I wrote this song over a period of a month last year. I wanted to write a simple tune with basic lyrics relating to current events in the news. I wanted to absorb what was going on around me. I didn’t want to spend the usual torturous time of writing lyrics as I normally do so the news, both radio and TV was on pretty much consistently. I wasn’t over thinking this one. If memory serves me right it was mostly domestic political showboating such as the national debt ceiling, Irish default worries and the Arab spring.
Somewhere after getting the music down and in the beginning stages of writing the lyrics, Anders Behring Breivik went on a rampage killing 77 people in Norway. I simply chose to ignore it, I can’t write about that. I could not stop thinking about it though and slowly it made its way into the song. The killing on Utoya Island of 69 teenagers from the Labor Party’s youth wing I found particularly disturbing. Pick your flowers, you’re king of an island.
So that’s how this one came about. Normally I record a rough demo version with the notion to record it proper sometime. I never do. Anyway, slowly this year I’m gonna start posting them here, all of them. I thought I’d get this one out of the way first. I simply do not know what to do with this song. I’ve never played it live and most likely never will, but it exists. The title comes from a phrase I find myself using when I am about to lose my patience. Again, it’s a very rough demo.
Stop This Madness
Digging a hole, looking for answers,
Shining a light, searching for darkness,
Empty your lungs, begging for silence,
Pick your flowers, you’re king of an island.
And the hairs on my arms stand up for you,
All that scares me drives you on like fuel,
To a flame ,
From a spark,
That once,
Was silent.
Stop This Madness
Stop This Madness
Stop This Madness
Stop This Madness
Tell me for now it’s gonna be forever,
Tell me what you want is what I need,
Somethings I just can’t believe in,
Sometimes seeing is not believing.
And the hairs on my arms stand up for you,
All that scares me drives you on like fuel,
To a flame ,
From a spark,
That once,
Was silent.
Stop This Madness
Stop This Madness
Stop This Madness
Stop This Madness
Colin Dempsey 