Sometimes you just gotta take the piss right? Well, on this particular occasion I happened upon an online competition which asked entrants to submit some music for use in an advertisement that was for a luxury German car. The only catch was that they couldn't tell us which brand it was for. So I figured, if I didn't know what brand it was for, I'd hedge my bets and create a jingle that was for every German car. To complete the track I brought in my good friend and occasional collaborator, Mr Bram Presser, lead singer of Jewish punk schlock band, Yidcore, to lend his gritty vocals to the proceedings. To our chagrin and enduring horror, we never heard back from them. Anti-semites! :P

Here are the lyrics;

It's Made In Deutschland
Words & Music by Adrian Elton

It's a car
It's a very fast car
A German car
Yeah it's a very German car
It'll take you to a million places
Put a smile onto a million faces
This car
That's made in Deutschland
Oooooo-wooo-ooo
It's made in Deutschland
(insert car name here)

It's Made In Deutschland

Sometimes songs reflect our experience like a particularly shiny mirror. And sometimes it's a complete act of invention.

In this situation, as often is the case, I sat at the piano and the initial motif fell out of my hands. I recorded it on the iPhone and there it stayed until I later recorded it, a little more formally, in Logic Pro. From there I composed the bass line, which was later re-performed with my 1964 Hofner 500/1 violin bass.

To that end, the piano motif reminds me a little bit of the Baroque stylings of Vampire Weekend who are a firm favourite.

From there based on the theme prompt of 'broken', the rest of the song quickly composed itself with a gentle slap and tickle from your's truly.

I played everything on this including the incredibly complex finger snaps (*jokes*) as well as the bowed double bass.

It’s a little bit interesting from a songwriting perspective in that it’s just the one motif and underlying chord progression on repeat. The challenge being to build up the melody and arrangement in such a way that it never feels wearying on the ear.

Particularly proud of the sonic fatness of the Hofner bass guitar too. It's absolutely obese.

See the lyrics below >

First World Problems
Word & Music by Adrian Elton
Copyright© 14 January 2021

Intro

Verse 01

When I told you I was empty
And that I couldn’t feel a thing
You took my hand
And you crushed my fingers
It was a brutal reckoning
		
Chorus 01		

‘Cause all I got
Are these first world problems
My heart is broken 
Don’t you feel it too
And now I’ve got
A hand of broken fingers
Was such a vicious way
To say we’re through
Was such a vicious way 
To say we’re through

Verse 02

When I told you I felt lonely
Like I was frozen to the core
You took my soul
And you crushed it slowly
As you read pages from the ‘Art of War’

Chorus 02

‘Cause all I got
Are these first world problems
My cart is broken 
And my horse is glue
I’m going nowhere
‘Cause the hurt still lingers
Such a malicious way 
To say we’re through
Such a malicious way 
To say we’re through

Outro

Such an officious way
To say we're through

First World Problems

AdrianElton

Related tracks