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SUNDAY SONGWRITING CONTEST!! you have one week. (Patreon)

Published:
2019-07-14 15:48:51
Imported:
2023-04

Content

(public post)


dear loves 

i am behind and i am fragile and what i usually do in these moments is things like this. 

i can’t help it - the urge called. 

read this fuckin article. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/13/nyregion/nyc-power-outage.html

it HAS to be a song. hasssstoooo

i mean. 

“Stores emptied out, and Broadway shows did not go on: Most theaters canceled their performances. In restaurants and bars, people drank by the glow of their smartphones.”

“Two young women posed for a selfie in the middle of 46th Street before an officer rushed over and chastised them, saying, “Ladies, this is not the time.”

the article is like a work of art in itself. it calls us. the songwriter in me is like roger rabbit in that “shave and a haircut” scene. jittering. 

so here’s what i wanna do. 

i want to hold a song-writing competition. 

open to everybody...patrons and public alike. 

the winner gets ... let me see .... a case of beer. and $1,000 cash. and a $200 voucher to my merch store and, fuck it, i’ll cover the song. if it’s good enough (and it better be) i’ll release it as an Official Thing. 

how’s that? so bear in mind: im not just judging the song on its own merits, i’m judging it on how much amanda palmer will wanna play it. be clever. 

now. 

i mean. let’s talk. 

read the article. it screams, it cries, and it has to be a song. but i’m supposed to be with my son all day. tomorrow i have to fly to the UK for TED. so i am outsourcing. 

you do it. 

yes it has come to this. 

i am crowdsourcing my soul. i am EMBIGGENING. 

that’s how much i love and trust you. or maybe i’m just really lazy? DOES IT MATTER

if nobody wins or enters i’ll just have to do it myself. dammit. and i will. 

OK 

rules 

-submissions should come in as a single comment to this post, in the form of a link. 

-record the song and upload it to soundcloud, youtube or wherever. wuality isn’t important as long as i can hear the song. cheap phone recordings a-ok. 

-keep the song under 5 minutes. 

-the song must have lyrics 

-the song can be delivered on any instrument 

-the song doesn’t have to contain direct quotes or images from the article, but the further away you get from the source images and words, the less awesome. ride the tightrope of art!!

-THE SONG MUST BE AN ORIGINAL, written for this contest. don’t send me a song you wrote 14 years ago about a blackout. that’s CHEATING. 

-on that note: if you wanna cheat and just kinda write a poem and set it to music, i won’t disqualify you if it’s really fucking spectacular. 

-leave me the link in the comments below, and 

-include the full lyrics (important!!) in your submission-comment. if no lyrics, no amanda clicky kinky linky. DONT FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR GODDAMN LYRICS IN THE COMMENT. k? k. 

this contest is open to all people in all countries. you may collaborate with a friend, please just credit your co-writer/s in the comment. 

deadline for submissions is ONE WEEK FROM NOW. 

JUST SIT DOWN AND WRITE!!

deadline is 11:59 PM july 21st. 

that’s right fuckers. you got one week. 

it’ll probably take me a week or so to pick a winner. gimme a second. ill keep you posted. i may even have you crowd-vote if it comes down to a tie. 

now get on it!!!! 

ask me questions if i haven’t covered it all. ill answer later tonight. 

now i am gonna go be with my kid. 

power failure. 

failure of power. 

power resumed. 

power withheld. 

power up. 

power down. 

power out across america. war is over. dark dark hooray, the unbearable darkness of being human. abuses of power outages. i mean. 

over and out my beat poets 

x

a

Files

Comments

Anonymous

My phone will not let me scroll far enough back to add more info. So my band is called the Stink and our stage names are Smelliana Nerdson, Shitty Smelly, and Lames Gayhill, and we’re from Philadelphia PA

Anonymous

I just scrolled to find my comment and now I'm worried it got deleted. I'm seeing other people say the same thing. I posted my song within a few hours of the contest being announced and now I can't find it anywhere, but I know it got posted because I remember seeing it in the comment feed when I was looking at other peoples' entries days after. Super bummed and hoping that it didn't get deleted but there's just something screwy happening with the scrolling feature? Maybe Amanda could post the list of songs she got entries for so people who entered can confirm their songs didn't get deleted? Either way, my name is Rachel Lark. I'm from Oakland, CA and my song is here: https://soundcloud.com/oaklandlark/the-shows-all-stopped-amanda-palmer-songwriting-challenge

Anonymous

Also cannot scroll back! Jules Chatelain - my home has been a PO Box since 2001 - I am currently in Portland OR about to see the Flotsam river circus, which I found out about through Jason Webley, whom I found out about through Amanda. 'Night all!

Anonymous
>>25306688

The numbers are backwards. Your song is probably fine! If you posted around comment 100 then it will be at "total number now" minus 100 and our phones can't handle that ... I bet yours is one of the ones that made Amanda cry, well done!

Anonymous

I cannot find my original comment in the hundreds of beautiful submissions but my name is Hunter Jergens (the song is published under sleeplessREMedies Bandcamp) and I live in Nashville, TN!

Anonymous

Can not scroll back past 200 on my phone and I am away from home for the week, my song is called “selfie-distruction” and I live in Auckland, New Zealand. Justin who wrote the music for me after I skatted what I was wanting to him (I only play bass and banjo and wanted this song to be piano based) lives in Tauranga, New Zealand.Once again- Thank you so much for making this competition and lighting/rekindling the creative fire in so many of us. Love you always, my hero!

Anonymous

Posting again because my comment seems to have disappeared after I edited it yesterday (that awful sinking feeling). <<<<<<<>>>>>>> This was so much fun! Thanks, AFP, for giving me a deadline. I haven't written anything for months. So glad I didn't look at the comments until after I finished writing the song! That might have scared me away and I'm so happy to have a song that I will happily perform for years to come. <<<<<<<>>>>>>> In The Darkness The Light by Fergus Maximus (Adelaide, South Australia) 42 years to the day 6:47 pm New York City suddenly sneezed Closed her eyes again Traffic lights blinked out Airconditioners wheezed to a halt Elevators hung in mid-descent While in bars and restaurants Folks drank by the glow of their phones Sometimes we need the darkness To notice the light The heat got out of Hell's Kitchen Into Hell's Bedrooms and Walls People abandoned apartment ships Obeyed Exit signs in the halls 'Cos we sometimes need the darkness To notice the light Yes sometimes we need the darkness To notice the light And a thousand stumbling Jonahs emerged From the bellies of stranded subway whales And they stood on street corners and observed Pedestrians stepped to the plate Helped direct traffic through town On Broadway the show went on to the sidewalk Where the cast sang songs for the crowd And people spoke to their neighbours People joked with their neighbours Drank champagne with their neighbours 'Cos we sometimes need the darkness To notice the light Sometimes we need the darkness To notice the light Sometimes we need the darkness To notice the light Yes we sometimes need the darkness To notice the light <<<<<<<>>>>>>> And here's the clicky linky: https://youtu.be/k24naO9NpOo I'm almost entirely happy with this take bit I muffed a couple of phrases. The first one is in the line, "Airconditioners wheezed to a halt". The "dish" should fall on beat one like this: "(Aircon)ditioners wheezed to a halt". The other one is the pick up to the first chorus where "Sometimes" should fall so that "times" is on beat one like this: "(Some)times we need the darkness". If I can eke out time I'll add another link to a updated version later. Or maybe just that section. Thanks again for a fun challenge. <<<<<<<>>>>>>> After procrastinating for years I decided to finally create a Patreon a couple of months ago (thanks to one of Amanda's posts which encouraged me to just put it out there) but it wasn't until this challenge that I have actually added any content. I'm terrified and excited. So thanks for all the things, Amanda. The inspiration and encouragement and all your Things. And if you want to hear what my music actually sounds like, check out my Bandcamp page at https://fergusmaximus.bandcamp.com/ or find me on Spotify or Apple music or Google Play or wherever you find your music. I'm probably there.

Anonymous
>>25343173

It would be heartbreaking to miss out on consideration due to a system glitch. Weirdly, my original comment is still showing on my Android phone app but the comment is definitely missing when I look in both Chrome and Opera browsers on my computer. My original comment is in between Ryan Stolte-Sawa of Mery Steel & the Soft Adults' song "In the Dark" and Lindsey's song "American City Of Light". I took a screenshot of it but can't see any way to upload it.

Anonymous
>>25343173

And I just checked in IE as well. My original comment has gone. Sigh. Oh well.

Anonymous
>>25343173

And there was much rejoicing! I contacted Patreon support and it turned out out my comment had been marked as spam. They have released it from the spam filter and I believe it is now visible again. Please forgive me if I leave this version here too just in case.

Anonymous

A different song! Reading this thread the day before the contest ended, I found a poem by Anya Josephs who was in New York at the time of the blackout. Anya experienced the blackout that night and wanted to write something in response but couldn't find anyone to collaborate with so put it up as a poem in search of music. I was keen to write music for the song but didn't have time to do it before the contest finished. Anya was happy for me to do it anyway and I'm chuffed with how it turned out and wanted to share it with you all so here is the first attempt at "The Abuses Of Power Outages", recorded in my front room and featuring me, Fergus Maximus, on vocals and guitar and my son Sam (technically Fergus Minimus despite being taller than me) on bass. The shape it took was quite unexpected. While I am a #totalwhiteboy, I found myself dreaming of Curtis Mayfield and Bobby Womack. Ironically, during this take the battery ran out on my phone so the song is incomplete and didn't have time to do another take. Anya and I decided to upload it anyway because it's so wonderfully absurd to run out of power while recording a song about a blackout! I'll upload a complete version some time after I manage to get Sam and I in the same room again. https://youtu.be/8VR_TsZQrMQ *********** Here's Anya's original post and lyrics: "So I'm tone-deaf and couldn't get anyone to collaborate with me. Sorry, lyrics only, which I'm sure disqualifies me. Still, after getting stuck in the blackout, I wanted to write something. This is almost entirely nonfiction. abuses of power outages On 61st street I watch men storm a bus I’m crying and strangers are comforting us I’m thinking my god this is where we’re all going I want to get home but there’s no way of knowing If there’s gonna be room on the next bus that comes Or if the 72nd street subway’s gonna run Or if when I get home the lights will go on Or if things will ever go back to normal Their legs are so long and they stop as it stops And the doors open and an old woman gets off And they push her down as they force their way through And I’m dizzy and shaking and wishing I knew If there will be any room on the next bus that comes Or if the 72nd street subway’s gonna run Or if when I get home the lights will go on Or if things will ever go back to normal The bus driver’s blaring the horn as hard as he can It rings in my ears and my head starts to spin Someone helps the woman up as the bus pulls away My friends look to me and I wish I could say That there will be room for us on the next bus that comes Or that the 72nd street subway’s gonna run Or that when I get home the lights will go on Or that things will ever go back to normal We give up and walk towards where there might be light People taking pictures of New York: dark at night The sweat on my feet makes them blister and bleed I’m faint and I’m aching and nothing’s guaranteed There may not be any room on the next bus that comes Don’t know if the 72nd street subway’s gonna run Or if when I get home the lights will go on Or if things will ever go back to normal normal The funny thing is, we had seats at a play, When things get too hard, that’s how I escape, But at some point you just can’t go on with the show, And I just wish there were some way I could know, That there will be room on the next bus that comes And that the 72nd street subway will run, And that when I get home the lights will go on, And that someday, things will go back to normal, There are kids sleeping in cages on concrete in fear It’s happening everywhere, it’s happening here The world’s getting hotter, our worst fears are true, Just wish I knew what there was that I could do There’s room for us all and we can make things run, We all need a home where the lights can go on, There’s hope in my heart and there’s darkness ahead, And three hours later I make it to bed, and think of: Lights out in Times Square like there’s nothing to sell, Walking with friends as the world goes to hell, Living somewhere far away from a show, And thinking that maybe I could start to know, There’s room for us all and we can make things run, We all need a home where the lights can go on, There’s hope in my heart and there’s darkness too, And there’s got to be something that we can all do."

Anonymous

I am among the many who can’t scroll back far enough to add to our original posts. My song was called “Better in the Dark,” my full name is Shannon Linton and I’m from Cobourg, Ontario, Canada.

Thomas Herlofsen

I believe Amanda can see the posts even if we can't scroll that far back. There's probably some notifications or something. I can't know this for sure, but I know she could see mine when I couldn't scroll that far last Wednesday at least. Good luck y'all :)

Anonymous

I’m having the same scrolling issue as everyone else, god they need to fix this site. My name is Jasper Kerr, my song is titled “In the Dark” (I’m a creative guy I know), and I’m from Arlington Virginia.

Anonymous

Any updates on the contest? Did anyone win?

Anonymous

Hi there, what about the other winners? :-) I think there is just one so far and Amanda promised to choose three sogs. Any updates? ;-)

Anonymous
>>26364139

I think she’s just really busy with the tour. It may take some time for her to get back to this if at all, which is completely understandable ;)