Wave Motion Gun

Album: Shapeshifter (1999)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In our interview with Marcy Playground lead singer/songwriter John Wozniak, he explained: "That's a song that a lot of people seem to really dig. It's one of those impression songs. In the end, it's telling the story about me trying to convince my friend not to do heroin anymore. And that became a theme of my life because I went to college in Olympia, Washington, in the early '90s. It was sort of a port area in the Pacific Northwest where all the heroin trade was coming through. And everybody was on it at the time in the early '90s. And all my friends were sort of disappearing, and I didn't know where they were going. I found out they were all doing heroin. And they were doing it together, which is really a weird thing. But I never did it. It was not something I was ever interested in. In fact, drugs are something that never really interested me, except for some experimentation. But I just started watching friends die and disappear and drop out of school and stuff, and turning up in houses in San Francisco and s--t like that. And my one closest friend I tried to convince to stop doing it, and that's what that song's about."
    John isn't sure if the subject of this song knows it's about him. He says, "I haven't spoken to him in 15, 16 years. I have no idea if he's dead or alive, actually. Some people I don't need in my life, even though I love them. You have to protect yourself sometimes."
  • John Wozniak is a self-described "nerd," who wrote a song with a Dungeons & Dragons concept for their debut album ("A Cloak of Elvenkind"). It's no surprise that he would look to the world of anime for this song title: the Wave Motion Gun is a weapon in the series Space Battleship Yamato. It's very powerful, but leaves the ship defenseless for a time after firing it. Not a bad metaphor for drugs.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Who Did It First?

Who Did It First?Music Quiz

Do you know who recorded the original versions of these ten hit songs?

Macabre Mother Goose: The Dark Side of Children's Songs

Macabre Mother Goose: The Dark Side of Children's SongsSong Writing

"London Bridge," "Ring Around the Rosie" and "It's Raining, It's Pouring" are just a few examples of shockingly morbid children's songs.

Edie Brickell

Edie BrickellSongwriter Interviews

Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.

Fire On The Stage

Fire On The StageSong Writing

When you have a song called "Fire," it's tempting to set one - these guys did.