JPF Home Page Forums Lyric and MP3 Feedback MP3 Feedback Forum I Want To Be A Member Of The Liberal Elite

I just realized that I accidentally posted this on the Music Video section, so I'm now putting it where it belongs. I tried to delete it from there, but that doesn't seem to be possible.

Comments, advice and suggestions welcome as always.

Click to listen on SoundCloud



Here are the lyrics, but it's probably more fun to just listen to me trying to sing them fast enough LOL..

I WANT TO BE A MEMBER OF THE LIBERAL ELITE

I want to be a member of the liberal elite
Will somebody tell me where they meet?
I bet there’s always something good to eat
When the liberal elite meet

They wouldn’t let me into the NRA
When I said all them dead kids seemed a high price to pay
So I wouldn’t have to wait a whole day
To buy another gun

Oh the liberal elite, the liberal elite
I want to be that guy
Tuned to NPR in his hybrid car
And who can really rock a bow tie

Watching Fox news, me and my dad
Shouting at the screen and getting real mad
But the doctor says our blood pressure’s bad
And we need to watch something else

Now we chuckle at Colbert and that Seth Myers
Is funny as heck, and it transpires
Those folks at Fox – their pants are on fire
And the smoke is bad for your health

Oh the liberal elite, the liberal elite
I want to be that guy
Who removes his glasses, exuding class as
He discusses the issues of the day

I want to know merlott from cabernett
Sauvignon and have an accent that’ll get
Me into the smart intellectual set
Where I belong

To cultivate an air that’s haughty and aloof
To see George Soros’s cloven hoof
Make new friends like reason and truth
See what admitting I’m wrong feels like

Oh the liberal elite, the liberal elite
I want to be that guy
Who makes it to the end of the opera and pretends
He wasn’t praying for them all to die

But who are these smarty pants, do they exist outside the rants
Of Limbaugh and Hannity, an invention of insanity?
Applied to those who like to think by those who don’t
By those who like to hate to those who won’t
I’ve fin’lly learned to say merlot and cabernet
Wave my glasses in that intellectual way
So to learn they don’t exist would be a most unwelcome twist
Please tell me where to find them, I really must insist

I just want to be a member of the liberal elite
Won’t somebody tell me where they meet?
I bet there’s always something good to eat
When the liberal elite meet

Oh the liberal elite, the liberal elite
I want to be that guy
At the end of the song, who was kidding all along
Unless I’m very badly wrong, I already belong
To the liberal elite

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Gavin,

This is an exceptional write. Clever and funny from start to finish. No "throw away" lines. Solid.

Very much in the Tom Lehrer tradition.

Would have like to hear this with "a little less band". The sax gets in the way of the words...they are too good to have something "stepping on their toes".

(Or a lot less band - just a well played piano as most of Lehrer's stuff was...)

This is really good.

fj

Gavin,

A very clever and witty write! Tons of killer lines throughout. I agree with Floyd the backing music seems a little too busy and takes away a bit from the singing. Not that it's worth opening up the hood on the write--because it's pretty darn good--but my personal preference would be to have a little more of a rhyme scheme with the last lines of each verse--you come close on "health/else" and "like/die". It might give the song a bit more structure as well as the listener hears it. But just my two cents for better or worse.

I bet this would be a lot of fun performed live! Thanks for sharing.

Best regards,

Deej

Thanks Floyd and Deej. That means a lot, coming from you guys.

I take your point about the busy arrangement. I wanted it to be kind of a loose and chaotic klezmer style, but I may have gone overboard. Lyrics and melody tend to come relatively easily to me, which is not the case with arranging, recording or mixing. Sometimes I might concentrate so much on those aspects that I lose sight of the song itself

I'm going to wait and see what other comments I get, but I'm inclining towards keeping most of the instrumentation but turning down the volume in sections, so that it becomes less intrusive and more just texture.

Floyd, I could certainly see this performed with just a piano. If I was a far better pianist, I would feel tempted to do a version like that.

Your suggestion with the rhyming might be a bit difficult to pull off. The last line of each chorus has to rhyme with "guy."

Hello Gavin,


Good fun/well done


ha ha------

Oh the liberal elite, the liberal elite
I want to be that guy
Who makes it to the end of the opera and pretends
He wasn’t praying for them all to die


Calvin


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/calvinstewart

Wow! That is a tremendous write. Zero filler just one creative/cool line after another.

However, this is obviously a product of the Deep State

Gotta send this link to some friends.

Kudos!!!

J&B

Thanks Calvin and J&B. Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to write.

Not really a product of the Deep State, J&B. I have applied for membership there, but haven't heard back. To be honest, they don't sound like nearly as much fun to hang out with as my old pals in the Liberal Elite. I'll put in a good word for you, if you want to join.

So much to enjoy in this but the part about shouting at the TV really hit home. My husband can get so wound up watching the news, I swear there's someone else in the room that he's arguing with but, no, it's just him and the nightly news. I'm not good in the arrangement area but yours did feel a bit busy...maybe it's just a matter of bringing the vocals more upfront, or the music more in the background, like you said. It's the lyrics that make this song so showcase them. Well done!

Ricki

Thanks Ricki. Glad you enjoyed it. I'm a bit torn on the arrangement. I like the chaotic, anarchic quality that the screaming sax gives it, but can appreciate that it might be a bit much. I just uploaded a new version, where I took the volume of the sax down a bit, except at the very beginning of verse 2 and in a couple of other spots where there is no singing. I like it better, but others might not even notice.

We've all probably done a bit of shouting at the TV in our time LOL. Fox News long ago realized that making people angry, often for no real reason, was good for business and, in the case of their audience, really easy. I picture lots of people like the character in the song bellowing at the screen at the latest manufactured outrage, perhaps bursting a blood vessel in their fury, which could be a real problem since they voted against being able to afford to get it fixed. An exaggerated image, of course, but it makes me chuckle.

Should I laugh or cry?

What a smart, funny and relevant lyric! And the Klezmer style works well for me. This seems like a song made for a Broadway musical.

Either would be appropriate or should that be

Mike, if you promise to come and see it, I would probably have an audience of one.