Song Profiles

Song title: Help Me
From the album: A Broke Machine

One day back in 2006, Kevin came up to me and said out of the blue, "You should title a song 'Let's Get Lost'." It was very unusual for him to say something like that. He never suggested a song title before, and had never been adamant about what I wrote. However, he kept pestering me about this song title. So, to humor him, I tried to write "Let's Get Lost".

Unfortunately, when I came to the part of the chorus where I should have written "Let's get lost / blah blah blah", I wrote "Help me now / What is lost must be found..." instead. Oh well. I tried. And the word "lost" is still part of it. Which is what I call a noble effort.

Structurally and musically, this is one of the simplest songs I've ever written. In fact, after I wrote it, I tried to re-write it by adding weird chord changes and obtuse rhythms in order to feel like I really WORKED at the tune. However, all those additions ultimately subtracted from how the song wanted to sound.

I've been known to work against myself. So I stopped struggling and let the song live as it wanted to be.

Kevin has probably forgotten his idea for the song "Let's Get Lost" but you can see evidence of my attempt to satisfy his request in the lyrics "...the night sky intervenes / it points to the north / with glittery fingers / which any sailor could see..." After all, if I was going to get lost, I would get lost under a dark sky, riding quiet ocean waves, and looking at the heavens for direction.

Terami
April 2008