Danny Says

December 2, 2008 9:05 AM

Another in my series of autobiographical songs based on my experiences in Los Angeles in the early 90s, this one based on a fellow I used to do some writing projects with. Every line of this song is true.

This is obviously, essentially, a Lou Reed song -- I styled it after "Stephanie Says," but the lyrics and melody are all mine.

"DANNY SAYS" LYRICS:

Danny says
Over a burger and chips
Sometimes just looking down Hollywood
It's like the apocalypse
And Danny says
That on Yucca and Vine
He saw a man with a full-sized cross
Beneath the Hollywood sign

Danny says
This is the month he goes broke
He's spent his entire trust fund
On rent, clothes, and coke
And Danny says
That he spilled some cocaine
And while he was crawling on his knees
A cockroach called out his name

Danny says
His play was almost done
And then he threw it in the trash
Like he'd never begun
And Danny says
That he just had a dream
That his grandpa cut his throat
Because of a Ponzi scheme

Danny says
We should settle on Mars
No need to live in someone else's past
The future would be ours
And Danny says
He may go for a swim
Just take a drive out to the coast
Strip off his clothes and dive in

posted by Astro Zombie (3 comments total)

Nice simple song, this Danny guy seems like he's got some issues to work out.
posted by BrnP84 at 10:13 PM on December 2, 2008


Do you busk? I bet you'd be an awesome busker.

Man, I like that vibrato in your voice.

This sounds really Leonard Cohen-esque to me.

The sparseness -- the deadpan straightforwardness -- I think really adds to the weird sort of unhinged despair of Danny's life in a way that a fuller arrangement might seem too...melodramatic? Anyway, it's really cool.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 4:11 AM on December 3, 2008


Pretty much seconding what Karlos wrote. Great match of instrumentation / delivery to content.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 2:52 PM on December 3, 2008


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