There aren't enough songs about all the novels you've started and not finished1. So here's mine. I wrote this during the pandemic, and once performed this song live to some (possibly bemused) residents of a Tuscan mansion near Pisa…but that’s another story.
This song, it should be noted, is very much a homage to LCD Soundsystem’s classic, 'Losing My Edge'.
The lyric idea came from the quip of a friend, who, when I told him I was reading ‘Moby Dick’, said: Yeah, I started that book, too. The line stuck in my head.
This song is built around that idea, and a crudely cut drum loop and a badly played synth line. My favourite part is the nasty guitar break that comes in during the middle. I need to try to recreate that tone. Also, if memory serves, as with Dopamine Hit, I did my own vocal fade-out at the end. It's a skill, people.
I tried to rerecord this one in the studio with Patrick James Fitzroy, who worked on several of the earlier Orange Peel songs, but we couldn't quite get it down. Sometimes you've just gotta stick with the demo.
Lyrics:
'Losing My Place: or All the Books I Started During Lockdown'
(after James Murphy)
Moby Dick.
Grapes of Wrath.
Finnegans Wake.
Atlas Shrugged.
Yeah, I started that book, too.
I started that book, too.
Don Quixote.
War and Peace.
Paradise Lost.
2666.
Yeah, I started that book, too.
I started that book, too.
I’m losing my place.
Keep losing my place.
I’m losing my place.
Keep losing my place.
Lord of the Flies.
Animal Farm.
Slaughterhouse Five.
Catch-22.
Yeah, I read that book in school.
I read that book in school.
Gravity’s Rainbow.
The Holy Bible.
One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Yeah, I started that book, too.
I started that book, too.
I’m losing my place.
Keep losing my place.
I’m losing my place.
Keep losing my place.
The Magic Mountain.
Motherless Brooklyn.
Kafka on the--
Metamorphosis.
The Sea, the Sea.
The Old Man and the Sea.
On the Road.
Stoner.
Junkie.
The Bonfire of the Vanities.
American Psycho.
Beloved.
White Teeth.
The Secret History.
Generation X.
Underworld.
Infinite Jest.
Infinite Jest.
Infinite Jest.
Infinite Jest.
Infinite Jest.
Infinite Jest.
Infinite Jest.
Infinite Jest.
I guess I never finish anyth--
—
Anyway, thanks as always for listening.
James
I want to note here that I have finished some of these novels, though I can’t remember now which ones.
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