Death City Pool Hall. (Song a Month: February)

(If you don't already know about my Song a Month project, you can read all the previous posts here.)

Yes, I'm a little late with this one. But this song turned out to be a perfect example of why this project could be both a blessing and a curse. This song was 90% done for most of the month, I just couldn't get the words. Even they were largely done, but come February 29th they still weren't finished. So with the deadline now passed, I gave myself the weekend to tweak what I had and fill in the blanks. There's still a few parts I think could be improved, but on the other hand if I wasn't setting myself deadlines for these songs then this whole thing would still be sitting in the back of my mind somewhere, probably to never see the light of day. Instead I present it to you now as a song that overall I am actually pretty happy with.

Musically this song is very influenced by the fact that I recently bought both a Fender Jaguar and a Jazz bass. I was going for a Drones/Birthday Party type feel with this one and I don't think that would have been possible with any of my other guitars. I also wanted to get this one as close to 'live' as I could. Of course this is impossible when you're using programmed drums and only one person is playing every instrument. But I did record each instrument in one take from start to finish, so there's plenty of imperfections and rough bits. I was even rocking out by myself in the lounge room while playing to get the feel right. The lead guitar parts weren't even properly written when I did that take, I just had a general idea of how I wanted them to sound. This meant all the lyrics had to be finalised before I could start recording though, otherwise I couldn't know how many verses there would be or how long they should go for. The vocals turned out to be the hardest part to get for this one. One thing that became apparent is I need to develop a non-metal style of yelling/barking/sounding sinister. I don't know what my neighbours would have made of all the yelling either.

Lyrically this represents my first attempt to tell a fictional story in the lyrics. In this case a tale of death, sex and revenge. Heavily influenced by Nick Cave's 'Murder Ballads' album, and Murder by Death (anything off 'Who Will Survive and What Will be Left of Them?' or 'Red of Tooth and Claw' especially). The initial spark actually came from watching an episode of Skins, which is where I got the line "our eyes met over an eight ball". I remember reading an interview with Gareth Liddiard of The Drones once where he said that the trick with writing was to take an idea and just run with it. Use anything for inspiration and make your self write about it. I also knew that I wanted to end the song with the "She said 'I don't wanna see that look in your eyes'" part, which is something that popped into my head when I first came up with the riff, and that this would be a recurring motif. So from there it was a matter of figuring out what had happened to these people between meeting in a pool hall and her getting scared away. I started thinking along the lines of some epic character like that in MBD's 'Until Morale Improves, the Beatings Will Continue', or 'Ash', or 'Rumbrave' - outlaw, almost mythical characters who travel the land leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them. Of course the Pool Hall reference puts this tale more around the 1920's than the Old West, but that's more of a technicality really. I wanted it to be one of those stories that's not tied to any specific era. I also threw a Batman reference in there for good measure. Gotham City embodies that idea in some ways, a city outside of time where a classical style/feel and modern technology sit side-by-side. The line about "wine, women and song" is also based around this idea. I recently became aware of the fact that "Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll" is really just an updated version of this classic concept traceable back to at least the 10th Century. Death, Cards and Bad Ways are other vices that appear in some translations of the phrase, while the rest of the line refers to a 17th century poetical interpretation that "Who does not love wine, women and song / Remains a fool his whole life long." And as for leopards? I know they have spots, not lines, but lines just sounds much better, and technically a spot is a type of line. I could have used a tiger I guess, but again leopard sounds better, and they're smaller, stealthier animals which is the imagery I wanted.

I really wasn't sure what to call this one either. i thought about 'That Look in Your Eyes', but that kind of sounded like a love song. Then I thought 'Gotham City Pool Hall', but that sounds a bit gimmicky. So I've settled on 'Death City Pool Hall' for now, but this may change still. And that's pretty much all I have to say. Hope you enjoy it. If you're interested in the lyrics, I've put them below.

Death City Pool Hall.

The sound of death comes creeping inside
The absence of breath turned louder than life
Climbs every floor leaves no one behind
There's no reasoning with the force in these eyes..
Ask a leopard to change his lines, ask a devil to change his lies and he'll just walk on by
No time for remorse, as I silence the cries
Right down to the last, see his struggle for life
As I raised the knife to my head not a second thought entered my mind as I stared right into his eyes
"I've done this a thousand times and there aint no way that tonight'll be the one I leave you behind"

Our eyes met over an 8-ball late one night
Smoke in the air like the remnants of lives
Ghosts hung like the memories of the fire
That erased the town as I left it behind
Death, wine, women and song, cards, bad ways and I'm not gonna be a damn fool tonight.
She said "where you from I ain't seen you round before?"
I said "every city's the same I coulda been here ten years or more"
She said "if you've seen it all before then why you still standing here boy, with that goddamn look in your eye?"
I just laughed as she took my hand and said "boy don't you hang around here when you've got that look in your eye"

But death's not just a voice from the other side
Sometimes I guess revenge comes back to life
You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight
Then find him standing over your bed come dawn's first rise?
"Next time you're gonna finish me off you better make sure you finish the job, don't leave nobody behind"
Almost forgot, she took us both by surprise
I sure didn't count on her to save my life...
Bloody knuckles, white face, hollow eyes from the terror as a life fell down to the floor right in front of her eyes
Now she's smashing bottles, dancing in denial, screaming for life and the pain of that goddamn look in her eyes!

She said "I don't wanna see that look in your eyes"
She said "boy, I don't wanna see that look in your eyes"
She said "I don't ever wanna see you come around here boy, when you've got that look in your eyes"
Death's just death 'til you face it yourself and I can't take the ghosts that I see in that goddamn look in your eyes!"