A medal or a chest to pin it on.

Posted by noreastermusic on July 29, 2010 · 1 Comment 

Good afternoon, friends and readers, Ben here again. I’ve realized that I need to just pump out the posts about our songs so that I can just get through the EP. It felt good yesterday to write about Suggestion Box, which is probably one of the most personal songs on the EP (for me, anyway). The next track is a doozer, A medal or a chest to pin it on.

This track is pretty aggressive, and it’s a lot of fun to play live. Medal is the first track that N’E completely wrote together, whereas the first three are tracks that I had written before N’E was born. I think the result has been really fun for us, and rewarding as well, knowing that we can mesh as a band in more ways than just execution. That’s a big deal.

The content of this song comes directly from my personal life, as I was growing up. When I was a child, I was a rowdy little hoodlum, and drove my mom nuts most of the time. My favorite thing to do was to find something that interested me, and continue to do it nonstop until someone told me to shut up. So I grew up running around in a diaper (after being toilet trained, power ranger underwear), banging a toy drum that my parents had given me until they had enough. I would whistle, sing, play a drum, hit things, snap my fingers, you name it. Whenever I pushed my luck, my mom would always look at me and say “Alright, do you want a medal or a chest to pin it on?”. At the time I had no clue what that meant, so I just went ahead doing what I was doing, thus choosing the medal over a chest. This phrase would also come up whenever I wanted to have the last word, or would push my mom with my opinions, etc. As an adolescent things got worse, and she would usually yell (after I had exasperated her far longer than I should have) “You always need to get the last word, don’t you?! Just shut your mouth, you don’t have to keep talking!”. Of course, I would always follow that up with whatever “gem” of a comment that my 13-year-old brain could generate.

I guess you could say that the moral of this song is to hold your tongue. Chances are, it’s the better option with whatever you’re facing. We want to be justified, and we want to argue our case, but the reality is that we usually do a poor job of both the former and latter. At least I know that I do. We have been getting a lot of positive comments about this song, and we’re really glad people are liking it and connecting with it. Here are the lyrics for you:

When I was younger, my mother always asked me
“Do you want a medal, or a chest to pin it on?”
I had a decision to make then, it was important.
But I chose the medal, it always seemed more fun.

Why do you always need the last word, or a comment?
You know you don’t have to fight it, you can just walk away.
I can see there’s a fire, and it’s burning in your stomach.
And the words just spill out, they’re burning as they go.

You don’t have to say the things that always come to mind,
keep them buried down, leave them deep inside.
Shut your mouth, the Lord will give you what to say.
Boy, that tongue is a rudder, and it’s leading you astray.
You’re sailing the wrong way.

Now I’m older, and you’d think it would be simpler.
That the years had come and gone, the lesson had been learned.
I keep on fighting, and choosing the wrong battles.
My foot in my mouth, the advice that I have spurned.

“The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” -Proverbs 15:2

“The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.” -Proverbs 15:28

“When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” -James 3:3-6

-b

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