I’ve long said that attempting to psychoanalyze or ascribe specific
motivations to an author based on his or her work is an exercise in futility
or outright mistake. Some years ago, my depiction of a character in a short
story prompted a reviewer to accuse me of antisemitism — which I can only
decry as a baseless and utterly foolish claim, far more revealing of the
reviewer’s prejudices and preconceived notions than the author’s. However,
songs — poetry in general — and straight fiction are wholly different animals.
My brother, Phred, used his lyrics to reveal his deepest feelings,
undisguised, vividly painted and paired with his most wistful, poignant
melodies. I so hope to get some of his recordings preserved digitally, though
I fear that even high-quality analog versions will prove few and far between.
There is still much material to sort through.
“Back for a Swing” is one of Phred’s most revealing compositions, a brutally honest confession of his own objective glimpses of himself. This song — a beautiful ballad that rings of something between Neil Young and Tindersticks — makes me weepy every time I listen to it.
Back for a Swing
©Phred Rainey
Take a pull on that wine
And pull on my sleeve
You know that I
Would
never make you leave
That’s what I
want you to say
It’s what I dreamed about
It’s what I want you to
say
That’s what I want to hear
All I want to hear
My clothes on the floor
A dead car in the yard
All those things that
you see
It shouldn’t be so hard
To change the things that you see
And get a spark out of me
You want to change what you see
To get the
most out of me
It shouldn’t be so hard
To make a man out of me
You see I don’t come across
Like a normal man
I keep too much to
myself
As much as anyone can
But I can’t hide anything from you
Can’t
hide anything from you
I wish I could say you’re responsible
I wish I could say you’re
impossible
But it’s too easy to
And God knows it ain’t true
I
took what I saw
I didn’t think you’d care
I thought of laying them back
I
saw you lying there
You shouldn’t be so hard
You’ll make a man out of me
I tried to walk through a swamp
I tried to make my own way
It’s just
the things that I do
That make a lie of what I say
I can’t hide anything from you
Can’t hide anything from you
I can’t
hide anything from you
Can’t hide anything from you
