Oh Jamie, you so silly.
So when I was home in Phoenix for the weekend my sister and I went on a nostalgia trip, as we are wont to do, and spent an afternoon making fun of our younger selves. This is always awesome and terribly fruitful. While looking through my two filing cabinets of junk from high school and middle school I found some pretty awesome stuff, including plans for a derivative webcomic that I still might draw (with tongue firmly in cheek, by the way), a bunch of intensely shitty drawings, early attempts at comicking including the first strip I ever wrote, and a bunch of fairly terrible songs from freshman year of high school. With your indulgence, I present the songs that were to be sung by The Blind Penguins, a rapidly aborted project involving Allie and Jasmine, two of three people in my life that I've abruptly stopped talking to.
All modern commentary is in italics.
Imaginary Metaphor (I think this is the title. It's the refrain anyway.)
This was written either at the very end of middle school or the very beginning of high school, in a phase where I was writing about 11 poems/ songs/ stories a day about myself and how bizarre and unique I was. The tune, if I'm remembering it correctly, is eerily reminiscent of "Learn to Fly" by the Foo Fighters.
I can hear voices calling
come and play
don't interfere with my listening
stay away
I'm feeling stronger than my history of yesterdays
refrain:
oh, oh I'm cotton candy
oh, oh, I'm books I've read before
oh, oh, I'm drawing in school
I'm an imaginary metaphor
Listen to songs on the radio
I'm alive
Deep in my heart I'm a hero
I'll survive
This is my legacy so guard it well for a year or five
Oh, oh, I'm blackened windows
Oh, oh, I'm waiting at the door
oh, oh, I'm scattered stories
I'm an imaginary metaphor
I've never felt so healthy
Time spent has made me wealthy
Friendships are so sustaining
Was lost but I'm regaining
Oh, oh, I'm raindrops pounding
Oh, oh, I couldn't ask 4 more
Oh, oh, I'm swords and armor
I'm an imaginary metaphor
Oh, oh, I'm frozen mornings
Oh, oh, I don't like neither nor
Oh, oh, I live for winter
I'm an imaginary metaphor.
Little Black Book
I think I meant this to be some kind of bratty girl faux-punk anthem or something. I don't remember the tune very well, I just remember that, at the time, I was so fucking proud of myself for writing such a brilliant song. Note by the way that this is years before I even held hands with anyone, let alone dated. The underaged line is particularly awesome, since at the time this was written I couldn't have been more than 15.
Carson's in a casket
Jerry's in the grave
Little Johnny Jones is underaged
Phillip's 6 feet under
Steven's in a cage
All the guys I know are either dead or deranged
Refrain
sins and saints and
haunts and taints (WHAT?!)
and no one's left to comfort me
no one's left to comfort me
David is a stoner
Manny's in a thong
Julien's ok but not for long
Bob is in a straightjacket
Don is in the ground
All the guys I know, must be something going round
Refrain, guitar solo, first line again, refrain x2.
Untitled 1
I think this sounded like a Coheed and Cambria song (anybody remember them?) I wrote this in math class, which I know for certain because it's in my math notebook from sophomore year. Note how political, and like, socially concious I am. Fight the system, man, all this mass produced bullshit is like, choking me.
Hey hey welcome to yesterday
Baby carriage bomb gonna blow you away
take the afternoon off so come on, let's play
Skies dreaming of hypocrisy
mass production trash pours out of factories
Acid rain is falling on the land of the free
But you
you move me to tears
you (you you you you) <-----I'm assuming this is a chorus or something
You make me remember
Hey hey sign up to be blessed
a woman and a woman and it's effortless
can't help feeling that I must protest
But you
you know how to bend
you (you you you you)
you always accept
me.
Untitled 2
This one isn't actually as terrible as the others, although it's not exactly awesome either. It's also written in the same math class, presumably only a few days later based on where it is in the notebook. It sounds kind of like that song "Soak up the Sun" by Cheryl Crow, I think.
I am no hero baby
I am no shining star
I am no satellite to surround you
with the light of my heart
I've got these long cold fingers
They're stained with nicotine
I'll wrap my arms around you
if that's what you need
You turn until you fall but you don't see anything
I've never been an angel
I quit before I'm through
But if you want to try
I'll make an exception for you
You turn until you see me, swallowed up in blue
I'm softly blindly feeling 'til I encounter you.
Tune in next time, when I type up similarly shitty old poetry! I think I'm putting my entire high school career on livejournal!