Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded December 11 & 19, 2007, July 16 & 21, 2016. Mixed July 21, 2016.

 

 Genesis: The hardest type of songwriting for me is writing lyrics to a piece of music in which I have no inklings as to what the song should be about, what title to give it, etc. I recall during the early 1980s when Jon Vezner (later a Grammy Award-winner) and I tried collaborating. Jon played me his music and I tried to come up with lyrics. It was difficult and nothing came of our work except for a song where Jon refashioned my music and lyrics into a very cool tune (“My Rainbow Ends with You”). I think Jon auditioned a number of Minnesota writers this way before moving to Nashville, marrying Kathy Mattea, and becoming a well-respected commercial songwriter.

I wrote the music for this song in December 2007 and quickly had a fully realized tune. I think I wrote the music while in the thrall of Neil Young’s 2005 album Prairie Wind and his 2006 concert film, Heart of Gold. I liked the simplicity of his songs and arrangements.

I struggled for several weeks with the lyrics. To jump-start the process I combed through my notebooks of titles and lines, looking for inspiration. In my green-covered notebook I found a quotation from Thurman Arnold, a lawyer, law professor, author, and co-founder of Arnold and Porter, an influential Washington, D.C. law firm. I think I copied the quote from a biography on Arnold that I had read a year or so before. The quote: “The things I remember best, never really happened.”

I reshaped that line into the concluding two lines of the bridge music. After that, the title “Sometimes Love” appeared. I wrote the first draft on January 7 and 8, 2008, revised it on January 25, 2008, and then put the song away. I stumbled across the 2007 band recording last week and then recovered the lyric sheet from my hard drive. I forgot that I had not finished the last verse, so last Saturday I completed it and make a few more revisions.

I have built on the 2007 recording and added a little more punch to the song with the addition of the electric guitars.

 Production: Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, Electric Baritone Guitar, Piano, Drums.

Lyrics

Long night bleeding into day

Sidelined truths put into play

Sometimes Love

Will blind your heart

To things you’ve known

Right from the start

 

Broke down fancy easy chair

It took some time to wear and tear

Sometimes Love

Is not enough

To smooth the way

When times get rough

 

Things she remembers well

I don’t recall

Things I remember best

Never happened at all

 

Living thick in this gambling town

Counting cards doubling down

Sometimes Love’s

A losing game

Cash out now

While you’ve got your name

 

Things she remembers well

I don’t recall

Things I remember best

Never happened at all

 

Pulling out leaving home

Close my eyes for points unknown

Sometimes Love’s

A true romance

Sometimes Love’s

A song and dance

Sometimes Love

Don’t stand a chance with me

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved