My Lyrical Archives

by danielkempster

It's not often I use my GB blogging space to talk about something other than games, but I figured that today I'd make an exception.

I'm sure I've made it perfectly clear that I love to write. I love maintaining this blog, but I love working on creative projects too, and particularly writing song lyrics. I used to write lyrics pretty frequently, but over the last year or so I've let that side of my writing fall by the wayside a bit. I've recently formed a small circle of songwriters with some of my University class mates. Actually, since there's only three of us, maybe I should call it a triangle of songwriters? Anyway, we're planning to meet up soon and spend the afternoon chilling out, sharing our work and maybe even workshopping some new stuff. In preparation, I figured I'd dip into my own lyrical output from the last four years, and do you know what? Some of it's actually pretty good. Not Pete Townshend good, but I'm proud of what I wrote back in those halcyon days of my seventeenth and eighteenth years. So proud, in fact, that I've decided to share some of my lyrical output with the Giant Bomb community.

Quantum Democracy

I'll preface these lyrics with an explanation. My interest in writing song lyrics was brought about by an attempt to convert a short story into a rock opera. This was, I think, my first ever attempt at writing song lyrics, and I still think they hold up now. The song is taken from a point in the rock opera's plot where the protagonist starts internally rebelling against the oppressive government, and this is actually supposed to be a song penned by him. Even now, I still think the chorus has a lot of weight and expresses a lot of emotion with very few words.

Take me as I am
Or don’t take me at all
Deceive me all you want but I will know

You can build me up
So you can break me down
Keep the truth from me but it will show

Awaken your senses and open your eyes
To the Quantum democrats telling you these lies

Elect the inbreeds
And form this biased alliance
That will tear your country apart
Reject the new blood
It’s not rocket science
Don’t deviate after you start

Hold your head up high
Pretend nothing’s wrong
Let the problem fester through the years
Cover up the truth
Protect us from ourselves
How long can you contain all our fears?

Don’t try to smother the lives that we lead
We need releasing from this Quantum democracy

Elect the inbreeds
And form this biased alliance
That will tear your country apart
Reject the new blood
It’s not rocket science
Don’t deviate after you start

Smoulder

I can't remember when I wrote this exactly, but I'm fairly sure it was around the time of my eighteenth birthday. It's a fairly simple song about a couple who clash so frequently that the reputation is in jeopardy because of it, but they choose to ignore their problems in the hope they'll disappear - not a situation I've ever been in, but I'd like to think that I nailed it pretty well. Again, I think the chorus is the strongest part of this, but I do like the whole thing.

The fuse is lit In yet another one of your twisted games
The sky turns red
As forty thousand hearts go up in flames
You say I did
I swear I didn't but I've got no proof
I sense your doubt
Refusing to believe I speak the truth

Right down to the wire
We've lost all our fire
We're spiralling out of control

We'll do what we've always done and let the problem smoulder
Put it on the backburner 'til it gets out of hand
I've lost all the fight I had and you've grown even colder
Burned away and stretched so thin I don't know where I stand

The embers glow
A hand comes out of nowhere, strikes my face
I know that I
Can't stay another minute in this place
I say that's it
My fingers touch the handle of the door
You scream goodbye
I not sure how I feel anymore

Right down to the wire
We've lost all our fire
We're spiralling out of control

We'll do what we've always done and let the problem smoulder
Put it on the backburner 'til it gets out of hand
I've lost all the fight I had and you've grown even colder
Burned away and stretched so thin I don't know where I stand anymore

A Waterfall

Hey look, I can write a happy song too! I wrote this in early 2008, just as my band's guitarist was picking up the piano and we started to delve into more mellow, summery sounds. I deliberately wrote this with a piano accompaniment in mind, and I love how lazy and summery the whole thing feels. The other piano-intended song I wrote, called 'Unwritten Love Song', was much better, but sadly the lyrics file is no longer in my archive. Still, this is pretty nice.

Songbirds' calls are carried on the early autumn breeze
Evening pulls the sun back down to set behind the trees
Meet me at our hideaway, bring some food and wine
I will think of better ways for us to pass the time

I, I can't get you out of my head
No I, I can't get you out of my head
Not tonight

Let me hold you in my arms and whisper in your ear
All life's sweetest nothings that you so deserve to hear
Tell me all that you believe and show me what it means
Let me listen to your voice and understand your dreams

I, I can't get you out of my head
No I, I won't let you out of my head
Not tonight

Now the sun is rising and there's colour in the sky
I will give you one last kiss before I say goodbye
You are like a waterfall cascading through my mind
Telling me the answers to the questions I can't find

I, I can't get you out of my head
No I, I won't let you out of my head
Not tonight

I just want to be here with you
I just want to lay next to you
I just have to be here with you
My little waterfall, cascading through my mind

The Wicker Man

This one will go down for me as the song that never was. I put my heart and soul into this bitter commentary on my ex-girlfriend's new-found love, and even went as far as to come up with a musical structure for it in the hope that my band would pick it up as a new song. Sadly, University commitments meant that we disbanded not long after I wrote this, so it never came to fruition. The "bridge" is actually slightly modified from an e-mail she sent me while we were still together. In that respect, it's probably just as well this didn't go anywhere - I would have had to give her a songwriting credit!

Open your eyes, look into mine
Tell me when you start to lose track of time
Dwelling on each of our memories as we fall through

Taste of your kiss, scent of your hair
Seeing a smile that I know isn't there
Something keeps telling me while I sit here missing you

You could be missing me too
Living the way that I do
One day to the next with nothing but hope to cling to
Hoping you're missing me too

You were the first, took hold so fast
Turned me to wicker, held flames to my heart
Never relenting as you tried to tighten the screw

Those days are gone, time moving on
I've found the meaning of life in a song
Now you fake happiness hiding behind someone new

But I know you're missing me too
Hard to confess to what's true
Carry on dear but it's not that hard to see through
I see you're missing me too

I love you, you know
Very much
You make me smile
I'm the single luckiest guy alive
I don't ever want you to cry
You mean the world to me and I don't know what I'd do without you
Don't ever forget it
We're meant to be together, and we'll stay together
I love you

Open your eyes, look into mine
Take me over, mend my heart now
Open your eyes, look into mine
Take me over, mend my heart now

If you were missing me too
You'd take back all you put me through
So cut out this cancer and exchange these black skies for blue
Tell me you're missing me too

Lore Finding

Probably the best song I've ever written. I wrote it about four years ago shortly after a very messy break-up with my then-girlfriend. This is also the only song of all these that exists in a recorded form. My band recorded some of our material in a friend's kitchen one afternoon, and this was a spur-of-the-moment last recording. I apologise for the terrible vocals, as I can't sing, but I really think it capture the fragility and hurt I was feeling at the time.

I'm sorting the past into two plastic bags
Attempting to rationalise
A lesson in love that is best left unsaid
A sting in the back of my eyes

I choke at the sight of a Valentine card
But time makes the notion seem strange
A bus journey taking me barely a mile
Never seemed so out of range

These items are trinkets, no value at all
Except what they're worth in my heart
This purge should be easy, a burden released
So why does it tear me apart?

It's funny how a bus ticket brings it all back
Discarded along with all the other memoirs
A sweet sentimental thought, it's you that I lack
Oh yeah

I lay in my bed with the stereo on
Calmed by familiar sounds
A thrown picture frame leaves a dent in the wall
The shattered glass kissing the ground

The photo inside was removed months ago
Torn up by tears and goodbyes
But your smiling face still stares back at me
Stinging the back of my eyes

It's funny how a picture frame brings it all back
Positioned face down, photo long since destroyed
A sweet sentimental thought, it's you that I lack
Oh yeah

Time is a healer, at least so they say
But there's not a cure for you, girl
Mementos are gone but the memories remain
There's not enough time in the world

It's funny how the little things bring it all back
Hearts lost in time and words confined to the past
A sweet sentimental thought, it's you that I lack
Oh yeah
Oh yeah

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So there you have it - some of my lyrical output from the last few years. I'm not professing that it's all amazing, but I'm proud of it at least. I'm currently toying with some concepts that I hope will inspire me to get back into writing lyrics, as it's something that I really miss doing. Thanks for reading, guys. I'll see you around.

Dan

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Currently playing - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (X360)