BRIAN SEYMOUR ...STORIES FROM THE CATALOG

I Go Happy
Bonus Track, A Thousand Tarzans (2000)

Several years back, I played two shows at the Viper Room on Sunset that made the phone ring. This guy who saw the second of the two shows wanted to know if I would write a song for a commercial placement with the word happy in it. So I wrote a few songs for him and he chose this one and agreed to pay for the recording sessions. It didn’t get picked up by the client, so I decided to add it to the Japanese release of “When I Was Blonde” as a bonus track. Months later an acquaintance in NYC called to say that his advertising firm heard the track and wanted to use it in a commercial. So it goes.
 
The campaign ran for several years featured in five separate tv and radio spots.
It remains a popular song at live shows, it still makes me smile each time I hear it.

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I Go Happy

Come on shake awake and sing
The time is right up for anything
Trying on something new
So fine there’s nothing I can do

I feel alright
This is my day
Nothing can stop me
Just you watch me

As I go happy
Surprise it’s a brand new me

It’s me it’s you the things we do
It’s you it’s me a life so sweet

I feel alright
This is my day
Nothing can stop me
Just you watch me

As I go happy

Best friends and everything
I love you if that’s worth anything

I go happy

c. BAMU PUBLISHING ASCAP 2011

(Source: brianseymour.com)

I Don’t Believe in You
Track four, When I Was Blonde (2002) 

Guitar players come and go; some stay too long, others leave before you are ready - Todd, the guitar player on this song was the latter. His Memory-Man-washes help to make this track. I discovered this song more than wrote it. I recall that we were over-caffeinated on an ordinary, but rather hot, afternoon in the cramped upstairs rehearsal space of Todd’s trinity in Queen Village, simply putting chords and words together when I happened on the opening chords. It really just took a few hours to find the entire tune - some songs seem to form out of the ether, this one was a gift.

 
The recording was masterfully shaped by Edan at Soundgun. Everyone came to play on this one, I love everything about the sound of this recording, e.g., witness Freaky’s single note piano jam in the bridge.

What might read as bleak on the page, should resonate more as a provocation to shake awake and reject an inauthentic life.

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I Don’t Believe in You

Waking up in the middle of someone else’s dream
Blinded by the symbols naked on a Pepsi street
Focused on the repetition of every scene
Tired of pretending playing happy

No more living this way
Nothing grows nothing changes
Gotta turn off my TV
Gonna step outside and breathe
This is something I must do, to find one thing that’s true
Gotta call up all my friends
Learn to love them all again
This is something I must do, now I don’t believe in you

Kicking at the embers in search of a flame
Trying to remember when every day was not the same

No more living this way
Nothing grows nothing changes
Gotta turn off my TV
Gonna step outside and breathe
This is something I must do, to find one thing that’s true
Gotta call up all my friends
Learn to love them all again
This is something I must do, now I don’t believe in you

Had me where you wanted me I was numb, couldn’t see
Getting past the little screen was everything

Gotta call up all my friends
Learn to love them all again
This is something I must do, to find one thing that’s true
Gotta turn off my TV
Gonna step outside and breathe
This is something I must do, now I don’t believe in you


c. BAMU PUBLISHING ASCAP 2011