Day 25: Chasing

Lyrics:
Spent a lifetime chasing paper
Chasing paper was all that I knew
Tried to change
Tried to tame paper airplanes
Paper airplaines don't fly, they just look pretty
As they fall to the ground

Going 'round I would reach for the brass ring
Thought I wanted to have a free ride
With the brass ring I'd be safe and stable
But in that ring the horses just go in circles
They don't go up and down

Oh, they'll take your money
Then they'll tell you to get some more
When you ask them, "Why all the money?"
They'll shake their heads and say,
"We don't know what the money's for"

Got a future chasing freight trains
With the vagabonds, vagrants and tramps
Travel the world, but if I get bored
I can hop another train
Traveling down a different track

Details: A filmmaker friend of mine called me up feeling uninspired. He had been watching my daily songwriting adventures, and we talked a bit about creative motivation. We covered a lot of territory, but the part that inspired this song was a discussion about the pressure to be financially successful when you have the urge to pursue the often financially risky life of an artist.

I didn't want to write another melancholy or sad song (3 out of the last 4 songs have been downers), but you have to follow the muse. I tried to up the rhythm a bit, but it still ended up fairly subdued. 

Recording this was tough, because the fingers on my left hand are getting crusty and rebellious, and the rhythm pattern for my right hand was just tricky. The fact that this song has a lot more repeated words than normal was a surprising problem; I kept skipping words and getting lost on the page. The final version is pretty sloppy, but I think it gets the feeling across.

It took about 2.5 hours to write and 1 hour to record.