At the ripe, tender, ugly age of 12, I wrote a song entitled, "Love is Like a Piece of Tape." Lyrics as follows:
Love is like a piece of tape, you can stick it back together.
Piece of tape.
Piece of tape.
Piece of tay-ape.
This song idea must have come to me in a dream, for I recall thinking it was the most brilliant idea I had ever had. Love is like tape! Of course! You can repair love like you can repair things with a piece of tape! Why hasn't anyone ever written a song about this? I'm obviously going to be a star! Of course, I had no idea what love was, but I understood it to be something much like scotch tape.
I do believe it was my first venture in songwriting... & what would turn out to be my last.
I was legitimately proud of this song - probably took me about two hours to nail it down, melody & all. I wrote it in silence in my basement. My 12 yr-old cousin Melissa was over for the day, she hanging out with my 11 yr-old brother while I was engrossed in my songwriting. When I finally felt confident enough to share it, I went up to my bedroom where they were, & said "Guys, I wrote a song."
I remember singing the song, & when finished, looking up at the two of them. They were laughing. Really, really hard. Melissa was laughing so hard she was crying. They kept repeating the lines while gasping for air "piece of tape! AHAHHA!" Laughing, pointing, howling... I had expected instantaneous praise. Accolades galore. Somehow, expected them to break out the yellow pages & call a talent agent or manager of some sort upon hearing my masterpiece.
I tore up my lyrics & burst into tears, sprinting from my bedroom.
We never spoke of the song again.
UNTIL...
Fast forward. The year is 2007. I am 19 years old, on summer break from college. I am watching a show called "Flight of the Conchords."
A musical interlude begins, Brett & Jermaine start singing... it's a pretty catchy tune! & then the following words are sung:
Love is like a roll of tape
It's real good for making two things one
But just like that roll of tape
Love sometimes breaks off before you were done
The song continued, & with every lyric, I thought, what the fuck, what the FUCK. THIS IS MY SONG. The song I had dreamed of singing. It would have put me on the map. & it worked. IT WORKED. The similarities were scary... this was just fucking weird.
Melissa had watched the same episode of "Flight of the Conchords." She immediately thought of my song. She called me & said, "Remember that stupid song that you wrote when we were 12?? Flight of the Conchords just did one almost identical."
I know (said I) I KNOW.
I think it was the truly atrocious memory of being laughed at that prevented me from taking any other stabs at writing. Insecurities can really take over if you let them! To this day I hide my writing from people because I am insanely sensitive. I don't want to be laughed at. But I think I learned a valuable lesson that day... not everyone is going to like your shit. More often than not, you have to search long & hard for people who will.
Sometimes I think of my song, I think of love & how IT CAN BE LIKE A PIECE OF TAPE. I think of my poor, naive young brain. Yes, my song idea was stupid. I see now how stupid it was. But it was still clever. Clever enough for Flight of the Conchords to cover.
The moral of this story is: always believe in yourself. Even if you're a dumb kid with a seemingly dumb idea. Even if people laugh at you. Even if you're made fun of. Don't give up on your dreams or dumb song ideas!
It's been five years since that song debuted on the show. & I finally feel validated.
areudirty
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
vaporwave
blakekathryn
prguitarman
2087
titsay
