No One Else's Heartbreak

Seeing as today is the last day of the year 2013, I would like to wish anyone who is reading (and everyone else who isn't, as well) a very healthy and happy and wonderful new year.  And I hope that everyone also celebrated the holidays in a loving, and joyous way.

I forgot to mention that in the previous post.

Here's another unusual song for me - but it's because of the writing style, not so much the structure (see: previous post).

So here's a song that is so fun, mostly because I completely made it up.  There's nothing that makes sense with where I am now, really, and it's the first song in a while (or, ever, except for maybe "Zach Is Looking Hot Tonight") that doesn't really have a granule of truth that comes from something I've experienced, emotionally or otherwise, and I think that's what makes it so cool for me.  Because that's just it - I don't need to have experienced these things to have come up with the song anyway.  I just wrote it without having it pertain to me.

But that's also where the bridge/chorus thing comes into play, as being the most similar to my other songs, because it has the most of me in it.  (And I say "bridge/chorus thing" because I originally conceptualised those lines as the bridge, with the song not having a repeating pseudo-chorus, but then I came up with "this ain't no one else's heartbreak, but mine," and I loved it so much and put it as the song title, too, that I couldn't help but want to repeat it.)

Anyway, otherwise, this song came quickly.  I really didn't think about it too long, or work on it too hard (I know, I know).  The idea came to me on a Monday evening in mid-October, between the first and second periods of a Devils game in Edmonton (against the Oilers); I remember so because I was standing in the kitchen, and as I was thinking up lines (the bridge actually came first, but it was followed closely by the "sages" line) I just knew it was going to be something good.  I just didn't know it would come so quickly - by that Wednesday, I was done.

No One Else's Heartbreak

the girl who bagged my groceries gave me an extra chocolate bar

she winked and said, "there, that oughta help with your broken heart,"

and last night I got a phone call from my aunt Giselle

who told me it's high time I got under someone else

the man I sat next to on the bus said, "it's his loss,"

and my best friend who's never been in love thinks I'm better off

I don't remember asking their opinion, or maybe they're trying to be nice

but all the sages come out in a small town, when you don't want their advice

my cousin's boyfriend's roommate offered to beat you up for me

and asked if I need to borrow a bottle from his stash of whiskey

the woman who does my mama's hair's talked on and on and on

about how she always said that one day you'd be gone

the teachers I had all throughout school tell me, "it's his loss,"

and the neighbor who never much liked you thinks I'm better off

I don't remember asking their opinion, or maybe they're trying to be nice

but all the sages come out in a small town, when you don't want their advice

and they all make it sound so simple, just like walking away

but I can still remember the way you used to say my name

so I just smile, bite my lip, and say, "thank you, I'm fine,"

because this ain't no one else's heartbreak, but mine

your first ex came over because she thought I could use the company

she laughed and said, "don't worry, there's plenty other fish in the sea,"

and my great-aunt has already been trying to set me up

so I got a call from her best friend's favourite grandson

everyone I meet keeps telling me this is your loss

and people who never even knew you think I'm better off

I don't remember asking their opinion, or maybe they're trying to be nice

but all the sages come out in a small town, when you don't want their advice

and they all make it sound so simple, just like walking away

but I can still remember the way you used to say my name

so I just smile, bite my lip, and say, "thank you, I'm fine,"

because this ain't no one else's heartbreak, but mine

no, this ain't no one else's heartbreak, but mine...

So, yeah.  There's that.  I like the idea of the misguided assistance and advice from everyone who knows her (and a few people who don't), and how she just has to deal with it because people are never gonna change.  I love the idea of "all the sages" in a small town, because there's such sarcasm in the way she says it.  Like she's just humouring them - which, obviously, she is.  But then there are those moments beyond that, moments where her actual hurt (and heart) is showing through - like how she can still remember how he used to say her name.  And the fact that it's addressing him ("you") is almost conspiratorial, and confiding, and serves as juxtaposition to the lighthearted tone of the rest of it.

And that thing with her being able to remember how he said her name is something I came up with a few years ago.  I won't go into detail, but I went to China in the summer of 2007 with People to People (it's a student ambassadors program that I may have already mentioned once upon a time on this blog) and about 35 other kids from the area.  The girl with whom I was closest while on the trip, and I got to talking once and I was telling her about this guy I had seriously been crushing on at home who told me he was gay that January (yeah), and how I discovered that I was over him when I couldn't remember how he said my name.  (This was a trick she later used to convince herself it was okay to hook up with a guy on the trip, that it wasn't cheating on her boyfriend back home because she couldn't remember how he said her name.  ...No comment.)

Much love, happy New Year, and thank you for the musik,

Just Another Ordinary Girl

I heard, from a friend of a friend of a friend, that you finally got rid of that girlfriend...whole town nearly hooped and hollered.