It's just me and my (Empire Of One prefight)

[Lunkhead]

Empire Of One
Due: Thursday, 12/04/25 9:59am PDT
Optional challenge: Use a reverse cymbal sound effect
Email a file named yourbandname_eoo.mp3 to fightmaster@songfight.org
File name instructions: https://www.songfight.org/faq.html#file_name
Subject: Empire Of One
Body: (your band name)

[Aciniform Artifice]

I see this has been referenced already in a discussion about art for a previous fight, but that was almost 15 years ago so I'll bring it up again.

This would be a perfect occasion to use one of the images of Jon Eric as "the last brick in an empire of bricks" (one of the challenges from Blue [R.I.P.!]'s Songfight Survivor side fight), if any of those images still existed.

That side fight would have been over 21 years ago now, that's nuts! It was during the pre-PHPBB era, so before September 2004, but shortly after the "So Kind Stacey" which was May 2004, since the prompt "last brick in an empire of bricks" was Blue's dig at the lyrics of Silent E's submission to that fight. ("Another brick to build the empire" was the line from the song's chorus, written by Niveous who I've always thought of as one of SF!'s better writers, but I can specifically remember Blue going on about an empire made out of bricks.)

The image I had submitted was some random biblical scene made of legos, of people and animals drowning during the Noachian flood, which I found on the web and then photoshopped Jon Eric's face onto one of the drowning people. I would totally submit that for "Empire of One" cover art, if I still had it.

[drproximo]

Now that I've uploaded my song and submitted the lyrics, I wanted to explain a lyrical twist; the last line of the last verse uses the phrase "should have been quicker on the drop". It's obviously a riff on "quicker on the draw". Instead of saying that one should have done something sooner, my iteration is saying that we should have "dropped" it earlier, as in we should have realized that the relationship was over long before it actually ended. I was conflicted as to whether or not I should bother explaining this because I don't want to underestimate anyone, but also I know that I have the capacity to miss lyrical flairs like that, so I hope there would be someone who benefits from this clarification.

Edit to add: I also want to take a moment and pat myself on the back for actually doing the optional challenge this time.