Songs: We'll See What We Can Do

notes / gigs / releases

There's someone we think that you should meet
She'll be right up your street
She's desperate just like you
We'll see what we can do

She hasn't really got a life
But she's an old friend of the wife
We thought you'd approve
We'll see what we can do

Two odd buttons in a kitchen drawer
Two sore losers in a no-score draw
Two old batteries that have no use
Me and you
We'll see what we can do
Me and you
We'll see what we can do

We are the anti-socials
We are the non-league hopefuls
We are when we are me and you
We'll see what we can do

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

I can't remember much at all about writing this song, except that it was based mostly on some friends of Neil trying to fix him up with one of their friends, and him objecting strongly to it. I joined him in this objection, although, actually, it would have been nice if anyone I'd known HAD tried to fix me up with someone. They never did, and that pretty much explains why this is yet another sad song - poor old me eh? I was pretty miserable in those days, also rather lonely.

So yes, this was written about that, and ALLIED to what I still think is a pretty NIFTY guitar tune. I'd been playing "St Swithin's Day" by Billy Bragg in my live sets for quite a while, and had been playing some quite nice BITS in it of my own invention, so I thought I'd try and put some of them into my own songs, and this is one of the results. I do recall Kev being quite IMPRESSED with it when we recorded it, hence his previously mentioned OUTRAGE about it being used as a b-side, rather than being on the final album.

A version of this song appears on my third solo cassette, "What's So Bad About Being A Grown-Up". This was my SEA CHANGE tape - for the first two ("Free At Last" and "The Thoughts Of Chairman Hibbett") I'd largely been writing EITHER Comedy OR Normal Songs (i.e. songs about LOVE), neither of which bore much relation to my own life. When I got to doing the third tape I sat myself down and told myself that from hereonin I'd ONLY write songs that WERE about me, and that had lyrics that I would NOT be embarrassed about and would, indeed, be happy for people to hear on their own without any music behind them. It's a good rule to have, and it's one I've stuck too, although I HAVE managed so far to steer clear of my other idea, which would be to stand up at POETRY NIGHTS and recite them as such. Luckily, these days, I spend almost NO time being drunk at such places, and so the risk is LOW.

Anyway, this was written with that in mind, although, as with a lot of my thinking round then, there's quite a bit of fantasising about it, as I dearly WISHED to have somebody else in my life who'd been in the same situation as me, who I could LOVE. Rather wonderfully, I've just had to take a TYPING BREAK to talk to the person I eventually met who IS like that and who I DO get to love, so hey! Happy endings come along eventually!