In mid 2009 I started remixing the songs that make up this album. The version of Fragile which we had recorded was a bloated monster of a song which clocks in at an extravagant 5 minutes and 45 seconds. I wanted to create a new edited version which trimmed away all the extraneous waffle and focused on what the song was originally intended to be: a three-and-a-half minute pop song with a minimum of fuss and as simple and uncomplicated as possible. No more than four guitar chords. Five at the very most.
I deleted the sprawling almost two-minute-long intro, the newly recorded 30-second outro, and also removed two-thirds of the second guitar solo. This new edited version clocks in at a much more respectable 3:18 and is far closer to the original streamlined vision of the song. When performed acoustically, it becomes even shorter (under 3 minutes) because we never do any of the guitar solos.
Both the long, extended version and a newly recorded acoustic version can be heard on the Fragile EP. Download them for free here:
idiotmagnet.bandcamp.com/album/fragile
For the record, this song only has five chords.
G, C, F, Em and D, in case you were wondering.
I'm too good to leave, I'm too bad to stay.
You're fat and you're ugly and you don't care anyway.
You've got me round your finger, I can't say a word.
Now is the Pinter of our discontent.
Now isn't that absurd.
Life's a box of chocolates, fireworks and rockets.
Putting fingers into sockets and death threat notes.
It's hard enough to listen when your eyes begin to glisten
And something seems it's missing.
Put my hands around your throat.
You've decided you don't want me; fine, leave me alone.
You beat me to the punch and yet you cling onto the bone.
I'll chase your ambulance no more.
Your simple promise of solution.
You're the windscreen-struck believer
In the face of absolution.
You're not content with living with the world or with your new man.
"It's good to be alive," you say, "but it's bad to be a human."
Your suffering's so adrenal.
You angst for your endorphins,
Cause the world has got it in for you,
But it's me you've got your claws in.
