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F... Sympathy (drum challenge competition non-entry)

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adamfarr:
Never a good time to post this, but selfishly I really want to get it off my chest.

I got really excited about the competition, wrote, played and mixed a song I was enthusiastic about. For a while I'd wanted to write a cancer song that was empathetic and defiant, addressing how unprepared everyone is (also hindered as I saw it by organised religion) and trying to get around some elephants in the room with some dark humour (which is the only way I can think of to cope - by the way I'm OK, this is not about me directly).

As competition day loomed, I started to question myself and decided that what I had done was in fact just naive and the dark humour was more at the expense of the people I was trying to empathise with. So I couldn't go ahead and had no time to rewrite.

I've had that time now and think it's OK to allow those that wish to to hear the rewritten version. I still don't entirely know whether I've crossed lines, but feel I can live with this version much better than the original.

Please feel free to skip over... Or approach on the basis that yes it may be provocative but is really intended to express my current personal way of coping... If you think I have made a mistake, then that's also fine, we shouldn't fall out over that. (Life's too short, right?)

Not posting in Finished Songs, or looking for musical feedback, because that's not really the point.

PaulAds:
Hi Adam

I like it. It's pretty uncompromising...but I don't think anyone could take offence. Unless they wanted to, of course...as some do. F F F F Fuck them, I say.

Songs are a great way of saying something that we'd otherwise perhaps not say out loud...and that's one of the reasons I love writing and listening.

We get very interesting and enjoyable unique and off-the-wall takes on all kinds of subjects here on the forum that the mainstream would undoubtedly filter out. That's perhaps the main attraction for me. I can get enough of the other stuff elsewhere.

I recently read a great article about the danger of self-censorship...and it made me even more determined to speak out about stuff I care about...the alternative being forced to conform to the insipid non-threatening unchallenged drivel we are often spoon-fed into thinking we ought to feel obliged to swallow.

We all have to deal with things in our own unique way...unless we are just sheep... otherwise, we might not actually be dealing with them at all.

I've had a couple of listens and I'm pleased I did.

Song of the month here you come  :)

pompeyjazz:
Absolutely F F F F Fantastic Adam. You've hit the proverbial nail on the head.

"Oh mate, so sorry to hear your "news".
Not as sorry as you will be..."

This is just so spot on.

There's a brilliant raw energy about this song. Picks you up by the feet and throws you round the room. Reminiscent of some of the stuff Swell Maps / Spizz Energy used to do.

A real shame you missed the comp as I'm sure this would have been a contender.

This is the sort of music I want to listen to

It's got something to say
It shakes you
It makes you think

Brilliant  :) :)

cowparsleyman:
I Dig it Adam, very good punk song... not offensive enough...cancer is a game changer even if you survive, you can still hear father time dragging his scythe...

As for being prepared im not sure, there’s a lot one can do to reduce the likelihood of it.

In one of my bands a long time, the lead singers bird had lukemia, and he wrote the sensitivity penned ‘down to your grave’ featuring the the funeral march lead gtr solo, she smiled every time she heard t, then she stopped coming to the practices....


Rich

adamfarr:
Thanks all. Possibly a sensible co-writer or just a sounding board could have got me through this the first time ;-)


I do still worry whether anyone in the situation would just think this is totally unrealistic and slightly exploitative. But I'd probably still want to make the same general points. Maybe freedom of expression does come with responsibility, but it shouldn't be watered down to try to please everyone.


Anyhow, time to move on - many thanks for the support, and glad to have this one set free into the wild.

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