Songs: This Is The Soundcheck

notes / gigs / releases

This is not happening
We haven't started yet
This is not the gig
This is the soundcheck

Don't give us your applause
Save that for the main set
We like to be ignored
During the soundcheck

This is as good as it gets
This is the soundcheck
TWO TWO TWO TWO TWO
This is the soundcheck

And now we're back on stage
And we're like men possessed
We are so rock and roll
Forget the soundcheck

Or you might ask yourself
Is this all for effect
They didn't seem to care
During the soundcheck

Although we dance and shout
Behind our eyes we're dead
We are not here for fun
This is the soundcheck

So be careful to not get excited
Try not to break a sweat
It wouldn't do to express an emotion
During the soundcheck

Is this as good as it gets?
Or is it the soundcheck?
TWO TWO TWO TWO TWO
This is the soundcheck

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

On Sunday October 8th 2006 I was having a bit of a Song Practice, trying to learn up some new stuff, and dug into my folder of New And Unfinished Songs to find the words to We Can Start Having Fun, just to have a quick go at it. Whilst looking i found the words to the first couple of verses of this song, which I'd written months before. It was (and still is) all about the fact that i see a LOT of Bigger Bands Than Me do soundchecks where they're obviously bored out of their MINDS with the songs they're playing, occasionally bordering on HATRED for them, yet later in front of an audience play the same songs with apparent PASSION bordering on a religious experience. I always think, if this song means THAT much to you, so that you COLLAPSE on the floor in a state of EMOTIONAL OVER STIMULATION, how come you couldn't care less about it three hours ago? I'm all for people putting more EFFORT in when there's an audience there, but the immensely FAKE, OVERWROUGHT performances some bands put on does grate a little sometimes.

Anyway, I was thinking about that and obviously got into METAPHORS about a) faking emotion just because people are looking and b) going through life as if the whole thing's a soundcheck for something better that's coming later, so not really bothering to put your ALL into it. As anyone who's read any of these ANNOTATIONS before will know, i am a SUCKER for a good metaphor!

The original tune was fairly MONOTONOUS, and I had visions of us playing it ONLY in soundchecks, building it up as we went along with all the different instruments and combinations of same that we use THUS making so it was useable AS our Soundcheck Song. However, as often happens, I got two thirds of the way in and never got around to finishing it.

In the meantime i got started on loads of other songs, one of which was a Nice Tune which I wrote the morning before me and the Frets On My Fretboard were heading off on holiday. It has More Chords Than Usual, so i wrote them down on a bit of paper before we left, and I saw this sheet mixed in with the other lyrics when I found the words to this one. Looking at it, it seemed to me that it was actually quite similar to the rythmn I used for this one, so had a go at mixing them together.

When I checked I realised I'd actually got the rythmn WRONG, but never mind, it seemed to work, and so I fairly quickly finished the whole thing off, sticking in a few more chords AND a whistling break. Actually, as there's RATHER more chords than usual, I just put them here for now so I don't forget. The Verse goes C (Fm7), C (Fm7), Am (D7), G (G7) a few times, then a bit of Am, G before the chorus goes Dm G# C A7, Dm G-G#-Am C (Fm7, G).

PHEW! For me, that is a LOT of chords! Is it coincidence that The Dots On My Chord Diagram is HERSELF learning the guitar at the moment, and I am suddenly realising how VERY FEW chords I actually know, and so trying to compensate? Surely not!

So yes, as I say I fairly quickly finished it off, realising when I'd done it that at no point had I SAID it was a Metaphor for anything or even gone on to idly compare it to anything. I think this is possibly a good thing, as going "LOOK! It's a METAPHOR!" can sometimes get a bit wearying, although I do worry that it may come across as JUST a song about doing soundchecks, which it isn't, honest.