I hope I don’t need to tell you this by now, but this song from “Slow Nights. Fast Food.” was inspired by true events. This one is dedicated to anyone that has ever run out of money before payday, or any day.
The inspiration: There was an occurrence a few months back when it seemed like every bill and expense I could possible have all came up in the two weeks between paychecks. I did everything I could to tread water, but I ended up running my bank account into the red not once, not twice, but THREE times. I’m no stranger at all to having my account get down in the teens by the time payday hits, but I usually manage to avoid the overdraft fees that come with actually dropping below the horizon. Not this time.
I put in my 40 hours each week just like you, and scrape by on my earnings as best I know how. Sometimes bills don’t line up the way you need them to, and expenses come out of left field at a full sprint. The day my bank numbers hit the negative for a third time, I wrote this song that night. I’m the type of guy that takes shitty situations with a sense of humor. What else can you do? If you can’t change what happened, bitching and moaning about it is only helpful for a few minutes. After you vent you just have to focus on the next move. That’s why I had the idea to make this tune pretty different from my usual tracks.
I had this beat I had made with the intent of it being some cool, hard hitting banger but I was only half way done with it. I barely had anything filling out the verse sections and was blank on ideas for it. I decided I could use this beat as-is, and sing the verses, which would give some melody where the instrumental was lacking. This created the humorous, playful sound I was wanting for the topic at hand. Remember, this delivery is meant to be funny, not a serious attempt for me to be a singer. Some songs take time to put together and others just write themselves. I wrote this song in just under 30 minutes. Of course it’s only one verse, so it would’ve been a quick write anyway. I think my familiarity with being broke allowed the lyrics to just pour out like a bottle of Coke. It was also easier to just have fun with it and not try to over-think the words. To cap it off I thought it would be cool to make the hook starkly different from the verses. This was meant to imply the impact and shock of checking your bank account and finding out you have no money left. I also wanted the hook to play only once because every time we hit the red we pray we’ll never do it again… don’t we?
Lyrics:
(Verse)
Oh my bank account now why are you so mean?
Always turnin’ red every time I spend my green
Oh my bank account now overdrawn again
Hope my friends don’t see this screen at the ATM
Oh my bank account I swear that you were just fed
But now I can’t even feed myself cuz neither one of us have bread
Oh my bank account there must be a hole in you
Oh my bank account I’m stuck but comin’ unglued
Oh my bank account this story’s gettin’ old
If you only knew how much time it took with that pocket-change that I rolled
Oh my bank account settle down for two weeks
Then I’ll put in this paycheck and I can give you the same old speech
Oh my bank account you could use a couple more figures
Instead you go that other way and you’re the same color as my Twizzlers
Oh my bank account you’re gettin’ what I earn direct
Oh my bank account I look but I can’t check
Oh my bank account I thought I’d make you so fat
But I guess you’re the only thing in the world that went black then came back
Oh my bank account my shock is all long gone
When I sign on and check the funds I full expect that they’re gonna be…
(Chorus)
Overdraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn
Overdraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn
Overdraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn
Overdraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn