This is one of the only songs I've ever written where I wrote the words before I wrote the music. I actually wrote the words to the song while I was at work; I was really angry at someone and I needed to vent. For some strange reason I wrote this song rather than the one that was about the person I was angry at. That song is called "Dis" and hasn't been recorded yet.
The backing is somewhat inconsequential except that I am very happy with the way that the synthesizer solo turned out. It was recorded with a custom resonance patch on an old Casio CZ-1000 keyboard in solo mode with portamento turned on. I used a guitar effects box to add some extra processing to make the signal stereo. Nothing beats the sound of the old synths!
Anyway, this song is fairly straightforward. I'm really happy with the lyrics, it says just what I wanted to say. As one gets older, it's so hard to hang onto your relationship with the friends you grew up with. Inevitably careers and spouses will come between you. That's the way it always has been, the way it's always going to be, the way it's meant to be. Or so they say. Well, I say "Screw that!" I don't want to be alone... do you?
Ultimately, when it comes down to it, we do these things to ourselves. We separate ourselves by chasing our personal goals. Our own ambition is what separates us and makes us unhappy. It's not society that makes us what we are, but what we are that we call society.
lyrics
We grow up we grow apart.
We get old, beget young.
We can't be bothered with what we used to call fun.
Hide grouped in families, secretly so alone.
The way it's meant to be?
I don't think so!
Now...
We grow in, we grow out.
Don't listen, we don't shout.
This kind of compromise is what it's all about.
Don't cry when nobody wants to know... just don't think.
That's just the way it is?
I don't think so!
Now...
Now that the clock is running,
look what we're all becoming;
ambition or tragedy
in the mirror?
Bills to pay and pills to swallow.
Promises that all ring hollow.
Can we see society
in the mirror?
"We're all free!" they all lie.
Can't escape! Wonder why
it's called a living, but you don't have a life.
You can't rebel against what you do to yourself.
The great society?
I don't think so!
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