The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Homestretch
by Jon Eric

There’s a moment in every race
When you give yourself permission to quit
You've already given your best
Haven't you earned some rest?

The kid hanging off your back
Is losing patience fast
He just wants to go home

(chorus)
At the starting line, he’s there for the ride
And at the halfway point, he's putting up a fight
And at the homestretch
He’s trying to break my stride


It isn't that he wants you to fail
But he doesn't have the patience for it
So he’s pulling your earlobes
Poking your lymph nodes

You try to evade the attack
Outnumbered, outclassed
And then you're alone

(chorus)

There’d be no shame in getting beat
But there’s no way you won't compete

There's a moment in every race
When you make yourself recommit

(chorus)
I won’t let him break my stride (x5)
I won’t let him break me

Homestretch (shadow)
by see-man-ski

Liner Notes

I took a completely different approach to my songwriting for this. I have been watching a music theory for electronic musicians on udemy, just because why not. So, instead of finding a beat and chucking a tonne of guitars on it I created everything using the piano roll and then copied the guitars. I attempted to mix a 3/4 beat with a 6/4 to start off with then chucked in a 4/4 chorus for good measure. The acoustic guitar section was a result of me getting a new acoustic mic for my birthday and wanting to try it out.

I'm not overly keen on my vocals, I think I tried to push them a bit too much and they sound a bit strained in places. I think next attempt at a song (here or elsewhere) I might try and write the song with my acoustic guitar first then add the electronic elements afterwards, that way I might end up picking a key I am more comfortable with.

keep up, don't flag
your feet, can't drag

you're on the payroll, full time
don't let yourself, decline

it's a stance, not a choice
you have no right to use your voice

time is not getting slower
deadlines are always closer
I feel like I'm never
on the homestretch
and the pressure is always there

so figure out what's best for you
find the time to see it through
don't look for help to guide the way
there's no point hiding, you've got stay

and last night, I felt, something crawling out
behind my pillow, beneath my bed
and drill a hole right through my head

yeah last night, I swear,
I had the answer, right there
but the thought was lost in sleep
like my mind, worn and beat

time is not getting slower

time is not getting slower
deadlines are always closer
I feel like I'm never
on the homestretch
and the pressure is always there

Homestretch (shadow entry)
by Lichen Throat

This is one of those songs where the lyrics never directly mention the subject, which is left as an exercise for the listener. I'll keep the explanation behind a spoiler tag, in case anyone is interested in figuring it out. Those of you from Wisconsin may be somewhat advantaged.

Liner Notes

This song is about Frank Lloyd Wright and his continually expanding house, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which was the site of numerous scandals and tragedies, including two fires and a mass murder.

Assuming I understood the polyrhythm/polymeter explanation properly, the verses are in polymeter and the chorus is in polymeter.

Driven out of Chicago
For stealing a client’s wife.
Now I’ve got to let go
My chef with his butcher knife.
I went out of town, and they were
Dead when I came back.
Seven people murdered
By the hatchet man’s attack.
My house keeps burning down;
Let’s build another wing.
Encircle this hill like a crown,
And treat me like a king.

My new wife loves Gurdjieff;
I've got students at my home.
They do all the drafting,
So I can freely roam.
Those guys can't find girlfriends, so
My wife cooked up a plan.
They’re giving her ideas a try—
I hope it doesn’t get out of hand.
My house keeps burning down;
Let’s build another wing.
Encircle this hill like a crown,
And treat me like a king.

Add another room, add another hall.
(homestretch, homestretch)
Make it nice and wide, but I don’t want it tall.
(homestretch)

I don’t like to pay taxes,
So I'll say I'm a charity.
I’m still afraid of axes,
And can't practice austerity
No one can beat my mystique,
So I’ll design your city.
My houses have a few leaks,
But man, they sure look pretty.
My house keeps burning down;
Let’s build another wing.
Encircle this hill like a crown,
And treat me like a king.

Balance Lost/Balance Regained (shadow)

(Melvin)
Fight the power
Or fight for your right to party
The sea was parted, you see
It's an exodus
But don't you miss the misdirection
Or genuflection
On your knees
See, I don't think you really know
What you're really trying to show
When they got feeling low and hopeless
I don't think it's going to go
How you think it's going to go
When they got you acting ferocious (rawr!)

(Pedro)
On the homestretch
Time for direct
Action, I said
You want my respect?
You're gonna have to work for it
It's a tight situation
But don't hit the brake
And don't quit
Near the exit
We're gonna have to fight for it

(Melvin)
Burn it up
Smash it all
Yeah we gotta fight
Rip it up
Tear it down
Til we get it right
Burn it up
Smash it all
Yeah we gotta fight
Rip it up
Tear it down
Til we get it right
Yeah, we're gonna make it home
Yeah, we're gonna let 'em know
Yeah, we're gonna bring a ruckus
Ripping up our vocal chords
Letting out a mighty roar
We're writing our poetic justice

(Pedro)
On the homestretch
Time for direct
Action, I said
You want my respect?
You're gonna have to work for it
It's a tight situation
But don't hit the brake
And don't quit
Near the exit
We're gonna have to fight for it
On the homestretch
Time for direct
Action, I said
You want my respect?
You're gonna have to work for it
It's a tight situation
I might hit
This button, transmit
A different message
We're gonna have to fight for it

Vom Vorton (shadow)

you can stand on your own
you can talk on the phone
you can hold up your hand to the sun
with your eye on the goal
and a fire in your soul
you'll know in your heart that you've won

but you shouldn't count your chickens
while they're still laying eggs
you're not quite at the finish
but you are on the home stretch

there's a light in the sky
and a spark in your eyes
the pieces align in your brain
but you need to be sure
that the light that you saw
was not just an oncoming train

you shouldn't sell the skin
before you catch the bear
you're in the final moments
you're almost nearly there
you shouldn't count your chickens
while they're still laying eggs
you're not quite at the finish
but you are on the home stretch
the home stretch

Homestretch - Frankie Big Face

Running down the homestretch
Neck and neck with my deepest regrets
Face to face with the universe
Counting all my missteps
Taking the long odds on every bet
Trying to shake this wretched curse
Looking to claim my cut of the purse

Lumbering down the homestretch
Making amends and settling debts
Riding high on adrenaline
Giving more and taking less
Reckoning ways I must confess
Trying to scrape out one more win
Better the sinner, best the sin

When I’m gone
Everything will carry on
When I’m gone
Memories will turn to stone

Barreling down the homestretch
Head held high and arms outstretched
Burning out but keeping time
Embracing my repentance
Shedding the skin of my intents
Drenched in the rays of the cold sunshine
Collapse ahead of the finish line

When I’m gone
Everything will cease to be
When I’m gone
Memories will be set free

Homestretch
Moss Palace

Verse 1:
Our steps are soft
and I’m floating
We haven’t kissed
but you’re quoting poetry

I wish the sidewalk
Went on forever
If the moon could trick the sun
Wouldn’t it be clever?

Pre-Chorus:
I never know how it will be
Will I love you, or will you love me?

Chorus:
Did you brush my hand?
Did you hear me sigh?
We’re on the homestretch baby
Time to say goodbye, say goodbye
Oh oh.

Verse 2:
You smell so good
I’d like to invite you
Into my room but
We shouldn’t do that

I’m trying to move
A little bit slower
My hearts been cut
From the last knife thrower

Pre-Chorus:
Chorus:


Verse 3:
Standing outside
My door, we’re still flirting
How will this end?
Will I be left hurting?

You’re leaning in
At last for a kiss
But I need to leave you
With something to miss ‘cause

Pre-Chorus:
Chorus x 2

Homestretch
miscellaneous owl (shadow)

This is the way the galloping horse pulls into the lead before the bone cracks
Like the way the parachute pulls at the seams of the backpack
Just a kiss and flush and a text and a crush and a limerent object
Funny to think I can sink my own battleship full of the things that I wanted

I always find myself stumbling
At the homestretch
I always find myself thinking
Of all the reasons that I couldn't be
The one you actually wanted
The one anyone really needs
The one the one I love really needs

I ask you again when we're lying in bed if the things that you said were really honest
And the silence that rains on the bed feels like the ash after a bomb hits
Like a dog with my teeth and my claws all focused at once on a hot spot
Cone on my neck but I'm still obsessed, I worry it raw, that bloody thought

I always find myself stumbling
At the homestretch
I always find myself thinking
Of all the reasons that I couldn't be
The one you actually wanted
The one anyone really needs
The one the one I love really needs

I always find myself stumbling
At the homestretch
I always find myself thinking
Of all the reasons that I couldn't be
The one you actually wanted
The one anyone really needs
The one the one I love really needs

Homestretch
by Cavedwellers

Shall we stay inside the lines
Contradict conflicting times
Disregard conundrums there
Dance to our proprietary beat
And shall we combine our time
Syncopating every line
Goodness knows we both have danced
Lived and loved through each romance indeed
Stopping incomplete

Turn around slowly
Placed a bet to show
You need not to know me
You‘re just kneading the dough
Words are circumspect
The dream is so far fetched
News came so direct
We won’t see the homestretch

You remain a cold hard four
Odds were better long before
I became a betting man
Debts and kids and lives to plan ahead
I remain assaulted by
Calculated words; I die
Every time you dress me down
With your wicked words you drown me dead
Deadpan, your masthead

Turn around slowly
Placed a bet to show
You need not to know me
You‘re just needing the dough
Words are circumspect
The dream is so farfetched
News came so direct
We won’t see the homestretch

As for me,
I’d rather be far away from your war
I can see
But little reason you’re fighting it for

Turn around slowly
Placed a bet to show
You need not to know me
You‘re just kneading the dough
Words are circumspect
The dream is so far fetched
News came so direct
We won’t see the homestretch

Homestretch
by Max Bombast feat. Altair

WAKE UP, MAX. PLANETFALL COMENSE IN T-MINUS 2 MINUTES

I am waking up again
After years in outer space
The autopilot disengaged
I had fled the curs-ed earth
With a handful of my mates
The only souls to have escaped

Everybody else is gone
I guess we are the chosen ones
Ascending to the heavens
And we don't know why they picked us to go on to the stars
We've come so far and now we're landing
No one knows what we will find
When we finally arrive
Descending into hell or are we about to regain paradise?
The engines die
We're calmly falling

Here we are approaching the home stretch
Have I learned to stick the landing yet?

THRUSTERS ENGAGED

The ground comes racing up at us
It's shining green and blue
Just like the one we knew
The atmosphere is screaming in our ears
We can see signs of liii-i-i-ife
But something isn't right

Haven't we been here before?
Have we all been misinformed?
We were told that we were on a mission to find a home for us all as we fall
There's no more denying the world beneath us
Now the doors are open wide
Step onto the earth that died
"Oh my God, I'm home! I'm back!
You maniacs!
You blew it up!
God damn you all to hell!"

Here we are approaching the home stretch
Have we learned to stick the landing yet?

Homestretch by The Serviettes

So long ago before we evolved
We built fires to ward off the cold

Some of us were stronger
So they attacked
Those who were weaker
And took what they had

Now we're so advanced
But leopards don't change their spots
Cos those that have
Still crush the have nots

We're on the homestretch
Not much further to go
Til we've fucked up this world
For oil and gold

So what can I do?
So much I could say
Stand on sidelines
And just snipe away

We're on the homestretch
Not much further to go
Til we've fucked up this world
For oil and gold

Homestretch - Hot Pink Halo (shadow)

Co-written by Emily Dickinson, WH Auden, Charles Baudelaire, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Shakespeare. Thanks lads.

***

My life closed twice before its close—
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime
'O let not Time deceive you
You cannot conquer Time

Homestretch
This is the homestretch
An arc of light that spans a length of sky
As the sun sets forth its battle cry
Homestretch

Those whose thoughts like skylarks
Rise up on the morning breeze
Who hover over life and understand
The speech of flowers and silent things

Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory—
Odours, when sweet violets sicken
Live within the sense they quicken

Homestretch
This is the homestretch
An arc of light that spans a length of sky
As the sun sets forth its battle cry
Homestretch

So long as we can breathe
So long as eyes can see
So long lives this
And this gives life to thee

Homestretch
This is the homestretch
An arc of light that spans a length of sky
As the sun sets forth its battle cry
Homestretch

Mandibles

This song grapples with the feeling of hopelessness when awful things are happening- a broken relationship, a crisis of self, and the dispelling of the vision of the life you thought you were going to live. People keep telling you that it will be ok, that things will go back to normal, that you’re in the home stretch, but here’s the thing- you can’t be in the homestretch if the home you had is gone. You might have a less crappy time, but things will never be normal again.

Chorus:
There is no home
There is no road
There’s only here
and wherever I go
I walk alone
Where earth is hardest
Home is broken
Where the heart is

There are too many roads in this yellow wood
Too many signs that are marked with “You Should”
I am much too cold to choose
I would have liked to ask you

I thought I knew my path forward
But I didn’t know myself, I only knew your words
Now I have to choose
I should not need to ask you

Chorus

I filled up a page with how we were then
It’s just the same damn words over and over again
Fingers stained in blue
I could not bear to ask you

One foot before the other
Hanging by a thread
My journey runs before me
But I’m standing on the edge
The voices yell above me
That I’m in the Homestretch
But I’m just not there yet
But I’m just not there yet

Chorus

(Home is where the heart is
It’s gone now- shattered
Home is where the heart is
Like none of it mattered)