"The new cure-all sensation that's sweeping the nation! I call it..."
Well, it wasn't originally called 'Placebo' but then, originally it was supposed to have been a Huey Lewis knockoff! But then, these songs tend to morph uncontrollably once I start hammering away at the keyboard... so, once it had congealed in my head, I began laying this one down and, wouldn't you know it, it quickly turned into a DEVO cum 'Weird Al' mishmash with a gooey Reggae center! Lots of fun, and we needed an uptempo new-wavey number. After the song was blocked out, I wrote the keyboard solo around a lick that I would actually have a chance at being able to perform live at that tempo.
This was one of the last tunes to be finished for the CD 'In C.O.G. We Trust'. We quickly decided that it was the perfect candidate for a music video, which we taped at Jeff's apartment complex (right before it started raining!) and in Touro hospital after hours. A local Jewish Community Center filled in for the hospital exterior. A little bluescreen shooting in the Lab substituted for live footage that we had intended to get the previous week at Twiropa, where we had premiered the song. As usual, Jeff edited the video and I conformed it and finished it, with a temp mix that Jeff had prepared. I added a couple keyboard stabs (in a parody/tribute to 'Hush' by Deep Purple) and prepared a slightly thicker, more guitar heavy mix for the CD version.
Oh, and this was also the first song off of 'In C.O.G. We Trust' to be played on Dr. Demento, on January 2nd!
lyrics
You wake up in the morning and you're feeling kinda ill
So you go to see the doctor to get some kind of a pill
And the doctor looks at you and says it's all up in your head
So he hands you a prescription and tells you to go to bed
You think the medicine he gave you was a hoax! (Placebo!)
In the condition you are in you don't have time for stupid jokes
Please tell me what the hell this is I am eating? (Placebo!)
If I had wanted sugar pills I would have gone out trick-or-treating!
So you wake up the next morning feeling worse instead of better
And you notice with the pills the doctor had enclosed a letter
Stating that you shouldn't take these pills with food or drugs or beer
And you're thinking that it's time to end his medical career
Is it fraud or just malpractice, well it's both! (Placebo!)
It's a hipocracy against the very Hippocratic oath!
Now you're not just sick, you're also quite annoyed! (Placebo!)
The efficacy of this treatment is completely null and void
Your friends all think you're getting carried away
These things take time, you should give it one more day
In a few hours you'll be feeling so nice
Then you get the doctor bill and see the stratospheric price!
synth solo
Now you're walking up to give the doc a big piece of your mind
And then suddenly you feel a quaver deep in your behind
Everybody's staring at you as you charge across the floor
Heading straight in the direction of the nearest restroom door
When you barge into the bathroom there's your doc
He's got some news for you that nearly puts you in a state of shock
He says he's got some different pills he wants to give you
Because it wasn't a placebo, it was lax-a-tive!
credits
from In C.O.G. We Trust,
released November 13, 2004
Drums...........drumbot
Guitars.........Jeff King
Bass............Jim Fairchild
Synthesizer.....Lewis D'Aubin
Lead vocal......Lewis D'Aubin
Backing vocals..Lewis D'Aubin
Recorded and mixed 2003 at C.O.G. Secret Lab, Harahan LA
These guys ROCK... and they have an awesome spaceship! This may be because we have not yet stolen the aforementioned spaceship, but of course that still doesn't change the fact that they ROCK. Consortium of Genius
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