“Why Do You Torture Me?” lyrics and music Marc Gunn
Performed by Marc Gunn
from Why Do You Torture Me? (single)
* Why do you torture me?
Oh why… Do you Request a song that I can't sing?
Why do you torture me?
Oh why… Do you wanna hear a song I can't sing?
Believe me when I say that I am happy you like this song
It makes me smile when you light up at the chance to sing along
The problem is I read the lyrics in the studio as I recorded it
I haven't played the song since then, Never thought that you'd look forward to it
You ask me for a Christmas song in the middle of July
What's wrong with you? Why that song? Do you want to make a grown man cry?
Don't get me wrong. I'm proud I wrote it. But that was my old band.
Good satire sure, but it's not a great song. You're the only one to make that demand.
I'm pretty sure I know most of the lyrics to your fine song request
But as I sing, I forget the punchline my eyes dart around in distress
If I gonna screw up the words to a song at least let it be great
Cuz the chances are I played it enough that it least I'll make it out the gate
Background
I was performing at the Maggie McGuinness Pub for my second year in Marietta, Georgia in 2017. I loved playing at that pub. They were extremely generous to me, bringing me out once a month to play Celtic songs. And that's mostly what I played.
However, as time went by, the people who showed were fans of my funnier songs. Chris, in particular, was a regular follower of The FuMP (The Funny Music Project). I posted a comedy recording of “Christmas Time in Texas” by the Brobdingnagian Bards when the site started. He LOVED that song. No matter what time of the year it was, he requested me to play it.
The problem is, the Brobdingnagian Bards officially broke up in 2008. I stopped playing the song a few years before then because we didn't have any Christmas gigs. Yet, he KEPT requesting the song.
It was that Fall of 2017 when he requested the song. I was in one of THOSE moods. I decided to improv writing a song. Fortunately, I recorded that show. I was able to remember the melody. A couple months later, I had an early recording of the song.
This song is about more than that one Christmas song in July. It's about every song request that musicians don't remember.
There are so many songs I recorded in the studio. They never ‘worked' live. Yet, they lived on on albums, but as live performance pieces they were dead.
Thank you Chris for keeping a fun song alive. At the same time…. CURSE YOU!!!!!!!
Why Do You Torture Me Video
from single
from Halloween concert promotion
Credits
- Marc Gunn: autoharp, vocals
- Nathan Deese: saxophone
- Rich Brotherton: guitar
- Richard “Nox” Miller: percussion
Mixed by Rich Brotherton, Ace Recording
