I don’t write so many pretty songs. I think this is a pretty song. My first goal with this one was to push the fingerpicked guitar line to a place where the verses wouldn’t need any other instrumental accompaniment. I think I got it so that any other instrumentation in the verses would have sounded like an intrusion. This allows those sections plenty of space to breathe, and makes the more dense sections pop out even more.
The song is about a quiet evening segueing into a restless night’s sleep. It is about tossing and turning with visions in one’s head: Visions of love and loneliness, light and darkness, idealized pasts and uncertain futures. It is about visions of contrast that dissipate and are gone in the morning, but linger as feelings.
lyrics
In the evening, just seconds left of daylight
I grabbed at all my insights
And I walked along the road
The night was bending all the colors
I thought of all the others
No problems but their own
I know
And in the morning
I got eyes that speak like crimes
I’ve been repeating the same dreams every night
One: In the woods, in the woods where I’m desperate
Two: In the car, on the road where I’m searching
Three: In the bed, in the bed with my lover
Four: Alone every night
One: In the dark, in the dark and it’s growing
Two: In the presence of friends and I’ll stay there
Three: In the past, in the past in the sunlight
Four: In love every night
I know
Eyes open
Even so
Awake and breathing slow
And in the morning let it go