My Friend, Scoobert
Political dread and overdrawn brain: Rome fallen, lead in the water, body under siege: then a plea to Scoobert the persona: hanging on, will you be my friend?
Listen: SpotifyApple MusicBandcamp
ISRC QZK6Q2207676 (soundexchange)
Track three on Finding $D, Luke solo, and the debut LP’s first turn from gag into political loneliness. The title names the ask. Scoobert is the invented friend, the persona the project would wear for years, and here he’s the friend you make up when the world won’t hold you.
The verses are 2017 collapse poetry: Nietzsche, fallen Rome, and Flint-era poison (our water’s full of lead) stacked next to a glancing Arjuna, don’t kill again, which borrows the Bhagavad Gita’s pacifism-versus-duty knot. Culture-war noise and the right to my body land in the same breath. The pre-chorus boils all of it down to a shitty little brain that’s overdrawn, which squares with the Last Day Deaf-era talk of raw chaos next to precise moments.
The actual song lives in the chorus: hanging on, I barely am… will you be my friend? The bridge loops if we could love, then we could be friends until it slides into then we’d be my friend: friendship with the self, by way of the character. Same move as What a Velma What a Night, only darker.
A live version later appeared on Live from the Void (2020). FEiN rerecorded the song as Friend (2018 single): shorter, theatrical pop, no Scoobert in the title, steel your mind and though I know I am in the chorus.
Pairs with My Meddling Kids (Hallelujah Sexy) on the same LP and leads toward Damned and Mother of Exile before the lore dump on $WAMI$.
Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Luke Francis Walton.
Lyrics
He's a motherfucking senator Telling me to live in the real world Rome has fallen God is dead Our water's full of lead What a fine world He's a tyrant-loving elephant Ivory is a worthy commodity Arjuna, don't kill again Baby, steal your mind against deities These deities Got no time Got no space My shitty little brain is overdrawn Hanging on I barely am I could use a friend Not alone Though I'm sure I am Would you hold my hand This pressing silence Silence all wrong Hanging on I barely am Will you be my friend? Be my friend He's the model of minority Saying we should round up an shoot em History of sodomy Negotiate the right to my body This body Got no time Got no space My shitty little brain is overdrawn Hanging on I barely am I could use a friend Not alone Though I'm sure I am Would you hold my hand This pressing silence Silence all wrong Hanging on I barely am Will you be my friend? If we could love, then we could be friends If we could love, then we all could be friends If we could love, then we could be friends If we could love, then we all could be friends If we could love, then we could be friends If we could love, then we all could be friends If we could love, then we could be friends If we could love, then we'd be my friend Hanging on I barely am I could use a friend Not alone Though I'm sure I am Would you hold my hand This pressing silence Silence all wrong Hanging on I barely am Will you be my friend? Will you be my friend?