Week 108 // Two Verses

by Mount Everest

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Clocking in at just over two minutes, this song is in the running for the shortest Mount Everest entry to date. And yet it easily makes its way onto my favorites list, despite being merely a frustrating taste of its full potential. Lately I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall relearning algebra and imagining doom on the day of a standardized test that holds some sway over the course of my future. I am taking that test tomorrow, and therefore could not spend the time on this song that it deserved. I have so many ideas that I just couldn’t get to. This song splinters off in so many directions in my mind, but here it is in a form that I can only describe as its infancy. I don’t normally revisit Mount Everest songs after I post them. But I like this one so much that I anticipate it could break the trend. It feels like the opening two verses of something larger, and I hope I get to find out what that larger whole sounds like. The idea behind the words is simple, and it is stolen from the Rolling Stones who sang “you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need.” They expressed this idea quite eloquently in this short passage, and it takes me two meandering verses to get it across. I guess they’ve got one up on me.

lyrics

Sometimes I look more like a photograph
Like an arial portrait of a human being
Right in a moment seeing
Only what he wants

Have you ever sat right through a conversation?
Only listening when your name gets mentioned
Letting the moment pass
Hearing only what you want

And what about that lousy feeling
Convincing you that it’s appealing
Living only for what you want

Only for what you want
Only for what you want

Have you ever lived through a constructive break?
Where you stop and wonder why you do things one way
When there’s another choice
And it could be just what you need

You remember walking down a crowded street
With a fresh perspective on the human race
The earth is a tricky place
For getting just what you need

How many times now have you solved this problem?
Your mind can give you terms and you reverse them
What you want isn’t what you need

What you want isn’t what you need
You’re getting just what you need