Lyrics

THE TILLER

You can cry on my shoulder
You can hang around my neck if you want to
Don’t ask me what I’m here for
Did you ever stop and think maybe I want to?
I’m not asking you to be with me
I’m just asking you to be with someone other than yourself
You’re alone and you’re dealing
Meet the man who understands, I invented that feeling
So, let’s go out, take in the weather where we can be alone together

You’re the kid who couldn’t throw right
When they were picking teams, they didn’t want you
You’re the girl who stayed home prom night
You would’ve given anything, they didn’t want you
You don’t have to be afraid to say
That you never quite got over it, admit it to yourself
Ancient wounds forever open
Meet the man who tilled the land where hearts were first broken
And I’ll walk you home in the rain where we can feel alone, in pain, together

You can cry on my shoulder
You can hang around my neck if you want to
I’m not asking you to be with me
I ain’t asking you for anything but to get outside yourself
But you’re scared, so who isn’t?
Come sit near the king of fear, we’ll take turns listening
We’ll unplug the phone and draw the shade
And we can feel alone, in pain and scared together
We’ll shut off the phone and draw the shade
And we can feel alone, in pain, and scared, together

WRITING: I wrote this song very quickly while dosed on December 6, 1994. A few slight lyric revisions have taken place over the years, but not very much. The entire thing came through me, including the solo. It’s about feelings of isolation, rejection, or exclusion. I’m sure some will find it a bit too maudlin, and I can’t argue with that, but this is what came out of me at the time and I felt it.

I wasn’t really one of those kids that I’m singing about. I was fairly popular in school, but I felt isolated at times. I certainly knew what rejection felt like from an early age. It was pretty devastating as an adolescent. Sometimes I feel like we’re all acting most of the time, anyway. This song was a last-minute inclusion to High Crimes and Misty Mornings.

RECORDING: In December 1994, I was in the process of putting together a Christmas Cassette Album of solo recordings called "Breakfast Epiphanies." I wrote this song and recorded it while that was going on. Then called "Unwanted," it was included along with other songs from that were later developed further and appear on previous releases (Land of No Weather, Sweet Marianne, Amelia Earhart, Crayons) I resurrected it and re-recorded it fairly quickly to replace a dud in September 2023, just before going into Spirit House to lay drums on and mix this record.

RECORDING:
09/01/23 - Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocal (guide), Background Vocal
09/02/23 - Bass, Piano, Mellotron Flutes, Lead Vocal (redo)
09/03/23 - Mandolin Guitar
09/09/23 - Organ
11/01/23 - Wurlitzer Electric Piano
11/06/23 - Lap Steel
11/07/23 - Electric Guitar
11/08/23 - Electric 12-string Guitar
11/09/23 - Acoustic Guitar II, Tambourine, Maracas
11/10/23 - Electric Guitar
12/13/23 - Drums (Tommy Diehl)
12/15/23 - Mixing (Danny Bernini)

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