Promise Lyrics
And my I'm-so-sorry pad
And I wrote until I sprained my stupid brain
And I know that there's a reason
I made this up so fast
I thought I'd never get a chance to say
What's on my mind
I'm never kind
When my vocabulary's secondary to bottle of wine
Just like a man
And I promise I can hold you
Like nobody can
Between bullshit and sincere
As long as it sounded good while coming out
And I can't blame it on my father
He gave me my first beer
And he held my head back as I puked it out
What was I saying?
There I go playing a game I know so well
I'm talking about myself when it should be you
Just like a man
And I promise I can hold you
Like nobody can
This song is amazing, I can't believe nobody has commented on this. The whole first verse is amazing..
Well I fumbled for a pencil And my I'm-so-sorry pad And I wrote until I sprained my stupid brain And I know that there's a reason I made this up so fast I thought I'd never get a chance to say What's on my mind...
Brilliant
This is a lyrical way around the mushy way of just saying "I love you" and getting it over with, but God do I love it! I don't find it ironic at all that this CD is called "Letters" because just about every song has that hand-written appeal, even evident in the liner notes.
Something has gone wrong between the two people in this relationship; perhaps they fought and made up, but slowly drifted apart afterward. The guy, in this instance hates to see this happening, and places everything on himself. Depressed and alone, he drinks a bottle of red wine (Butch's favorite) and writes a love letter to this girl. He writes everything that comes off the top of his head because his side of the story never really had a chance to come out, probably because the guy is taking everything that happened solely on himself.
The lines "I never knew the difference/ Between bullshit and sincere/ As long as it sounded good while coming out." show that he still knows he's young and naive but, he thinks he's found something good in her, and the relationship they had/have (a la "So At Last"). The point that he is taking the whole situation very hard is further emphasized when Butch sings about not blaming it on his father; there is nobody to blame for what happened in the relationship but him, even if it was beyond his control. The part about talking about himself more than likely means he constantly over-analyzes, when most of the time, women act on emotion and just want to vent rather than over-think a situation. The guy spends more time trying to fix the situation when in reality he really can't, and he should actually be focusing on just listening to her and being there for only that(she'll let him know if he can really do anything to help). He wants her to know that he may not be "the one" for her, but he can love her and be there for her better than any guy ever could.
Once again, I love how bare and honest this song is recorded. Bittersweet, earnest, and painful; I love this song so much.