Did A Lot Of Stringing Last Night

One of the best things the Fabulous Monster introduced me to in Sydney was a band called The Deadly Nightshades. They’re a pub band in and around Sydney, but they’ve put out three CDs now and their shows are the most fun you can have in a pub without goats. This is a song about their new guitar-stringing roadie dude. It’s to the tune of their song Did A Lot Of Living Last Night. I wrote it during one of their concerts — when the muse strikes you gotta go with it!

[March 2000]

Did a lot of stringing last night, yeah
Strung a lot of gee-tars all right, mmmm,
Now I got a lot of healing to do, yeah,
Cos I broke a lot of fingers in two, ooh.
And I wanna be learning everything, yeah
I wanna be learning:

How to tune, how to string
Where to put everything
To do it all in nothing flat
Be as quick as our boy Matt
Why the stand fell on the floor
Manipulation’s such a bore
Why the strings are made of steel
Fingers I no longer feel

Did a lot of stringing last night, yeah
Strung a lot of gee-tars all right,
Now I got a lot of healing to do, yeah,
Cos I broke a lot of fingers in two, ooh.
And I wanna be learning all the tricks, yeah
I wanna be learning:

Every move and every swerve
Every time I lose my nerve
Make a mess? Say “Ha ha”.
So what if Bill plays air guitar?
Brendan chucks his spare to me,
Every string is flying free,
Gotta twist, gotta strain,
Chopped a finger off again!

Dismembered…
Dismembered…