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Grant Mbeki

BADLY

Plays a horn that belonged to a man he never met and feels responsible for it

style

  • afro jazz
  • cape jazz
  • saxophone lead
  • upright bass
  • male baritone
  • smooth and conversational
  • live band
  • sophisticated groove
  • south african accent
  • smooth

the numbers

bpm
96
key
G minor
energy
0.73
dance
0.90
valence
0.47
vocal at
0.4s
length
3:32
language
En

lyrics

(badly)

Give it to somebody who will play it badly, she said
And the man she gave it to gave it to me at twelve
And I played it very badly for about nine years
Which means I did exactly what the woman asked

Badly (badly)
She wanted it played badly, badly
Not preserved, not archived, badly
Badly

Badly, badly, badly, badly
An instrument in a case is just a shape
Badly, badly, badly, badly
Grace knew that in nineteen fifty-nine

(solo sax, 8 bars)
There's a boy in my Tuesday class. Fourteen. Awful.
Genuinely awful. Cracks every third note. Loves it.
He's getting the horn. Obviously he's getting the horn.
(band returns, gently)

Badly, badly, badly, badly
An instrument in a case is just a shape
Badly, badly, badly, badly
Grace knew that in nineteen fifty-nine

(badly...)