Congratulations to Moxy. As well as being declared a "genius" on Dave Gorman's radio 4 show of the same name, last night she won the "lyrics" competition at Overdrive (Phoenix Theatre, Bolton). The competition was judged by Dave Morgan who was given all the entries without knowing who wrote them so he was as surprised as the rest of us at the result.
Unfortunately Moxy couldn't attend the event but asked me to collect the award on her behalf and the cheque is in the post honest Moxy!
Paul

Oh brilliant. Well done Moxy lyrical genius.

Thank you -- I'm absolutely thrilled to smithereens and totally tickled puce! What an absolute honour! I am now practicing blowing air kisses through a trumpet whilst trying to pass it off as circular breathing. I can honestly say I am still in shock.

Not as much in shock as the musicians who have been given the challenge of turning your lyrics into a full song!

Perhaps you could put the lyrics here so everyone can see them.

Here it is --
The title is a nod to Prince's (Squiggle's) song 'Raspberry Beret' which I have never heard. The title makes me taste felt and tiny glass beads.

RASPBERRY SPACE CADET CAP

I’m on a course of
Recombinant bovine somatotropin
The chemical they give cows to make them lactate
My milk is intended for a specialist cheese outlet
As a gift for those Extraterrestrials
Who share their advanced technologies
With the Western Alliance
My herd consists of five men and five women, two of whom are Colonels.

Strike an inverse Faustian Pact, why don’t you?
Scissors paper and stone.
It was paper that wrapped up the sanguine career
Of ‘Scarface’ Al Capone.

Acne scars are prized by Martians
And there is a scheme to ensure the clear-skinned teenager
Is a thing of the past
So that Earth provides sufficient envoys
Negotiators, hostages and marriage partners
To secure any kind of dealership
With the ‘Rolls Royce’ of spaceship makers
Next year they hope to sign a treaty allowing access to those engineering
secrets…

Strike an inverse Faustian Pact, why don’t you?
Scissors paper and stone.
It was paper that wrapped up the sanguine career
Of ‘Scarface’ Al Capone.

My car’s already wired with
Martian neurochemical processes so it’s as
Nippy as a UFO over Phoenix
And the headlights sear holes in metal, and the transmission
Takes out all electrical activity for a radius of ten miles
Sucking the energy into the battery so it’s very cheap to run
Farewell sat-nav, the steering is a manifestation of my intent,
Problem is, the Extraterrestrials are dyslexic and written words are banned.

Strike an inverse Faustian Pact, why don’t you?
Scissors paper and stone.
It was paper that wrapped up the sanguine career
Of ‘Scarface’ Al Capone.


-----------------------------------------

well played Mox

how they gonna sing it!


yaaaaaaaaaaa

Well done Moxy!

Thank you so much. It's all down to the inspirational James Hartnell inviting me to have a go -- Overdrive is innovative and brilliant and incredibly supportive of new work.

Congrats Moxy!!! Thats so cool!

Haha Moxy, Tom Waits meets Ray Bradbury meets Spike Milligan meets Franz Kafka, you could have knocked me down with anything extremely light, say a feather, when I realised you'd won. I didn't even know who had entered the competition. However I feel you'd like the Runner-up Sugar Beet Suite, an East Anglian tribute to New York's Peppermint Lounge I think, perhaps Janes can put up the lyrics.

Dave

The full results of the OVERDRIVE Lyrics competition are:

1st Moxy
2nd Andy
3rd Bill

There were 9 other entries, all of which seemed pretty good to me, Dave Morgan did the judging and only found out on the night who had written what.

2nd and 3rd lyrics are here:

THE SUGAR SHAKE BEAT
You can do The Sugar Shake Beat.
When you kiss my lips, sweet sweet.
You can shake your hips – like this…
When you’re dancing down the street
To the Sugar Beet Suite, that’s bliss,
Sublime, sweetness – little sweet Miss.
Yeah, that’s neat! Up outta yer seat!
Now you can do, The Sugar Shake Beat!

Go do The Sugar Shake Beat
Down at - The Sugar Beet Suite.
Yeah, you can dance, that’s neat,
Go do The Sugar Shake Beat.

If you wanna look cool, sweet chic.
Make me look a fool, sweet sweet.
You can shake your hips – like this…
This time really move your feet
At the Sugar Beet Suite, sweet bliss,
Red wine, sweet lips - little sweet Miss.
Hey, that’s cool! Who you gonna meet?
That’s what I call, The Sugar Shake Beat!

Chorus

The Stones were rolling out the beat.
Made Brown Sugar neat, sweet sweet.
You can shake your hips – like this…
When you’re groovin’ to the beat
Down The Sugar Beet Suite, sweet bliss,
One step, two feet. Little sweet Miss.
You’re really dancing at the Suite!
All stand up for, The Sugar Shake Beat!

Happy Ending

1
Jesus knows the market
so he sang some Jesus songs
‘bout the prophets born again
and the voice of Baptist John.
The notes all hit the spot again
the weak found they were strong.
yeah, Jesus knows the market
wherever he belongs.

CH: He’s number one again, he’s stormed the charts.
He’s come on strong again, unchained our hearts.
Love is alive again, your tears now joy.
He’s number one again: Mary’s boy.

2
Jesus knows Jamaica
so he hit some reggae licks
rapped the blues with beat again
tunes of St. Anne’s sticks.
He turned up music’s heat again
with revolution songs.
Yeah, Jesus knows the market
and he knows his rights from wrongs.

CH

3
Jesus knows that music
is the highway to our soul
driving country tunes again
with hiphop rock n roll.
Cliff and Bing they croon again
and we all sing along
Yeah, Jesus knows the market
so he sang some Christmas songs.

CH

Further info on this sort bof writing can be found on ye olde nette by googling bbc radio two sold on song or mususmuse.com or the International Songwriters Association.

OVERDRIVE is proving to be a very useful outlet for creative writing, music, cinematography and dance. Watch this space.

Who's Al Capone? I've been away.
And well done, Moxy!
Julian

Sugar Beat Shake and Happy Ending are fab -- both are original, funny and beautifully structured! It's great to have the opportunity to read them -- thanks for posting them, James. And I received my grand certificate and the 'considerable amount of money' today -- holy moly, it felt like Christmas had come early, as they say!
Al Capone was America's most infamamous gangster, virtually untouchable until he was prosecuted for tax fraud -- a 'paper' crime was his downfall, something written down that was a lie. Oh yeah.

I knew that really. His dad was Al Capop a notorious supplier of bootleg mineral waters to underarm drinkers who only got into the speakeasy by lying about their height.

And very, very well done Miss Moxy!