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Lord, I'm Discouraged Lyrics
Lord, I'm discouraged
The circles have sucked in her eyes
Lord, I'm discouraged
Her new friends have shadowed her life
Lord, I'm discouraged
She ain't come out dancing for some time
And I tried to light candles
But they burn down to nothing
She keeps coming up with
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
There's a house on the south side
She stays in for days at a time
I know I'm no angel, I ain't been bad that way
Can't you hear her?
She's that sweet missing songbird when the choir sings on Sundays
And I'm almost busted
But I bought back the jewelery she sold
And I come to your altar
And then there's just nothing and she keeps insisting
The sutures and bruises are none of my business
She says that she's sick, but she won't get specific
The sutures and bruises are none of my business
This guy from the north side comes down to visit
His visits, they only take five or six minutes
Lord, I'm sorry to question your wisdom
But my faith has been wavering
Won't you show me a sign
And let me know that you're listening?
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
I know it's unlikely she'll ever be mine
So I mostly just pray she don't die
The circles have sucked in her eyes
Lord, I'm discouraged
Her new friends have shadowed her life
Lord, I'm discouraged
She ain't come out dancing for some time
And I tried to light candles
But they burn down to nothing
She keeps coming up with
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
There's a house on the south side
She stays in for days at a time
Can't you hear her?
She's that sweet missing songbird when the choir sings on Sundays
And I'm almost busted
But I bought back the jewelery she sold
And I come to your altar
And then there's just nothing and she keeps insisting
The sutures and bruises are none of my business
She says that she's sick, but she won't get specific
The sutures and bruises are none of my business
This guy from the north side comes down to visit
His visits, they only take five or six minutes
But my faith has been wavering
Won't you show me a sign
And let me know that you're listening?
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine
I know it's unlikely she'll ever be mine
So I mostly just pray she don't die
Song Info
Submitted by
shrodes On Mar 08, 2008
More The Hold Steady
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First Night
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It's not a guy - it's Holly. She's had some well-documented bisexual tendencies, and this is before she herself began her descent into drugs.
"Crucifixion Cruise" established this sort of dialogue between Holly and God, and Sapphire is the "hoodrat friend" who sticks things into her skin ("the sutures and bruises" line).
Her faith has been wavering, which she loses as she begins her journey in Separation Sunday, resulting in her subsequent "resurrection" at the end of that album.
I'm pretty sure that Holly is the hoodrat friend. As it says in "How a ressurection really feels." The "sutures and bruises" bit refers, I think to needle marks from injecting drugs, and the bruises are from her boyfriend. But I do agree on this being about Holly (before her descent) liking another girl that is in a bad relationship.
I'm pretty sure that Holly is the hoodrat friend. As it says in "How a ressurection really feels." The "sutures and bruises" bit refers, I think to needle marks from injecting drugs, and the bruises are from her boyfriend. But I do agree on this being about Holly (before her descent) liking another girl that is in a bad relationship.
Before anyone asks, this is off the new album (Stay Positive, tentative title), and no I don't have an MP3 of it...
http://soundopinions.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=15515&st=0
a guy has a crush on a girl, and that girl has an abusive boyfriend and druggie friends. The guy is questioning why god would let it all happen
the version on 'a positive rage', recorded late 2007, has the penultimate line as "i don't know for sure if she's even alive" - it think it gives a more pessimistic sort of feeling to it. either way the narrator doesn't know what he wants to know, but the possibility that the girl (probably holly) is dead rather than just unobtainable makes it a much sadder story.
In some strange way I find the line "the visits, they only take five or six minutes" to be the saddest in the song. This dealer/"boyfriend"/whoever he is, the only one who visits her, can't even be bothered to stay for a cup of coffee – just to take what he needs from her and leave.
My uncle always plays this song when we go somewhere, and I always forgot to ask him what it was, and I just looked up Excuses and Halftruths and Fortified Wine and I found it :D I'm happy :))
i may be wrong but i always thought it was "shadowed her light" rather than life
I always took "the visits, they only take five or six minutes" as her doing sexual favours for drugs.
this song describes my love life at the moment and every feeling i have that i can't share with someone else
"Tad: A lot of my guitar solos are just sort of aimin’ the plane toward the side of the mountain and going for it. That was one I did manage to pull off fairly well. Craig’s lyrics: I would say that was the most of him, or his life, that I’ve ever heard him put in song. I remember listening to the rough mix and thinking, Jesus Christ, this is probably closer to him than I think people would realize. It’s very intense for a lot of reasons.
Craig: I got that title looking at this Charlie Patton boxed set and there was a song called “Lord, I’m Discouraged” and I lifted the title. It was also because my mom used to say that things were discouraging, if she didn’t approve of something, and I always laughed about that."
http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/hold-steady-craig-finn-tad-kubler-pick-best-songs.html