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Pop-punk band from Orange County, CA
Song Info
Genre
Charts
Peak #86
Peak in subgenre #5
Author
Marc Morcos / Mario Morcos
Uploaded
May 08, 2020
Track Files
MP3
MP3 4.7 MB • 320 kbps • 2:04
Lossless
WAV 20.8 MB
Story behind the song
A Wonderful Life is probably the simplest-structured (if thats a word) song I ever wrote. The song was basically written the night of December 19, 1999. I actually had to look at the paper again and make sure I had my dates right cuz I cant believe its almost been two years! I still remember that night so clear, and it seriously feels like only a few months ago. Anyway, that was the night I went Christmas caroling with my youth group. I always thought those events were fun. Especially back in the day when we used to go to the priests house afterward for dinner. Anyway, something happened that night between me and someone else that put a gray cloud over the rest of the evening.
Later that night, we drove my friend Tymour home. His house was right next to this girls house that I used to like. When we drove by it, I saw a For Sale sign on her front lawn, and I got even more depressed. I felt things were changing and leaving me behind. When I got home around 11 something that night, I was in the mood to write a song. So I sat down and picked an old tune I already had from before, and I decided to write to that. I wasnt really sure what to write about, but then the line "Memories, sweet memories" just came to me. So I took it from there.
It wasnt really hard to write. Within a half hour, I basically had the whole song done. The only line I didnt finish was the last line: "But overall, its really been a wonderful life." I mean, I had ideas, like saying, What a wonderful life, and saying something about overall, but I didnt have the line complete where it would fit perfectly into place. Anyway, I loved the song so much, that I kept playing it on my guitar till after midnight.
That night, I never wrote anything down on paper. I turned the Christmas lights off, kept the lyrics in my head, and went to bed with them floating there - a really stupid thing to do cuz you always think, Oh theres no way Im going to forget this, but you almost always do. Lucky for me though, this wasnt one of those times. So the next day, I got my piece of paper out to write down the lyrics I had thought of the night before. As I got ready to write them down, I sang the song to myself. Thats when I thought of the line "Moments of life passing," which I liked so much, I decided to use instead of the line I already had. So I wrote out everything I had so far in my head down on paper, and then I took a 10-minute break to watch something MTV had on Britney Spears. After that, I started thinking about the song again, and it was then that I thought of the closing line, "But overall / Its really been / A wonderful life."
Finally, the song was complete. It was short, but I thought it was a cool and different type of song that didnt need a chorus or anything. Anyway, when I showed Mario the song, he liked it a lot. He then asked me what the name of it was. I told him that I did not know, but I was thinking of calling it either Wonderful Life, or What a Wonderful Life. Mario said if I just called it A Wonderful Life, it would sound good. I liked it - really simple. So thats what we decided on.
Originally, this song never repeated. It was only after some time, maybe after months of playing it, that Mario told me the song should repeat and come in heavy with distortion, drums, and bass. We tried it, and it sounded really good. So from then on, thats how we played it.
I really like this song a lot, but the only thing I really regret is that we didnt add higher octaves during the second part. We thought of a lot of cool ideas in the studio for our songs, but what sucked was that I didnt think of doing those octaves on this song till the very day we finished the CD. as we listened to it on the way home from the studio. I really wish I thought of it earlier, because I think it would have really added so much more to the song. I guess its too late, so whatever. But when we re-record..... [Full story at www.DrowningFish.com] -Marc Morcos
Lyrics
Memories
Sweet memories
Moments of life passing
I shed a tear
For the warmth they bring
And the void they place in me
Some times were sad
Some times were tough
Sometimes I broke down and cried
But overall
It's really been
A wonderful life
