by David Coile
Part of my daily songwriting project for January 2025.
Lyrics:
Don't talk to strangers
They all want to be left unknown
Don't talk to strangers
Just let them be on their own
They'll only put you down
Say they don't want you around
Chase you to the other side of town
So don't talk to strangers
You're better off alone
Don't ask your neighbors
For any kind of help
Don't ask your neighbors
You can do it all by yourself
They don't have what you seek
They'll only think that you are weak
You'll only invite their critique
So don't ask your neighbors
Just keep the mystique
Don't ask for favors
From family or friends
Don't ask for favors
You don't want to bother them
They may think you're a fool
Or maybe be too busy to
Or maybe they've become a stranger, too
But if you don't talk to strangers
The stranger is you
***
Details:
I'll admit, I haven't felt terribly inspired so far this month. I feel like I'm getting by on craftsmanship alone.
This was a self-consciously old-fashioned tune; very much in the vein of message songs from the 60s. Structurally it's pretty, but nothing that hasn't been done many times before. The only thing I'm kind of jazzed about is the key change for the 3rd verse. That's something they used to do all the time with older pop songs; it was a great way to avoid having to write a bridge. I haven't done that too much, so it was fun to give it a try.
I came up with the chord progression first, and struggled to come up with a topic for the song. I finally landed on a pseudo-critique of bubble culture-- originally I was going to have a verse about having our noses stuck in our phones, but that felt like too much. Then it evolved into, I guess, a commentary on my departed housemate-- I'm still upset that she didn't tell me or just about any of her close friends that she had cancer.
Right now, I don't really like this song, but it's a song nevertheless. I'm still batting a thousand for this year's Song-a-day January...
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