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If I Had A Dollar (The Cliché Song)

from Suburban Hermit Musings by John Tabacco

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Words and Music © 1987 by John Tabacco and Gian DiMauro
Published by It Iz What It Iz Music (SESAC) / Slip Code Technolgy Music (SESAC)

In 1987 Gian DiMauro came up with a few keyboard ideas which I thought were great. One of them being the song Fantasy’s Are Safer which is now a classic. The other, a cool idea we called The Digit Fin which is referenced in the gospel song The Digit Fin Revival 1998 on the Dryer Than You’ll Ever Be CD and the song No Use Waiting Around, found on the Music Box Orphans CD. It was these three songs which really inspired the idea of forming a group we called The Gearhead Freaks. We just did not know that yet until 1995. Anyway, somewhere around ‘87 Gian came up with these cool chords and I took them home and formed a song around them which I quickly demonstrated on the Akai 1/4 inch reel to reel. It was off the cuff, bizarre, sarcastic and kind of catchy. I always liked it. Not sure where Gian stood with it. And consequently, the piece never saw the light of day until 2010. That’s when for a simple microphone / level test, I went in and knocked out a mono drum track singing this piece in my mind. Amazingly, it turned out very similar to the original demo just better fidelity and I changed a few words. The phase “Off to buy Los Bagels” was something Nick DiMauro said repeatedly (in his best Donald Fagen voice) during our road trip across the USA in a red Suburu. It was a stupid phrase but it filled in the gap over that Steely Dan-ish B major 9 chord. A marvelous chord Gian and I would use to end every Gearhead Freak song when we played live. The middle section uses chords similar to Stevie Wonder’s Secret Life Of Plants (intentional) and I end on a D/C chord singing the word “cold” referencing the Akai song Cold & Empty.

lyrics

IF I HAD A DOLLAR

I’m not a stool
I’m just a stealthy guy
I play the game by myself
You think I got it made
Somebody tips ya
and you’re on your way with a gun in hand tryin’ to track me down
I know your subtle breath
Your shrouded scent of evil
And how you cast all those spells every night

Fans think you’ve got it down they think you’re golden
But if they knew your true agenda you’d be tarred
Every promise in you only leaves a scar

If I had a dollar for every time you lied
I’d be the toast of the town
If I had a dollar for every time you lied
I’d be a rich man

Off to buy “loss bagels”
I’m not cool
I’m just a quiet guy
There isn’t much I have to say
I got my little world the simple things that get me
through the day and you’re not welcome anymore
I don’t care I broke the lock and changed the door

If I had a dollar for every time you lied I’d be the toast of the town
If I had a dollar for every time you lied I’d be a rich man
Off to buy “loss bagels”
Now how can a fool still love you when this fool is certain the love’s lie?
Is the fire that’s reigning down on the pilot there to taunt the flame from dying inside?
Twisted emotions point to suicide
Oh beat me!

If I had a dollar for every time you lied I’d be the toast of the town
If I had a dollar for every time you lied I’d be a rich man - yeah...
If I had a dollar for every time you lied I’d be a rich man
I’d be a bitch King

Where are the changes?

Cold.

credits

from Suburban Hermit Musings, released March 31, 2015
JT : Vocals, Drums, Bass, Keys, Cheesy Guitar
Recorded and Mixed at Suburban Hermit Studios II, Stony Brook, NY

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John Tabacco Stony Brook, New York

John Tabacco is a composer, singer-songwriter, producer, recording engineer, and visual artist.

Like an unfolding musical diary / puzzle, Tabacco’s music and art are constantly being re-worked, juxtaposed and intertwined.

For more info : www.johntabacco.net ... more

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