A Tale of Two Chokes: Choke 1.0
Once upon a time there was a teenager in college with angst who wrote a song called Choke about some dudes that weren't worth it...
I wrote Choke in the piano room I checked out at Hedrick Hall at UCLA. My uncle Renny finally agreed to work with me and instructed me to write four songs for a demo. The music came easily but the lyrics were tough because I wasn't in a relationship but I had all of this angst and disappointment built inside that I needed to unleash. So I thought about You Oughta Know and was like, you know what? Screw all those dumb dudes from the past who thought I wasn't good enough, they can go choke.
The first version of Choke was produced by my uncle. I played the lead synth part but he programmed the beat, the bass line and other sounds. He used a loop for the chorus and he played it manually on the drum machine so it would stop where he wanted it to. It was so cool watching him get the timing just right. I had so much fun recording this song and learned a lot from him in these early times.
Years later, we teamed up again to work on an album and I created the newer version of Choke or rather Choke 2.0 which is the one most people have heard and led me to working with so many cool ass musicians. Choke 2.0 is 1.0 on steroids. I wrote and programmed all of the music and the underlying beat, my uncle's good friend and gifted guitarist Geno played the guitar and bass and believe it or not but my uncle pulled some strings and got the late jazz drummer Ricky Lawson to play drums. I could have never in my wildest dreams believed that these geniuses would be on a track I wrote but my uncle lived a crazy life and walked so many parts of the earth, you never knew who he knew and who would pop up.
This album was never released because to be honest, it was never finished. But I am proud that I got to work with my uncle and that we'll always have a tale of two chokes. I'll post Choke 2.0 in a separate post.
Please note: Choke 1.0's audio was taken from a tape player, lol so the quality is...tape player like.
With Angst - The Anomaly
CHOKE
When you said to me that we could never be
I tried to cough and swallow melancholy hollow
Walk I won't follow I'm not in the mood to flirt
So shed my skin of hurt, why oh why did you
Evict me with no reason my love is not in season
Trick me, kick me in a ditch, replace me with that bitch
My heart you burned and you broke adulterated joke
I hope you're happy I hope you CHOKE
Poor Cupid's shot, I guess I know he missed
I guess I did talk too much but you always made me pissed
Off and on like a light switch was our relationship
One night stands without the tip, how oh how could you
Evict me with no reason my love is not in season
Trick me, kick me in a ditch, replace me with that bitch
My heart you burned and you broke adulterated joke
I hope you're happy I hope you CHOKE
Who's world do you rock in your new little box
It's cool, I try not to crack when it seems I'm looking back
At the past I feel so sick, got rid of me real quick
I hope you have the shorter stick actually now that I think you did
Evict me with no reason my love is not in season
Trick me, kick me in a ditch, replace me with that bitch
My heart you burned and you broke adulterated joke
I hope you're happy I hope you CHOKE (1.0) /I hope, I hope, yeah, I hope you CHOKE!!! (2.0)