25. six day war

here is the song i said i would work on so far. i don't really like the title and i don't know if its a problem that the motifs of "one hundred and eighty two days" and "six day war" kind of clash. it probably is.

i didn't start out intend to write about my travel anxieties but of course these things have a way of rearing their heads once you begin to offload words, and at first i couldn't work out whether i was writing about my desire to leave perth and see something wonderful, which seemed to cheapen my life in perth and the people i love here, or if i was writing about my travel anxieties and desire to be safe and smothered by the people i love, which seemed to cheapen the whole "travel" thing that i am spending a whole lot of money/time/energy on.

and then i realised that it was completely okay to write about both, probably more interesting, really, and indeed it was completely okay to feel both things. and then i felt better about what i was writing and better about what i was doing! songwriting as therapy, man!

when i was learning to play guitar i took a bunch of book out of the state library, and they had quite a comprehensive selection of bluegrass/country/folk/americana books that were suitable for the beginning guitarist, lots of woody guthrie and pete seeger, so i wound up with a headful of old-timer fingerpicking techniques and silly countrified lyrical idioms (eg. "well i got no money but i got my honey..." what the fuck?). now almost anything i write seems to employ them, which i don't really mind, but it would be nice if i were a bit better at writing songs that don't sound make me sound like a woody guthrie wannabe (although i suppose it worked for bob dylan).

i always have great difficulty jumping between literal and symbolic/abstract songwriting. i can never decide which is preferable and which i am more adept at, and consequently i tend to jump uncomfortably between the two. i'm not sure how to rectify this at the moment, except to keep consciously working on it, i guess.

verses 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8 have one tune. verses 3, 6 and 7 have another one (so "christian audigier" ought to rhyme with "day," sort of, not "hair").

the verse with the spanish is so completely silly and probably nonsensical.

anyway this is a whole lotta talking and a whole lotta nothing.

25. six day war
i skip left of the boy with the slippery grin
and i slip to the right of his cheshire twin
cause i can't quite look at the stretch of his skin
anymore, anymore, anymore

and it looks like i'm gonna run late for my plane
and in sydney i'm likely to do it again
leaving boxes of paper and pockets of pain
and the shreds of the last six day war

there's a prince over there with a crown in his hair
that says, von dutch by christian audigier
but i don't really mind 'cause i'll leave him behind
for a hundred and eighty two days

i rather suspect i'll consider instead
the most gorgeous and erudite man in my head
and i'll entertain thoughts of him lying in bed
and the day that i'll see him again

he'll call me and tell me, 'hello, esposito'
i'm write him from rio and lima and quito
to say, 'macchu piccu es muy bonito
y tu mama es bonita tambien'

well i got no money but i got my honey sitting
eight thousand miles away
and it doesn't feel grand but i'll be holding his hand
in a hundred and eighty two days

well i'll be alright once i've boarded my flight
cause every six day war's gonna end
and i'll get no lovin' but it's better than nothin'
to have a stack of lovin' letters to send

oh, there's a man over there in a mackinaw coat
who sailed out to sea in an old yellow boat
caught a fish in his fingers and a frog in his throat
and he croaked 'til he washed up ashore