“Frantic Prayer” began life as a bare-bones demo Scott recorded ages ago. He had a cache with a fair amount of riffs and guitar lines that he presented to us, and I think this was the first of that group we worked on. I think the demo just went up to the part right before the ominous middle section, necessitating the writing of the ominous middle section. When we first played this live, we only played the rockin’ parts, so it was only about two minutes.
The melody took a while to write, as it’s a bit of a tricky song. The lyrics are about guilt.
-G.
lyrics
Caught with my hand in the cookie jar again inevitably
Hard to believe it? Believe it
This once-thought-reformed wretch returned to the scene of the crime
No reason or rhyme rationale
Just compulsivity
“High time to come clean, son
Spill the beans, tell us where the bodies are buried
And charity might smile on you”
Thus resigned
I offer up this frantic prayer
“Christ alive
I swore this wouldn’t be my life”
Caught with my hands red as slowly dying stars
At least so it seems
You’ve just got to believe me
Walk a mile in my boots
Clearly, I didn’t choose these shoes for myself
But you’ve already read me the riot act
And I’m not coming back
Thus resigned
I offer up this frantic prayer
“Christ alive
I swore this wouldn’t be my life”
So where
Where did it all go wrong?
Such a promising start
Such a prominent fall
So where did it all go so wrong?
And so on, so on, so on
You may scoff but it’s true
You still don’t believe me, do you?
Well, what’s so awful to you
Comes quite naturally to me
And I need it like breathing
When you feel like you’re drowning
You’ll do anything
For that one last chance to come up for air
credits
from Frantic Prayer (Single),
track released October 12, 2010
Written by GOODE/MEIER/O’GARA/SKRDLANT
Produced by GOLDEN VEINS
Engineered & Mixed by SCOTT O’GARA
Recorded at SMOKING GUN STUDIOS, IOWA CITY, IA 2009/2010
Mastered by DOUG VAN SLOUN
Artwork by JON PEARSON
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