The Manges - I Tried to Die Young

  The Italian punk songs that have been posted during the last month or two seem to have gone down well (half of my facebook friends list seems now to be made up of people who's name ends in a vowel!), they certainly seem to enthuse over anything that could loosely be described as being "Ramone to the bone."
As I applaud their fervour, the 2 songs I'm posting this weekend are dedicated to them.

  Kicking off today with a song that originally appeared in 2004 on an album called Paled By Dimmer Light which is by veteran American singer/songwriter Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk. This upbeat version is by one of Italy's oldest and most beloved pop punk bands.

  The Manges have been together since 1993, they formed in La Spezia which is located between Genoa and Pisa in the Liguria region of Northern Italy. Describing themselves as radical Ramones monkeys they feature Andrea (vocals/guitar), Mass (bass), Manuel (drums) and Mayo (guitar). Dressing in striped t shirts, sneakers, jeans and leather jackets their live shows are a whirlwind of non stop punk tunes that are each introduced with "1-2-3-4" before they buzzsaw their way through without pause. As far as recorded material goes, there's been 4 proper studio albums, starting with 2001's The Manges R Good Enough, then continuing with The Manges Go Down (2006), Bad Juju (2010) and most recently All Is Well (2014. listen to it here  http://themanges.bandcamp.com/album/all-is-well ).

  Besides the albums there's been plenty of other releases (singles, splits, compilations, live albums etc). The song I'm posting today, the cover of the Melanie track i mentioned earlier, can be found on their latest album, this is I Tried To Die Young......

I took a plane through the dawn, threw myself on the tracks,
But the train didn't come, and I had to walk back.
I jumped into the whirlpool, thought I'd get sucked in;
I just kept spinning around till I learned how to swim.

I tried to die young, boy, did I try
But the voice deep inside didn't let me succumb.
And I laugh at the things I've done
When I tried to die young!

My heart kept on breaking and the crack sought the edge
Where the hand of a shadow grabbed the hand in my head.
There were demons, I know them, and they still come by
But we've become friends, my demons and I.

I tried to die young, boy, did I try
But the voice deep inside didn't let me succumb.
And I laugh at the things I've done
When I tried to die young!

I took a razor to the wrist of reality
Hell-bent on my way toward futility.
I've got a reason to believe that it won't go on forever
But reason to the heart is a message undelivered.
I tried to die young!
Now I'm the old boy I never thought I'd become
Does it get any better? Asks the little boy in my song.
I'm still learning the answers, so I make-up the sings you see,
He laughs, 'you're still the same, and you'll never kill me!'

I tried to die young, boy, did I try
But the voice deep inside didn't let me succumb.
And I laugh at the things I've done
When I tried to die young!
And I laugh at the things I've done
When I tried to die young!