Songs: Sod It, Let's Get Pissed

notes / gigs / releases

I've got a meeting tomorrow, I should be alert
I should try getting in early, I should iron a shirt
But I'm having such a good time talking to you
I flatter myself, but maybe you are too
And we've been working for most of our adult lives
They can take away our daytime, they're not having the night
It's unanimous - that's it
Sod it, let's get pissed

Let's get lathered, bladdered, hammered and trashed
Let's get tanked up, tipsy, sozzled and smashed
Let our livers know they've lived
Sod it, let's get pissed

I know I'll be hungover, it'll probably hurt
But there's more to life that what you do at work
You see, tonight could be the night
When we set the world to rights
It would be selfish to go home and get a good night's sleep
When we could be preventing World War III
We owe it to The Kids
Sod it, let's get pissed

Let's get lathered, bladdered, hammered and trashed
Let's get tanked up, tipsy, sozzled and smashed
Let our livers know they've lived
Sod it, let's get pissed

And it would be unpatriotic if we were to ignore
The fact that Government's relaxed the late night licencing laws
The whole economy depends
On you getting them in again
I'm getting blotto for blighty, let the nation applaud
When I'm pie-eyed, pickled, merry and as drunk as a Lord
By now you'll've got the gist
Sod it, let's get pissed

Let's get lathered, bladdered, hammered and trashed
Let's get tanked up, tipsy, sozzled and smashed
Let our livers know they've lived
Sod it, let's get pissed

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

This turned up pretty much out of the blue, and feels so easy and obvious to sing it sort of feels like cheating. It started arriving right at the very end of Leytonstone Tube Station platform 2/3 one morning and gradually appeared over the course of the next few days. I think it started because later that week I was due to go drinking with my former Voon colleague Mr Simon Wilkinson who I'd not seen for ages. I was very much looking forward to having a silly tiddly night of talking rubbish and indeed I was not disappointed.

The bit about it being unpatriotic not to take advantage of the licensing laws came to me as I walked behind St Paul's Cathedral one lunchtime, having just popped over to see the great big sun thing at the Tate Modern - cosmopolitan eh? The chorus took the longest to sort out, and involved me writing down every synonym for "drunkened" I could think of, before looking it up on the interweb to find a few more. The actual tune didn't turn up until November 12th, 2003, two days after the lyrics were finished , and again it's so easy and obvious it felt like I should add something difficult into it, just to say sorry.

I recorded a demo version and sent it to the band, but they never quite got into it. I think they thought it was a bit too simple, I don't know really, but unlike so many songs they've rejected this one refused to die. For a very brief time we were supposed to be writing some songs for a TV show which eventually never happened, and this one was put forward for it. I still liked the song though, so when the idea of doing the Zipcodes cassette came up this seemed like an obvious candidate, and I think it was one of the first songs I recorded for it, with full stomping "band" arrangement.

I played it live a couple of times and though it seemed to go OK I was never hugely happy with it, and a little while later, when I was thinking about re-learning some old songs to liven up my solo set this one rose up once more. I came up with an Excitingly Different way of playing it, tried it out at my first two solo gigs of the year, in Sheffield and Brighton, and liked it so much that it very nearly got recorded again as an extra b-side for the next single. That didn't happen but I DID record a demo version of this new and much livelier version during my first session at Studio Sonic, to give The Validators ONE LAST CHANCE of coming round to liking the song.

They still didn't. Still, at least this time i had a proper useable version of the song, so when those lovely lads at Cowboy Democracy got in touch to ask for a song for their next compilation I was able to FINALLY pass this song out into The Realm Of The Released, where it has always belonged.