“Dollar Bill” - a song about malum necessarium
Story Pairing
I wrote this song years ago while I was at a work conference in Las Vegas. I will say right away that Las Vegas is not for me. It’s about as far away from a nice walk in the woods as you can get. That particular conference I was added as a last minute addition to do some event coordinating and video editing. Because of that, there wasn’t a room for me, so I ended up having to share a room with my boss at the time. He had this massive suite, with two living rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a kitchenette (so almost two)… but only one bedroom… So, because he was going to have clients up there and didn’t want me to be sleeping on the pristine couch, he got a roll away cot and put me in this tiny little coat closet sized room that I guess is just for when you get a massage. It sucked. Bad.
In the evenings he would go network and I would crawl from my Harry Potter bedroom and video edit by the windows. Now close up I don’t care for Vegas, but from a high rise at night, it’s a gorgeous place. Most cities are from a bird’s eye view. I would always travel with my Taylor GS mini in those days (I think Dan Socha has it right now, change the strings Dan!), and between edits and while videos were encoding I would noodle. This is a song I wrote in that gorgeous hotel room while watching all the little ants run about to try and make/lose money, get laid, get drunk, or all the above.
A positive note, my boss left two days before me, so I got that room all to myself. Those two days were bliss. I racked up a pretty big sushi bill on the room charge. I also took the fancy robe home with me out of spite. I maybe wore it once. It’s in goodwill somewhere now.
Song Structure
Verse: E - A7 - E - A7 - E - A7 - B7 - A7
Chorus: A7 - E - A7 - E - A7 - E - B7 - A7 - E
Voice Memos
No Notebook Page
2018
Lyrics
Dollar bill in my pocket
You are burning quite a ho-o-o-o-le
Dollar bill in my pocket
Won't you please slow down
The other side of that glass wall
Things I wanna kno-o-o-o-ow
Can’t buy a thing if you aren't around
Dollar bill can you see
That your just no good for me
Dollar bill, dollar bill, dollar bill in my pocket x3
Dollar bill can you see
That your just no good for me
Dollar bill, dollar bill, dollar bill in my pocket
Solo
I know I said some bad things
Baby please dont go-o-o-o-o
Beg and plead, if that's what it takes
Without second chances, mama
How’m I gonna gro-o-o-o-ow
Here's my last dollar, please pump the breaks
Chorus
Solo
Chorus