The Joker (demo) by Dark Company.
Album: Signmaker
Bonus track!

THE JOKER
I look out from this scratched and faded view
Makeshift repairs instead of getting new
Don’t you ever get tired of tracing all the wires
Knowing that the switches won’t switch for you?

I work at the job that’s easiest, you see
Paying rent instead of living free
Don’t you wanna be bad instead of just being sad
Finding out you can be you instead of me?

The Joker he stares proudly at the wall
He can be who he wants to be
But he don’t wanna ‘be’ at all
He’s an empty Harlequin
With colours growing dim
And he struts about inside his little world

I keep up with the latest lines of talk
So I can ride instead of having to walk
Don’t you like the fashions that gotta little passion?
Being daring takes an extra bit of thought

I sleep with one eye fixed upon the clock
Waiting for the Reaper’s ghostly knock
Don’t you keep the days checking which ones can stay
Using them for your story’s clever plot?

The Joker he stares proudly at the wall
He can be who he wants to be
But he don’t wanna ‘be’ at all
He’s an empty Harlequin
With colours growing dim
And he struts about inside his little world

★

Lyrics by P. Greatorex.
Music by G. Davies/P. Greatorex/B. Ballard/S. Malpas.

Performers:
Peter Greatorex – vocals
George Davies – guitar, bass
Simon Malpas – trumpet
Ben Ballard – drums 

Recorded, mixed and produced by George Davies at Silent Running Studios Exeter, Autumn 1991.
Remastered at Wud Records Studios 2010.

Originally released March 1992.
First re-release June 2000.
Second re-release 16th December 2010.

Cover Art:
Bite Me! by Peter Greatorex

Copyright ℗ 1989 Pig Pen Music.
Copyright © 2010 Wud Records.

Fun Facts:
* This song is very closely related to Armed & Dangerous as they both share the same tune in the verses.
* George considered this tune-sharing conundrum a challenge and set about making this song and Armed & Dangerous appear to not be all that similar after all.
* The tempo is 138BPM and the key is B minor.
* George composed and recorded a demo of the guitar part whilst looking through Pete's lyric book during a marathon 72-hour session of studio work.
* Ben recorded the drums at the same time as George’s guide guitar track, which was played on the Ice Maiden plugged straight into the mixing desk.
* George was attempting to give directions to Ben throughout their performance.
* When Pete laid down a guide vocal track, Simon was rehearsing his trumpet parts in the background.
* If you listen carefully, you can hear little snatches of his horn being picked up by the vocal mic.
* Some of it is rather wonderful.
* George then added a guide bass track on the Plank, which in those days was tuned as a standard bass guitar.
* The bassline was unplanned until its recording, and has since become a main feature of the song.
* There is a touch too much trigger flange across the cymbals and liberal amounts of delays from the Alesis Quadraverb in this rather fun and dubby mix.
* Even the click track makes a tastefully calculated occasional appearance!
* It is not certain why this recording of The Joker was never finished.
* We felt that it has a curious merit all of its own, despite a few musical blunders.
* This demo version of The Joker was first included on the Signmaker album for its first re-release, in March 1992.
* There is a subsequent version of The Joker by Dark Company on their Alien Heat album.
* When Pete became too ill to perform in 1994, his replacement Andy would sometimes sing different and rather comical lyrics.

See also:
https://www.wudrecords.co.uk/artists/dark-company
https://www.explicitmusic.co.uk/lyrics-information/dark-company/signmaker/the-joker
https://soundcloud.com/wud-records/dark-company-the-joker?in=wud-records/sets/dark-company-alien-heat
https://twitter.com/Dark_Company
https://www.facebook.com/Dark-Company-154909774522910/
https://www.instagram.com/wudrecords/
https://twitter.com/WudRecords

Signmaker

The Joker (demo)

Download

Dark Company: The Joker (demo)

These recordings are all demos.

Interested in the dark side, the quirky side, but mainly in that buttery biscuit bass.

Bassist and composer from Belfast.

Fancy a collaboration? Drop me a line.

We're a rock band from France. The band is composed of four members with various musical orientation.
Rob the bass player likes the metal, Cyril the singer and sampler likes Rap. Alex the drummer likes Metal/world music/Alternative and Grotskor the guitarist likes Punk Rock/Reggae/Rap/Electro.
Grotskor, Cyril and Alex like tamper with the sound and do some electro.
We hope you will like our musical universe and share it. Welcome in our Moons Sound World

Contact: info@wudrecords.co.uk
SC don't do support so we're leaving, slowly. UK/EU rock label since 1984. Demos, oddities, archives, WIP. Releases on Bandcamp etc. AI-free zone. All reposts shared to BlueSky and 'X'.
Wud! You have just been wudded. ;-)

We're very sorry but we're still unable to reply to SC messages. We can read them but cannot reply. Please email info@wudrecords.co.uk instead. We answer most emails within a week.

ACTIVE ARTISTS:
Flicker, Dark Company, Pok the Bard, The Bastard Sons of Dennis

LEGACY ARTISTS:
Alchemeon, Clonk!, Dr Watson, The Ug Brothers, Alien Heat, Rough Terrain, The Subterraineans, The Addled Eggs, The Masters of Drone, Laughing Sun, Wud, Lemming Meringue, Sirius Rising, Now, Fooog Dinboffin and the Release, Mark Drower and the Everyones

ARCHIVE ARTISTS:
Andromeda, Critical Error, Dayglow, Demon Groove Lizards, Ember, Fruit Bats, Goodstaff, Guarana, Murdock, Prism, Pyg, Recluse, Search Party, Spacegoats, Stephen Yates, The Chillun, Watershed

* For DIY musicians:

Looking to grow your fanbase? Here's a proven strategy for success. It's a bit time-consuming at first because you need to work at it often. However, the awesome results will make it worth your while:

http://www.wudrecords.co.uk/miscellaneous/be-discovered-on-social-media

That article was published in March 2017. While some of the links may no longer work, the theory absolutely will. Try it for yourself!

* Unfortunately...

Due to brexshit, broken britain, rip-off britain, corruption, lies and bias in the media, bigotry, racism, intolerance, polarisation, the fact that some of our family members would not be allowed to remain post-brexit, state-sponsored child trafficking (yes, that's right, we said it - it's pretty shocking, start reading from here if you don't believe it: https://forced-adoption.com/), an increasing sense of frustration and exasperation, and general total weariness of being treated with nothing but derision, ignorance and contempt by the entire shebang since the early 80s, we decided enough was enough and moved our entire operation from brexeter in the uk to begin our grand brexodus in 2017. We are now brefugees, living in brexile very near the border of the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany. If you live in (the crumbling remains of) the uk, do yourself a favour and leave. The upgrade in life quality will blow your mind.

* What do we stand for as a label?

We support all independent musicians who are doing something we find interesting. Our team members all have formal music education qualifications.

We are against corporate brainwash muzak, their puppet friends in the mass media, and many other corporate activities. We will fight their desecration of music until either it stops or we die. 

We believe in helping others in the face of corrupt laws and a broken system. We are pro democracy, green energy and free speech.

We're politically liberal. We cannot support the republicans, maga or gun violence in the usa. We don't see there's any real difference, other than in name, between the christian far right in the USA and the taliban in Afghanistan.

In the uk we are broadly pro LibDem/Green/Labour/SNP. We are VERY anti-tory, bnp, ukip, and any of their friends and associates. We have no trust at all in the uk right wing press monopoly and the bbc. Beware the bbc and its claims of neutrality. It is the propaganda mouthpiece of the tory party. It even charges a propaganda tax called the licence fee. But we like Test Match Special and Radio 6, so does that make us hypocrites...? Hmm.

We support independence for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Cornwall. We support the individual and the underdog. We are anti-putin and his war, and pro-Ukraine.

Please notice the careful use of capitals. Capital letters imply respect!

We're only interested in the colour of your soul. Not your skin, hair or socks.

We like cricket! Most of us support Somerset County Cricket Club.

A full time, freelance children's book illustrator, introduced to Magix music making software in January 2014.  Haven't been near music production since school about a hundred years ago.  Can't play a note, and sing like a drain unblocking - Hence any music I may eventually have the nerve to upload is all created using midi/vst instruments playing compositions created in the piano roll editor.   The Magix forum dedicated to music production is the only place to suffer my creations so far.  Didn't realise it could be so much fun though.  Woohoo.

Join me and a lot of other artists at www.atomcollectorrecords.com.
Get more plays for your tracks and meet a lot of awesome people!
Cheers!

∩┐(◣_◢)┌∩┐
A moonbow (also known as a lunar rainbow or white rainbow), is a rainbow produced by moonlight rather than sunlight.
Donations:
Tinman.eth
moonbow.crypto
Moonbows are much fainter than solar rainbows, due to the smaller amount of light reflected from the surface of the moon. Because the light is usually too faint to excite the cone color receptors in human eyes, it is difficult for the human eye to discern colors in a moonbow. As a result, a moonbow often appears to be white.[1] However, the colors in a moonbow do appear in long exposure photographs. (Source: Wikipedia: Moonbow)