I am working on writing a new song. I was pretty happy with the first draft of it. I recorded a quick demo and listened back to it about 50 times, which is the main way that I evaluate my initial go at writing a song. Somewhere during the 20th time I had a weird feeling that one line sounded like it was very similar to another song. Now, for the life of me, I can’t figure out what the song is. The line goes: “and she’s coming now, coming now for you”
I feel like maybe there was a song in the late ’80s or early ’90s about a guy who is left by a predatorial woman and he is warning another person against her. He says something about how the woman broke his heart and now she’s coming for him. I’ve tried searching variations of the lyric, but can’t come up with anything.
It is possible that I overlistened to the song enough to convince myself that I didn’t write it. Anyone know what song I am thinking of? Does it even exist?
On another note…
My approach lately has been to write songs using fewer individually heady lines. I want to keep everything as mundane sounding as possible, but make it so that once woven together, the overall song meaning is interesting and open to interpretation on multiple levels. That is what makes a great song: it touches everyone. It’s really hard to do and I’ve learned to really be impressed by the skills of the people writing songs for Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus. I do worry sometimes about coming off as pretentious because I just can’t stop myself from inserting my favorite odd words like apophenia and ossified with the hopes of spreading interesting concepts.
I tried to keep this song simple, but couldn’t resist half rhyming viper and cipher, which isn’t so bad I think. I also couldn’t avoid poking fun at my writing struggle by throwing in an honorable mention for platitude. The problem is really that this song speaks more to me than it will to others. Creating for mass consumption (i.e., with a target audience other than just myself) is tremendously challenging.
No one knows the truth about her
It won’t sell the morning papers
I can see the complex coded proof
A legacy of failing actors
a million comedies of error
a tragedy of endless platitude
and she’s coming now, she’s coming now for you
I will build a helicopter
light down on a statue’s shoulders
own the world for a minute or two
until I see the birds above me
the angels’ auras brightly hovering
but now I know, now I know it’s true
I can never fly quite as high as you
I can never fly quite as high as you
and she held me down, broke the cipher
Dug her teeth in like a viper
the chemicals spread deep and absolute
and she’s coming now, she’s coming now for you
I will build a helicopter
The song is a sibling to one of my other recent songs, “Winged Bicycle” – I’ve been thematically obsessed with flight, both fleeing and flying ever since we explored some visual representations of flight during our photo shoot for our last album. (see particularly http://themotionsick.com/themotionsick/photos/truthpress/TheMotionSick-Water.jpg )
She lives in a warehouse
signs warning of fallout
She tells you to look out
shout when the coast is clear
She sees all the faces
trapped in clouds there are traces
apophenia and blankets
seeping bloodstains on the walls
and she cries and she calls out
and she cries as she falls down
and she cries as she calls out his name
I leave the lights on when you’re lonely
I keep the rights wrong like you showed me
I burn the pages of your diary
just to keep your secrets safe
September’s fear is twice as cold
December’s tears turn to icicles
she pedals her winged bicycle
starves to fly away
and she cries and she calls out
and she cries as she falls down
and she cries as she calls out his name
she shudders across her room at night
shaking like a stick of dynamite
dancing just to forget about her days
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The Motion Sick Blog – https://blog.mikeandsophia.com/