I’ve been busy finishing a proper album (more on that soon,) and haven’t had much time for song writing. But last week it occurred to me that I’ve been sending stuff to Songfight for a year now. So maybe it was nostalgia, or maybe it was the great title, but either way I managed to finish this song in time for the Other Places I Have Lived Songfight.
I’m not sure what to make of it. Other than the voice it doesn’t really sound like “me.” There’s no acoustic guitar or piano, and I don’t think I’ve ever used a chorus effect on a guitar track. Rather, I’m a fan of Old 97s and Wilco. Tremolo, reverb, and saturated tubes all the way.
Still, it is what it is…
(Aside: you should check out Boltoph’s fantastic entry in the We All Need Love Songfight. It’s like Hawksley Workman or Rufus Wainwright, if they’d grown up in Tennessee listening to Hank Williams. I wish I’d written it!)
I’m not certain either extreme is altogether healthy. But I am sure that two people at opposite ends of the spectrum won’t be very content in a relationship.
and she says “you gotta hurt to live.”
Well I dunno … and where’d I be without her anyway?
Running from the path I left.
Running from my ghosts, I guess, and why?
We’re all just the sum of all we’ve done.
All those other girls I can’t forgive.
All those other places I have lived.
I see part of her in all of them
and part of me,
there’s that part of me that can’t sit still.
“There’s pain in life, you don’t have the market cornered boy.”
She tells me this. I’m busy tuning out.
“We’ve all had days when nothing good can come of anything,
but most of us don’t turn and run.
Most of us don’t leave our posts, and why?
We all need our scars and souveniers…”
It’s fair to say we both see things a little differently.
I’m a mess, she tells me anyway:
“I can’t sleep not knowing where you’ll be when I get up … “