Helicopter

Who wrote the El Manana lyrics? 2-D, but no one could ever figure out where he got the lyrics from. A spurt of Genius is what some said, others said there must of been a deeper reason as to how someone of 2-D's happy personality could ever come up with something so..melancholic.

It wasn't supposed to be her on that Island. It was supposed to be me.

It wasn't her who was supposed to die. It was me.

It wasn't her fault...

I paused. I couldn't continue. I could only close my eyes and slowly let tear droplets flow down my face. There was no way I could ever forgive myself. Because, I saw that day. I lost my mind, but yet, I never acted.

Russel's Side

Myself? I couldn't ever stop thinking about the El Manana lyrics. I always thought about them, thinking them word from word, still trying to figure out what in the world they could possibly ever add up to.

They confused me.

Especially when D brought them into the music room.

R

I sat down, drum stick held tightly in one hand, while another drumstick was being twirled around aimlessly between my large fingers. I watched lazily as Murdoc paced back and forth, it was the first time I had seen him worried in a while.

His bass guitar, which was being gripped by the neck, was being purposefully yanked back and forth in his hand like a pendulum as he walked from one end of the room to the other. It looked as if he was actually thinking as he stared at the ground where his feet were marching directly forward in determination.

Noodle just sat on a box, arms crossed, eyes closed tightly in a pouting position. She didn't like sitting still doing nothing if it was time to practice.

I looked around casually, looking for the singer of our band but found he wasn't in the room. Even Murdoc, his punisher, didn't even notice.

Thankfully enough for 2-D, I wasn't going to speak of his absence while Murdoc was in such a bad mood. So I shut my lips and kept quite.

I sighed though, not too long after deciding to be quite about the blue haired singer being gone as the door creaked open slowly and he stepped in quietly, wrinkled paper in hand.

The bassist of the band stopped suddenly in his tracks and glared at the younger man as hard as he could muster up his cold glare.

" Where have YOU been Dullard! ? " Murdoc yelled.

2-D's eyes widened in noticing his mistake on not making his entrance either more subtle or at least arriving on time which was about an hour ago. He raised his hands up in surrender, that's when Murdoc and Noodle finally noticed the paper.

I just snorted as Murdoc expression changed so drastically it was almost comical. It was as if the paper was pure gold.

Both of them released their sour expressions, Murdoc's being from full of hate and anger as usual and Noodle's was full of Jealousy from 2-D not of having to be in the practice room for an hour, an hour of straight boredom and having to go to the bathroom really bad, not to mention being almost starved to death. As much as she knew, 2-D had been sleeping, using his own bathroom to do his morning routines like showering and using the toilet and even eating some breakfast before heading over!

All those thoughts vanished though, as it looked, as she saw the opportunity to be able to practice a song I guessed. And a new one at that! She smiled, eyes widening, arms even unfolding as she exclaimed a happy cheer in her foreign language and jumped off the box quickly.

Murdoc looked slightly intrigued at the piece of paper. If I knew one thing, it was that Stuart Pot was naturally a very good song writer. Both on lyrics, the melody, tune, chords, notes, everything! He was a musical genius! And it looked as if Murdoc knew that too.

His songs were always used. They were always top-notch. He rarely came in the music room with paper in hand, full of ylrics and chords, and notes, and what-not. It was a rare treat for D to come in with everything made-out for us on a silver platter. Believe me, it's happened before and it's about the best music experience you will ever get.

His songs are always so..harminous and beautiful. And even though the songsd he makes are master-pieces and one of a kinds, they were usuaully VERY difficult to play. He made his music in his head and thats exactly the way he liked it. He would put in whatever intruments it would take and usually he would be able to play it if it was in his head. Either that or he's heard it before and knows someone who can play it.

To be short, Stuart Pot's songs were not impossible, they were simply..improbable.

They were difficult, yet possible to master.

It might take a while thought to make everything just right.

It looked like Murdoc had just discovered gold when he saw the piece of paper in D's raised arms in surrender to the self-proclaimed leader of the band.

" Oy Faceache! Watcha got there? " Murdoc asked with a curious look on his face even though he knew exactly what it was all along.

" I-i's a song.." The younger blue haired singer managed to squeak out.

" Right, right..so uh, wanna share what the song might be there Dullard? "

2-D's eyes widened even more and then they finally shrunk to there normal size as a smile of relief spread across his face and he nodded slightly as his arms began to lower.

Teeth fully exposed, or what he had left of them, gave off that little boyish look to him.

" Hai! A new song! Thank you 2-D-san! " Noodle yelled with a giant smile plastered on her face.

Then I noticed something odd, D didn't say anything like, don't mention it lil' Luv, or any kind of those British remarks of a welcome, instead he almost looked..sympathetic at her? Sad? Then he just looked away quickly.

Of course, Noods not really needing any kind of comment in return, looked as if she may of shrugged it off casually as she thought that maybe he was just too traumatized by Muds previous threatening look to answer.

It's happened before.

2-D stumbled nervously forward, head bobbing slightly, almost childishly as he made his way carefully to the elder. He handed the paper shakily to Murdoc as he looked over the paper with a critical eye.

" None of the lyrics make any sense...chords are hard to read.." Murdoc growled under his breath and gave a snippity glance toward 2-D but then gave him back the paper and made a wave of his hand to signal for him to pass the paper around to everyone else.

Everyone knew that this was simply Murdoc's way of saying that they were good, the guy never was good at complimenting too much.

Stu's corners of his mouths tugged slightly upwards as he passed the paper to Noodle and then completed the chain by giving it to me.

I looked over the paper closely, looking for my part but found that it was on the back. I smiled slightly at the badly written letters on the slightly crumpled paper.

Yup, this was the way Gorillaz worked.

I flipped the page and looked over every little part on my share of making a song, well... a song! I nodded my head to the beat of my drums in my head as I thought out the tune of my own little part. There were minimal amount of flaws in 2-D's work for a tune and as far as I could tell by the look on Murdoc's face there was very little flaws in his own part too.

Noodle could only smile so there was no telling if anything was ever wrong on her part.

Murdoc nodded once and kept his hand to review the chords once more too, from what I guessed, make sure the notes he was thinking of were correct and also in the right order. Noodle did this too.

2-D pressed each of his index fingers together nervously as he stood at the front of the room with the microphone in front of himself, standing carefully upon a stand, waiting for his angelic voice to ring through it and into the speakers.

Murdoc looked forward and nodded at each of us once.

" M-Muds starts. " 2-D whispered carefully.

Now, D was never one for being very cocky, loud-mouthed and hot headed but he still was acting a little more conserved and quiet then he ever had!

He was more full of life on the first day I met the guy when he was fresh out of the hospital from two head injury's and a satanist kidnapper!

I shook my head, trying to get my mother hen thoughts out of my head. I couldn't always be there for everyone, could I? I breathed in, listening to Muds low bass ring out roughly, not much different then himself.

I watched upfront carefully, watching ever command that 2-D was giving out. He pointed to Noodle, tapping his foot almost silently to the beat that was in his head, mouthing the words, "1, 2, 3" keeping his rhythm perfectly as it seemed.

Of course it would be perfect, he was, after-all, a musical genius.

Noodle's guitar began to play beautifully, and as he pointed to me, I made sure to keep one beat between playing and his command. Landing the first note precisely on time.

The song was all becoming one, each part was being meshed together to become all of one, even Murdoc's Bass began to stand out more and get more of an outline.

Everyone was in sync, all the song was missing now was some lyrics.

2-D breathed in quietly, my own clue to his sudden breath was his back straightening as he sucked in a big gulp of air, of course as I already said, silently.

He released just as quiet, and began to sing, the tune may of been odd, but ti was simply harmony. But this is not exactly what made me think of the song as one of our best ones, it was because even I, when i thought about the lyrics, could not understand them.

In all our other songs, I was perfectly clear on what they meant and the true meaning behind them because we had collaborated all together a lot, even if i didn't help make the actual lyrics, i was at least told what they meant. Either that or I would learn them on my own.

But this time? No one knew except for 2-D.

"Summer don't know me no more, Eager man that's all.." 2-D began, " Summer don't know me, he just let me love in myself...Cause I do know love, From you that..Just died..yeah. "

I closed my eyes, the beat flowing through my brain, the words piercing my heart and confusing my intellect. I couldn't make them into anything.

" I saw that day, Lost my mind...Lord, I'm fine...Maybe in time, you'll want to be mine.."

I raised an eyebrow but followed each beat carefully, one right after the next. It almost came to me naturally. Of course, Murdoc hogged the paper and was the only one who could actually see his notes and play them all correctly, while Noodle and I struggled a bit in trying to remember exactly what to play throughout the song, but we still managed.

" Don't stop the buck when it comes. It's the dawn, you'll see...Money wont get there...Ten years passed tonight, You'll flee. "

I couldn't make out the words to the song into anything. Even Muds seemed slightly flustered at that fact that he didn't know what the heck each passing word meant.

When the song finally finished, no one spoke, until a certain bass player tried to chop the silence into half with his strong British accent.

" And what exactly was that song about? " Muds slurred through his slightly drunken haze with a raised eyebrow.

He didn't seem as angry now, yet he still seemed to have that everlasting ticked-off-personality of his.

" Nofing.." 2-D whispered as he exited the room quietly.

I looked at Murdoc and sighed. Then as I looked at Noodle, I got up.

I tried to stay optimistic. Maybe his painkillers were kicking in at the time of when he made those lyrics, and now as he sang them, the painkillers from this morning were also kicking in.

It was a great song, but I didn't think he knew what in the heck he was talking about.

I would just wait for an hour or two and then, then, I would check on him.

R

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