Lyrics - Fly Away

A long time ago, I blogged about "The Turning Brain"'s first performance and the first song I wrote. The band is now defunct with Aabhaas (drums) moving to Delhi and Dodo (bass) moving to Bangalore. However, sometime ago I realized that it was the only song missing from this blog and that I had lost the lyrics!!! So, after much digging and data mining, I found them. Here we go, for posterity - the song is called Fly Away (Fast blues riff in E and a mind blasting bridge constructed by the then drummer Mohit and Dodo)

Break my heart and set me free
Let me fall inside of me
I can see through all your lies
All the lows and all the highs

You can look but you can't find me
You can try but you wont deny me
You can hold but you cannot tie me
I'll fly way

All my days that I gave to you
Deep inside you were never true
Thinking about it hurts my mind
Were you trying to lose, or trying to find

You can look but you can't find me
You can try but you wont deny me
You can hold but you cannot tie me
I'll fly way

Its all much clearer now
I can see what's your will
You want me to be the butcher
And you want me to be the kill
Well I've got news for you honey
I not a bird in a cage
I'm the burning fire of anger
I am the fist of rage

You can look but you can't find me
You can try but you wont deny me
You can hold but you cannot tie me
I'll fly way

Defending or explaining

This hit me today for absolutely no reason. It hit me so hard that I was compelled to sit down quietly and think about it for a while (in the middle of a shitty day at work). It isn't even a big deal but the way it sort of came together in words in my head was amazing.

I use the word 'defend' here in the context of, e.g., Someone says - "Why didn't you come to the party yesterday?" and I say "well, I..." to which the reply is "It's okay. You don't have to defend yourself".

When we defend ourselves we are actually convincing ourselves that whatever we are saying is correct in essence. We want to believe that though we are sugarcoating the facts, the facts themselves remain. In other words, there is some element of guilt involved. And it always shows.

Explaining is when we want to convince other person. We are convinced that we are on the right through and through but somehow the listener has misunderstood. Our attitude towards the whole thing is vastly different.

I understand that the distinction is so fine as to be mostly moot, but like I said, it's not about the idea but about the pristine clarity with which it exploded in my head - Kind of like the first time I actually UNDERSTOOD conditional probability (which was sadly not until the final year of my college education).

Lyrics - An ode to good times

After a number of brooding, introspective tunes, I've finally come around to writing something more in-the-moment. Yay!!! Even I can write a happy song :)



Everyday, as I prepare, to face the world another day.
I take my time, and do the rounds, and laugh again at yesterday.

I note them down, the jokes and frowns, until they start to come around;
into that rhyme, called good old times, that I can carry everywhere.

Not for friends, they turn away.
Not for love it dies.
For the moments that remain, let's sing
An ode to good times.

When I get stuck, in life or work, and every road is a dead end,
When all around me, chips are down, and all the lips have drooping ends.

I sing my song, and nod along, and tap my feet too just in case
and try to think, like everything, for all of us, this too shall pass.

To the "Do you remember when"s
To the time that flies
When we laughed, till we cried, let's sing
An ode to good times.

Everyday, as you prepare, to face the world another day
Arms open wide, take in your stride, anything that comes your way.

Think of when you worked, from dawn to dusk, but in the end, it was all worth.
Or of the hour, over the bar, of which you recall nothing much...

Good times