I got it in my head about 3 hours ago, to try to write a New Year’s song…before the New Year.  It had not crossed my mind before then, and I literally had no plan. I thought I was starting a highly improbable task. I knew, at the least, someone who had only learned around 3 1/2 songs (and has forgotten two of them. need to dust them off and practice!), and written one which she can’t remember the chord progression of the last verse of (you’d think this would be easier when you write them yourself, not so…!), was setting herself up for a heck of a challenge.

But, I’m a pragmatist at heart, I suppose. If I was going to write an entire song and have it well enough in hand to read and record before New Years day, I knew that

  1. The chords had to be easy and easy to switch between. There was just no time to train myself on a new and interesting chord change.
  2. The strum pattern had to be one I could play in my sleep.
  3. Given those two things, I did not want to start with G, because I stood too much risk of unwittingly playing the other song I wrote, since I’ve been drilling it so much.
  4. And for the same reason as #3, it had to have at least one chord in it that didn’t appear in the other song, just to try and keep my head in the song I was working on.

The last song, I came up with a chord progression and glued words to. This one I started with words, then tried to fit chords to it. This seems a bit harder, really, and I ended up trashing most of the original wording.

BUT! By some freak chance, I actually did manage to write a silly little new year’s song. It is still pretty rough around the edges, thanks to being really, effectively half an hour old (that’s about when I finished recording it.), but it’s a thing, and it exists.

365

This year/let’s not wait for self-hate

for wistless wandering

chock up to fate the dreams we ate

and let’s waste the next three-sixty-five.

It’s like being alive/without being alive

because the words we swear/are only words

and I know it hurts/to understand

we’re not quite/the people that we planned.

So get back on track/we long for love

but it’s not like we need the wings of doves

just a little hand in hand

maybe a better plan.

That last one didn’t work out

couldn’t figure what he was on about.

This year/let’s not wait for self-hate

for wistless wandering

chock up to fate the dreams we ate

and let’s waste the next three-sixty-five.

It’s like being alive/without being alive

because the words we swear/are only words

and I know it hurts/to understand

we’re not quite/the people that we planned.

But we always look for what what we lost

and what we never had

like all we have is haven’t

and all we did is didn’t

and all we know we don’t really know at all

because why else would starting over set us up to fall.

This year/let’s not wait

we’ve got a date with the weight we waited to shed

until the year came to a head.

Cut back/it’s not like we lack

the will to will ourselves to be

that stranger that we think we ought to be.

This year/let’s not wait for self-hate

for wistless wandering

chock up to fate the dreams we ate

and let’s waste the next three-sixty-five.

It’s like being alive/without being alive.

Let’s waste the next three-sixty-five.

 

Until Next Time, Happy New Year, ladybugs and germs.

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