I had a song from a long, long time ago, twinkling around in my ether brain. I wrote a fairly usable melody to it I remember. It was called ‘Audience’. The only recorded version of it is on a highly fragile ‘tape could break’ audio cassette. The cassette is named ‘Live at the Dive’. The Dive was a room in a pub (Public House), which existed way back when. The pub’s full name was called ‘The Lady Godiva’. This live gig was our very first gig as The XCerts. A memory that cannot be chewed up in a dodgy cassette player.
Audience was a Pop Punk feel. Today, I intend to go hunting down the chords that exist somewhere in the recesses of my mind. Current Summers writes blogs. Sometimes using Fantasy and the Imaginary. The penny dropped and I remembered writing a blog about Audience a fair while back.
A bit of hunting down in the WP App found it lurking in ‘Drafts’. It was sulking. I’d dumped it there from a once Published status. Why? No idea. So here it is below and updated. Why? Because it will be nice to give Audience a bit of a make over. Intentions are to call it ‘Punk Drunk’ as a working title. Why? No idea. Maybe to drift from the shackles of old style.
The original blog had an imaginary conversation with myself to my other self.
“Who is that in the audience?
Oh! Okay.
It’s just that other guy.
The brighter, more positive me”.
Question……to brighter, more positive me.
“Will you stay a while?
Watch the show?”
Brighter he, who is me, answers to the currently
Stood in the shadows, dark to light to dark performer
…..We.
“I suppose” he says.
“But only
If you could ‘prose-pose’ a little more
And drop the
Claustrophobic Summers’ style.
Try to
Go, Go, rock and roll
Punk drunk and
Lyrically?
Think ‘Satisfied’.
We need to
Shake up, rattle and roll
Your current way of thinking……
Because……
Hey Man!
I’ve been watching you.
Dumping out
Your cray-cray words in songs
In what
Seems like forever.
And even then
You always add
One more day.
Oh yeh!
I’ve been watching you.
But have you been watching me?”
I answer, as he who is stood in the shadows
As the dark-light-dark performer,
And start moving into the lighter spotlit space
To become, simply……..simpler.
‘The new, from the once older performer’ …..We.
“Of course.
You,
I mean I,
I mean us,
I mean we
Are, and have always been, one big
Dysfunctional family.
But now…..we are, once again,
Singing in harmony.”.
I’ll use the old ‘Audience’ lyrics and change them around a bit. And add/extend one or two more verses. Up to now?
What is intended is to think rock and roll and just play it simpler. Get the feel of simpler times like Satisfied. Driven by simplicity and Punk Drunk. But still retain the Audience vibe as more Pop Punk.
AUDIENCE:PUNK DRUNK.
VERSE ONE.
Audience. Won’t you stay awhile.
I could pose (a little bit more)
Particularly if you like the style.
Hey man. I’ve been watching you.
But have you been watching me.
VERSE TWO.
This blurred image.
With no direction
Is like.
Looking in a mirror
With no reflection.
CHORUS. or, in reality, a different dynamic….?
When I’m down
I’ve gotta get up
And when I’m up
Stick around.
When I’m trapped
Then I’ve gotta break free.
How can I call myself my friend
When there’s a million reasons
Why I disagree.
Hey Man.
I’ve been watching you.
But have you been watching me?
VERSE THREE.
Back to self.
Remember you….Remember me.
Applause? We should Applaud Ourselves
It’s a bitter-sweet
Harmony.
Gray Summers 
Look at you going poet on us!Bravo! Bravo!
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Well! Got someone to inspire me haven’t I? 😉 It will happen once again in a future while. Actually. That ‘alluding to music’ last piece is actually words to a song I wrote when a teenager. So the singalong tune is in my head. It was popular played live. It was called ‘Audience’. Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated.
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Great poem/lyrics Gray.question is whether you get an answer 😉
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I did get an answer …… The day I retired. That was when the inner ‘other’ voice disappeared. It sailed away over to some distant horizon. 😊 Thanks for the comment. Much appreciated. All the best Brenda.
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It’s definitely got a groove going to it, Gray. I am keen on the introspective lyrics. Ah! Bet it really was a crowd people played Live, even understanding it was a bit different then. That was then. This is now.
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Cheers Sheila. Just getting at the putting together any simple/straightforward song, with few instruments, is an aim at the moment.
‘That was then, this is now’ was a song by the 1980s band ABC. They had massive production overload. Great songs though and a fair few hits. I have 3 vinyl albums of their’s. All the best.
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It was also a book and later, a movie. It was a boys story but it was formative for me as I read it when I was a teenager.
I haven’t heard of that band, but may look them up, Gray. Thank you!
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I didn’t know about the book. Maybe that’s where ABC got the idea from. Many bands take names from literature, figures from the past, song titles, etc. ABC have a great catalogue of songs. Very sing a long to. Brilliant production sound too.
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don’t feel weird about talking to yourself, it’s a sign of self-reflection and creativity. which you have up and down and all day long. Satisfied is a totally infectious tune and I can’t wait to hear what Today Gray shares next.
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Thank you cookie. I’m not prone to chatting to myself normally, 😊 other than, as you say, reflecting on how to go forwards. Chatted to my brother last night and really want to get his guitar on current songs. But no way to air drop due to his not having an dequate Apple system himself.
I suppose, at the moment, finding that Faerie Dust (a mix of tuneful hoped for’s and technical supporting know how) to sprinkle on songs to lift the sound into a brighter state is my everyday sought after. Reading a 32 page GarageBand guide presently. Just to understand a bit more. You can waste a lot of playing time with having minimal insights to how this stuff works. Saying that…..Objectivity to creativity has no place in my brain presently. It’s all Subjective listening to happenstance upon creativity captures. Positive gut feeling reactions to what I hear. Not what progress the instruction manuals tell me to do. A fine balance needed I suppose.
When you added your grittier guitar sound on some of your songs, I wonder if you went with a gut feeling. Whether you felt your song’s ambience through your lyrical/vocal and the phrasing and dynamic playing changed because of the different sound. I find it does. It involves individual instrumental/vocal texture choice, soft or loud volume to each instrument at different parts of the song and the ‘imagined out there surrounding space’ played and sung into.
Be fantastic to hear future songs from you too cookie.
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the way I sing on those gritty-guitar songs is a little different, it’s true. the words are where I start, all the time, and they kind of lead me and the sound I choose for the guitar. I don’t know how I will sound next. let’s all wait and see 🙂
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It’s really interesting seeing the journeys that other songwriters and musicians take. Good to get your own views on what your music means to you from reading your blog write ups too cookie.
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