dry runnings

Haven't used the internet really at all this week. I bet the dudes at my forum think I wandered off never to return. If they've thought of me at all, heh.

On Wednesday I got to hang out after work with a friend of mine. And among many other things we discussed, I declared that I was going to have to write a song for her to sing. It being written, I realized it suffers from a problem that keeps me from performing many of my songs; it's too on-topic.

You know that thing where it's very difficult to write an awesome song unless something has ripped a chunk out of your soul, and the song comes in to cleanse and sanctify the new emptiness in you? Well apparently it's true of writing songs for other people too. It helps if you have a frame of reference for understanding their hurt; it also helps if you're close enough emotionally to them where you can do that non-verbal telepathy stuff. Whatsit...empathy, yeah.

But what I did, with this, uses a sort of poetic conceit. The example that springs to mind is [for sound reason], which I don't think I've sung to anybody, ever. I basically wrote it trying to imagine precisely the way in which I might go mad with grief if Dave died or left me. I say [for sound reason] sounds like an angry whale getting stabbed, though done right it's meant to make your hair stand on end and try to crawl right off your arm. Take an intense emotional state, carry it out to its logical extreme, write a song about it. Most likely many people use the technique to write songs about subjects where they have trouble feeling their own feelings clearly, whether because the topic is painful to consider intellectually or for some other reason.

So here's your song, milady. Let me know if you think it would be sensible for you to actually sing it, and we can talk tune!

[drains you dry]

open up a ten dollar bottle of wine
and a piece of my mind
do you know you're real
do you know if you're really mine
if I run my fingers through your hair
will you crease your brow
will you turn and stare
like I'm out of line

tell me what you're after, baby
tell me what would make you cry
tell what's behind the shadow in your eyes

are you gonna drown it
are you gonna quench it
have I got your heart now
or even your friendship

open up a ten dollar bottle of wine
and a piece of my mind
fill your cup, bottom's up
do you know what you're gonna find
if I scream till I break your confidence
it won't mean anything
cause it won't make sense in your own damn mind

tell me what you want, baby
tell me what'll make you see
you can't lose yourself that way without losing me

are we gonna make it
are we gonna fail
I'll pull up my anchor
I'm ready to sail

before it drains you dry
before it drains you dry
drains you dry