Wait What? ST23 R1

[BoffoYux]

Ominous Ride - Telephone

I chose to write a song about kids playing the telephone game - it slowly developed into a coming-of-age metaphor depicting how hard it can be to grow up, leaving behind the simplicity of childhood, often succumbing to negative influences in order to fit in, while not "hearing" the support that parents often give them. As a father, I think this song really dug into my subconscious, depicting the concerns I've had about my own son growing up, and how I hope he will always hear me.

The lyrics were tricky, trying to come up with changing messages while maintaining rhymes and rhythms from the previous lines. Not always spot on, but I think it works. Naming all the kids sometimes felt a little like Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill."

The music seems a little Christian rock-y, but I think it emotes effectively enough.

**FULL DISCLOSURE** I did not have access to my equipment for this round, so I confess, I had to turn to A.I. in order to have something to submit. Anyone with a good ear will probably pick it up right away.

The lyrics are 100% my own, and I sampled my voice and general melody to the robots, who created the music and vocals (which is not exactly what I envisioned, but close enough). I did have to do a fair amount of editing to iron out some glitchy parts (especially in the beginning).

Admittedly, this is better than what I could have done, and I wholeheartedly accept any criticism and disqualification, as I suspect it is against the rules to use A.I.

I don't plan on using A.I. for SpinTunes in the future, but I'm ultimately glad that my lyrics and message can be heard and hopefully appreciated on one level or another.

Billy whispers to Emma
"It's a sunny day"
Emma leans to David
"It's so fun to play."
David turns to Farrah
"I've begun to stray"
Farrah whispers to Jackie
"I want to run away."

Jackie turns to Lena
“I wonder what I’ll wear”
Lena whispers to Martin
“How will I cut my hair?”
Martin leans to Trisha
“Now I can show my age”
Trisha turns to Devon
“Why am I so afraid?”

Sitting in a circle
Playing telephone
whispering to each other
Not seeing what will come
We can hope that they listen
We can whisper in their ear
But life’s like a telephone
And the line ain’t always clear

Devon leans to Willow,
Says, "Wine has no effect”
Willow whispers to Philip
"Time ain’t over yet”
Philip turns to Sarah
Says, "Signs of yesterday"
And Sarah last announces that
"The sun has gone away”

Sitting in a circle
Playing telephone
whispering to each other
Not seeing what will come
We can hope that they listen
We can whisper in their ear
But life is like a telephone
And the line ain’t always clear

[BoffoYux]

Night Sky - Bummer, Lamb

Dibbo was a lamb who was rejected by her mother and raised with a collie puppy. All of the cues of everyone around her miscommunicated to her that she was a dog. This is the (true) story of her living with this misunderstanding and the ultimate identity crisis that resulted.

Dibbo was a bummer lamb,
The tiny one, the third of three.
Since her mama drew the line at two,
She came home with me.
Megan was a collie pup,
A little blur of black and tan.
She didn’t mind her new littermate,
Was a spindly little lamb.

Chorus
They grew up side by side,
Both chasing the balls we threw.
Megan always caught them all,
But Dibbo’s spirit didn’t fall.

One day Dibbo saw a sheep,
It scared her half to death.
She didn’t know quite what it was,
Or what it even meant.
She ran right back to Megan’s side,
As she was digging in the dirt.
Dibbo lay down close beside,
To calm her troubled heart.

Chorus
They grew up side by side,
Both chasing the balls we threw.
Megan always caught them all,
But Dibbo’s spirit didn’t fall.

Bridge
Everything that Dibbo knew,
Everything she saw or heard,
Taught her she was just like Megan,
To her it was not absurd.
A dog’s life she understood,
Every cue propped up the lie,
And so she lived in Megan’s world,
Believing she was right.

But one day Megan found her pack,
With dogs that shared her kind.
Dibbo tried to follow,
But she was left behind.

She opened up her mouth to bark,
But what came was a bleat.
And in that moment, Dibbo knew,
She wasn’t what she'd seemed.
Left behind and feeling lost,
Dibbo felt the ache inside,
The truth that she was different,
No longer she could hide.

Chorus
They grew up side by side,
Both chasing the balls we threw.
Megan always caught them all,
But Dibbo’s spirit didn’t fall.

[BoffoYux]

Menage a Tune - Miss Communication

You asked me for eggs, pickled eggs, pickled eggs
But I never made them before
You told me it’s easy, boil the eggs, boil the eggs
Then place in a jar full of vinegar.
But
You never said peel the eggs, peel the eggs
You never said that to me
So please don’t complain when the eggs still have shells
Because I only do what you tell me

Just call me Miss Communication!
I’ll do just what you tell me to
I’ll stick to your rules with dedication
I’m a literalist it is true.

The 1st Sgt told me go to stores, go to stores
And pick up some paint for his office
I asked him what color did he want, did he want
And he told me whatever they had…
But
When he saw his office, painted pink, painted pink
With neon pink trim he was not happy
And so the next weekend I was painting again
A color he had carefully told me

Just call me Miss Communication!
I’ll do just what you tell me to
I’ll stick to your rules with dedication
I’m a literalist it is true

[BoffoYux]

▷ - I Had A Friend Once Their Name Was 夢Мечта

Well. Thats a start isnt it?

I've been really into dreams recently, especially representing them through different media like games n all that. I've even been messing around with "dream music" a lot recently... So its honestly not that surprising that one of the first thoughts i had seeing the challenge was to make it dream related. However, unlike my previous attempts to bring dream music into Spintunes, i decided to make it a little more realistic instead of just straight up dreaminess delivered right to your ears.

Track uses 5/4 and 10/4. It also has a subtle microtonal shift for the drops.

"
Every Day, Crow would visit Ravensbarrow Bridge, sitting on a park bench under a tree. They'd play the kalimba for a while before moving on, returning to their home.

One day, they met a stranger with an even stranger name, who also had a kalimba. The two of them played songs for who knows how long, telling jokes and looking up at the stars as the moon drowned the world in gloom.

After a while of chatting the stranger got up, but before they left, Crow asked for their name... "Yumemechta." The stranger then walked away... and then a different stranger came by... "Nice music! but... who were you talking to?"

Crow woke up near Ravensbarrow Bridge, laying on a park bench under a tree. They turned to a stranger that was next to them and asked if they know someone named "Yumemechta".

Crow was talking to no one.
"

[INTRO]
im looking for a friend
their name is 夢мечта
we sat on a park bench
they had their own kalimba

[STEVE 1]
we played our little songs
talking about our dreams
staring at the stars
hoping i wasnt just dreaming

[DROP 1]
i woke up one day and you were gone
they say im crazy but i hear you're song

the music stopped and then you were gone
they say im crazy but ill play my song for you

[STEVE 2]
they told me some strange things
have you ever dreamed here?
the sky looks pretty dreamy
might be fun to dream here all alone...

[PREDROP]
did you really say those things?
is it true you're just a dream?
how can i know if you're real?

[DROP 2]
your shadows moving all on its own
i started searching but im all alone

if i was dreaming, would you be there?
im looking for a friend, their name is 夢мечта

[BoffoYux]

Sober - All Bottled Up

For someone who talks for a living, I sure have a hard time communicating with the people I love. The lyrics lay everything out pretty plainly.
The pedal steel is new, and it was a blast figuring out how to play/arrange/mix.

I don’t get mean when I’ve had too much
Only get stupid and more out of touch
And it’s slow coming back down
I can’t figure why the hell you stick around

Now I’ve had some nerve in the past to claim
I’m introspective like the therapists say
And it breaks my heart to see
You take my silent stupor for apathy

I’m all bottled up with a cork and wax seal
Don’t misunderstand me I can’t say what I feel

When I’m sober I’d tell you, but for cowardice
Then I start drinkin, too much I confess
It’s a shame that these things carry weight
The heart is willing but can’t articulate

[BoffoYux]

Governing Dynamics - Last Light of Wednesday

The narrator's first verse (and misunderstanding) is hearing a tornado siren and thinking it's coming to destroy the bridge he lives under only to realize it's only a test of the system that's coinciding with a rainstorm.
The second verse/misunderstanding (although really, he's not fooling himself) is that someone might be coming to help rather than evict.

A couple of other notes:
The "Alley" he mentions living in is not a conflict with living under a bridge, in refers to Tornado Alley (which Google can explain faster than I can).

Note for those who aren't up on their Tornado Lore: they often make a sound like a train coming down a rail before they're visible.

When you live in the Alley
You gotta keep a weather eye
And an ear for that train
That would chew up the sky

You dream up sad stories
Of how this world ends
And one day is good as next

When the sirens are singing
Doom for this old bridge
And I think "not a moment too soon
I'm down to my last light
And these devils love to steal"
I remember it's Wednesday
And the storm's not even real

The cracks keep on growing
In the steel and concrete
And the suits at the council
Cry spreading disease

Recalling the history
Of charity and hate
You pray the right side will show up

When the sirens are screaming
And there's boots on the ground
It was only a matter of time
They'll herd us to the highway
And right to our graves
They're as certain as Wednesday
And not here to save

I figured it out, why I make you so nervous
An unspoken truth, but you know that it's true:
You're a few bad breaks from being me
I'm a miracle or two from you

When the sirens are singing
Doom for this old bridge
And I think not a moment too soon
I'm down to my last light
What it's worth I can't say
I surrender to Wednesday
Let it take me away

I surrender to Wednesday
Let it take me way

Take me away

[BoffoYux]

Flintsteel - tell me why

hope you all like 80's power ballads

somehow
i had always known
everything i seek
would be mine

glorybound
i have trained
ive grown
with the knowledge
that my rights divine

waiting
for my time to come
hating
those who rise before me
aging
ive become so numb
praying
for the day that i get my devotees

cause im
down on my luck
scream to the sky
dont give a fuck
why has the world passed me by?

tell me why
why am i to blame
its destiny
i've been failed by fate
if i fall
that's my lot in life
nothing left but a fading ember
fires gone
and with it goes the light

and now
i can look back and see
nothing that i valued
was worth the time

seeking fame brought only misery
entitlement and ego my decline

failing can rack your focus
breaking cycles causing me despair
wailing a magnum opus
stating art, not money, is the only thing i care for

im breaking the chains
shackled no more
trying to change
picking myself off the floor

tell me why
why i felt this way
destiny?
i can make my fate
if i fall
know at least i tried
when nothings left but a fading ember
find the spark
and set the flame alight

[BoffoYux]

Profestriga - Carving Nature At It’s Joints

Carving nature at its joints is a term that’s used extensively in philosophy to describe distinctions that we make in language—a distinction is said to carve nature at its joints if it describes a distinction that exists in the real world, rather than one that humans have made up (a so called socially constructed distinction). Over the past few decades, a major question both in philosophy and pop culture is the nature of sex and gender, especially regarding we transgender folks. Much of that trans discourse argues about whether sex, gender, neither, or both are “real,” in what sense they are real, and how that exists in nature.

This track criticizes three different views in the discourse as being critical misunderstandings. The first two thirds of the song target different strains of trans-exclusionary feminism. The first verse and chorus criticize the Butlerian view that both sex and gender are social constructs, which don’t reflect nature. Many people, attempting to be allies to trans folk, argue that because sex isn’t real, us trans folk shouldn’t experience dysphoria, because there are no masculine or feminine bodies: sex isn’t real. This ignores the our real struggles, and misunderstands the gravity that social constructs can have. The second verse and chorus, conversely, criticize the view that gender isn’t real, but sex is. This is the view taken on by TERFs and other anti-trans pundits. They argue that because sex exists, but gender is a woke or anti-feminist conceit, sex exclusively defines men and women in terms of physical sex characteristics. Such pundits both fail to understand that actual biology at hand, and, like those criticized in the first verse, the gravity that non-natural properties can have. Finally, verse three levels a criticism at certain trans activists themselves. A common response to persons such as those in the first two groups is to argue that only trans folk can understand what it means to be trans, a claim called first-personal authority. While this is a good general principle, many in the community misunderstand the significance thereof. Many that learn of the concept mistakenly believe that it means that their own first personal experiences of being trans inform them of what the trans experience is like for everyone, not understanding that it provides them with neither this universality, irreproachability, nor freedom from research into biology, sociology, and philosophy if they wish to understand the trans experience tout court.

(We) live in bodies marked by features that are definitely real—
Built of melanin, and shapes of bone and bits of flesh
And the rest. Really what’s revealing aren’t the shapes at all,
But where we draw the lines, what we call natural.
We turn chains of cells and proteins into sex and race,
Then we wonder if these categories have a real basis—
Whether they reflect the real or just what’s in our heads—
If they reflect the truth of nature and if no what we’d use instead but

What does it matter it’s real to me! I know what’s in the mirror and what I see.
You think you’re tearing down the patriarchy
But I fucking know what I feel—the sex of this body.
Sex could be a social construct; wouldn’t change a thing.
I would still see my hairline and want to bleed.
Testosterone’s scars fill me with a need to scream,
Along with the terror of just being seen.
So don’t bring this bullshit and try to feed it to me;
I feel my own biology as reality.

What is real is a bullshit excuse query that you use
To run away from the most unfortunate truth
Viz. you’re a fucking bigot whose claims are only fueled
By evil intuitions over which you paste your ruse.
You argue post hoc to justify your hate; you beg the state
Legislate your mistakes. Go back whence you came;
I back up my claims with seven decades
Of data they show that come what may

It doesn’t matter it’s real to me.
I know what’s in the mirror and what I see.
You think you’re tearing down the patriarchy
But I fucking know what I am, neither he nor she.
Gender as a social construct wouldn’t change a thing.
A mass of flesh between my legs is not defining.
Nor are the hormones that are surging through me,
Breaking apart my mind and body.
So don’t bring this bullshit and try to feed it to me
I feel my own being as reality.

Carving nature at it’s joints
Is not the fucking point no!
Carving nature at it’s joints
Is not the fucking point no!

It doesn’t matter what’s real to me;
Lived experience is only one thing.
You think you’re tearing down the patriarchy
But you’ve never read a single fucking word of theory.
Sure the theorists aren’t perfect; doesn’t change a thing.
N of one is all that each one of us can bring.
Only as a group can we understand what it means
For all of us as a group to really be seen,
So don’t bring this bullshit and try to feed it to me
Your reality is not all our reality.

[BoffoYux]

Celestial Drift - Have You Gone Mental?

This song is 100% autobiographical, and all these years later I'm still unsure how to feel about it.

Get in the Toyota, let's go for a drive
Down to North Carolina
Got a pistol in the glove box on the left side just in case my brother finds us
Staying in the hotel on the other side of town telling me have to hide
While you're puffing on a cigarette and pacing around trying to quell the panic inside

Have you gone crazy?
Have you gone insane?
With the paranoia whirling round your brain?
Have you gone mental?
Or have you gone weird?
When I ask you for an explanation,
It's like you cannot hear

Well I wanna see the man who showed me guitar and put music in my head
But you told me settle down cause if he catches us around you kindly reckon that he'd shoot us both dead
Later that night I lay in bed and tried trying to reckon what's going on
If you'd just tell me the truth, then maybe I could figure out
Just where the hell my family has gone

Well have you gone crazy?
Have you gone insane?
With the paranoia messing up your brain
I wanna go back home, back to Tennessee
Cause the way you're answering my questions don't make sense to me.

Well I thought you'd gone crazy
I thought you'd gone insane
Till the day a decade on when you explained
How is an omission different from a lie?
Well I'm glad you fuckin filled me in
Before the day you died
(Before the day you died)

[BoffoYux]

The Alleviators - If Only

VERSE 1:
[Beka]
And if she had the words
She wouldn't stay them still
She'd try to play it cool
Thinks it's a better deal

[Travis]
And if he wanted her
He wouldn't make a move
It's so much easier to play
When you can afford to lose

CHORUS:
[Both]
And it's a shame
The stars are aligned
You can't write shit like this
Closest they've ever been
Stuck in their own way
Forever they'll wait for
The other to break
Saying “If they loved me they'd-”

VERSE:
[Beka]
Stay
But if he stuck around
She'd only run away
So he could never let her down

[Travis]
And if he read the signs
He’d still lose the plot
Still fumble the lines
Misalign the shot

CHORUS:
[Both]
And it's a shame
The stars are aligned
You can't write shit like this
Closest they've ever been
But it’s in vain
Forever they'll wait for
The other to break
Saying “If they loved me they'd-”

BRIDGE:
[Both]
Stop playing games
Give it a name
Think I feel the same, but I can’t be sure
Give me a sign
I can’t read your mind
If you say that you’re mine, I know I’d be yours
We could make this work
But I won’t get hurt

So you jump first

OUTRO:
[Both]
It’s a shame
It’s a goddamn shame
Forever they’ll wait for
Some twisting of fate
Saying “If they loved me they’d say”

[BoffoYux]

Boffo Yux Dudes - Kiss My Wife Goodbye

Stanislav Petrov was a Russian lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident. He chose to not verify that the United States had launched 5 ICBMs at his country.

Petrov did not report the incoming strike. He and others on his staff concluded that what they were seeing was a false alarm. And it was; the system mistook the sun’s reflection off clouds for a missile.

We went with the germ of this idea and that he retired early to care of his wife who was diagnosed with cancer. Just a guy doing his job and not being pressured into making a bad call. By doing that, he saved the word while sitting at his desk.

I kiss my wife goodbye and head to work
I'll see her when the day is done
The skies are cold and damp but I don't mind
I know that things will be fine.

I’m sitting here watching the skies roll by
In a most peculiar way
I’m sitting here watching the lights flash by
I hope I’ll live to watch another day

I take my chair and check the logs
Ghosts appear from somewhere deep within the fog
Patterns emerge all up and down the line
And I hope things will be fine.

There's some turbulence down there
From corporals to generals, panic fills the air
A chatter's running up and down the line
I know that things aren’t fine.

I’m sitting here watching the skies roll by
In a most peculiar way
I’m sitting here watching the lights flash by
I hope I’ll live to watch another day

Bridge:
Today I had to make a choice
Today I had to use my voice
I'm not rushin' what I say
And I know that things will be

I kiss my wife hello when I get home
I’m so glad this day is done
The night skies are cold but I don't mind
I know that things are fine.

I’m sitting here watching the skies roll by
In a most peculiar way
I’m sitting here watching the lights flash by
I hope we’ll live to watch another day