Songs: Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

notes / gigs / releases

Like Black Bolt with a cob on
You sit there in a sulk
While everybody else is down the pub
If you think your time's spent better
Doing research in your room
You are not Mr Fantastic, you're Doctor Doom
So Victor, just for you
Here's a universal truth

Being happy doesn't make you stupid
Being clever shouldn't make you sad
Having fun will never turn you daft

Do you believe sarcastic sneering
Is the best way to react
To a rotten world only you understand?
If the planet's all that awful
Then don't you think you should
Try and use your mighty power for good?
It doesn't take a Cosmic Cube
To see that what I say is true

Being happy doesn't make you stupid
Being clever shouldn't make you sad
Having fun will never turn you daft

Put this message in a bottle
Send that bottle back through time
I know someone who could use this advice
Hey there Emo Boy give us all a smile
Hey there Emo Boy give us all a smile
Hey there Emo Boy give us all a smile
Hey there Emo Boy give us all a smile

Being happy doesn't make you stupid
Being clever shouldn't make you sad
Having fun will never turn you daft

We spend all our lives trapped inside
A prison made of bone
The sound of laughter says we're not alone
We're not alone
Don't be alone
You're not alone

Being happy doesn't make you stupid
Being clever shouldn't make you sad
Having fun will never turn you daft

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

The chorus came first for this one, I THINK whilst I was on holiday. It's something I've wanted to write a song about for AGES - i have met a LOT of people who think the key to being INTELLIGENT (or, perhaps, the key to making people THINK you're intelligent) is to be a moody sod all the time. The THEORY, as I understand it, is that if you Truly Understand The Nature Of The World then you would be SAD, and be above such foolish notions of laughter or GAGS.

Obviously i think this is a load of old bollocks - I've usually found that the more INTELLIGENT someone is the more they a) like a LAUGH and b) UNDERSTAND JOKES enough to LAUGH MORE. As far as I can see LAUGHTER is an inbuilt response to UNDERSTANDING something - when we GET a joke, for instance, we make a noise that means "Everyone else! I understand this!" That, ACCORDING TO ME, is why we always laugh more in groups, because we are COMMUNICATING with each other.

I may well be saying The Blindingly Obvious, or i may be REVOLUTIONISING SCIENCE, i don't know, but that's what I think.

So yes, i thought I'd try and write a song to get this idea across, and made a note to DO so. A week or so later I was sat at home playing with the brand new guitar that The Laughing Eyes With My Smile had just bought, and came up with a NICE but VERY simple guitar riff. "I wonder what song ideas I've got OPEN at the moment?" I thought, looked on my list, and INSTANTLY sang the chorus. DONE!

HOWEVER, it all got a bit TRICKY after that, and I had MANY tries at writing the verses. The main problem was that, in a song about how it's NOT extra clever to be sarcastic and mean, the words kept coming out in EXACTLY that way. Little BITS kept popping up (like the "Emo Boy") section which were trying to drag it in other directions AWAY from the point of the song, and I had to keep starting again when it got on track. At one point it deviated WILDLY into a whole other song about how people get trained at school to pretend they don't know the answer (as if you put your hand up too many times you get ignored by the teacher AND get your head kicked in in the playground) and so go through life NOT sticking up for themselves or their own ideas, but that'll have to be another song another day. SIMILARLY, once the first line LANDED and I'd LARFED about it I tried to SHOEHORN in yet ANOTHER idea for a song featuring Marvel Superheroes - there's still quite a lot of that in there now, but be GRATEFUL that my attempts to find a rhyme for "The Watcher, Uatu" (or rather, a rhyme that'd make sense in the song) came to NOUGHT.

EVENTUALLY I'd got about three songs worth of different bits and pieces and so sat down with PAPER and a COMPUTER to bash it all into shape... and found that, actually, if i simplified it things seemed to work pretty well. I often seem to try and cram too much into a song and end up DIMINISHING what I meant to say, but I think I've got it OK on this one. We'll see when/if it gets recorded I guess, and also hopefully find out how well the (I RECKON) ACE GUITAR LICK (LICK) works that I've been playing non-stop for the past two days. Personal Prediction: QUITE WELL.