Songs: Tell Me Something You Do Like

notes / gigs / releases

Here come a herd of haircuts
From the Corporate Indie scene
Sheathed in black and leather jackets
They sound like Primal Scream
Think they're clever, saying everything's
Trash and drab and wrong
Their complaining does my brain in
Makes me want to shout Come On

Tell me something that you do like
Tell me something you think's GRATE
It's so dreary sitting listening
To your vacuous complaints

A pessimist is never disappointed
But they are disappointing
It's the smell of a life long coward
Who'll never stand up for anything
Especially if you're in a band
You don't have to sing about girls
Come on, use your imagination
Stand up, stand tall, and tell the world

Tell me something that you do like
Tell me something you think rules
Have the guts for once in your life
To risk someone thinking you're not cool
'Cos you're not cool

Examples of some topics you might wish to discuss:
The feel of a freshly sealed envelope
The smell of the pavement after rain
A yellow tit in an urban garden
Free tea and coffee on the train
The rolling gait of Scooby Doo
The new series of Dr Who
Euros, Truro, Lego Bricks
Come pucker up and give life a KISS

And tell me something optimistic
Tell me how things really are
It is not being simplistic
To use a bit of wit and charm

To tell me something that you do like
Don't make out your life's a trial
Tell me something bloody brilliant
Tell me something that will make me smile

Come on and make me smile

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

Now here's a song that was a long time building up to and a short time writing. I don't think I need to say much about the subject, it's fairly obvious that this is what I think, and it's engendered by listening to lots of interviews on BBC 6Music - it's a GRATE station, but they don't half get some nits in sometimes with very little to say for themselves. The interweb also is awash with dreary sods who dismiss everything and never have the guts to say what they do like, just in case, at some point down the line, it is deemed not cool. In fact, the whole world's full of them and it winds me up no end!

The tune arose towards the end of our practice on March 22nd 2005 when Mr Machine wheeled out a HUGE bass riff that we all fell upon, hungrily. When I first wrote the lyrics they were a lot more negative about all sorts of people, until I realised that I was criticising them for doing exactly what I was doing myself in the song. That's why it veers into lists of things that I DO like, which was a lot of fun to write. I was also inspired by a Liberal Democrats election poster which said "We Oppose / We Propose" which I thought was really cool - rather than just saying what was going wrong with the country they also provided a full set of answers. I like that sort of thing, and always try and do the same when I write songs slagging things off.

The words got moved around a lot and when we next practiced it sounded GRATE - so much so in fact that we played it at the very next gig we could get to, in Cambridge at The Man On The Moon on April 13th, and it stayed stuck in the set ever since.

We got stuck into it pretty early on in our sessions at Cornwall, and my main memory of it is over-dubbing the guitar at the start. Originally this was just drums but it didn't sound big enough so I went in to add some guitar. However, as we'd intended it to be a Drum Intro there were no clicks, so I had to watch the WAVE PATTERNS on the computer screen as we moved towards the beginning in total silence, estimating exactly when it would be time for my bit. It may not sound much, but I impressed myself that morning!