Day 2: High Steppin'

Lyrics:
I felt so bad yesterday
I looked out of my window
My neighbors all in disarray
They couldn't find their ways home
Cryin' and weepin' in their pain
It filled them all with rage
Why can't we find a better way

Oh, babe, I wish that we were
High steppin', high steppin'
Climbin' up there where we can see each others' problems
High steppin', high steppin'
Beggin' the sky to say goodbye to "us and them"

I wonder when it went so wrong?
Let's turn the clock back, yeah
To Africa or Ancient Rome
Or to the dawn of man

And waging peace was never easy
The quicker way's to start a fight
But it takes time to start the healing
It takes patience to set things right

I wish that we were
High steppin', high steppin'
Climbin' up there where we can see each others' problems
High steppin', high steppin'
Beggin' the sky to say goodbye to "us and them"

Details: Well, this certainly wasn't the good-time funk song I set out to write. I was hoping to come up with something as infectious as Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue", but I have such a hard time making my guitar sound truly funky. So I tried to do a bass-line, and the chords that naturally formed from it made the song sound much more desperate. 

I generally avoid straight-forward message songs-- I think they often come off as trite. I'm much more likely to fit hidden messages into seemingly unrelated songs, maybe in the hopes that people will learn something unconsciously. But when you're trying to write a song everyday, you have to go with the flow, and this is what I ended up with.

I like the musical structure of the song, and I like the basic message, but the lyrics are way too straight-forward and under-nuanced for my taste. So I might try re-writing the lyrics or maybe use the music as spare parts for another song. We'll see.

This took 4.5 hours to write and 45 minutes to record.