Here in the USA we get a lot of scam calls informing us that this is our final courtesy call: If we don't act NOW to renew our car's extended warranty, we'll be stuck footing the bill for repairs. I thought to myself, what if these folks really had my best interests at heart? Would it be possible to write a poignant song from that perspective? I actually drive past an old Ford Pinto every day on my way to work. The owners of that car should have extended the warranty. Sad!
I telephone
You don’t pick up
But what I do I do for love
I can’t bear it
You’re all alone with that Pinto that your parents bought you
In '85
And you still drive
That piece of shit
Oh sakes alive
I can’t bear it
When it breaks down
Then how will you repair it
Without me
I’m your car’s extended warranty
I love you
And I only want what’s best for you
You miss all the signs
The wheels aren’t aligned
Your transmission leaks
And all your hoses are failing
I telephone
You don’t pick up
But what I do I do for love
I can’t bear it
When it breaks down then how will you repair it
Without me
@chipwithrow Apr 2022
What an awesome idea, and you brilliantly turned it into a song! I gave it two listens.
Piano/guitar as poignant instrumentation is an inspired choice.
I went to high school in the early '80s, and I had a friend who had a Pinto. Amazing you still see one today! (My crap car was a '78 Plymouth Horizon.)
@conorg Mar 2022
You've sold me on the extended warranty. Can I give you my credit card details? Brilliant idea for a lyric, wonderful writing, sounds great too.
@liz561 Mar 2022
85 Pinto still on the road? Sounds like you should just leave it on the side of the highway when it goes....
@sherrycanary Feb 2022
Ray, this is brilliant and hilarious.
I still get extended warranty notices on my 9 year old car.
You must have had a blast writing it! Your tongue in cheek delivery is perfect
@jsini Feb 2022
Funny! I love your phrasing. Very clever writing.
@mikegtz Feb 2022
Awww...that's actually a good sales pitch. Nice song on shall we say an unexplored perspective.
@lenigmusx1 Feb 2022
Nice opening. The acoustic and piano are so beautiful. What an awesome dichotomy… ha this is great and so true nicely done!
@artie Feb 2022
It's just so sad!!!!! :P What a great idea to write a song from this perspective... and making it a compassionate, irreverent love song no less! Hilarious! This made me smile big. Thank you for bringing this into existence.
@crisp1 Feb 2022
Hysterical! I dig the music, too, so it's not just the humor that's spot-on. If I weren't retiring from teaching, I would save this lyric as an example of personification. You had fun doing this, I'm sure everybody who listened had fun. We all win! FAWM is so great!
@karenin Feb 2022
Cool song. Nice switch on perspective. Most of all I really love your voice!
@bethdesombre Feb 2022
What an amazing perspective for a song!!!! And I love that we don't know where these sentiments are coming from until the chorus. (Great rhyme scheme also.). This is so perfectly realized, and I'm in awe of even thinking of this approach.
@ceilidh Feb 2022
As a person who bought whatever car I could afford without a car loan (so of course used with no warranty) for 40 years, I would get these calls warning me my warranty was about to expire and would hang up. On my cell, I don't answer calls from unknown phone numbers. You ALMOST make me sorry I don't pick up!
I enjoy the point of view - the extended warranty working its own call center line out of love! <3
@cowboydick Feb 2022
Love this one ... speaking from the perspective of a guy driving a 22-year-old car with NO extended warranty. Who's going to love ME?
@ferry0123 Feb 2022
I like how the emotion comes through in the repetition of 'Your transmission leaks and all your hoses are failing' line. By that time I was already intrigued by the piano, which is so nice in the song. I'm puzzled by the liner notes a bit, after having listened to this! But that's okay, I just listened to a very nice opening track.
@fearlessflight2014 Feb 2022
So clever and musically really engaging too. This is a real gem!
@jeustan Feb 2022
Yowsers, you making me feel a lot of emotions here with this song.
When the term EMO entered the general lexicon I had never considered that there was such a thing as non-emotional music. Then I came to understand the specificity of emotion that it meant, and the term applies here in the best most endearing way. The metaphor is pretty funny, which is disarming, which makes it devastating. I'm not laugh-crying!
Super smart song and genuinely felt music (as always). I enjoyed this one.
@loveonamixtape Feb 2022
GOSH you're so good at taking quirky observations, little funny details, etc and creating something super poignant, and this is another great example! Love the sweet arrangement and the lyrics are fantastic. The delivery is perfect, too -- when your voice sort of breaks and it sounds like you're choking back a sob on the "hoses are failing," I almost spit out my coffee.
@ajna1960 Feb 2022
Ha ha brilliant ! Love your vocal character too. Very well written and a great lyric.
@richaaaay Feb 2022
Lovely. This so well written. The guitar and sweet little piano accompaniment sets the perfect backdrop for this clever and heartfelt song.
@wobbiewobbit Feb 2022
oh i love the little touches throughout. the little skippy piano runs between are delightful. nice concept and i love the delivery
@odilongreen Feb 2022
Such a great concept for a song, and such great execution. I didn't think car auto warranties (or scams related thereto) could genuinely touch me, yet with your beautiful and tender song, here we are. As somewhat falling apart myself with age, this really speaks to me. Bravo!
@atam94 Feb 2022
Okay, I love this a lot. It's funny, sounds wonderful, and is really well produced. How can I laugh throughout the song and almost tear up just a little bit at the very end on "how will you repair it without me?" Really nice song
@skibum1066 Feb 2022
Charming. We get those calls all the time and I don't even own an extended warranty. Your sincerity is compelling. Good song. congrats
@owl Feb 2022
Love the idea for the song, and you’ve executed it perfectly, the weary, lonely voice and gentle guitar strums work so well with the funny but poignant words.
@stephenwordsmith Feb 2022
Well, I feel like my horizons have been broadened, my perspective sharpened and my understanding deepened.
You've brought out a truly human side of something that really, really isn't. This works wonderfully well.
@davidtaro Feb 2022
My favourite FAWM song thus far. Am I allowed to say that? Who cares, I just did. As others have said, it manages to be both clever and hilarious, and that 'what I do I do for love' is so achingly beautiful I can actually feel a tug at my heart when you sing it (should prob get that checked out, right?). It kind of reminded me of Bowie's Rock n Roll Suicide. There's a Bowie-ness in your vocal delivery, and I reckon this song could take going to a similar overblown place around that bit with the misaligned wheels and the leaky transmission. Like the warranty salesman is just totally losing his shit about how much he cares, and wants the Pinto to be ok. But tbh it's also perfect as is. Lovely work. Really enjoyed all three listens!
@erelpi10 Feb 2022
This is really funny. Can't believe you found inspiration in those annoying spam calls. I feel like this is a song folks would want to sing along to
@downburst Feb 2022
Ha, this is a song that had to be written, and you (characteristically, somehow) injected some real emotion into an absurd idea. Beautiful.
@gm7 Feb 2022
Soooo true! and i am still laughing This is music to lift your spirts or if you can't get an answer,,..drink spirits. lol
Great guitar and piano playing that brings the emotional phasing to another level! I raise a glass to you sir.
@dukongp100 Feb 2022
Great! Nice vocals, truly inspired writing
@cleanshoes Feb 2022
This is so sincere, I love it. The guitar and piano compliment each other perfectly, and your vocal delivery really makes it. Great concept for a song.
@mikehex Feb 2022
tender, funny, manipulative, vicious. This may be the perfect love song
@paulh1237 Feb 2022
I love how committed this song is, I feel really pity for this poor cars would-be extended warranty. Great start, and a really good use of space in the vocal phrasing how you leave phrases hanging and trailing off.
@vegansongs Feb 2022
Oh this is why I love FAWM. This song is so good. I'm gonna start picking up the phone from now on!!!
@blindkiwi Feb 2022
Oh that we could all be touched by the unrequited policy. Nice start Danny, does it come with roadside assistance?
@spikedirection Feb 2022
a simply beautiful swicheroo that you've pulled here, genius! I'd love to play this in the FAWM section of my Radio Show this coming thursday with your permission?
@kanttila Feb 2022
I always like the melancholy in your songs. The guitar and piano come together very nicely. I like your singing and lyrics here, works perfectly with the track. I always like your lyrical themes and the way you present them, well done!
@karlsburg25 Feb 2022
Yeah i agree with Vom the combination of guitar and piano really fill it out. A great topic to highlight and the way it sounds like a classic ballad from yesteryear is a bonus. I am particularly fond of the piano under melody in parts.
@vomvorton Feb 2022
The guitar and piano sound so pretty together, and you've probably already noticed that I love a high-concept melancholy love song - this is a wonderful example! Also particularly enjoyed "oh sakes alive!"
@ttg105 Feb 2022
This is so clever and well done. Unique! The way you sing "piece of shit" made me laugh, and the little dribblings of piano are perfect. Even with the light subject matter, it hits a chord emotionally ... very melancholy. Much more straightforward than your previous lyrics!
@caterwauler Feb 2022
It's always a pleasure to hear your lovely guitar work, and to see you build a song around some high-level irony theme. If I received such a call, I imagine I would cry (and then I would never dare to pick up again).
These little piano lines adorning your gentle guitar strumming are very nice, they add a "romantic" touch to the whole thing. Well done.
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
Wow! Brilliant idea and execution for a song, and you went all in and kept a "straight face" so to speak. I felt those failing hoses.
The piano flurishes really added a lot to this as well.
I've humored several of these calls before when bored, but if the person on the other end would of been that passionate they might of got me :) I mean who else besides me cares about my old truck with over 300k miles on it running on duct tape bailing wire and hope.
@wingandwaltz Feb 2022
HA! Fun and beautiful irony, right outta the gate! That's what I come here for, man! @rayboneor Right on! Good to see you! *waving* I live in Ford-land, and even *I* almost never see a Pinto! Guess they all exploded or rusted away. Love it
@outinpublicdrummer Feb 2022
This is such a relatable experience and you managed to make it emotional! Whenever I get calls like that I just ask stupidly irrelevant questions until they run out of script or hang up on me
@juoppis Feb 2022
I really love these "what if" ideas for songs. This grew into a beautiful and desperate song. Perfectly executed.
@bradbrubaker Feb 2022
And the award for best title for FAWM 2022 goes to...
This is brilliant. The overall tone. The earnest delivery. Great job.
My one thought is '85 isn't that long a........ Whoops, I forgot I'm old. Hahaha
@majormajormajormajor Feb 2022
I want to walk through a showroom and have *this* be the piped in music. Sharply funny with nice little touches (love the doubling on "oh sakes alive"; I can almost hear a refrain of that sung by a chorus in rounds-perhaps for the reprise ;D) that makes it sound like some lost track off of 69 Love Songs. Great way to kick things off- sheesh, I'm still knee deep in battle plans.
@jorgevallentine Feb 2022
Feels very “Possum by Night” by the Mountain Goats. Very nice on the emotion and playing!
@billwhite51 Feb 2022
brilliantly allegorical love song, love the straight -faced sincerity playing blind to the absurdity,
@sync Feb 2022
Dude. You made my day! Don't get me started... TY4 this! It is absolutely perfect. I'm always like, do they really think after blocking 365,000 times, I'm gonna suddenly go - "you know what? I DO need an extended warranty! How could've I been so blind?!? Thank you thank you for looking out for me..."
@middlec Feb 2022
YESSSS. So good! The whole vibe works from lyrics to music.
@mikeskliar Feb 2022
This is hilarious!! I get these calls all the time, and as a resident of Manhattan, NYC, I have not owned a car since 1989! I only wish I had thought of this idea first! Great guitar/piano backing, too, really plays up the whole 'mock serious' thing so well! I wish I could download this, would love to play it for others...
@oaksnprairie Feb 2022
What a wonderful story! I love the lyrics and the gentle melody. Imagine being Inspired by a spam call! Now it’s time for me to get to work. Thanks for starting my FAWM on the right track.
@coolparadiso Feb 2022
you are in early Danny as well! Good to hear your tunes again! starts like a Danny song. then its a bit different i love the piano touches. Top stuff excellent first song! Really enjoyed that