#7: Compromise March 19th, 2006
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This is one of those old songs that won’t go away. It’s the song that “You’ve Got Her Number” grew out of; it’s here for historical reasons, I guess, and because Maya said she liked it.
Y’know, I do think there’s a lot of good stuff in here, in between the banalities (like “reap what we sowed” — that’s got to go, dude) and the affected singing and the way I plow the phone metaphor into the ground, and I’m still working on it, and I’ll probably get a song I like out of it someday. At the time I wrote it I’m sure I thought that “I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad” was a stroke of genius of “I believe when I fall in love with you, it will be forever” proportions. These days I’m just as likely to sing, “I don’t know what I want, but I don’t want it that bad.”
I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad
I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad
I always believed that we’d reap what we sowed
I thought of your number and reached for the phone
How to be independent and still depend on you?
How to love you completely
and have a way out in case it falls through?
How do I settle these two?
I don’t want to compromise you
I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad
I hope that this will connect me to you
Even though I’m scared of this call going through
How to be independent and still depend on you?
How to love you completely
and have a way out in case it falls through?
How do I settle these two?
Don’t make me compromise you
I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad
I always believed that we’d make this work out
I guess now you know what this call is about
I can’t be independent and still depend on you
And I know I can’t love you and have a way out
If this won’t go through, then
It’s hard enough just to keep talking to you
And now you want me to compromise, too
I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad
I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad
At 9:14 pm on March 19th, 2006, Nick wrote:
Worth waiting for. With one scant listen, I think it’s your best yet.
At 1:24 am on March 20th, 2006, Bryce wrote:
Definatly a great song. I am enjoying listening to all of the songs on the site!
At 8:28 pm on March 20th, 2006, Lindsey wrote:
Man! Thanks. *shakes head* Time and time again, my ideas of which ones are good and which aren’t are so different from other people’s.
At 2:44 pm on March 21st, 2006, jes5199 wrote:
It’s hard to make simple, plain language sound rhythmic. I think that’s part of why poetic language is often so baroque*: so it can be beaten into the shape of the music.
I think that’s why this song is so compelling: it feels very natural. Can I say “underwraught”? And yet it is still music.
*Well, there’s a caveat to this, clichés are the worst of both worlds, baroque language stuck into plain speech. “reap what we sowed” is a case of that.
—
The other thing that strikes me is the mutation of the refrain at the end. That’s unusual for a pop song, pop songs don’t usually have a sense of time passing or the situation changing at all. It’s more common in country music. Maybe this is actually a country song
At 5:50 pm on March 21st, 2006, unbottled soul » Blog Archive » college needs a reset button wrote:
[…] As I finished the last sentence Lindsey Kuper’s latest started floating from my speakers. If I could think I would write a review. However, as I can barely string two words together there won’t be one. […]
At 8:44 pm on March 21st, 2006, Al wrote:
Do you remember your old friend Grinnell? I still search you up online to see what you are doing. I’m a music major at Loyola, e-mail me if you want to catch up, I’m glad to see you are still at it.
At 9:15 am on March 25th, 2006, Lindsey wrote:
Jes –
Huh! That’s very interesting. I’m trying to think of a counterexample, but right now I got nothin’.
My favorite, actually, is when the same words in the chorus come to mean something different in the context of each verse. Sometimes something entirely opposite.
Al — Wow. Did we play bridge? And write songs in your room one night? Hi.
At 9:44 am on April 9th, 2006, Maya wrote:
Well, “Chase” is an example of the situation changing as time passes.
At 6:57 am on May 31st, 2006, unbottled soul » Blog Archive » it’s like I’m trying them on for size wrote:
[…] OK, I’m beginning to drive myself nuts with all of this—and the fact I’ve been on the computer all “day” searching for jobs and related. Some of the words of Lindsey Kuper spring to mind: I don’t know what I want, but I want it so bad. […]
At 4:21 am on June 2nd, 2006, unbottled soul » Blog Archive » an almost artsy post wrote:
[…] While I was working on my laundry I just had to listen to some music so I grabbed the latest CD I’d burnt of Kuper’s Collected Works (yay for not-so-snazzy titles of fictioanal import) but the only song I could stand to listen to—due to my mindset and mood, not any lack of artistry on Kuper’s part—was Compromise. I was playing it through my parent’s DVD player and TV and wound up just sitting on the couch and actually listening to the song a couple of times, picking out the piano instead of Kuper’s voice and the lyrics. I had never done that before with Kuper’s music—at least, not that I can remember. I used to lie in bed with headphones on in high school and, while I was listening to songs, concentrate on one isturment or something along those lines. I remember doing it with six-member Linkin Park. […]
At 10:43 pm on October 11th, 2007, Shoebox Full of Tapes » #19: Fake Plastic Trees wrote:
[…] a few hundred times and had sort of started to learn how to sing in a more matter-of-fact, less histrionic way. Sort […]