Resistor - Vincent van Gogh

June 13, 2012 6:52 PM

A homemade synthpop tune about the myth of the meritocracy and the pain of being an artist without an audience, like something Stephin Merritt could've come up with on a dreary evening in an alternate universe where The Magnetic Fields never got popular.

I'm fast getting fed up with failing at fame
it's been ten years and no one knows my name
I'm sick of the boring undignified slog
Hoping to see my name on some dumb blog
I'm tired of toiling in obscurity
that fate's just not fit for a genius like me
But maybe I'll make it big after I've died
I can't write it off til I give it a try

I think of the others now loved and well-known
who came to their ends destitute and alone
and after they checked out their fame only grew
proving that death is a wise career move
I'd like to be lauded posthumously
and make you all sorry for not listening to me
It worked for Nick Drake and for Edgar A. Poe,
Franz Schubert, John Toole, and Vincent van Gogh

I always heard
"If you build it they'll come"
but if that doesn't work
you can always try dying young

And every reviewer and critic will rave
after I'm laid into my early grave
I'll finally have the acclaim I deserve
and I will be grinning 'neath six feet of earth
Cause if I just vanish to sleep with the fish
I could be on a year-end top ten list
Though it would be fun to enjoy my renown
at least I'll look good when I'm put in the ground

posted by ludwig_van (4 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

Very listen-worthy.
posted by Isadorady at 4:52 PM on June 14, 2012


After another killer shift in the kitchen, I come home and listen to this and it makes me laugh (not shure if that was your intention but thanks anyway!)

Loved it mate! sounded a bit like a Madrigal (? olde englshe type song) and the chorus is fantastic. Also great sounds you got going on all through the song.
posted by marienbad at 5:29 PM on June 14, 2012


Thanks marienbad. I think it's funny, too, but my mother was quite concerned.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:46 PM on June 14, 2012


Love it. (Which probably says something about me, but whatever.)

Particularly a fan of the bassline during the chorus (e.g. at 1'41") for reasons I can't quite pin down.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:57 AM on June 25, 2012


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