So I've spent the last fourteen years putting the finishing touches on the lyrics to "Existentialism on Folk Night", designed as the 'sister-song' to the one which still doesn't have a title yet. Both are songs in which I question the courage of my convictions, though the results are different in each. Or something. Anyway. Ahem.

Speakers are blasting out bass
Massive crowds are pulling shapes
Rhymes are busted, skirts adjusted
Beverages to friends entrusted
On the Cornish cliffs tonight
No reckless wreckers hove in sight
Just fabric from a growing trend
& we've mixed up our means and ends
So there's no conversation, no
Just silent animation
Looming through three-coloured smoke
Which chokes on turned-up tune vibrations
& the DJ spins some records
Which got big when we were small
& says "Music really quite unites us all"

Meanwhile on some lonesome beach,
Just out of that scene's ear-reach
A campfire figure with guitar
Is getting freaked out by the stars
Lacking style, with poor physique
Happily deploying critique
Yet using tuning to decree
A swathe of insecurities
"Maintenant ou Jamais, je sais
Far too darn much these days"
All this cerebral travelling
The hidden angst unravelling
Pinioned in opinion
& lost in history's thrall, yeah
"If only music could unite us all"

Two scenes going on tonight,
& who's to say which one is right:
Parties shallow and distressing,
Seaside sojourns quite depressing?
Funny how our race relaxes
Funny how this shit attracts us
Surely, though, some aspiration,
Even slight, beats degradation
Let's keep idealism flowing
Let's keep music live and growing
Let's all hang out, not for sex
But just to see what happens next
Let's loud it, but not so loud
We can't hear each other call
& one day music might unite us all

Let's not take the easy road, or any road at all
Let's keep hoping music can unite us all.

Important lessons learned from the hideous writing process this time:
1) "Cerebral" doesn't rhyme with anything
2) Espresso is good
3) Lines 24-5 are really true and I need to radically revise my approach to songwriting

Forthcoming writing projects:
P G Wodehouse: A Life
Secret Chord Song (Dutch Lullaby)
As-yet-untitled-big-bruce-springsteen-power-country-melody-massive