I can’t believe it’s taken me three posts to get caught up after going silent during the lockdown. I had nothing but time on my hands and I didn’t waste it, that’s for sure. When I put up the video of Absent Friends and people really responded to it, it gave me an idea….why don’t I do a whole EP like this? I thought it would keep me busy and I liked the idea of turning something so bad into something positive.

I already had one original song and I’d been spending my time learning a lot of traditional folk songs, so I thought I’d write one more original and include three or four trad folk songs that where in the public domain (no copyright issues). The song I wrote was called She passed out on the floor…

She Passed out on the Floor

This song began as a slow finger picking part that I’d written for guitar. I kept playing it over and over and started to hum a bit of a melody, but I had no ideas for a song. I wanted one more song for the EP, but I wasn’t sure what to write it about.

My inspiration came when I read an internet post about a case of sexual assault where some guys had gotten in trouble because they stood and watched as the assault took place. Obviously they argued that they had no part in it, but that defence didn’t work out so well for them.

I had a similar experience when I was in high school. A girl I knew got very drunk at a party and she passed out on the basement floor. There was a guy there who a lot older than the rest of us (dating one of the girls upstairs) and he was a big local drug dealer and thug. Anyway I was trying to get the girl to the bathroom and stop her choking cos she had started to vomit up the whiskey she’d drunk and this guy approached. I assumed he was going to help, but he very quickly started proposing we could do what we wanted to her and she’d never even remember.

My first instinct was shock and I told him to just fuck off. I got the girl to the bathroom and she had come round enough to know where she was and to hold herself up. This guy was still lurking and he tried to convince me again. I lost my temper and I punched him on the jaw, but he was much bigger and stronger and the fight didn’t go well for me.

I wasn’t as badly hurt as I write about in the song, and my friends didn’t hear things and come help either, but it had rattled him and made him realize he wasn’t getting through me so he left. He went back up stairs and acted like nothing had happened. No one at the party would help get her home, so I walked her home and that was that.

I felt I could tell this story over the finger picking part that I was working on, so I started jotting down some lyric ideas and tried to find a title/hook. I also recorded the chord sequence and used that recording to construct a solid melody on my mandolin (something I do a lot now).

The arrangement for the song is quite simple. I sing over the finger-picked guitar part and the melody is supported by a mandolin. There is also a simple stand up bass part throughout the song. Later in the song I introduce some violins and an accordion.

The recording is structured like a triangle. It starts with only guitar, mando and vocals and after each couple of verses a new instrument is added. The middle part of the song is the peak where the last instrument, the accordion joins and from then on I take away instruments until it ends with just mandolin and guitar.

The song consists of four verses and I repeat the first verse again at the end of the song. The first verse contains the title/hook of the song, which is why I decided to repeat it again at the end as a nice way to tie things up and relieve tensions. The song follows the story and builds with the tension as the story unfolds. The second to last verse is a kind of a moral summing up of the story. I think it’s a cool song, because it’s just telling a story it’s not trying to be catchy or anything like that, it’s a nice piece of music which follows the flow of a story. Heres the lyrics…

She had a bottle of whiskey
A kind I never saw before
Twas branded with the Devil
And they called it Fireball
She drank it down and laid her down
I thought she was no more
But she threw it up muttered fuck
Then she passed out on the floor

A gob shite who shared me name
Spied this from the hall
With a grin said let’s dig in
She won’t remember this at all
He was twice me size with crazy eyes
But I never missed a beat
Upon his chin I belted him
And knocked him off his feet

He quickly stood himself back up
And wiped the blood away
He said ok you little fuck
Come on then let us play
I cannot lie he blacked me eye
Two ribs the bastard broke
But all that noise summoned the boys
And the bastard gave up hope

Me father always taught me
To never hurt a girl
He said we must protect them
He said they meant the world
So lads don’t ever stand by
And idly watch it done
Stand up tall prepare to brawl
And be your fathers son

She had a bottle of whiskey
A kind I never saw before
Twas branded with the Devil
And they called it Fireball
She drank it down and laid her down
I thought she was no more
But she threw it up muttered fuck
Then she passed out on the floor

I’m gonna leave it here for now, I guess we’ll be having a part four to the trial size apocalypse. Next time I’ll briefly discuss the release of The Quarantine Sessions and I’ll talk about another song I wrote during the lockdown.

Cheer!
Chris