In late August I began work on the latest song idea I had come up with. I titled it Tempting Fate at the time as I got the music written and a few basic words. The premise was going to be about a guy that went nuts on his girl, went to jail, was released and is living with the consequences of his actions. Crazy huh? Well, I scrapped that idea after many rewrites on the music side and decided I needed to get a little more personal in the song. I needed to worked with my life experience in order to make this song work, so that is what I did.
I really struggled with this one for a long time musically. I knew in my head where I wanted to go, but couldn't get it right on tape. After countless rewrites of the chorus music, style changes and rerecords, by October I had what I wanted musically. The next challenge was going to be steering the song lyrically.
To get the lyrics down I took a look at the handful of lyrics I had written for Tempting Fate. I basically tossed all of them out with one exception. The opening lines "A single tear falls from your face. It's an image I can't replace. It keeps running through my head." Those words stuck out like a sore thumb and brought me back to a very painful time in my life. It was after reading those lyrics that I knew what the song was going to be about.
The lyrics of this song came out of a couple of experiences towards the end of a very long relationship I was in. This is of course from my side of the story and she may have seen things differently, but from my vantage point this song tells the reason the relationship came to an end. I really think after all is said, the story makes for a very powerful song.
I would like to also acknowledge a few people for their help on this project. Special thanks to Matt Graunke for providing an excellent guitar solo to the song that really captured the mood and tenor of the composition. Awesome work Matt. And very special thanks to my good friend Jay for helping me get the mix, the music and the instruments right on this. Jay has heard this song in many different stages and has been a great help in telling me what worked and what didn't as this song took flight.
Lastly, this isn't complete yet. I am hoping to add some drums and a bass at some point, and probably to redo the vocal recording as well. I really wanted to share this work with everyone though, so here it is for now. I will upload a new version once it is finally completed; if that day comes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing and recording it.
Song: Rejection
Music & Words: Brian Bartholow
Album: Reflections On Life
Year: 2010
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