09 May, 2009

I Sure Do Hope



I sure do hope


That I'm found. 


And I sure do hope


To take this poor soul out.


Maybe something, somewhere 


Doesn't go on round;


Maybe someone stays here


In this town.


And I sure do hope


Someone's loves this fool.


And I sure do hope, it's not you.


Every step you take, 


Every step for awhile,


Will save my name...


In the mountains of time.


I sure do hope,


That tonight we'll make love.


Backed up with a tape


From our highschool days of lore.


Heaven isn't cold,


But on Main I've got my doubts,


About the dream life that will cost me


This tiny little town.



The trick with this song is the rather exasperating quality that people have when they are about to do something they know is wrong.  I know this realm rather intimately, so...  If a person were to receive an MRI of their brain (which we all deserve to say the least) just as they were about to, as in this song, cheat on the person in their life they claim to be a loyal lover of, they might just see a pattern in their brain that "sure [is] hoping" rather than doing the right thing.  


As exasperating as the protagonist is in this song, he seems to realize the stakes.  He wants to be  caught by someone other than himself.  Classic desire of the not yet guilty.  He's too weak... and "hopeful" to be true.


My first favorite part of the song is how he is telling the woman he wants to have an affair with, "every step you take, every step for awhile, will save my name in the mountains of time."  Isn't that always the truth.  If our temptations just ran away.  Who hasn't wished for that.


The other part I like is how desperately he wishes to have a night of love with his wife, replete with some audio tape from their high school days together.  Now, it certainly can be argued that this guy is a wimpy loser.  I think he is.  But at the same time he represents in the song how we frequently destroy what we most desire since we see no way for our desires to be seen by those who deserve them the most.   So we give them to some fool who couldn't earn them in a million years.  Then wonder how we got stuck with a damned fool.  "The dream life," i.e. someone who hasn't been with you long enough to know you, ends up costing you "your tiny little town."  That's never happened to me, thank God.  But it happens.  Man, does it happen.


I sure do wish it never happened to anyone.  Guess that's why I wrote the song.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

sigh.