Not autobiographical. Not at all.
So, the other day, I was fiddling around the kitchen, I'm not sure what song running through my head (although it's not the one currently in my head, "Purpose" from Avenue Q, or either of the two David Bowie songs which had infected my brain all of yesterday. I don't think it was "Walk On", although it's thematically appropriate) when suddenly I discovered the seeds of a song chorus germinating right next to the patch where I'm keeping a pseudo-western. Keeping it well lit and watered, I went over to my laptop, and began trying to find out how to make it grow.
I wrote pretty much all of this on Friday, in one random burst of song creation. And then, because nobody believes in spontaneous creation in art anymore, I rewrote all the sucky verses just now; or at least, all of the most sucky ones. It's a decided improvement, in terms of imagery (I had tried for a Song of Solomon "let go of the shit that weighs you down" motif which didn't really hearken back to the other one all that well), as well as person agreement, rhyme and rhythm, and mileage.
One change, not entirely welcome, is probably due less to editing than it's laying fallow for a few days. On Friday, Bono was singing for me, but today, he's just doing the chorus. I don't know who the verses belong to. Although the opening seems to be lifted straight from the opening to "Pinball Wizard". Hey, I'd probably accidentally choke/bludgeon myself to death with a guitar before I could get it to make a chord; don't look at me for originality in musical theory.
Anyway, given every verse is one I'm reasonably sure of (althouth the final stanza of the final verse is still something I'm less than pleased with), I think it's in good enough shape for public consumption.
Let It Go (Catharsis is a Bastard)
I watch you drinking coffee
In the same place every day.
You gave me such a sad smile
When one time you looked my way.
You don't know me from Adam
And I don't know you from Eve,
But I've sat where you are sitting now,
I want you to believe.
So if the night seems dark and cruel
Now that your love is gone,
I promise you that time will bring
The breaking of the dawn.
All your triumph
All your shame
The guy you wanted
The girl you blame
Your friends departed
Your most bitter foe
It's so hard, and so simple:
Just let it go
And God knows that it ain't easy
To forgive, much less forget.
And I know sweet love depends upon
The bitter of regret.
Because living life means changing,
And on changing heartaches thrive.
So you sometimes need to get your heart
To harden, to survive.
But what I pray is that you'll try
To set aside what's through.
You've hurt before, you'll hurt again.
That's just what life will do.
What you've lost
When you tried in vain
All that heartbreak
All that pain
Faults uncorrected
Grave debts you owe.
Its you that's built them up.
Please, let them go
Totally Wicked bridge. Probably Acoustic Guitar, I think.
Every person has a story;
No man never sheds a tear.
And its all the times life's beat us up
That dumped us, bleeding, here.That's finally brought us here.
So we carry all this history,
Upon our backs, like stone,
And think, if past is prologue,
That we're safer on our own.
But I've stood where you're standing now; we're not as we used to be;
Believe me when I say That man's faded away.
Release the past, you'll find at last,A new person, a wiser one,
The strength to face the day Will face the rising day.
What we said
Or never did
Some stupid mistake
Made by a kid
I've got to free myself.
I guess I know.
But Christ, why can't I,
Oh Jesus, may I
I just can't let my-self
Let it go.
No, I don't even know why I'd write a song, given I can't play it and shouldn't sing it.