Suspended Disbelief

Lyrical selections from the 1990s

Faithful to a Memory

So many times,
I've watched the sun go down,
always knowing it would rise again
but tonight,
I just don't care
if I ever see the light of day.

How can I go on like this,
without you by my side?
All my life, I'll ask myself what if,
we had met another time.

All alone,
I watch the fire light,
the embers flicker and they die.
Like the love,
that I thought we found,
the love that makes us run and hide.

How could we have shared so many dreams,
to come this then say, that we're too scared to take a chance,
it's time we go our separate ways.

I never asked for much in life,
I just wanted to be loved.

All the words
that you've said to me
ring hollow in my mind.
What solace
am I supposed to find,
in these empty nights.

How can I begin to smile
when all I can do is cry?
Am I being faithful to a memory
or living out a lie.

haunting, melancholy, Key of F minor
Vox, acoustic (capoed) woodwinds, cello, percussion

It started with the music. A woman I was with at the time played an alto F wooden recorder and had this very beautiful melody that she'd come up with. The chords for the verse came from that. I wrote the chorus and bridge and then put the lyrics to it. The lyrics were more fictional than inspired.

My friend who'd dubbed Roses a "gothic horror love song" called this "hauntingly beautiful". Quite the compliment coming from a man. What I remember most about this song though was when I was going to college, a group of girls in one of my classes asked me to play something for them. I played this and when I was done, each had tears in her eyes. Moving someone to such emotion is the best compliment a song writer can ever receive.