Behind the Song: Come With Me

Devon: Alright, we’ve got the studio booked for you for three days, Mr. Combs.
Puff Daddy: Tight. [Puff Daddy moves the knobs up and down on the board] What’s this do?
Devon: [pretends not to hear] Sony needs the master by Wednesday, did you need anything else?
Puff: What was the movie again? Blade?
Devon: No. It’s “Godzilla.” 
Puff: Shit. [slaps his knee] I wrote a song for Blade.
Devon: You what?
Puff: [takes out a notebook] Yeah, it’s called “Taste My Blade.” 
Devon: Sean, Mr. Combs. Diddy. “Godzilla” has a budget of $130 million. It is going to be one of the biggest movies of the year, if not the biggest. There’s an ad for it on every other bus in New York City. You need to write a song for this movie. Do you know what I had to do to get you this? They wanted Aerosmith on this. 
Puff: [sighs] Well, you think you could still get me on the Blade soundtrack?
Devon: No, I cannot. That is an entirely different production company. 
[Puff Daddy slouches]
Devon: Look, you’ve got to start writing this song right now.
Puff: Yeah, okay.
Devon: Sean. This is huge. You’re going to be lead single to one of the biggest movies of the year.
Puff: Don’t worry about it.
Devon: It's my job to worry about. I'll drop by in a couple days to check how you’re doing. Just promise me you’ll start writing. Now. Right now.
Puff: Yeah, I gotchu. 

 TWO DAYS LATER

Devon: [enters the studio] Sean, I got your call! I can’t believe you finished the song already! [looks around] What’s going on? Where is everyone?
Puff: Sup, son? I figured out what these buttons do [Puff messes with the levels].
Devon: Sean, where is everyone? Where is Babyface? He was supposed to be producing.
Puff: Nah, I got this.
Devon: Where are th-the employees? [he looks into the booth, it's filled with classical instruments] Is that.. did you hire an orchestra?
Puff: Yeah. 
Devon: How much did that cost?
Puff: [thinks for a moment] About one Babyface.
Devon: Oh my God. Please tell me you wrote a song about the movie. 
Puff: For sure.
Devon: What’s it called?
Puff: “Come with Me.”
Devon: O-ok. What’s it about?
Puff: You ever been deceived, Canovitz?
Devon: [runs his hands through his hair] Of course I have. So what?
Puff: You remember those feelings. The betrayal? The hurt? The deep psychological scarring from being abandoned? What’d you’d want to do, say, to that person who so callously left? It’s about that. That pain.
Devon: [looks around the empty studio in disbelief] Sean. Do you know what “Godzilla” is about? 
Puff: [shrugs] Deception is a common human experience. It should be applicable in nearly every movie.
Devon: True, except Godzilla is literally about a giant, radioactive lizard. 
Puff: [rubs his chin] Does the lizard have feelings?
Devon: There goes my entire reputation. It's gone. It's all gone.
Puff: Relax. You ain’t even heard my shit yet. Oh, you’ll like this. It’s got guitar.
Devon: What?
Puff: I got a guy to play guitar.
Devon: You got.. a what? Why?
Puff: [waves hands through the air] I’m creating an experience.
Devon: What "guy" is playing guitar? Where is he?
Puff: He laid down his shit already. Real professional.
Devon: Who?
Puff: Jimmy Page.
Devon: [hands tremble as he runs them across his forehead] You got Jimmy Page to play guitar?
Puff: Yeah, but he playing the same, uh, sounds, for it. An old sound.
Devon: [visibly sweating] I don't even understand what that means, Sean.
Puff: Hold up. [goes to the soundboard and pulls up the track] This right here.
Devon: [hand over his mouth, eyes closed, shaking his head in disbelief] Is that the riff from “Kashmir?”
Puff: Yea, that’s it.
Devon: Does he play anything else?
Puff: Nah, not really. Just that part. 
Devon: [somewhat relieved] Oh. So it’s just a small sample.
Puff: Nah, dude. That's during the entire song.
Devon: [clenches his own throat, tries to look for water] Oh my God. I need to call my wife.
Puff: Calm your ass down, son. I told you I got you.
Devon: [composes himself] Sean, please play me the song.
Puff: Comin’ your way.

[Puff Daddy rolls the track. Devon lays down on the couch with his hands over his face]

[The track ends. Devon sits up. His eyes are visible moist and swollen.]

Puff: What do you think?
Devon: [helplessly] Sean, that song is six minutes long.
Puff: [laughs] Yeah.
Devon: It’s a single.
Puff: We'll call it a double.
Devon: At one point you remove yourself from the narrative of the song and say, “Turn me up, I need you to turn me up.” To whom exactly are you speaking?
Puff: Myself.
Devon: You also hired one of the most renowned guitarists in the history of music and told him to play the same riff— one of the most well-known riffs in all of rock and roll— for what is, essentially, the entirety of the song. A song about human deception for a movie about a giant reptile devastating New York City.
Puff: [nods] Definitely.
Devon: Sean, this entire song is end-rhymes. You rhymed “hanging” with “boomeranging.” There is a lyric where you scream, "I'll fucking bite you" at the listener.
Puff: That's a good one.

Devon: There is not a single verse that appears to be longer than six words. I felt like this song should've ended at three separate occasions during it's runtime.
Puff: Tight, right?
Devon: At one point you actually howl like a wild animal.
Puff: [imitates a wolf howling] 

Devon: [stands up] I have to go. Please do something to make this for the Godzilla soundtrack. Please. Please just add a roar to the end of the song or something.
Puff: I gotchu.
[Devon begins to leave]
Puff: Aye, Devon. Is there going to be a video?
Devon: [frozen in the doorway] ... yes.
Puff: Nice.
[Devon leaves with his head in his hands]