Over at Songcrafters.org, we’re having a Punkfest this month, so I thought I’d dig up an old one that I’ve never recorded. I wrote this in 1998, and tweaked it a little last week.
Play or Download “The Bitch Who Ruined My Life (original song)” on SoundCloud >>
It’s a punk song that requires life experience and maturity in order to interpret it correctly.
Or maybe not.
My stepson caught me working on this, and I figured it was better to explain it to him than to let him assume what this song was about. My explanation went something like, “This is about a guy who’s struggling with the temptation to place all the blame on someone else, rather than take partial responsibility for what went wrong.”
That was easy enough. Maybe I can turn it into a children’s book. Calling William Bennet…
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk (CC BY-NC 2.0)
2 comments
Ted
May 18, 2010 at 4:25 amI have a t-shirt with the iconic picture of Che Guevara, and underneath the picture it says "This T-Shirt Brought To You By Capitalism."
I think this song is like that shirt. Most people will judge it by the initial impact, and not bother to read the caption–and the caption is the point.
I am more influenced by the first wave of punk. When I started recording the guitar, I had a really cool country sound coming from my Telecaster. I almost decided to stick with that. But in my head, I think I was hearing more of a Dookie-era Green Day guitar tone. So you're right on both counts.
Anonymous
May 18, 2010 at 3:40 amIt strikes me that you are probably more interetsed in the original 70's punk, yet this record sounds a lot like the wave of 90's punk pop that hit when I was in my twenties. Interesting…
Melodic & good, crunchy guitar tones.
Your stepson walked in – too funny! Got some explaining to do. 🙂
There was a great local punk-ish band in Bloomington/Normal called the Something Brothers back when I was in college. This reminded me of them. I should go see if I can dig up anything on them.
Nice job! Talk soon!