Norm's Favorite tracks on Alonetone

by Norm

0:00

1:06

tell me I'm drunk 20090824

Uploaded August 25, 2009 6:26am.

102

Let us celebrate our failures and our successes!

I submit my failure here for consideration.

I actually want to do something more with this just because it’s a lot darker than I usually write. Unfortunately, it never turned into something musical over the course of the writing session. Another post-24-days task for me I guess.

Inspiration notes:
I was listening to the last.fm library thing and it brought up Tori Amos’ “Fast Horse” which starts with the line “How can I be drunk”. I wanted to turn it into “How can I be drunk when I’m not drinking”, but I remembered Andrea Corr’s “Anybody There” that has the line “Tell me I am wasted”, which led to my hybrid opening line. [random side note: Andrea and I apparently share similar skills on piano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaEpnFlOjmY ]

I bring all of this up because generally my inspiration is not so clear cut. It’s generally more along the lines of “So I started randomly banging on the piano….”.

For the vocal performance, I couldn’t really find the right delivery so I ended up using Nine Inch Nails’ “My Violent Heart” as kind of a jumping off point for the vocal.

Tech notes:
I had some really annoying mouth gurgling noises in between some of the words, but a noise gate took care of that. Which also meant I had to go through all of the recording and look for the (now) obnoxious breaths.

You turn to me and tell me I’m drunk
And I tell you to suck a skunk
I’m having hard times here can’t you tell
I’m on the fast track, the speed-dial to hell

But what good is it to maneuver so low
Or hang out at the coffee table doing lines of blow
I’m not sure I’ll make it to the big three oh
Or call you up again for one last go

So I’ll cut myself to know if I still feel
The blood it flows and I think it’s real
But I can’t tell now what’s real and what’s not
So I think I’ll just down another shot

Are you here to save me or to [swoosh] me over
My angel of darkness or my four leaf clover
Will you help me escape this mess
Or leave me to die here like the rest

Only time will
And time ain’t telling

Download