I wrote the song Painful Tired approximately two decades ago and I still have issues with sleep that leave my body physically aching. (This morning I feel physically ill after sleeping terribly last night, following a week of sleep deprivation.) The song describes a correlation between the external pressures of society and the conditions that lead to those sleep issues. Revisiting the song this morning I realized that I still have the same observations, the same unanswered questions.
So much, still so very little
What can we say to make it better?
I want to take the past away
I want to live for some better day
Painful tired, restless sleep
Rootless pain, painful tired
Urgent overdrive
Becoming so wise
Bearing an existence
Getting cut for size
Why this way?
Why so dashing?
Why must it be
questions after stabbing?
[Chorus]
[Amazing guitar solo by John Lefler]
[Chorus]
The song is the only song I've released that is in an odd time signature (out of only a few that I've ever written in an odd time). I'd like to think that I subconsciously chose the odd time to intensify the off-kilter feelings expressed in the lyrics. I was intentional about the rhyming scheme (A B, C C in the first verse, A B C B in the 2nd and 3rd). I'm still pretty happy with the (hopefully evocative) connection between "cut for size"--"dashing"--"stabbing".
So much, still so very little
What can we say to make it better?
I want to take the past away
I want to live for some better day
Painful tired, restless sleep
Rootless pain, painful tired
Urgent overdrive
Becoming so wise
Bearing an existence
Getting cut for size
Why this way?
Why so dashing?
Why must it be
questions after stabbing?
[Chorus]
[Amazing guitar solo by John Lefler]
[Chorus]
The song is the only song I've released that is in an odd time signature (out of only a few that I've ever written in an odd time). I'd like to think that I subconsciously chose the odd time to intensify the off-kilter feelings expressed in the lyrics. I was intentional about the rhyming scheme (A B, C C in the first verse, A B C B in the 2nd and 3rd). I'm still pretty happy with the (hopefully evocative) connection between "cut for size"--"dashing"--"stabbing".
