When a band churns out as many songs as The Gravity does, some of them are bound to be crappy. Here are some of The Gravity's original songs that, one way or another, didn't quite make it.
This is a song that the band made up as they went along on the day they formed, at the Senior Cruise in Jay's backyard. Jay had a stuffed raccoon doll sitting on top of his big Crate bass amp, and Ben started to sing about it during one of their many jam sessions that day. The song was a ballad, and it was actually pretty cool, but it was lost in the shuffle once they also made up a little ditty known as "The Squirrel Song." Now, no one remembers how it goes anymore.
This song was written by Ben and Murphy at Ben's then-girlfriend Heather's house. Murphy made up a poppy riff on the guitar, and Ben, struggling to think of good words, grabbed a back to school sale flier from Bradlees or K-Mart or something, and just started putting it to music. It was pretty funny, and actually sounded cool, too, but it was also quickly forgotten and left in the wake of the two future mega-hits that were also written during that same session, known as "Wisey" and "Goldfish."
The Gravity wound up becoming a last-minute replacement for another band at their friend Nisha's party in August 1995. They got together for one big rehearsal session before the party, and while Ben, Murphy, and Poot were waiting for Jay to show up, this song was written. It was another ballad about a comfortable old easy chair that was in Murphy's basement. This song, like the others, was quickly forgotten and lost forever.
It's actually a shame that this song never made it. At their first-ever performance at Nisha's party, they had a contest in which whoever thought of the coolest idea for a song would have it written on the spot by the band during their second set of the night. The winner was John Colby, who came up with "Grandma Chia Pet." So the band made it up as they went along, and it rocked. There have been times when they attempted to revive it, but for one reason or another, things never worked out. Thus, the song has been shelved, presumably forever.
This is another song that was the result of a contest winner. This time is was at Hands Across Ben's Grandfather's Basement, and the contest asked the crowd to think of the coolest new name to give the band. (See, they found out somewhere down the line that there was also a Christian rock band called "Gravity," and they couldn't have that.) There were many good entries, none of which won... they decided on "Alex and the Gravity," a tribute to their friend (and the coolest man alive), #49, Alex Harris. (Of course, in the end, they just went with "The Gravity.") Alex suggested that they sing about his friend Paul's duck boots. So they did. The song turned out fairly well, and was entertaining at the time, but it hasn't been played or fixed up since, and probably never will.
This is the song that caused the band to decide to stop their tradition of making up songs as they went along during performances. At Sassfest III, they asked the crowd for ideas, and in the end, they decided on Poot's then-girlfriend Marci Zitner's suggestion of Twizzlers. It was written in 12-bar blues, and it sucked, plain and simple.
This was a song that Ben wrote the words to for his then-girlfriend Alicia. It went through a number of different stages of development before it was finally shelved. Murphy wrote this really cool Sting-esque music at first, and Ben made up a melody, and it looked like all would be well... except they were never happy with the chorus. Eventually, they decided to change the music altogether, but for some reason, they were never able to get the original tune out of their heads, and they always came back to the same old crap. Even when they changed instruments and Ben actually played guitar, it was STILL the same! So they just trashed the whole idea.
