I’ve been reading Neil Young’s Waging Heavy Peace and, as is often the case with his art, feeling inspired. This is the first song I’ve written in a while. I wrote it last night. There’s something about a song that’s still fresh, still being born, that excites the muse and draws her out of hiding. But you have to let her take the lead. Here’s Neil explaining it:
“Songs are like rabbits and they like to come out of their holes when you’re not looking, so if you stand there waiting they will just burrow down and come out somewhere far away, a new place where you can’t see them. So I feel like I am standing over a song hole. That will never result in success. The more we talk about this, the worse it will get. So that is why we are changing the subject.”
My band mates Jim and Matt operated on the principle that the best part of making music came in the moment when a new song takes flight for the first time. Matt’s son The One I Waited For, from the first Late Model Humans album, came up on my iPod this morning and got me thinking about the night we recorded it. We ran through it 2 or 3 times and then recorded it live with Jim on piano and me and Matt on guitars. You can listen to that recording by clicking on this sentence.
The rabbits are heading deep into their burrows for the next few months, if not years. There’s something cold going on, you can feel it in the air. I might be 11 or 12 days early for the material world but in the spiritual world, now is the winter.
You gotta look ’em in the eye
‘Cause the world’s looking back at you
The only thing you’ve got to do
Is just look ’em in the eye
You know it’s not right
The way they look at you
And the things they think you do
You know it’s not right
Now is the winter
Do you want to be content?
Do you want to figure out what it meant?
What are you going to do
When the walls start closing in
And you can’t find a friend?
What are you going to do?
Do you want to hide
Behind your mirrored door?
You’re not going out anymore
Do you want to hide?
Now is the winter
Do you want to be content?
Do you want to figure out what it meant?
Words & Music by Mike Power 