MacGuffin Baby

Preface: I fully encourage people to make their own meanings to songs. They are no less valid than the artist’s original intention. As such, I try and make my lyrics vaguely vague where possible.

So my last song “A History of Violence” was a little heavy and the last article possibly even more so and to be honest…that’s not Goth.

Goth is not just about the dark side of life and romanticising about vampires lying in coffins full of blood red roses. It has a levity to it too. It is a very self aware sub-culture when done right in my opinion. Obviously Goth is different to each person - something I wrote about in a previous article I may post here some day - but to me Goth is able to have fun with itself, for instance liking “Spooky” things. It’s impossible to be scared of something that calls itself “Spooky”, it’s so campy like a cartoon Halloween special. Things like cabaret that have the dark element but also try to and have a little fun with life. It’s like a constant attitude of “We’re going to die someday, but I’m not going without a smile”.

And that’s where we’re at with “MacGuffin Baby”. This song is my tongue in cheek jangle pop love song. My “Blue Jean”, my “Mint Car” or my “Hong Kong Garden”. A lighter element amongst my pretty dark repertoire. Whilst I enjoy the reputation I have garnered as a Goth, one of my greatest joys is comedy. Growing up on Joe Pasquale, Eddie Izzard and Al Murray, I only took up playing guitar in the first place to start writing comedy songs like Stephen Lynch or Tenacious D. Whilst I don’t think I’m quite ready to start releasing things that light hearted as of yet, they will always be part of my evolution as a writer - you have been warned!

“MacGuffin Baby” started rather unusually for one of my songs. I was cooking in my kitchen at university and deep in a wikipedia hole and learnt about MacGuffins used in films - essentially an object in a story that is necessary to drive the plot, but has no relevance to the story itself. Like the Holy Grail in the story of King Arthur or possibly more famously (sadly) Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase in “Pulp Fiction”. That briefcase caused a whole chain of events in that film, but we never find out what was actually in it. Why? Because it wasn’t relevant. Would knowing that it was diamonds or a lightbulb or a big kahuna burger change anything that happened? No. The director just needed a reason for Jules and Vincent to go to that house and shoot Brett (spoilers…although if you haven’t seen it by now like…that’s on you).

And that idea just kind of struck me. As I wrote about in my previous song articles I love the idea of atypical relationships and here it was like “Well what if you were the MacGuffin in a relationship?”, like someone who was just a vehicle for their partner to have in life. Just there because everyone is “supposed” to have someone. I imagined how lonely that must be and the MacGuffin person craving attention so much they wanted their partner to just smother them. I managed to get in one verse before nearly burning my chicken.

Call me MacGuffin

Cause I’m everything you want

but you want nothing

En Garde your so Avant

I had just visited France and had been trying to incorporate more multilingual language into the song (more about that in my “Greedo” article when it’s written). To me it meant when the partner has their guard up about the relationship it shows forward thinking and being prepared for the relationship to end. But also it was kinda just a good rhyme for want.

After finishing dinner I had to finish the lyrics, I felt like I had something here. And I was not letting that MacGuffin - Nothing rhyme go to waste. I was so fucking proud of that! As I was writing it I was getting strong vibes off an old song I had called “Byron Baby”. Something I wrote because I just wanted a song with baby in it. It’s not a word I use often but I like the kind of 80’s innocence it has. I could never get that song to work though, so I reworked some of the words from it to become the second verse of “Macguffin”, which then became “MacGuffin Baby”.

I had half a melody worked out and from there it just kind of flowed. I wrote the next 2 verses in one sitting just trying out different phrases that popped into my head following a similar style and it was done. Who even needs a chorus?

Well…I did.

But I didn’t know it yet.

Those 4 verses just sat on my phone notes for a while gathering dust. Or whatever happens to old files on a phone. It wasn’t until a few months later things started to come together. I discovered dream pop after a vapourware hype I went on during my university studies. Nice chill music to help me work. And one song that would come up a lot was “Change Your Mind” by Castlebeat. I loved the atmosphere it created and wanted to recreate it in my own style. So playing with a few spacey open chords I came up with a two chord rhythm part. I went over my various lyric lists and found that the lyrics to Macguffin worked really well, but the song became a bit of a dirge. I had to put in a chorus. I’ve always struggled with catchy choruses, it’s just not the kind of thing I listen too. I like songs that evolve and tell a story more like I did with “A History of Violence”. I make things too wordy and too long to be catchy, but you don’t learn by not practicing. I shifted the the song up a gear taking the nice dreamy open chords to more standard open chords that you’d find in 90’s alt-pop songs - Your Dsus2’s, your Cadd9’s and what have you, Something to give the song more of a leap and a bit more of a singalong. I also experimented with a split chorus, although that is where the experiments kind of ended. I have an awful habit of using the verse chords for R.E.M’s verse chords in my chorus and resolving it to an F Barre chord. I make small variations each time, but it’s something that I’m making a conscious effort to stop after this song. You can also hear it in “Dearly Mist” and “Take Your Tolle”. It’s such an ear worm of a progression.

I played the song a few times acoustically at a couple of shows and it quickly became a favourite for me and the audience, so I had to get it recorded and this is where the song - rightly or wrongly - took on new life. Whilst I’m a huge fan of dream pop, I can never seem to get the tone right. After recording the music I found the song sounded a bit more like “What You Know” by Two Door Cinema club and whilst I have nothing against them as a band, their sound is not really something I want to add to my brand. I try adding a synth sound to get more of a Pulp or The Oddz sound to it, but still couldn’t get it to sound as dreamy or relaxed as the acoustic version. Rather than try and fight it, I thought I’d lean in to it and have the song become my “Wild Mood Swings” style song and to be honest I’m kinda glad I did. It’s received a warmer reception than I expected and though I wish I had recorded real drums for it I think the drum machine gives it a funky feel that I don’t think I would have got from a drummer. It’s on my list of songs to re-record along with “Con Victed” and “Dearly Mist” if I ever reach the re-mastered stage of my career, but it’s a product I am unashamed of.

As long as my mum doesn’t listen to it anyway…