exaggeration and tall tales galore

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Where thrills are cheap and love is divine

Every once in a while I come up with awful, simplistic poems, the kind that kindergarten kids could do. In their sleep.

For example:

If you were staring at the stars
Well, hey,hey!
I was staring at them too
And it's cheesy, I admit
But I was thinking about you
And this onerous to-do
Of not forgetting
Not forgetting you

And while the poems are mostly for private amusement(and also private bereavement, as they are reminders of how I can't write even halfway decent poetry), sometimes I imagine that these are the lyrics that will be incorporated into a lovely, generic, guitar-strumming pop song (I was thinking Colbie Caillat). The song will be a hit, the kind that becomes the soundtrack of a pivotal scene in the season's hottest tv series, is the week's most downloaded song on Itunes, and remains in Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40 list for months. As the official lyric-writer, I'll earn my cut of profits, which will be massive.

And therefore, while I have no poem-writing talent, I can console myself by thinking about all the millions I'll make.

I was walking home from the library with my MP3 player on shuffle, and Kings of Leon's Dusty came on. I have to say this, and I am sorry if this is inappropriate, but it is one helluva sexy song la wei, tolonglah!It's just the whole vibe of the song, the blues-y feel, the repetitive drawl of the guitar,the complementing bass, fuh. It had me thinking slightly mischievous thoughts, I couldn't stop smiling at my shoes. Must have looked like a total idiot.

Great song, great song. Infinitely better than any of those try-hard songs that try to shock you with their explicitness.

Cuaca sekarang semakin dingin
Aku sering ditiup angin

And those will be the first two lines of the song that will be sung by Siti Nurhaliza and be the smash ballad hit from her umpteenth album, which will make it to number one on Carta Hot FM, win Anugerah Juara Lagu, and lead to a sequel concert at Royal Albert Hall.

Excuse me while I bask in my imaginary wealth.

4 comments:

Al said...

i always come up with the most inane (but secretly genius) lyrics in the shower,or on my drive to work,and always write them down.

and likewise,they're always meant as jovial,carefree pop songs.it'll be sung by miley cyrus and we'll be admired by millions of preteens worldwide.what crappy dreams we have lol

mostlyepiphanies said...

rick dees and the weekly to forteeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ah, I'm all nostalgic.

Here's to that siti nurhaliza hit!

youchiyagami said...

What's with the obsession with complexity and sophistication?

Don't be fooled by insecure writers trying to sound 'deep' by producing confusing riddles.

Am I the only one who thinks there's absolute elegance in simplicity?

p/s: if I tell you that Siti just launched a cosmetic line call SimplySiti, will you take it as a joke or a truth?

Atiqah said...

al, we're probably destined be the spinal cord(we can't be the backbone, I think that goes to the tune-writers) of the tween-pop music industry. Crappy dreams or genius ambitions? haha

aijud, I have memories of doing homework in the bilik prep at the aspuri, listening to rick dees' and waiting for my favourite songs to come on. Memang nostalgic!

It's only a matter of time before I kidnap Siti and force her to read my lyrics, whereupon she will be blown away and immediately get Ajai or Adnan Abu Hassan to make a song for it.

youchiyagami,woah, slow down there, partner. Who said my definition of a good poem is a complex one ridden with bombastic words? Of course there's elegance in simplicity, all I'm saying is that I don't think my poems reflect that.

I would take SimplySiti(it took me a second time reading this to notice the wordplay,hahahahaha) as true, it doesn't seem so far-fetched an idea. Plus, I then googled it.