Day 13: The Big Show (Song-a-day January)

 

Day 13: The Big Show
By Andy Ard and David Coile

Part of my daily songwriting project for January 2025

Lyrics:

Good evening folks, I hope you will enjoy the show
I’ll be performing until it’s time to go
The bar is open, won’t you make yourself at home
Whether you’re with friends or you've come alone

Now we’re together and you’re off the hook
Enjoy the moment, give the menu a look
You don’t need to pay attention to me
I want you to feel that you’re in the place to be

No matter what you do, it’s gonna be fine
Swaying in your chair or a Conga line
There’s no other place that you need to go
You’re in the front row of the big show

It’s always nice to see you, I’m glad that you’re here
Go see Katie at the bar if you’d like another beer
Give us a sign if you like the song
If you feel the rhythm maybe dance along

Your satisfaction is the only ticket price
If you dropped a fiver, that’d be oh so very nice
There’s no other place that you need to go
You’re in the front row of the big show

Thank you for listening, it means a lot
I’ll always give you everything I’ve got
I hope you’ve really had a ball
In our little concert hall

I must be going now, you’ve been so fine
I’d love to see you all again sometime
Of all the places that you could go
You came right here to the big show

And everything you do is gonna be fine
Swaying in your seat or in a Conga line
Remember, everywhere you go
You’re the star of the big show

***

Details:

I know Andy Ard through my friend John Bunzli. In fact, it was at a John Bunzli show that we talked about co-writing. When we got together, Andy had a lot of interesting stories and insights about performing, and one thing that came up in our conversation was how to gently prod the audience into giving you their full attention. That seemed like a fine topic for a song!

We also stumbled onto our mutual love of the Kinks. I'm most familiar with the Kinks' 60s releases, but Andy knows about their entire catalog. Anyway, the bouncy music hall feel of a Ray Davies penned tune played a role in musical direction we came up with.

We discussed extensively the basic construction of the song and what it was supposed to communicate, but the process mostly ended up being Andy writing the words and me working out the guitar part.

Andy wasn't able to hang around long enough to perform the song with me, and the melody is more in his key than mine-- if I performed it solo, I'd probably drop the key a bit. But whatever the case, this was a fun song that I can't imagine writing if it wasn't for Andy. I'm looking forward to working this one out as the year progresses.