"Shoot Me" (1986)

This is a re-written and poppified version of a song originally written in 1985. The picture is of Jeremiah Sullivan and I in the studio.

Shoot Me (1986)

© 1986 Brian Hutzell

Love you? Of course I do!

Leave you? How can I?

I've been living with you so long I'd be lost on my own

But I think I'd be better off alone

Two hunters in the wood, chasing and killing

Never turn the guns around to point at each other

How can hate be so unemployed?

Shoot me

Do something

To make it easy to leave you

I don't want to

But I've got to

And I won't unless I find a reason

We had some perfect dates but those are over

Lately all we do is fight so frequently it's not right

But something keeps me glued to your side

Pop guns in grade school, later on B.B.'s

After graduation, big game's challenge, stimulation

Is it sport for fun or one-on-one?

Shoot me

Do something

To make it easy to leave you

I don't want to

But I've got to

And I won't unless I find a reason

Bang! The shot...

Wait for the shot

Wait for the shot

No one got hurt yet

No violence

Cause you love me, hate me, shoot me

Make war then make up

Make peace, make love

Some unspoken treaty keeps the fire a chilly cold war

Fire melts the ice

Could be an avalanche

Two hunters in the dark, preying and praying

Never take the game away

The thrill of each and every fray

To pass the test

To love a game of chance

Shoot me

Do something

To make it easy to leave you

I don't want to

But I've got to

And I won't unless I find a reason

“Boys keep singing!”

Brian Hutzell

from Square Feet

"Shoot Me"

Current listening: The Mothers of Invention, “Freak Out!”

Shoot Me

© Brian Hutzell 1985

Bang!

The sound

The final report

                                    "Cut me"

Why oh, why oh, why oh

                                    "Ask yourself, ask your mother"

Maybe it's you          

                                    "You decide what you did

                                    I wasn't there."

I don't know

                                    "Walk it through one more time, please"

Watching me

Waiting for a mistake

                                    "Step one, two three four"

Up here it doesn't look so easy

                                    "I think you know you made it and who didn't.

                                    Will those who didn't please leave the stage.

                                    Everyone else, from the top!"

Shoot me

Bury me

Go ahead

You'll be doing me a favor

Shoot me

Do something

To make it easy to leave you

I don't want to, but I've got to

And I won't unless I find a reason

Love you?

Of course I do

Leave you?

How can I?

My career is on the line

I gotta make up my mind

Your goals are incompatible with mine

Shoot me

Do something

To make it easy to leave you

I don't want to, but I've got to

And I won't unless I find a reason

Want you to come with me

Will you?

No, I see

You would like a family

To me that's insanity

You want the thing I can't tolerate

Shoot me

Do something

To make it easy to leave you

I don't want to, but I've got to

And I won't unless I find a reason

Bang!

The sound

Last time it wasn't for real

This time

                                    "Cut"

This time it was

                                    "Make it live. Make it real"

No one's gonna die

Not for awhile

No one got hurt yet

That comes next

Then life moves into those gray areas

Where pain doesn't exist

As doesn't happiness

                                    "Okay, take five!"

Decision's coming

                                    "Listen, we've got some results.

                                    Some of you will be disappointed.

                                    That's a shame, but it's the way it it."

What if I didn't get in?

What then?

                                    "You've all been through this before."

To make or break

                                    "...and you and you and you

                                    and you and you and you!"

“Sing!”

Brian Hutzell

from Square Feet

     

"Show Me How You Feel"

I met Wally at Berklee. We walked all over Boston together, and I thought his name was Lyle for several days. It’s not.

“Show Me How You Feel” on YouTube

Show Me How You Feel

© 1989 Brian Hutzell and Wally Koekebakker

Oh, I've been wanting to know you inside and out
Can you hear me shout over the crowd?
Oh, I've been needing to know someone to lean upon
Build a love so strong it can't go wrong
I need you around and I need your love to surround me

Oh, if it's alright
You've got to let me know
Show me how you feel
If it's alright
Don't let it get away
Show me how you feel

Oh, I've been meaning to find you somewhere, somehow
I finally found you and I'm mighty proud
Oh, I've been wanting to buy you diamonds and rings
Fine fancy things
I have none of these
Yet you keep calling me back again
Even though I lack the pennies to get you any trinkets
Do you think it's the love you've waited for?
'Cause I need you around me
And I need your love to surround me

Oh, if it's alright
You've got to let me know
Show me how you feel
If it's alright
Don't let it get away
Show me how you feel

Paint it on the ceiling
So when I look up overhead, I'll remember what I said
I said, "Show me how you feel," and there it is
Michelangelo did it long ago
But feelings fade like peeling paint
If not restored from time to time
So I'm telling you that I'm

Sure that it's alright
'Cause now that you've let me know
Shown me how you feel
It's alright
We'll never let it slip away
You showed me love is real
And time will never steal the feeling

“Dischordant beauty”

Brian Hutzell

from Square Feet

"Storm"

I wanted to write a one-chord song for Plastic Mikey, and this is the result.

“Storm” rough demo on MelodyFusion

Current listening: The Partridge Family, Notebook

Storm

© 1995 Brian Hutzell

The sun did not shine

It was too wet to play

Outside the storm raged away

Inside my humor turned gray

Crash-landing my new model plane

In the turbulence brought on by rain

This is not a good game

Weather, weather the storm

Weather, weather the storm

This is the calm before the storm

Pressed underneath its heaving scorn

On the surface it looks comfortable and warm

But the blanket of security’s been torn

Didn’t hear the thunder

Didn't see the lightening

Didn’t feel the electronic web around us tightening

But I caught the anger

In the aimless violence

Read the writing on the wall in the sullen silence

Weather, weather the storm

Weather, weather the storm

This is the calm before the storm

The room where history is born

Cut through and through with flashing sword

Leaving the lessons unexplored

Didn’t hear the bullets

That fell like raindrops

Didn't feel the hail that hit my head like hurricane shots

Weather, weather the storm

Weather, weather the storm

This is the calm before the storm

The stage is set for us to perform

We'd better act before it pours

“Honey, Mars is melting!”

Brian Hutzell

from MMXIII Variations, Part 1: Square Feet