Make Me Proud

Sigmund Nagy, Párizsi muteremablakban (In the window of the studio in Paris)

Make Me Proud - MP3

Lyrics

don't dress by the window
please pull the shade
don't spill out the sugar
from which you were made

remember that i loved you
and knew you in a crowd
go if you must
i know you'll make me proud

Music

Structure

A B
It's linear right now. I am toying with the idea of having a quiet time through and then a crazy guitar solo-playing-the-melody-sort-of time through.

Chords

A e7
DM7 b%7 E7/G#
E7/G# A
b/F# b7/F# Esus4 E7

c#% F#7
b b7 b%7 E
A
d E7 D
A

Author's Notes

• Add seven days of Weezer's Pinkerton to seven nights of the original Broadway cast recording of Guys & Dolls.
• Mix in a bowl made of Bicycle Day, and simmer for Emily minutes.
• Serves several.

I have been wanting to use a minor five chord for a while, and I sort of decided that this would be the song. So the first change is I-v7. It took about an hour to come up with a melody I really liked that worked over that change, but once I got it, it set the tone, and the rest of the song pretty much wrote itself.

As mentioned above, I'm still playing with the structure for this. I think it could have a nice keyboardy time through with the singing, and then a Weezer-esque fade up the guitar noise into a crazy guitar-driven time through. This current demo kind of makes light of the song. It's one of the more starkly emotional lyrics I've written, and I think I'm afraid of trying to play it straight and somber on this one for that reason. But I think the melody and changes would lend themselves well to a less generic rock arrangement.

I think it's too short, but I'm afraid to write any more of this song, because I think it pretty much gets the job done here. Maybe I'll do a California-style instrumental second verse and then a second refrain. I'll try that.

update

I really think this needs a different title. The title is too forceful for the song, and I think the last line works best if you don't know it's coming. So I'd like to come up with a different title.

Gabemcelwain 09:24, 24 February 2007 (PST)

Comments

i love this song! the lyrics flow so quickly from a to b, and the b section is just devastating.

the version as it is now feels like the climax of the song. i would love to hear a version like what you are considering, with a quiet time through that builds up to this. it wouldn't necessarily need more lyrics at all.
Sara 13:36, 24 February 2007 (PST)