Comments on: Woe Is Me

Woe Is Me

Astro Zombie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:02:09 -0800

Part of my quickly growing Old Songs collection, in which I record songs I wrote many years and even decades ago. This is a somewhat scandalous song about unrequited love.

There isn't much of a story to this. All the songs I wrote at this time seemed to be based on sprightly ukulele parts and salacious lyrics. I guess it was just the mood I was in for that year. I was back in Minneapolis, writing theater reviews for City Pages, studying improv comedy at a local school, and generally getting myself into trouble, and it must have just had me feeling a little puckish. I still feel that way. Yes, I'm aware that the name in the first verse rather sounds like James Lileks. I don't recall if that was deliberate or not. If so, well, sorry, Lileks. Sometimes you just wind up being a character in a naughty ditty, and that's just how it is. There are some lyrics you'll hear in the song, at the end of each set of verses, that are not in the printed lyrics. I make these up on the spot. "WOE IS ME" LYRICS: Alas, alack Mr. James Lillack He loved a girl She didn't love him back He took her for a ride On a river ferry He tried to make her But she made merry For shame too bad Dr. Steven Ladd He chased a filly Who drove him mad He took her out To a movie show Who she left with He still don't know A pity, tough luck Young Allan Ruck There was a salesgirl He wanted to wed He parked his car At lovers lane And watched from afar As she did the same Too much, the end For me my friend I wooed a cutie And my heart won't mend I offered to be Her only boy I jumped for her But she jumped for joy

By: Pallas Athena

Pallas Athena — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:21:16 -0800

OK, Zombie. I'm at my friend's house, it's the eve of her departure for the gaming comvention Origins; I've spent all evening cutting out 84 medium-size cardboard circles while she's been building an elaborate headdress whose contents are secret but awesome.

So to keep from going INFUCKINGSANE we put Mefi Music on to stream, and I have to say that your Old Songs project is a major part of why we haven't yet become serial killers. In between scissor tendonitis and hot glue burns, we've been giggling over this one, making "awww" noises at Serenade the Moon and really admiring the bitter, Brechtian vibe of The Beggar's Song. It's 1AM, I can't feel my thumb and all that stands between us and madness is your Great Long Strumming Thing. Sing, o Astro Zombie, sing till the moon sets. That is all.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:55:55 -0800

Thank you for that comment. It is one of the loveliest I have ever received.

By: Pallas Athena

Pallas Athena — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:31:57 -0800

Heh.. it was a pretty crazed evening. But the comment remains true.