Maybe We'll Just Be Dead

December 20, 2005

So the other night I'm feeling the all too familiar malaise that starts too settle over me like a lead blanket. If you follow this journal at all, you don't have to wear a lab coat to figure out that I battle with depression.  I don't talk about it directly, but it's something that seems to be a part of me. Anyway, I'm sitting there starting to sink and I just get pissed off.  I mean, I just got totally sick of that vacuous feeling that lives only to suck everything good out of me.  I get up off the couch, I go down into the office, I sit down and write this song in an hour and a half.

The song in question is one of the best kind -- the ones that just fall out of the sky like a sand bag and you come to an hour later with some drool on your chin below the smile on your face.  You don't really know where they come from, because an hour beforehand they were not even on your radar. I needed this song.  It says what I want to say, but it says it in a raw, honest way that I don't think I can easily do in realtime.  I'm sensitive and given to moods, but I'm also extremely practical and self-critical, so this song represents the marriage of these strange bedfellows.

I threw down this live recording two nights ago just to capture it, and I like the way it sounds, mistakes and all.  There's something raw and blunt about it, which is exactly what it should be.  I hope that anyone else who suffers from depression will hear this and see themselves and maybe smile.  If that happens, it will have served it's purpose.

Listen...

To listen to the recording, click on the little gray MP3 player in the top right of your screen. Locate the little blue tab on the left side of the player to reveal the playlist.  You should see this new recording at the top of the list. Click. Enjoy.

Read...

There's a man with the weight of a thousand empty promises pushing him into the ground
With every year he disappears an inch at a time until one day he can't be found
There's pressure on top, but there's more down below and darkness like a blanket of coal
For each promise he presses a diamond in hopes of one day regaining his soul

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and I swear I don't hear a train
There's a hole down below this funnel and it sucks but it's not a drain
One day it will all be over and we'll be asking what all this was for
Or maybe we'll just be dead so get your ass up off the floor

She's done her time on the couches of family and friends and the ones that she had to pay
She's starved and cut and bruised herself just to try to get out of the way
There's a bleeding battalion of men in her wake who swore that they could save her
From the pretty black hole in the back of her mind that some drunken bastard gave her

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and I swear I don't hear a train
There's a hole down below this funnel and it sucks but it's not a drain
One day it will all be over and we'll be asking what all this was for
Or maybe we'll just be dead so get your ass up off the floor

I used to be invincible now I'm just invisible, quietly falling apart
The life I've sewn is showing the seams I never noticed were there from the start
I've side-stepped the serotonin cocktails and settled for feeling like shit
It's like removing the battery from your smoke alarm cause your tired of the sound of it

But there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and I swear I don't hear a train
There's a hole down below this funnel and it sucks but it's not a drain
One day it will all be over and we'll be asking what all this was for
Or maybe we'll just be dead so get your ass up off the floor

2008

In The Morning

2007

UnAmerican

Faster Than the Speed of Documentation

Catching Up: How Many Plates Can I Spin?

Review of Eddie's Attic Show on March 30th

Meeting John Gorka

Things Lost, Things Recovered

37

Talking is Hard Work

No Snow in Moscow

Take Me To The Bridge

2006

Dylan Turns Six and Eddie's is Still the Place to Be

Sweet Release

Countdown to CD Release

Kristian Bush Lends a Hand

Charles Brings his Guitar and Plays Mine

Beyond Pat-Boone-Debbie-Boone: Gerry Hanson Rocks

"Keep it Down" is Coming Up

Musings on "The Moment"

Spoiled for a Weekend

Progress on the New CD

Screen Door Closes

Eatting, Writing, Living Large

One Fish, Two Fish

I Write the Songs

Wakeman Boys Concert Debut

Good Intentions

A Trip to Wayne Henderson's Shop

Winter for a Day

3 Dozen

Red Door Playhouse

Making a Set List

Brothers

Funny Blogs and Conversation Ticks

Infinite Possibilities at Checkout

Recording the New Screen Door Album

2005

Dad's Best Game...

20 Years of Gigs

Flash MP3 Player

Thanksgiving

Dylan Makes Five and Becomes a Knight

Why I Make the Trip

Blue Ridge

New Additions to The Family

Tuscany or Heaven?

Catching Up

The Truth Can't Set You Free

A Day in the Life

Unwitting Bachelor for a Week

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Nathan's Great Gift

Mondays and Struggle

The Ghost of an Old Friend

Endless New Beginnings

Return to the Mountains

Easter Bunny, Bacteria and Other Random Thoughts

Old Dog, New Tricks

Boy Meets iPod...

Turning the Odometer on my Universe

Jon Turns 42

2004

Dreams of Death & Transition

Autumn - Making Movies

Eddie's Solo Show

On Singing

The Nature of Struggle

The Sleeper

Old Friends and Being an Artist

A Rock Star for 24 Hours

Restored and Rejuvenated

Will it Ever Stop Raining?

Another Night, Another Show

Lost in the Woods

8 Years Old

Ian Gets Glasses

Dark Side of the Moon in Decatur

Zen and the Art of Guitar Playing

Dylan in the Morning

Smile

Minute to Minute

I Wanna Take Pictures

2003

One Month Since My Last Confession

I am Really Boring

Back Among the Living

Rock and Roll Sideburns

Balance

Sleep is not Over-rated

Rock and Roll Lifestyle

A Day at the Zoo...

And so it begins...