Even Then

What if Wolverine decided to become a carpenter?

This is my superhero song from the last challenge. After finishing it before the deadline, I hated it. Now that I've subtracted/reversed some things, I'm liking it more.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by sleepy pete (9 comments total)

The words for this were actually taken from a series of poems I wrote based on superheroes many, many years ago (1999? Man, that's a millennium ago!) for a book I was thinking of writing. This was a prose poem I cut down to fit the beat.

Words:

Even Then

Once he felt that he could do anything, but that feeling to was fleeting. Someone told him, “Everyone knows that true superheroes are tortured loners. You can smell it on their breath a cross between tin foil and scotch.” And he stayed in bed for weeks then, wondering could they smell it on him. He had never heard wisdom, wisdom like that before. Wisdom that cut him away into ribbons, ribbons that fly on the wind, wisdom that could only be met with acceptance of disappointment and a bath and it was like a mother’s answer to his question, “Because, just because.”

When he finally left the house again, everyone he met told him the same thing in their own unique way, the same venomous slants and he was losing. Losing. Losing.

Once he pondered life as a carpenter, a noble profession indeed, indeed. Following in the footsteps of a savior, what else could one hope for? But he was confused by the hours and the seamlessly bitter discussions of life and he would look out from forming rooftops and feel minute against suburban sky.

The linear ploughs of pavement and lights and he was losing, losing. Small town strings of churches and Quick Stops, and he was losing, losing.

Once he thought that moments were all that made up his life with no continuum. Only an arrow-straight line, the way opera is controlled screaming. Only an arrow-straight line, the way opera is controlled screaming.



It's not really about Wolverine, but I had him in mind when writing it. That's me on drums (straight through) and bass with distortion/flange effect. Oh, and singing.
posted by sleepy pete at 10:17 PM on October 14, 2007

I was going to ask if the drums were sampled and then I read the last line.

You are a genius, sleepy pete. I can't understand how you manage to sing long bits of prose, but you definitely pull it off nicely.
posted by micayetoca at 7:13 PM on October 15, 2007

The drums rock.
posted by chococat at 7:31 PM on October 15, 2007

I love it. It especially helps for me that you had Wolverine in mind.
posted by Secretariat at 8:33 PM on October 15, 2007

I've been listening to this since you posted it and I'm really happy that you didn't force the deadline thing.

The drums rock. Yea, they do. There are a few people who's music here can really strike me on an emotional level, and this song is definitely one of 'em.
posted by snsranch at 2:19 PM on October 16, 2007

a cross between tin foil and scotch = fuck yeah
very nice
posted by es_de_bah at 9:39 PM on October 18, 2007

I think you've done some very cool things here. You've made the words fit the music, which is the opposite of what most people do, but when people do it with a kind of abandon, it can have a really clear, yet otherworldly feel to it, like hearing a kind folk tradition that you've never heard before. It has structure, but not what you are used to. Very fresh. Gary Numan does that a lot.

The drums are also notable. I like the sound of the loose heads and the faraway miking. The bass could be louder. The breaks are right on with the style of the song. And the very sparse use of the cymbal is great! Very nice!
posted by strangeguitars at 5:46 AM on October 25, 2007

Dude.

Just heard a bit of this on the podcast. Great work.
posted by cog_nate at 5:21 PM on October 26, 2007

Oh lordy, Sleepy Pete you rock! This is brilliant.

Slightly irritating and a bit creepy fandom here I come.
posted by freya_lamb at 10:14 AM on November 7, 2007