{"id":1042,"date":"2013-07-02T23:41:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T22:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2018-11-22T22:33:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T21:33:07","slug":"my-fault-a-punk-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/2013\/07\/my-fault-a-punk-song\/","title":{"rendered":"My Fault (a punk song)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Lehrer once said: “If you can’t communicate, the least you can do is shut up!”<\/p>\n

I’ve been living by that adage: if I don’t think what I have to say will make any difference, then why say it?<\/p>\n

I don’t have an expressive urge, and history is filled with great art, made and transmitted by people who did<\/em> have that urge and who did<\/em> know what to do with it.<\/p>\n

I fool around, though. Here’s a song, and this is the story:<\/p>\n

A friend of mine was a character, not exactly centre stage but perhaps a little to the side, on the Danish punk scene in the early 80s. After several years of doing other things, she suddenly found out she wanted to make some music again. We met up and worked out a song from her translation of a poem by the Danish punk icon, Michael Strunge. The result wasn’t exactly punk, but it wasn’t exactly not<\/em> punk either.<\/p>\n

In the process, I happened to dig out a collection of poems by the Norwegian punk poet, Gene Dalby, from my bookshelf. The result wasn’t exactly a translation, but it wasn’t exactly not <\/em>a translation either.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

D   Em9\/b C9\r\nAll my    fault, It was \r\nD   Em9\/b C9\r\nall my    fault\r\nD        Em9\/b  C9\r\nSpoke to you in keywords. \r\nD      Em9\/b C9\r\nChoice be-   tween\r\nF                    G\r\ncrossword and jigsaw puzzle.\r\nG7                   A7\/add6\r\ncrossword and jigsaw puzzle.\r\n          D  Em9\/b   C9\r\nI thought jigsaw was out.\r\n   D  Em9\/b   C9\r\nMy fault.\r\n       D  Em9\/b   C9\r\nall my fault.\r\n\r\nF                 \r\n You felt your way \r\nG\r\n I was insensitive\r\n    F\r\nYou gave me your all  \r\n           G\r\nit gave me nothing\r\n     Am7       G\/b       C     C#m7-5 Dm7    G7\r\nYour words are shrapnels under mental finger nails\r\n\r\nG                    A7\r\nSomeone has run a plow through your pretty head\r\n    G                   A7\r\nand planted hatred like mad.\r\n      D      \/c#          \/b    \/a\r\nBut I didn't come to reap bitterness               \r\n   G             \/f#       Em7  A7\r\nor duck from the bricks of theory \r\n         D    Em9\/b C9\r\nthat you hurl at    me \r\n\r\nD       Em9\/b  C9\r\nI don't give a damn \r\n\r\nF                     G7 \r\n if you replace your emotional life\r\n     F               G7\r\nwith doctrines and vibrators.\r\nG                        A7\r\n You're trying to commit suicide with aspirin.\r\nG                       A7\r\n  That's never going to work.\r\nAm                 G\/b        C             Bbmaj7\r\n It's like playing Russian roulette with an unloaded gun.\r\nE7                 D\/a     Em9   C9\/g\r\n Let me lend you a knife.\r\n\r\nD\/a     Em9   C9\/g\r\n\r\n   D\/a          Em9    C9\/g\r\nMy heartbeat is just a recoil.\r\n   D\/a          Em9    C9\/g\r\nFrom a gun in the cellar of an empty house.\r\n   Bb           F               Gm7      C7\r\nIn front of the house there's a fountain.\r\n    Bbmaj7\r\nAnd sometimes \r\n    C7\r\nthe wind comes\r\n    F            A7         Dm     D7\r\nand tears at the fountain's veil\r\n          Gm7\r\nand blows droplets \r\n                 C7 \r\non to the cellar window\r\nDb7\r\ndroplets too small \r\n   Bbm\r\nto look like tears at all\r\n         Gm7-5   E7\/g#      A\r\nbut they still remind me of something.\r\n\r\nD            Em9\/b C9\r\nI just came  by to tell you\r\n     D       Em9\/b   C9\r\nthat you can keep my bulletproof vest \r\nBbmaj7  C7         D\/      Em9\/b  C9\r\nI don't need it anymore.\r\n\r\nD\/a     Em9   C9\/g\r\n\r\n   D\/a          Em9    C9\/g\r\nMy heartbeat is just a recoil.\r\nD\/a    Em9       C9\/g\r\nI will never get used to it.\r\nD\/a Em9 C9\/g\r\nBut I   keep on \r\nD\/a Em9 C9\/g\r\nshooting.\r\n\r\nD\/a     Em9   C9\/g\r\nD\/a     Em9   C9\/g\r\nD\/a     Em9   C9\/g\r\nD\/a     Em9   C9\/g\r\n\r\n\r\n=========================\r\nChords\r\n=========================\r\nD       xx0232         D\/a       x00232\r\nEm9\/b   x2x032         Em9       020032 \r\nC9      x3x030         C9\/g      332330\r\nA7\/add6 x02022\r\nC#m7-5  x42000\r\nBbmaj7  x13231\r\nDb7     x4342x\r\nBbm     x13321\r\nGm7-5   3x332x\r\nE7\/g#   422100<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tom Lehrer once said: “If you can’t communicate, the least you can do is shut up!” I’ve been living by that adage: if I don’t think what I have to say will make any difference, then why say it? I don’t have an expressive urge, and history is filled with great art, made and transmitted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-recordings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1320,"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oestrem.com\/thingstwice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}