Monday, July 22, 2013

Songs explained: I'm Sorry

Hey there blog readers! Today I am finally getting round to that thing I've been saying I'll do since the setting up of this blog (it was one of the original reasons for doing so, oops). I am going to write a song backstory explanation thing. Hold your fanfare, I know how avidly you've been waiting for this moment, please, my good people, no tears of joy (no one was waiting for this). The first song I'm going to shed light on is "I'm Sorry", the video I uploaded today in fact. I'm starting with this one, not because I think it's my best song or that it has the best lines or message or anything. I'm choosing this because I think it has the most interesting story behind it. It also had a big influence on my life for the proceeding month or so after writing it. I'm putting my best song forward story-wise, it's all downhill after this. Here, give it a listen, then we'll chat:


I'm just going to start with a disclaimer; I don't think you're stupid. I'm not trying to be patronising, it is my incredibly biased opinion that this song may be a little confusing to outside ears. I may be totally wrong but I'm going to operate on the assumptions that I've made. 

This song is not a conventional love song. It is a song about love, or confusion in love, but not strictly a love song. I wrote this song almost a year ago, for a purpose. It's one of the two I've done so with and the only one that I actually used for said purpose. I wrote this song to tell my best friend that I had developed feelings for their ex. Their recent ex. Who they had dated for over a year. Those feelings may or may not have been developing subconsciously while they were dating. Also, it may not have been intended as a permanent break up, more of a "Ross and Rachel" dealy (is it ironic that my name is Rachel?). 

This was my dilemma: Do I tell my friend about this and risk our friendship over a relationship? Or do I ignore it, while love interest is still (in effect) single and I pass up this rare chance at a functioning relationship?

I decided, as I often do, to gamble. I chose a time when my friend had been talking a lot about a potential new relationship, so I felt it was as good a time as any to confess my feelings. I wasn't totally sure how to go about it. I was certain that if I tried to do it in a conversational way that I would either screw it up completely or chicken out. 

So I wrote a song. 

Any time I recount this story to people (which isn't often) their reaction to this is "That's kinda weird". I know. My thought process was thus: 
1.If I put the effort into writing a song, with rhyme and everything, I'm much less likely to back down, purely for time and effort lost. 
2. I am much more eloquent when I've had a chance to write down my thoughts and learning a song is less tenuous than writing and learning off a script.  
3. A song gives me about three minutes of uninterrupted speech to get everything across, which could be useful. 

What you have already heard is the result. I was going for a "determined but apologetic" tone. Bear in mind, the object of my affections knew nothing of this. The song is basically, "Look, I know there's history but this is what I'm doing, try to be okay with that." It sounds bitchy put that way. Maybe it is bitchy. I was torn. I'm seventeen, I was sixteen at the time. Life is trial and error in these in between stages, I took a chance. 

Anyway, I sang this song to my friend. What followed was rough for me. The friend took it well at first but then not so well. We didn't have a normal conversation for nearly a month. 28 days, to be exact. Like I said, It wasn't a good time for me. I can't assume it was better for them but in that time I pretty much lost my only friend, they had others. I gravitated towards the only things I had left (also the people who had started this) myself and the person after whom I was pining. We started dating 23 days after the bombshell was dropped.

So yeah. I don't mean that to sound as melodramatic, this is mostly a relay of my feelings at the time. Looking back, I don't know if I should have handled it differently. This did work out in the end but I don't know if I would have saved myself a lot of pain in keeping my stupid mouth shut. My friend and I are back to more or less normal, though I'd be lying if I said nothing had changed because of this whole thing. They are currently with the person whose mention triggered my decision to go through with it, seven months I think it is. They are happy. Myself and love interest have been going out for almost nine months and we're both really happy. I guess that's the thing that would sway me had I to make the decision again. My gambling paid off. And hey, I got a song out of it.

Embrace the Madness

No comments:

Post a Comment