nothing cool or inspiring or interesting ever happened as a result of playing it safe, as far as I know. The frustration & struggling & adversity is worth it, because you do your own thing in your own time, whatever that means to you. I think and hope that I convey that effectively in the third verse and in the choruses. 

I don't know what the fuck I have to show for this line of thinking, but...I have this song, in any case.

Lase and I wrote this song on a very productive night (we wrote "Sister Vicodin" that night too - more on that next week). I came in with most of the lyrics & a rhythmic idea that became part of the main riff (dadada....duh-daaaaaaaaah)....we had a drink & worked on it for about an hour, and....shit, we came up with those cool "question and answer" vocal lines in the choruses. We made a demo recording of it right away, a little bit of which remains on the final recording.

When we were recording the vocals, I took a couple of opportunities to do some Monster Magnet-style screams on here. That was a lot of fun.

Lase is particularly stoked on this track, and I believe it's his favorite track on the album. As for me, it's too difficult for me to pick & I don't feel like I've got to choose!

Until next week......Thanks for reading/listening!

- Marty E.

"You haven't done it all
But you've done your part...."

LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps" 
 
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"  

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control" 

Stream/Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on BandCamp

Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)

Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Apple iTunes 

Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Amazon

"(Get Home) Dangerous" on Spotify 

 


 

SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"

At our album release party, last month, I introduced this song by saying, "I had a dream I was David Johansen as an anchor man, reading the evening news...and that includes the sports and weather, motherfuckers!!!"

It's total bullshit, but it explains the song pretty well, if you ask me.

This is an example of a song, that, lyric-wise, was a complete stream-of-consciousness explosion, aided by sleep-deprivation, and media over-exposure. That's a mouthful, isn't it?

It was late Summer, 2016. Dim Donnie Trump had just clinched the Republican nomination for....(gulp)...the....presidency.  I mean, it was unTHINKable! One couldn't take it seriously, almost. It just felt like a big fucking joke - one that stood out, significantly, in a world that's FULL of bad jokes.

It was one of those nights in which I stayed up all night at my girl's house, watching crappy shows on Netflix, and dicking around, playing Words With Friends, etc, until 6:30 in the morning, when one (usually) has no choice but to pass out.

That was when it hit me: "Armageddon won't be televised, Pull the silver screens over your eyes...." Again, this ultimate fruition of what they called "Trumpism"....it COULDN'T be real. It HAD to be a fucking JOKE. It will PASS, and SOON, right? He can't possibly, WIN, right? RIGHT?!!! Something in the back of my mind probably was probably a little nervous, even if I wouldn't admit it to myself or take it seriously. So I got back up, and wrote the ENTIRE lyric of this song, pretty much verbatim with how we recorded it. I then immediately texted it to Lase, who asked me why the fuck I was still up!

What's weird about it is, that third verse: "The nightmare, Baby, has come true, The shallow end is deeper than you..." Again, I was pretty-much kidding.  I mean, I thought it was..."apocalyptic" enough, if you will, that this fucking moron got the NOMINATION.  I'm not pretentious or full-of-shit enough to say that I was being prophetic or some shit - I had NO fucking idea what was going to happen. What I did think was that maybe this was, in some sick way, a way to a path forward - one that would possibly scare us into some good sense (and, hell, maybe it still is, but I have my doubts). That's what I think I meant by, "You can fucking keep yesterday..." The last I heard, looking back never got anyone anywhere. I have always felt that nostalgia, more often than not, holds us back from becoming what we should be...you know, that kind of shit. Before long, you start telling kids to get off your lawn! What I guess I'm getting at is, if we can survive and get through this dark fucking mess, maybe we can can come out of it better than we were somehow. That's probably a big "IF" I don't know what choice we have but to try.

[There's also an excellent chance that this is all a big CON JOB, but....that's another discussion.]

This shit sure took on new meaning for me after the election results came in, almost a year ago. But, if you're reading this, you already know all about that, so...we'll leave that there.

The point of this? Well...some people are calling it the end of the world. I am not - at least not yet. But if it is, there's really not a lot that any of us can do about it except educate ourselves and be the best that we can be, in spite of it. "If tomorrow never come, When the lights go out, we'll have our day in the sun." (That's probably a nod to PRINCE, too).

As far as the actually writing of the song itself, I just sang the lyrics over Lase's riffs that he came up with on the fly. What we came up with really plays to my (admittedly limited) strengths as a singer. I'm sort of imitating an imaginary hybrid of David Johansen (again) & Lux Interior having the misfortune of selling used cars, or some shit. For that reason, it's probably my favorite song in the set to sing. 

What do YOU think?

Thanks for reading & listening. Song #4 one week from now.

Marty E.

"Don't be afraid, Baby, to take that dive, 'cause it's the only way you'll ever know you're alive...."

LAST WEEK's ENTRY: Songs: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: Songs #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"

Stream/Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on BandCamp

Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)

Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on Apple iTunes

Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on Amazon

"Kiss My Apocalipps" on Spotify