It's Very Dark

At Jen Midkiff's panel on her songwriting process, we had a lot of good discussion of ways of writing songs. At one point during the panel, I said "Tunes are free." Lauren Oxford turned around to look at me like I was mad. Later discussion indicated that she started out by writing poetry, which isn't the direction that I started songwriting from.

Nevertheless, if I was going to shoot my mouth off, it seemed like I should actually write a demonstration piece. I started playing around with some chords, worked through the chord progression for several days, and finally realized that I could argue with the sound of the chord progression that I had, or I could just write the very dark song that wanted to be written.

Arguing with your muse is usually a bad choice, so I wrote the dark song.

It's very dark.

          Am              E7sus4
It’s very dark, it’s very black.
         G/D           Dm6
I cannot see if they attack.
    Am             E7sus4        Am
The boundaries are gone and I am blinded.
         Am             E7sus4
Now I am lost and I’m a fool.
             G/D                Dm6
The night is cold, the night is cruel,
        Am             E7sus4         Am
And the howling in the wind is single-minded.
   G/D
It wasn’t supposed to go this way.
  Am
I wasn’t supposed to be the prey,
    G/D                         E7
But now I am the hunted and I’m learning how to fear.
  Am               E7sus4
Beyond my grasp, beyond my sight,
G/D                 Dm6
Something’s waiting in the night
      Am               E7sus4       Am
And I wish that I were anywhere but here.

(Chorus)
G/D                           Am
Whatcha gonna do when all the light has gone away?
G/D                            E7
Do you have a half a chance of living till the day?


It’s very dark, it’s very cold
And I fear my life’s been sold
To a creature this dark night has liberated.
Gone the moon and gone the stars,
They have vanished in the hours
Since I set out on this hunt that’s turned ill-fated.
My hound has vanished in the dark,
Without a sound, without a bark,
And if he had a choice, he’d not be leaving me alone.
I cannot look, I cannot see,
Something evil waits for me
And I will pay the price in blood and bone.

It’s very dark and I’m afraid.
It’s been too long since I have prayed
And the words I might have used have been forgotten.
There’s no shape that I can see
In the dark surrounding me.
I cannot scream with mouth as dry as cotton.
Wise men say that dark’s a blight
Defined by absence of the light,
But wise men are not here with me on this unholy night.
Dark is real and dark has form
And dark knows that my blood is warm.
Dark will be the victor here tonight.

          Am
It’s very dark.