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MP3 5.3 MB • 160 kbps • 4:36
Story behind the song
*WARNING*
If you would rather enjoy this piece of art and have it come to mean something truly unique to you, do not read the backstory. Just as the band “Aerosmith” once criticized the music video industry of robbing fans from having their own visions of imagery associated to a song and supplanting it with some “official” footage, so too can knowing a songs backstory potentially come to rob it of having some special place and meaning for you.
Or both can exist. It’s all really subjective. Proceed with understanding.
Thank you,
V
Musical Conception
I wrote this song under an oak tree in a small park across the street from the New Glasgow Credit Union after comforting a friend who had just been through the ringer. A small part of myself was born into existence that day.
Musically, I was inspired by the song "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin, "Fight For Your Right To Party" by the Beastie Boys, "My Lovely Man" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Rooster" by Alice In Chains. At the end, it takes a turn to a solo modulating between F Lydian and A Lydian. The first solo is inspired by Liona Boyd. The second is more of a "and now here is what Steve Vai would have done" take on the same changes.
The Official Backstory
This is a song about a person named Mandy.
Let's just go with Mandy.
Mandy was a very strange person. She would genuinely come off as a genuine, authentic, well meaning person. It was very convincing when you were face to face with them. She would proliferate very innocent and often virtuous ideas about herself. Saving herself for marriage, for instance. She was very good at making you feel special, often by confiding in you (while you presume you are unique in this in some way).
This is the context. This person is a textbook sociapath, but a very well adjusted one knowing very well how to act to derive a general likability and sympathy.
There are quite a few stories that could be expanded upon regarding how "friends" were treated face-to-face as opposed to how they were treated behind thier backs. Ignorance is bliss for anyone that has decided to remain friends, that is for certain.
My main issue (among several) surrounded a relationship they were in. I could focus on any number of things on that timeline, but let's just focus on the final day alone. I'm aware of it in great detail. It was just after March Break in 1996. Her boyfriend was away to University, but she insisted that he come see her in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia that weekend following March Break that year. She was very clingy in a way taken as romantically all weekend. Sunday, as he was packing to leave back to University, she told him that she had to confess something to him.
They laid down on her bed and she began describing an affair that she had with a person we will refer to as "Philip". She went into great detail about the sex they had, and how hot it was doing that with someone she barely knew as they had just met over the break (she had been in Halifax presumably to attend a book binding course at Dalhousie University during March Break). She got more invested into details as she went on as though fueled by how upsetting her boyfriend looked enduring hearing the tale.
Then she paused and waited for him to say anything about it, but when he did she cut him off with "but wait - there's more".
Then she began describing a second affair that she had with a person we will refer to as "Van". She went into greaet detail about the sex that they had, and how it was her first time taking someone's virginity. She got more invested into details as she went on as though fueled by how upsetting her boyfriend looked enduring hearing the tale.
Then she paused and waited for him to say anything about it, but when he did she cut him off with "but wait - there's more".
Then
Lyrics
Take a look at yourself
And tell me if you see
Any trace of that innocence
That you used to be
Angel came to me
From Heaven today
Said don't go believin' her
Mysterious ways
I loved you like a sister
I loved you like a friend
I held you like a lover
Never thinking it would end
Long gone kisses
Float through the sky
The memories fade
But never die
You
Just
Walk
You just walk away
I walk on by
Like something I would never do
Search through your soul now child
And tell me if you find
All the answers that you seek
For your peace of mind
Angel came to me
From heaven above - she said
Can't believe how many people
Decorate love
I loved you like a sister
I loved you like a friend
I held you like a lover
Never thinking it would end
Long gone kisses
Float through the sky
The memories fade
But never die
You
Just
Walk
You just walk away
I walk on by
Like something I would never do
