At any rate, this was the first song I wrote my second semester. My room-mate, Anthony, did not make it back. He had gotten kicked out, and I honestly don't recall the specifics, but he did leave the words "Fuck middle America" scrawled across the room. It had made a nice backdrop for a while. I got along with Anthony (we had much more in common than my previous room-mate), but I also enjoyed the solitude. I had merged the two beds into one, and I had a king sized bed for the rest of the school year.
I listened a lot to a mix-tape that Andy Kotowicz had kindly made me. He was a bit of a music maven, and the first time I'd heard Fugazi's Steady Diet of Nothing, and Nirvana's Nevermind was in his room. The second semester had started off much better. Scott Wilcox and I had started cooking up an idea for a play, which we later put on that semester.
On one night in winter, but on a spring-like day, I sat down and wrote this song. The song is about the thaw. The song is about how warmth can return to even the darkest places.
At any rate, the song... I almost never rewrite a song. Or if I do, I rewrite it completely. It's not that I have some problem with putting in the extra effort. I've done multiple drafts of plays that I've written, and a song is only five minutes long. I think the reason that I do so little rewriting (lyrically speaking) is that a song should always feel like a continuous thread. The first dozen or so songs I wrote were laborious affairs, and half of them weren't any good, and the good ones seemed to write themselves.
About the only thing I did to this song was take out a compulsory bridge, which it didn't need. I also changed the age of the girl from seventeen to twenty-three. The song is not supposed to be taken literally, but I imagine people will do it anyway. Nor is the relationship in the song sexual. Also, the song leaves a lot to the imagination. What happens to the man in the end? You might think you know, but there are other possibilities, I'm sure.
If there were a single to this album, this would be it. I've tried to record it several times, and even the Navigators played it, I think. I remember rehearsing it in Empire studios, but it may have never left lab.
Dewey Kincade: Guitars, harmonica, piano
Tonya Buckler: Backing vocals
Jeff Faith: Upright Bass
Steve Sizemore: Percussion
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