First draft: September 2014 – “Showoff, Jacobean, Wonder,” about a fatal car crash. Written for a scholarship contest – “why should you not use your cell phone in your car?”
Second draft: February 2015 – retitled “No Comment,” now about Brian Wilson’s cancellation of SMiLE in response to Sgt. Pepper’s.
I was trying to write a side-long suite about Brian’s mental breakdowns from 1964-1969, but this was one of the three good songs that came out of that. I also wanted to expand “Showoff, Jacobean, Wonder,” but I didn’t know if the lyrics were copyrighted to the scholarship contest or if I just didn’t like them at this point. Either way, it was a bit of a Cardiacs-esque song. Both iterations – well, the first one moreso.
lyrics
Down the 405 to Western, I hear the new Beatles and suddenly it hits me: they got there first. I wanna be the innovator, not another laggard. I fell behind during the dawn of the album era.
You don’t deserve it, neither do I. I wanna be first. No comment.
Bust into Western to get tapes to save my own self-respect. The ego’s come in full force here – I don’t wanna bruise it. Al, Carl, Dennis, Mike and Bruce wonder what’s gotten into me. I mention we can make compromise, compromise.
You don’t deserve it, neither do I. I wanna be first. No comment.
The million bucks I spent for naught – what do I get? Demands for another album. It’s eating up inside of me. IT’S EATING UP INSIDE OF ME!
You don’t deserve it, neither do I. I wanna be first. No comment.
No more journeys inside the cantina, no more teenage pocket symphonies. I have nothing to say on the matter, I’ve been wiped out. The new artistic malaise.
It’s all you’re gonna get, you’ll never get the rest. IT’S ALL YOU’RE GONNA GET! YOU’LL NEVER GET THE REST!
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