Dysfunctional Family Blues

<hide> <let save name=download-links parse save>(MoG) MP3</let> </hide>

Specs

• Type: song with words
• Version: 1.0 (recorded c.1993) (written 1992 or 1993)
• Download: <get name=download-links />
• Video: YouTube - me performing this on the piano at Smith Family Reunion talent show, 2010-07-10 (vocals barely audible)

Lyrics

A thousand tiny airplanes wander through your mother's garden

As she paints a golden picture of the way it used to be

I listen as you whistle all of Mozart's major pieces

And you're breaking all my records but it doesn't bother me

So you've taken all your medals and you're using them as doorstops

And you've sold your family diamonds to the madman down the street

Well listen here my darling -- you've got to take it slowly

They will put you in a fishtank very philosophically

Alas I spoke too quickly, I'll rephrase that faulty stanza

While you're busy hunting shadows in your castle by the sea

So now I'm standing in the alley and you're drawing little circles

And you always pay attention to everyone but me

MoG version

The download is Mother of God's version of this, which I'm not 100% happy with; I will eventually copy the 8-track master into the digital domain and see if I can fix it.

Credits:

• Dan Dudley: bass, group vocals, equipment
• Brian Morris: lead guitar
• Tim Kunkle: rhythm guitar, group vocals
• Dave Keating: drums
• me: piano, lead vocal
• Livia Wade: operatic solo vocal, group vocals

Notes

I wrote this for Jenny.

Some of the lyric lines could use a bit of rework*, but overall it says what I want it to.

(*everyone sees "family diamonds" and thinks it's a reference to gonads or something, which it isn't; also "madman down the street" doesn't quite fit. "pawnshop down the street"? I wanted to convey the idea of carelessly abandoning something very precious. A bit like this BF5 lyric from "Where's Summer B?": "I tried to tell you, tried to tell you, took a little bit too long / And now your phone is disconnected and your shit's out on the lawn.")