Friday, October 12, 2012

The Cat is the King!

One of my very first gigs on Fiverr was to write a custom song. The customer said that their wifes birthday was coming up and that he wanted to have a song written for her from their cats perspective. They gave me a couple pages of information on the various attributes of the cat. This was quite a challenge as I wanted to make the song clever, fun to listen too, relevant to the their cat. So I wanted to capture as many of the things they told me as I could. But I also needed it to tie together well as a complete song and not just a bunch of random ideas. Well I can't say that there was really any magic formula to do that. I simply read, read, and reread their message, over and over. Played with so many different lines. Deleted, edited each line of the song. Added lines, removed them. Rearranged them. I also played with many different chord progressions and ideas. I was trying at first to write it for guitar. But I though I hadn't used the piano for a while. Low and behold I finally came up with an idea. The final product is sort of a cat believes he is kind type of thing. Which I imagine all cats probably think don't they?


Once I got a groove going on the piano, next was the melody. As I was trying to get this done fairly quickly I improvised most of the melody and just learned it by doing it over and over again. I must have sung it about 50 times before I got it just how I liked it! 

I'll upload a video of me singing it soon, as on this gig the customer gave permission. 
I also realized going forward that I would make it my standard policy to retain the rights to the song and recording unless special payment was made to the contrary. 

Take a listen to it here! Don't worry, I wrote the song and was given permission, and the song doesn't give any information away about their identities



Opie
Lyrics 
I’m Opie
Love me for all the work I do around here 
You might help a little bit too. 
But aren’t just so you grateful I'm near 
You’re in my noble presence 
angles smiled, when I came into existence 
so you can understand my persistence when I say.
I'm the king, but I don’t get enough food 
I’m on the top of the ladder, 
So it’s time to make a dinner platter dude and fill it up 
With ice cream, pop tarts, cheese, 
chicken, chips, and soup, come on please 
I'm starving you didn't feed me yet.
(Bridge)
I am the best at judging with simple looks 
I'm a the master, just read my books! 
For all this education, I don't ask much 
I just expect, the following perks
I want my own 
5 star kitty restaurant, Hey! 
So I can feast each day 
I'll invite my girl Kitty Soft Paws. 
Cause she gives my heart pause. 
I’m high class! I think Sinatra would agree 
(Outtro) 
I'm the only one you'll need, 
ok I guess sis can stay too. 
But just take a look at me. 
And I Know you'll agree 
and If anyone says different I'll just say nooo.

Cat image used via CC BY-SA 2.0 license from the following location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orange_tabby_cat_sitting_on_fallen_leaves-Hisashi-01A.jpg


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