Goodbye Johnny

[Pru]

a sort of play on words of an old chuck berry song.

Cross my heart and hope to die
My happiness eclipsed by your guilt
Sick to death of your negativity
All is wrecked as soon as it's built.
So goodbye Johnny you were never that good
Take your X-box, take your electric guitar
Go Johnny go in your electric car
You got nothing much under the hood
Goodbye guitar man. Be good.

You once stood before me with pale thin arms
Mumbled words and a thousand yard stare
Gregarious now; girlfriends on speed-dial
All our personal stuff laid bare.
So goodbye Johnny you were never that good
Take your books and Trivial Pursuit
Take your banjo and take your medieval lute
Take your dulcimer and that funny piece of wood
Goodbye guitar man. Be good.

You got your online presence and your smart wristwatch
I've got my life-learned lessons
I thought opposites attract; I guess I was wrong
In future I'll trust my first impressions.
So goodbye Johnny you were never that good
Venomous remarks yelled over your shoulder
Hate speech on the tongues of the beholders
I'll let all my friends know you were a dud
Goodbye guitar man. Be good.

[thetworegs]

Excellent lyric beautifully performed loving the sound of the acoustic

[the physics teacher]

Wow, jet another perfectly sung song and what good lyrics.

[Zoltan]

Such clever and fun lyrics. I'm glad i didn't write them. I couldn't have resisted the temptation of ending that "Take your banjo" with "And stick it up..." ahem.

Those vocals sound as beautiful as ever. Kinda unfair for Chuck Berry. Nothing he ever did was this evocative and airy.

A great song!

[kenny mac]

Listened to this several times yesterday  in my car ,what an excellent performance.
I love the clarity of the acoustic guitar and the vocals are superb.
When the backing vocals kick in they are spot on.
The lyrics tell a great story.
Right down to the doo doo vocal at the end I love it.
Looking forward to more of your compositions.

[Ted]

I heard this in one ear, on my headset, when I was walking in the neighborhood doing some errands. I came back to listen in headphones.

This is about the sweetest sounding "fuck-off and die" breakup song I've ever heard. I like the accordion sound. Would be interested to know how that was produced.

They lyrics reminded me of this old lyric of mine:

But did it work out like the astrologer said it would, was it in your astrological chart?
You threw the jerk out, with all of his pretensions, his bicycles and his African art.

Although "Cross my heart and hope to die / My happiness eclipsed by your guilt" is really an excellent lyric. The rest of the lyrics are unambiguous. But that line, right at the beginning, really set the hook and reeled me in.

[Mike_S]

A great listen Pru. I really like your voice. The production on this is great too, the guitars really sparkle

Mike