The one song that became something completely different than what it was when I brought it to the band–something infinitely better–is “Prizefighter.” We have these friends, Miles From Land, who we’re all honestly really big fans of, and after we came back from playing their CD release show in Boston, I was listening to their EP nonstop for weeks. Supersaturation like that always makes me write something that reeks of its influence. I wrote it and recorded the bare bones of the song to some electronic drums and emailed it to everyone, then I forgot about it and gave up on it being anything worth working on.
Then Johnny (our former drummer) started coming to practice again, and we fucked around with it twice, creating a verse and chorus and outro structure on the spot that I had never thought of or intended when I came up with the boring main guitar part (which, incidentally, doesn’t appear in the song half as much as it did at the beginning). After that, the lyrics kind of wrote themselves. I wanted to write a song called “Prizefighter,” and I bullshitted the outro lyrics during practice. I still think they’re kind of heavy-handed, and my idea for a pretty literal video for the song has been shot down on more than one occassion.
he had a dream, but he had a life
he gave up the ring to have a wife
and he got a good job digging in a ditch
when it got deep enough, they pushed him in
“act your age!” they told him
and he fell right in line
you’re old as you feel, they say
and so he up and died
and the gloves were hanging
alone in the basement
a lone rememberance of who he was before
he had a dream, but he’d rather die
hung from the ceiling by his tie
when she left, she took all that he’d had
gave him back the ring, made him see red
“settle down!” they told him
but he had other plans
none of them could hold him
his heart was in his hands
and his gloves felt like old shoes
that fit like they used to
a lone reminder
of who he always was
come out and play
come out and play, prizefighter
play
come out and play
mama’s little prizefighter,
come on out and play
you’ve wasted your life away
get up before you’re down
for the 1, 2, 3 count
