Song #5 - Flying Away
I am in the bus scrambling to get this out before we play the show tonight in Fort Worth, Texas!
Before I left for tour I was in bed and I heard a melody. It started fast and rhythmic and then exploded into a soaring tripleted chorus. The vision for it was very vivid in my mind as I got up to whisper the voice memo into my phone. I didn’t know what the song was about, but the words that came for the chorus were “when I’m flying away…”
This week I wanted to try to discover what the song was trying to say. I wrote the lyrics at a Barnes and Noble book store yesterday, recorded the guitars in the hotel room last night in Amarillo, and then tracked all the vocals this morning in the back lounge of the bus — I would like to apologize to my band mates for hogging all the communal space, haha. Needless to say, this song is a draft. It might be done, it might not be. I haven’t sat with it long enough to know. But with these 100 songs I want to share the process as much as the results with you all.
You know the feeling when you’re on a plane looking out the window as you take off, seeing all of the details of the cars and hills and buildings start to blend into a beautiful abstraction? It’s almost like the whole world looks made out of painted clay. This song plays with this transition of perspective. For me it is about loving life up close, but then needing to break away to really appreciate how everything is connected and beautiful when you’re not enmeshed in the drama of the play.
This is what songwriting feels like for me. I fly away. I don’t have to be a part of this world. I am somewhere else, unburdened, getting a new perspective, and then after I’ve flown in the ephemeral for a while, I get to land back in reality.
I hope you like this one! I’ll be back in New York next week! That’s when the double and triple song weeks will begin — 95 to go!
Love,
Eric
Thank you Extended Stay, Amarillo!
FLYING AWAY
I love the close up magic
We’re giants, we’re so dramatic
We give all until we’ve had it
Fixeated on bigger habits
We’re patterns and dreams
Tragic amazing machines
I pack up a bag of home
A taste of the things I know
I kiss you and I’m in mode
The power to fall in flow
Is a gravity’s pull
And the sky’s beautiful
When I’m flying away
I get to escape
The details all fade
When I’m flying away
When I’m flying away
I see no mistakes
There’s nothing to change
When I’m flying away
Our calendars mark the days
We’ve settled into our ways
The parking decks and the maze
We’re trying to keep up the pace
And we’re doing our best
But don’t we all long for deep rest
We’re all rushed and taped together
Hallmarketed do it better
Hold out hope until December
Pull focus to all remember
Nice stories we tell
And how we’re all wishing us well
But when I’m flying away
I get to escape
The details all fade
When I’m flying away
When I’m flying away
I see no mistakes
There’s nothing to change
When I’m flying away
But I’m found in the transitions
Where I’m forced to make decisions
Yes I’m forced to make decisions
But I’m found in the transitions
Where I’m forced to make decisions
Yes I’m forced to make decisions
My expectations like a cup
Keep them small and then fill them up
When we’re full then we get to love
We are so much more than enough
When I’m flying away
I get to escape
The details all fade
When I’m flying away
When I’m flying away
I see no mistakes
There’s nothing to change
When I’m flying away
