Original Song: Tired

At last, a proper original song for April! This one really did start from scratch earlier this month off the back of a few nights where I just couldn’t sleep. This is about the fourth incarnation of the song as I was struggling to find a way to play it. Guitars didn’t work, so I turned to keyboards, but they sounded thin. Then a week ago I saw a documentary about the making of Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads album. A lot of the keyboard work in it is played with the left hand. Now I’ve always treated keyboards as a right hand instrument – no way those keys were going to take over the bass part! But I tried it – and it worked!

Nothing too special with the recording of this one – the keyboard parts were played on a Roland FP-7 and the bass line came from a Fender ’62 Reissue Jazz bass through Line 6 Pod Farm 2. The most interesting addition this month is the use of a vocal processor – a TC Helicon VoiceLive Play. I think it’s really helped me try new things with the vocals (where normally I just do one or two takes and figure it’s as good as it’ll ever get!).

So there it is: April’s original song! The monthly routine continues!!

TIRED
©2013 Chuck Smeeton

The ceiling fan can’t cut the heat
And you feel so tired you just can’t sleep
And you’re watching every second
Of the clock’s eternal creep

Can’t shut off, frustrations spread
Noises that ring inside your head
It’s three am, you’re wide-awake
Can’t relax in this damn bed

Chorus:
Close your eyes
Close your mind
Another day
To leave behind

Toss and turn all through the night
No one to share your sleepless plight
The more you try the more you fail
Can’t make this evening right

I’m the Phoenix that may not rise
Not ready to see the morning skies
Motionless I may seem calm
But lying still is no disguise

No potion can end this curse
All I try just makes it worse
Where can I turn to ease the pain
It may be time to call the nurse

A broken man with broken dreams
Sleeplessness taken to extremes
This is the path that I must tread
No quick fix, no crazy schemes

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