Sometimes you don't know what your songs are about. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't want to know. This particular song was built from a few different lyrical spare parts I had hanging around for years, then I finally just forced my own hand and wrote and recorded it one snowy night in NJ (I have a bunch of tracks I have to digitize at some point, this being one of 'em). I'll have to unearth the tape/disc someday and post it here sometime soon.
Any old how, the chords and melody pretty much leapt out of me. I guess if you spend enough time thinking about a song, sometimes it shows up on your doorstep fully formed (or something like it). There was no way it wasn't going to be Waits-y, I suppose.
Anyway, the first line was inspired by my great uncle John, who had been shot with what he claimed was a 50 Caliber machine gun while jumping out of a plane in the war. He told me about this as we sat and smoked at a table, post breakfast. He had his shirt off, and you would have thought he'd tangled with a tiger shark or something. Scarred doesn't cover it. Dents and holes and rips. So, I had to ask.
He said he didn't remember the pain of being shot, it was the lying in a field, freezing and wet and lying in his own blood while he was wondering what was next for him as he lost consciousness that stuck with him. Then he woke up in a hospital.
I didn't know, 20 some years later, that this was going to find its way into a song of mine. Yet, when I was looking for that first line, with the instrumental track recorded, John just sprung to mind. Then the rest of the story is completely fictional, as far as I can tell.
Anyway, I hope whichever version you hear of it is a good one.
Soon To Be Mine
My parachute, like me, was shot full of holes
As I descended from heaven to the fiery rows
My guts all around me, I was shivering with cold
Then I remembered what I always have known
(chorus)
It’s a slippery slope
It’s a blurry black line
It might be all yours
but it’s soon to be mine
I went home to Missouri then I got out of there
Lit up for the city with no conscience or cares
Ma, I got that promotion, you get that package I sent?
Tell Pop that I’m sorry, we’re just different men
When I got with Loretta, we were so sinful at first
Next thing I’m doing her makeup in the back of a hearse
One day I was flying not in a plane but the bar
Some tourists stayed too long now no one knows where they are
You might remember the old man using road flares and chains
He only wanted directions, he walked away with some names
In order to do this, you know you’ll have to do that
Keep yourself busy, make sure the big guys stay fat
Now I’m worth more in winter, still I don’t see a pale horse
Just the occasional nightmare still, there’s little remorse
I believe there is nothing, my lungs filling up fast
And I know there is no one to find all that I've stashed
(Oh and bonus self-impressed fact: I dashed off another song right after I got done recording Soon To Be Mine. I have no idea what inspired this or where the words came from, but I should probably bring it back. I mean, it's timely and short. So take that, Mickey Rooney!)
In The Throes
Dissemination, public exposure
Imparting direction so we can take over
and over and over and over and over again
Live by the code that a messenger sent
Too easy to write off the populist bent
Still no one knows where our dignity went
Flow like some champagne down the sink
We’re in the throes
This property’s ours it don’t have any owners
The vehicle functions though the miles have rolled over
Zips up her jacket, says “give us a moment or two”
Was casting a spell now you’re checking the line
There’s no interference at least not on mine
It’s human nature to ruin a good time
Fucking ….why?
Come see me sometime and maybe you'll hear one or both of these. No, that's not a threat.