The writing of this song came out of a conversation I had with my sister and brother in law, when we were on holiday in Sutherland in 2002. We were talking about what song we'd like played at our own funerals, great topic for a holiday conversation, eh! I decided that I wanted a song called "I'm not Dead", I think that's what I may have wanted on my gravestone too. Well, as I was not aware of there actually being a song called, "I'm Not Dead", I realised that I had to write it!
This was recorded over an incredibly long time. The guitar and percussion (if you can call me hitting two saucepans with a pen, "Percussion!") was recorded in my old flat in Marchmont, I think, sometime later in 2002. The bass was then played by Darren in Ian's flat in Leith in, again I think, 2004 sometime. I managed to squeeze some more of Darren's time out of a Cylinder's recording session that day. I think we recorded the keyboards using Ian's Dad's old keyboard, the same day.
However, I was still stuck for a lyric, and, searching for ideas when I was in the pub with my neice and nephew and their friend in Edinburgh at Christmas, 2005, we wrote some lyrics down on various bits of beer mat and old Christmas cards.
The song was finally finished in San Jose in the summer of 2006, where I finally finished the words did the vocals. The lyric kinda scares me now. I'm really not dead, really....
Ahm No Deed MP3
Writing Credits
I hummed most of the music and Ian interpreted it, I wrote the lyric.
Instrumentation
I hit two saucepans with pen (percussion), played Ian's Dad's old keyboard and did the vocals, including the scary whispery vocals.
Ian played his old faithful Kay guitar, which is now languishing in a storage locker in Edinburgh
Darren played his bass
Recorded in Marchmont, Edinburgh in 2002, then Leith in Edinburgh in 2004, then San Jose in California in the Summer of 2006.
Lyric
i don't know what your all doing here
cos i'm really oh so terribly near
i was just out for a walk
what am i doing in this wooden box
Chorus -
I'm not dead, so can't you see,
it's not very nice to bury me
I'm not dead, so can't you see
It's not very nice to cremate me
I'd just like to see a doctor
or drink some really holly water
i'm not ready to finish yet
why has this funeral been set
I don't want a sermon from a priest
i just want to be released
cos im the one you really miss
come and get me out of this
You don't need no scientific boffin
to prove i'm not dead inside this coffin
even though i'm lying very still
it does not mean i'm terminally ill
Those doctors are really thick
they will never hear the end of it
how could they way i was dead
they must be really strange in the head
They say life is one big trip
this can't be the end of it
I'd give you over twenty pounds
if you didn't put me in the ground
Even if I have some regrets
don't want to leave this life yet
i haven't had nearly enough time
in heaven, do words have to rhyme?
Thank you for coming to this church
how could things have got much worse
How could you have got it in your head
that I was totally dead
There's bound to be a party after
where you'll all praise me to the rafters
But you shouldn't be here at all
cos I'm not even really cold
your day I didn't life to spoil
please don't put me under the soil
or to feel those flames around me
i'm still alive, can't you see?
