Welcome, you are listening to Every Song. A series where I play songs I’ve written throughout the years and share the stories behind them.
Here’s a song I wrote when I was 13 called Take Me Away.
040900 Take Me Away
It’s funny how we should find ourselvesStill tied up in sorrowWhen we could dry our tearsAnd stand while we wait for tomorrow, ohYou’ve got the best of me
Take me away, take me awayTo a place I’ve never been beforeDrive me away, drive me awayTo a place where I can find a cureThere’s no use in going back thereWhere people wouldn’t even careSo, take me away, take me away
It’s funny how all there’s left to do nowIs to laughBut when we doIt’s like I never seem to get enoughCause you’ve got the best of me
Take me to a place that you call homeFace death and sorrow all aloneEyes blood redWings are tornAs we mourn
Take Me Away was written some time in September 2005.
I wrote it by taking from pop songs I was listening to at that time - just writing what I thought that kind of music was supposed to sound like from what I’ve heard and exercising those writing muscles little by little from when I was little.
The next one today is a song that has a bit of a controversial story.
This one is about a boy that I fought over (for?) with one of my best friends (for?). Lessons were learnt from that time of my life. My friend, Elizabeth Wilson (but we called her Wilson because there were many Elizabeths at our school and because she was tomboy-ish so ‘Wilson’ just fit better). Anyway, she had a crush on this guy. However, at the same time, she was also in the midst of something with another guy - or maybe it was two other guys. I can’t remember exactly. Admittedly, I made the mistake of getting closer to the first guy she had a crush on and he decided that he wanted to pursue me instead. We spent some time together and all that. Naturally, that damaged my friendship with Wilson during that time. It got weird. I felt a little guilty but not so much because I just kept justifying it with the fact that she was already entertaining other gusys. She wasn’t very happy with it and wanted to steal this person back. She succeeded. I was left. And angry. That was a sick turn of events.
I don’t remember exactly what had happened after all that (because it was so long ago), but Wilson and I repaired our friendship. She didn’t go out with the guy for much longer - maybe just like a few weeks or something. But I’m really glad that we worked things out between us after that because we had a really beautiful friendship in the years following. She got herself a boyfriend not long later. Well, actually, the thing about her is that a lot of the boys were after her, so she never ever had a hard time finding another guy to entertain anyway. She always had back-to-back boyfriends. Which I always thought was charming about her, and I thought it was also pretty cool since I was just out there in my teenage years not allowed to have a boyfriend.
Anyway, after all of that, her and I have never ever fought over a guy again in the years following our friendship. What I loved about her and how we handled that was that the whole thing was something we often looked back on and laughed at. It never affected how we treated each other in the future, especially when she got new boyfriends. In fact, she always made an effort to make sure that her boyfriends would be able to hang out with us and always included him in whatever we were doing. There was no insecurity around all of that anymore because we really just learnt our lesson the f*****g hard way.
I’m still working on how to articulate those lessons in words though — especially when that test came up again in my life as an adult. One day, after I’ve processed everything, maybe I’ll be able to get into it better. But for now, here is a song called The Only One. I wrote this on the 21st of February 2008.
080221 The Only One
You’re the only one worth staying forAre you listening to this songIt’s all for youAnd everything I doIt’s all for youAre you telling me the truthWhen you say you want me tooOh everything I doIt’s all for you
Ain’t it funny how we always find the right words to sayWhen we’re together all I feel is you and nobody elseI was ready to completely walk out that doorWhen I found youYou’re the only one worth staying for
Are you sure you wanna walk my wayIt’s a little roughI give you all I haveI hope it’s enoughAre you sure you’re here to stayStay here with meDon’t you move, yeahEverything I doI am all for you
So I’m singing this melodySimple, innocent and sweetMe and you and you and meSounds so good, it sounds completeSo I’m thinking about you tonightYou’re the star above so brightWhen I’m with you no end is nighBaby set our souls on fire
Thank you for listening to episode 32 of Every Song. Until next time.
