Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Game with rock guitars

A few people have encouraged me at times to put out music that is related to economics or Game. But, as it turns out, I have already done the latter to a certain extent. I've written before about the way in which the core concept of Game made immediate sense to me when I encountered it for the first time at Roissy's place, but the extent to which I actually lived by those concepts became even more clear yesterday when one of my bandmates sent me copies of the three songs recorded in 1991 for the demo tape that scored Psykosonik a record deal with Wax Trax! a few months later.

Sex Me Up
was the first Psykosonik song written and was recorded before half the band had joined or the band had even been named. (The phrase that now sounds a bit cheerleady before the guitar solo is actually "go psycho sonic" and is the source of the band's name.) Paul and I wrote it when we were both 21, just after Paul had finally kicked his longtime live-in girlfriend to the curb, so it had a lot of youthful energy to it. It was a lot of fun to listen to it yesterday because I hadn't heard it for something like 18 years.

But what I found fascinating about the song from the perspective of Alpha Game is the number of Game-related concepts that can be gleaned from it despite the fact that it is more than 20 years old and predates Game as an articulated set of observations. It might help to note that the "whore" line was actually supposed to be a female voice, but neither of the two girls who were there the night we recorded the group vocal were willing to provide it.* So, we improvised, and as it turned out, it worked even better that way although it didn't make sense in the way we'd originally intended it.

As Yohami can testify, a good song makes emotional sense, it doesn't necessarily make logical sense. So how many basic Game concepts can you identify in the song? I count at least five, but there are probably more.


*It would take a mighty pedestal indeed to survive the sight of a bunch of pretty twenty-something girls on the dance floor raising both arms and gleefully shouting "you know that I'm a whore" along with the song.

18 comments:

Joe A. said...

Wow, impressive! It certainly fit the times. This should have gotten released.

TLM said...

Duran Duran sound with Beastie Boy lyrics.

Susan Walsh said...

Wow, that song sounds incredibly fresh after 20 years. What I wouldn't give to see video.

As for Game - wow, yes. Zero vulnerability. I never met a woman who could resist looking for the crack.

VD said...

Sadly, no video. In fact, we never even did a studio recording of it, that was just our equivalent of the garage demo.

It still rocks though.

John said...

"You know that I'm a whore!"

What was that about necessity being the mother of invention?

Song has a strong vibe of alpha non-committal. It's essentially passing one big shit test. "You wanna leave? Fine. Let's screw."

Desert Cat said...

"1...2...FIVE!"

bWAA! *snork!*

Nice Monty Python reference.

Gnarly bass line too.

mmaier2112 said...

Pop sensibilities seem pretty strong. Definitely not my thing, but I dig that bass line too.

bob k. mando said...

ah hahahahahahahaha, gammas gonna gamma:

http://www.pidjin.net/2011/12/12/sex-bomb/

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

LOL!! Sounds like Jesus Jones.

Nice blog. Glad to see you're helping out the beta camp.

ROI said...

Awesome sound man, brought me back to the 80s and early 90s club memories.

Speaking of songs about Game, I heard this on the drive in this morning... pretty relevant.

More 80's pop sound then I normally like but the lyrics are SO ON TARGET for Game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLi5nSRZC0U

Don't Shed a Tear -Paul Carrack

Some of the lyrics...
"All that I saw in you, now I see through.
Don't shed a tear for me, my life won't end without you. ...

A locked door on a candy store, is what you are. ...

I'm not missing what we ain't making."


Those lyrics are Game gold.

I would be interested in seeing other Game related songs if any one has them.

indyguy77@work said...

Conversely, the chicks write songs about "Hey ex-dude, my new man is nothing like you."

To which the man at which the song is pointed should reply "But you still can't get me outta your head, can ya?"

Or if you're cold-hearted as Vox said about the Alanis song "Who are you again?"

Desert Cat said...

Whose voice was that evil laugh near the beginning?

ROI said...

Another anecdotal song related to Game heard again on my drive in to work...

A girl singing, "A kiss with a fist is better then no kiss at all."


Looked it up, Florence And The Machine.
http://youtu.be/tpsDegqioVA

Badger said...

I've long noticed that dance music, which is designed to facilitate dancing at clubs, very often has lyrics that themselves describe the club scene. Very meta. The songs have themes of love at first sight, random encounters, adrenaline, partying, losing control (or giving it up), the lyrics themselves are feeding instructions to the people at the clubs on the dancefloors.

I noticed what Vox points out in stark relief when I went to a wedding and saw a bunch of married women on the floor singing Lady Gaga lyrics about being stoned and whoring up. Right in front of their husbands. The desire of women to express their naughty side is strong.

VD said...

Whose voice was that evil laugh near the beginning?

That was Paul.

Spectator said...

This song makes me want to see a 90s period piece film made just so they could use this in the soundtrack. I like how the Bass track really ties the whole thing together.

indyguy77@work said...

Dang song... kinda grows on you.

Especially the James Bond-esque guitar parts.

Desert Cat said...

Yeh, it's become quite the earworm for me lately. I think I listened to it through 4 maybe 5 times total and now can't shake it...

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