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Song5 - Music Police

Ok, so I almost feel embarassed putting this one out in the state it is. The reason is I feel this one could have a lot of potential, but I don't have the time to put into it right now to make it what it deserves to be, especially since it really really needs a live drummer. So please overlook the nastier of the warts and give me ideas on what you hear this could be, not what it is. The polish comes after FAWM.

This is one of the deals where I wrote the lyrics completely seperately and then was messing around with a progression I have had for a long time and decided to try them together.

This song is about something that happened here recently. A coffee shop that I have played at is being sued by BMI for "exhibition of copyrighted material", because someone who performed there played a cover song. (have you ever been in a coffee shop with live music where someone wasn't playing a Dylan cover or a Beatles cover or whatever? I haven't) This coffee shop is part of a chain, musicians are booked by the corporate headquarters, so the individual shop doesn't have a lot of control of who's going to be playing there. The suit is aimed at the individual shop. Performers are paid a pound of coffee beans and free drinks during the performance, and that is it - excluding what you can make on tips and CD sales. It's a long story. The way BMI went about this was just wrong, in my opinion. I'm lucky the song didn't turn out to be full of excessively vindictive language.

LYRICS

Music police

Lock me up and
Throw away the key
I played Dylan
In the Key of E

Two nights a month
I play the scene
To earn a cup
And some coffee beans

(Chorus bridge)
But they’re coming for me
Unless I pay up the fee
Remember when music was free?
Yeah, neither do we

(Chorus)
Call out the music police
Savers of rights, and royalties
All men want to be kings if they can
But it comes at the cost of another man

I love this song
And so do you
So I played it right
And time just flew

The crime was done
But I was still free
One person clapped
In a crowd of three

(chorus bridge)
They’ve got nefarious means
And cold hearted schemes
Litigious machines
Don’t take payment in beans

(Chorus)

My father didn’t
Hang his head in shame
I didn’t dishonor
The family name

I played a song
That’s been done before
No one knew
Or even wanted more

(first chorus bridge)

(chorus x2)

MP3

police.mp3