 Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Registered
Joined: 01/10/2012(UTC) Posts: 18,715   Thanks: 7755 times
Was thanked: 6357 time(s) in 2889 post(s)
|
 Title: Writing This All Down
Artist: Carmen Grant
Label: Independent - No label
Genre: Indie folk, alt-country, American PrimitivismWriting This All DownThe second song on the debut has generally the same feeling as the first one, another song about repairing or fixing hurt through music. While the first song on the EP was a song about a past relationship, this song is a thinly veiled song dedicated to Carmen Grant's father. Although it isn't something that Carmen has ever talked about in the very few interviews that she has done since her slow slow rise to recognition, Carmen and her father had a very bad falling out when she decided to pursue music rather than a more lucrative career. Carmen and her father's relationship had become increasingly hazardous since her parent's divorce when Carmen was fifteen, and this song describes the metaphorical straw that broke the metaphorical camel's back. In the song, Carmen describes her feelings as she talks to her father over the phone, asking him for money. Her conversation with her father starts out badly, as she immediately recognizes him attempting to guilt trip her for choosing the life that she has. In "I wouldn't have asked, saved you the task, if I weren't for real," Carmen is explaining that she would have never asked her father for money if she didn't truly need it and wasn't truly committed to dedicating her life to music. While this seems like a pretty passionate plea towards her father, it doesn't seem to come to much, as she reports in the next two lines that her father is "trading a daughter and two thousand dollars / for a national steel." The first line of that heart-wrenching final stance with her father is easy to interpret: Carmen had been asking her father for two thousand dollars, and was receiving it with the termination of their relationship. The second line is a bit harder to interpret, as Carmen Grant has stated in two different settings what the line means. The first interpretation she has given to the second line is that she is calling her father cold and unmoving, as steel is, which is thusly ending their relationship. Another interpretation Carmen has given for that final line is a fan based one, when Carmen supposedly mentioned on stage once before playing this very song that the first guitar she ever owned was a National Steel guitar that she bought with money she borrowed from her father. Therefore, the final line can also be interpreted as Carmen regretting that she has lost this relationship with her father in exchange for, simply, a guitar. Whether this story about the interpretation is true or not, it certainly does give a different feel to the song.What a surprise, you're wearing your disguise on the telephone line
I know it pleased you to know I needed you and your time
You play the game, not saying either way, but you know
Could've made it really quick, save me the guilt trip, and just said no
Are you writing this all down?
This conversation, the alienation in your tone
I've got no fucking clue from you point of view and your time zone
I wouldn't have asked, saved you the task, if I weren't for real
Trading a daughter and two thousand dollars
For a national steel
Are you writing this all down?SOUNDS LIKE:
|
 3 users thanked snap_itshannah for this useful post.
|
|
