NEW SONG: Special Boy (aka A Paean To My Extreme Self Loathing)

Some months ago, never mind how many, this little lyric showed up in my inbox from our one-time bassist, Gator, who long sinced put his bass guitar in mothballs in order better to focus on wordsmithing. “For consideration only,” he wrote at the bottom of the missive, but I liked it. And I was looking for a lyric around which to craft a fast punk tune. This was it. Which of us wasn’t a “special boy,” i.e., a pathetic loser made to feel special by his mother? I liked that Gator was just bringing it all out into the open for mockery and contempt. It was like spitting in our own faces–and we deserved it, too.

Soon I had composed a very fast guitar part and bass line. I “sang” this one, too, as it was perfect for my voice (I have a propensity for speaking very quickly). After months of waiting, I finally received an incredible drum track from Sir Pent, and just recently our friend, the punk rocker Gordon Bazsali of the South Korean punk band Cuttlefish (www.reverbnation.com/cuttlefish) composed a thoroughly perfect guitar solo. In short, I love this song!

Listen and download the 160 kbps mp3 on our Reverbnation site.

And, voila, the lyrics (if I’m yelling them too quickly for you to catch):

He’s got time to kill and time to waste
Got a room with a view and an office space
Got two hundred friends on the internet
Sure he’s meant for something, he just hasn’t started yet

He’s a special little snowflake and there’s nobody like him
Writes poems hoping publishers will find them
A boy of destiny don’t make any plans
Dropped out of art school ’cause they couldn’t
understand that

He’s a special boy (He’s one of a kind)
He’s a special boy (He’s gonna blow your mind)
He’s a special boy (He’s mama’s favorite)
He’s a special boy (Who hasn’t grown up yet)

Sleeps in every day ’cause he’s a sensitive soul
Too cool for emo, too depressed for rock and roll
Sits in coffeeshops writing out longhand sestinas
That he leaves them on the table for his favorite barristas

Drinks absinthe from the bottle like great artistsdid
Owns a cool guitar but hasn’t got any gigs
Keeps a “secret journal” he wants everyone to read
To understand his “secret pain” and know his “special needs”

He’s a special boy (He’s one of a kind)
He’s a special boy (He’s gonna blow your mind)
He’s a special boy (He’s mama’s favorite)
He’s a special boy (Who hasn’t grown up yet)

He’s a special boy (He’s one of a kind)
He’s a special boy (He’s gonna blow your mind)
He’s a special boy (He’s mama’s favorite)
He’s a special boy (Who hasn’t grown up yet)

He’s got two hundred friends on the internet
He’s sure he’s made for something, he just hasn’t started yet
He’s a special little flower in his mama’s precious vase,
And he’s just another god damned little waste.

**

(optional fourth verse replacement before the solo:
spoken word dialogue. We’d need a girl with the vroom,
though.)

“So … what are you writing?”
“Oh, it’s not much, it’s just a little … you know …”
“Is it a poem?”
“Well, yeah, but it’s, you know, like, a song.”
“Oh yeah? You play guitar, huh?”
“Oh, No, no … no.”
“Then why are you writing songs?”
*beat*
“Can I have a refill on my soy latte?”