On Sahara and Songwriting

I'm sure you all know that I'm super excited about Guild Wars 2, but that's not the only thing coming out this year that I'm giddy over.

Have you ever heard of Relient K?  They're my favorite band, and I grew up on them.  They've improved their sound with every album.  Now, I believe, they're recording their latest album, and I'm (quietly) off the wall about it.  What I feel like doing today is posting the lyrics to one of my favorite songs by RK, and maybe commenting a bit.  Bear with me, then, because this is going to be a long blog post.


Sahara
(lyrics by Matthew Thiessen)

Lying on my side knowing of thirst is how I'll die
Chalk on my tongue
Relying on the night
Beneath the dunes is where I lie to block the sun

Trying to ignite
Some sort of passion from inside to overcome
This feeling of desertion
Can't be worse than never having anyone

So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose
Even when I turn my back

A lion on his side was it the lying
Or his pride which brought him down?
Once the king of beasts but
Now they feast on the thoughts beneath his vacant crown.

Trying to decide was it the lying
Or the pride which brought it down.
To be alone
To be dethroned
Believe me I know all about it now

So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose
Even when I turn my back

I never told you then that I'd be easy to love
Supposedly I'm a man but I felt like a cub
I wandered into the plains further and farther away
Not ever knowing that I'd never come back the same

As my organs gave way I swear I felt something burst;
It's been thirteen days and now I'm dying of thirst
As for the birds of prey I pray that
Someone else will get here first

I am not alone
I'll be all right
Just take these bones
And breath them back to life

So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose
So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose (so I'll ask)
Don't ever turn me loose (one thing)
Don't ever turn me loose (one thing)
Even when I turn my back.


Why is this my favorite Relient K song?  Well, if you haven't heard it, then you don't know the part where the music itself is excellent, but I might explain some of the more writing-oriented reasons why I think this song reigns.

It starts with context.  The lead singer/front man and the writer of all (or almost all) of Relient K's songs, Matt Thiessen, went through a harsh break-up only a little while before they were going to get married.  The album Forget and Not Slow Down which this song is from is a true artist's response to this event in his life.

Throughout his career as a songwriter Thiessen has used clever wordplay to make his songs catch, and Sahara doesn't shy away from this.  Several times in the song he starts a phrase with one idea and melts that into another.  For example, the phrase "this feeling of desertion" in the first verse functions as both the object he is trying to "overcome" with a "passion from inside" and the subject of the final statement in the verse, which asserts that this same "desertion" (which is where the title comes from, I suspect) he suffers from is still better than not knowing love.  He relays both of these ideas (the muster of his passions to fight his pain and his assertion of the value of the thing which brought him pain) without repeating himself, and in a matter of moments.  In this way the writing is condensed and he came move on to the other ideas in the song.

Thiessen also uses the metaphor (which he references in a later song, something I adore in cohesive albums like this) of a lion (also "on his side") to ponder with some detachment what mistake brought him to where he is during this song.  He demonstrates, however, that his detachment isn't as strong as he pretends, when he repeats the question (lying, or pride?) before coming down again on his intimate knowledge of what it means to be desolate.

And then the bridge, which I geek about all over everything every time I hear it.  But it's one of those geek-outs where you're singing along at the top of your lungs after cranking up the music as high as you dare.  Incidentally, Thiessen brought in at least two guest singers (from outside the band) for this song, and their voices can be heard most distinctly in the bridge.  One of them happens to be his father (as far as I know).  The bridge begins as a retrospective about the relationship he had been in (not "easy to love"), and how he felt not "like a man" but "a cub"—which reinforces the metaphor of Thiessen as a lion—who wandered into the wilderness to be irrevocably changed.  It returns to the image of desolation and dying, as organs give way and scavengers are already approaching his body.  Then the bridge ends with Thiessen bringing home the truth of his faith.  He is not alone, and he'll be all right so long as Someone restores him.  This is even better in the contexts of prior songs on the album like Therapy which establish his plea for help.

Yeah, there's a few text walls in this post.  I, uh, don't like Thiessen's songwriting at all.  I don't know what you're talking about!

I think that's all for today.  Go take a break or something.

-shrugs-