PAUL ROCHA

Lyrics

I GAVE IT TO YOU

I didn’t expect to hear from you
After all of this time
Though I guess it really hasn’t been that long after all
I gotta confess, I am not at my best
I don’t know where you are
But it’s crowded in here with the elephant in the room

Did you ring me up just to bring me down, my love?
My heart’s not around, my love
I Gave It to You
To have, to hold
Protect from cold and floods and quakes
My mistake
I Gave It to You

I’d tell you I hope you’re doing great
But you’d know it’s a lie
Cause you know how small and petty I can be after all
‘Cause I’m still a mess, what did you expect here?
A room full of hookers and midgets in thongs
Singing barrelhouse songs out of tune?

Did you ring me up just to bring me down, my love?
My heart’s not around, my love
I Gave It to You
To bless, to cross
And fill with possibility
Shame on me
I Gave It to You

Did you ring me up just to bring me down, my love?
My heart’s not around, my love
I Gave It to You
It’s not in the drawer
Or hiding in the floor or chandelier
It’s not here
I Gave It to You

I Gave It to You – I always see this as a little film. I picture this guy
in a cheap flop house with nothing on the walls and a lousy little
bed in the corner with a bureau and night table with an ashtray.
A bottle of booze. Feeling sorry for himself and imagining a phone
call from her (He wishes she cared enough to call him, but she won’t.)
The 'hookers and midgets' line is inspired by a scene in the movie High Fidelity.

Written kind of quickly and but recorded over a long period of time.
I had recently purchased a Gretch lap steel in 2015, around the time
of this recording, and it appears on this song as well as on Stingy Alley,
Sister Silhouette (Apophenia), Smiling, Sad (unreleased) and probably
some others that I'm forgetting at the moment. I should have left this
song alone and released this record in 2016 when it was originally done,
but I couldn't keep my hands off it. I'm better about that now.