first song of 2010!

Strangely the first one was a song by request. *wagwagwag* I love when that happens. My coworker Stephanie and her for-many-years best friend decided recently that they had to kick out their third roommate. Steph agonized about the decision, not wanting to be needlessly mean. But when the prospect of life without the obnoxious roommate really hit home, it made her giddy with relief. And after hearing about the situation I reassured her that she and her friend really seemed to be making the right decision. She told me not too long afterwards how the girl reacted to the news. It was so predictable and the girl's catchphrase so, well, catchy I said, "dude, I should so write a song about this." She said, "do it, do it! Oh, you should do a rap, that would be awesome!"

I'd done a rap once before, when we were sampling prepackaged refrigerated side dishes, which Steph had really gotten a kick out of. So I said okay, wrote this on the bus on the way home, and left it in her voicemail. (She liked it.) The chorus is sung, the rest is rap. You have to squish words here and there to make 'em fit the meter for the first two verses especially. I think this stress pattern is called a trochaic line: da DA, da DA, da-DA da-DA. XD


[help me change my ways]

it isn't fair it isn't fair
sometimes I washed my underwear
it's like you don't care how I feel
didn't know it was that big a deal
clean up my doggie's defecations
keep my voice down when I have relations
I got your voicemails and your texts
but this I just did not expect

help me, help me, help me change my ways
if you help, if you help, if you help me I can stay
I don't know no way, know no way
know no way to change

I really feel like staying here
bet I'll finish college in a year
while you girls stay behind like slobs
with a full class load and two crap jobs
my parents pay my room and board
which they're unemployed and can't afford
they give up so much to help me out
so what are you all so uptight about

help me, help me, help me change my ways
if you help, if you help, if you help me I can stay
I don't know no way, know no way
know no way to change

I really meant to do the dishes
why are you both being such bitches
say the mess I leave is giving you the creeps
and why not babysit my pets
I didn't ask, so you're upset
when I take off to spend a few days with my peeps
going to classes is for suckers
I spend all night with my lover
stop complaining that you need to get some rest
how's I supposed to know you meant
those stupid little notes you sent
you can't be serious, this has to be a test

don't give me thirty days
to find another place
learn what I've never known
how to make it on my own

help me help me change my ways
I know no way, say no no way
help me help me change my ways
slow it down to meet my pace
help me help me help me help
I won't lift a finger myself
so help me
change my ways



Ach, I have to leave for work now. Either this afternoon if I have time to hit up my local library, or tonight when I get home, I'll post up the song I wrote day before yesterday. Which is a more typical-for-me melodic urban nature poetry type thing. :)