Dead Ends and Girlfriends – “Timing”
As I mentioned in a previous post, most of the songs on this record were either written while in high school or just after. This particular song doesn’t fall into that category. In fact, I’m almost sure this was one of the last songs I wrote before heading out to Hollywood to make the album.
I tend to have a bit of a soft spot for this song for a few reasons. I remember sitting down and writing it and thinking, “Hmm… this isn’t the normal balls to the wall, play as fast as you can type of punk rock song I’m used to writing.” It was the first song idea I’d had that “slowed” things down a bit. It was a nice change of pace. The other reason I’m slightly more partial to this song is because it’s a little more personal than just a recap of a funny story. It’s pretty obvious that it’s about a breakup, and, yes, it was a break up that sucked at the time. It was someone I dated for quite a while but it became quite clear that things between us were never going to work out, no matter how much effort we put into the relationship. Looking back on it now, lyrically it seems silly and a bit childish, but we all have ways of dealing with grief and writing this song was my way of getting closure. Besides, lyrical poetry is certainly not my strong suit. One thing that I think rings true, however, is that so much of life is about timing. The good, the bad, and everything in between usually comes down to being in the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time. Fascinating how life works like that.
There’s only one other tidbit I can add about this tune. Of all the songs I’ve ever written, this is one of the only ones that I have a very strong urge to re-record and re-release. I’m usually a firm believer that you should never go back and re-record old songs. They represent a specific time and feel, and, for better or for worse, they’re small, important reflections that chronicle different periods in our lives. But we rushed through the entire record in five days and spent a whopping $700. We had shitty gear and almost no experience recording music. I could probably do without all of the other songs on the record but with this one I would love to have a redo.
Dead Ends and Girlfriends – “I Told You So”
This post will most likely bore anyone reading it since there isn’t much at all behind this particular song. If I remember correctly it was one of the earliest songs I wrote for the band, sometime in high school. I cringe almost every time I hear it. What’s funny is that the original version of this song was somehow even worse than the version that made the record. The first writing of this tune featured an upstroke, ska-tastic guitar lick, similar to the song “Ex-Girlfriend.” Like I said, back then we were stoked on bands like Assorted JellyBeans, Less Than Jake, and early HomeGrown. I’m not entirely sure who suggested we replace the clean guitar with distorted, three note power chords, but I sometimes wish that they had instead suggested we scrap the song altogether. I’m almost certain there exists an original 8-track recording of it, though I’m not sure if I have a copy. Now that I think about it, it might have been on our very first demo tape. I’ll have to see if I can dig that up. At any rate, I wish I could say there was a better story behind this song but there isn’t. It’s simply a made up story about someone who loses a girlfriend to another guy. Typical teenage problems, eh?
Dead Ends and Girlfriends – “Moon Lake Village”
I have to constantly remind myself that the songs that make up Dead Ends and Girlfriends were all written when I was between 16 – 18 years old. There isn’t a lot of life experience behind them. Considering my musical idols at the time were Screeching Weasel and The Queers (bands whose lyrics include “Jeannie’s got a problem with her uterus,” and “Hey you motherfuckers I only drink Bud”), I wasn’t much for lyrical substance. This song is certainly no exception.
At the time this song was written I had been dating a girl for about a year or so. She was great and we got along well, finding common ground in the underground punk rock scene. We were an exclusive couple and fairly serious, I suppose. As serious as a pair of 17 year olds could be anyways. So I was a bit shocked when, after I went away to college, she told me she was moving out of her house and renting an apartment with a guy I had never met. He was considerably older and he may have been a professional skateboarder, not that it makes much of a difference. I was naturally skeptical of the entire arrangement but she assured me they were just friends. She needed to get out of her house and at the time she had few other options. The entire situation was quite funny to me so I wrote a song about it. It’s such a stupidly simple song and it would be a hell of a lot more interesting if there were a better story behind it. But, alas, there’s not. And, just in case you might be wondering where the name of the song came from…. that’s right, it was the name of the dumpy apartment complex they moved into together.
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