Let me tell you about a song I just wrote for someone I appreciate and admire. It’s a Valentines Day song.
A few years ago I ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to make my second album, FOK DUB. For $100 you got a custom song. Here, finally, I am delivering a song to Joy Haynes, a fantastic artist in her own right, that I know from high school. (Check out this wonderful documentary she produced about a psychiatric hospital in DC.)
She wanted a country song with the chorus: “I’d rather be doing nothing with you than something with someone else.†So I asked her for a list of things she likes to do and here’s what she gave me:
- play games (boggle, scrabble, cards)
- drink wine
- travel
- eat out
- act junky (that means watching tv on the couch in my pajamas snuggled under a blanket)
- go on long walks
- sleep nine hours a night
- listen to NPR
- listen to country music
- go to any live event (sports, music, theater)
- read
- drive with the windows down and the heat on
- tailgate
- have intense, life inspiring conversations
- guffaw
- go to photo exhibits
- concoct conspiracy theories
- keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds
- never run out of things (toothpaste, milk, whatever)
- did I mention drinking wine!?!? 🙂
What a great list! I put it all into a song, we went back and forth about the ending a bit and viola! Here it is on Soundcloud:
I’d Rather Be Doing Nothing With You (Than Something With Someone Else)
I like to play scrabble on a Saturday night
Go to a game, stop for a bite
Or we could go to a show at this theater I know
I like play cards and I like to drink wine
Put em together with you it’s divine
Let’s take a long walk, sit on the dock
We’ll talk and not talk, then talk and not talk
Cause I’d rather be doin nothin with you than
Something with someone else
I like to cruise around with the windows all down
Feelin the beat with the heat on my feet
There’s always some toothpaste at my place my friend
Intense conversations, inspiration to lend
When you’re not around NPR is my friend
When I’m sick of the news it’s country music again
Or sitting on the couch watching TV
Actin junky in my PJs is OK by me
But I’d rather be doin nothin with you than
Something with someone else
Wander with me to the new gallery
Look at the walls and tell me what you see
Feet on the ground and our head in the clouds
Guffawing along a little too loud
I got my sweet nine of sleep last night
So I’m ready to go, lets find a good show
Conspiracy theories we’ll make up a few
As long as I am doin nothin with you
I’d rather we just threw a party for two
Than rendezvous with somebody else
Let’s me and you, no switcheroo
Yes I’d rather be doing nothing but you
Than anything with anyone else