This is a sympathetic love song—I repeat, a sympathetic love song—to tragically flawed women. Women tend to be right most of the time. Everyone knows that. Being right, though, doesn’t always win points in love. Herein lies the fallacy. I’d much rather be loved than be right. You gotta pick your battles. Far be it from me to even pretend to know much about that mysterious distance between a man and a woman, but being right all the time has its lonely side. I wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here it go.

The song picks up in the middle of a woman’s drive to her significant other’s home. She’s ready to pick a fight, and she already knows who will win. I mean, what could he possibly say to defend himself? Her character analyzes to death, picking apart every action and motivation in an attempt to solve the great problem. While she sees him as broken, she does not realize that she is also broken. Though her complaints in the relationship are justified, and though she wins the argument, she still goes home lonely. Love is a messy, messy thing, and the lines can get pretty blurry.

In the studio version of the song, there’s a single lonely slide guitar crying its way through the melody during the instrumental break. Here’s a video of the song—stripped down solo acoustic—recorded live in my living room.

Lyrics:

Burnin’ up the road to his apartment
Goin’ over what you’re gonna say
Feelin’ pretty sure you got the answers
Feelin’ sure you’ll win the fight today

You keep trying to solve him like a problem
You’ve always got an answer to explain
It doesn’t seem to get you any further
Doesn’t seem to save you from the pain

Of being lonely, and letdown, and heartsick

Love won’t boil down to black and white
Love won’t recognize who wins the fight
If all the perfect answers haven’t won you love tonight
Baby, that’s the lonely side of right

Step up to the door and touch the ringer
He’s not even ready for a fight
Still you instigate an altercation
He can’t love a girl who’s always right

Stay tuned for Broken Stories #3: Dark Cigar.

“Lonely Side of Right” appears on the debut LP Broken People (click here for where to buy). Lyrics written by Banks Nelson, copyright 2011 Broken People Music. All rights reserved.

Nashville songbird Shelly Fraley will join Banks Nelson and Heather Bond Trio for the remainder of the tour. Take a peek at the dates below, and visit the Tour page for venue links and ticket information.

4.22—Nashville, TN
4.23—Saint Louis, MO
4.24—Chicago, IL
4.25—Grand Rapids, MI
4.26—Cleveland, OH
4.27—Pittsburgh, PA
4.28—Columbus, OH
4.29—Cincinnati, OH

Trying for some kind of love—isn’t that basically the story of human existence? I won’t wander very far into philosophical territory here; but seriously, at least my own life can be boiled down to this phrase. My earliest childhood memories are of a loving family of musical parents and a younger brother. I was raised in what most people would refer to as a Christian home, attending Protestant church services on Sunday mornings preceded by football games and marching band competitions on Fridays and Saturdays (my parents were music teachers, remember). Things were good. Somewhere along the way, childhood innocence was worn down, and the rest of my life has been a pursuit of the simple love I experienced as a boy.

The chorus of the song (and the song’s main idea) is about recognizing that, somehow, I drifted far away from the home I came from—a sort of prodigal’s son realization, if you’ll forgive the biblical reference. The heart of the song is in the trying, in the recognizing, even if I don’t know how to recover the lost time. The verses of the song tell more of the story of coming to that realization of distance and trying to make my way back home. The instrumental section of the song modulates directly and unexpectedly to a distant key (from D to B), which is purposefully disorienting; it eventually finds its way back to the original key of D, further pushing the idea of coming to this realization of being lost.

Lyrics:

I ran all night to you
I’m broken at the knees
I’ve forgotten all that’s true
All that heaven sees
Somewhere along
The storybook was tainted
It read me to a place I don’t belong

Now I’m living with defeat
Still alive but incomplete
Trying for some kind of love
I have no reward to show
I’ve lost everything I know
Trying for some kind of love
Trying for some kind of love

Laden here with you
Before the great divide
Of pain I can’t undo
To reach the distant side
Somewhere along
The storybook was tainted
A fairytale episode gone wrong

Stay tuned for Broken Stories #2: Lonely Side of Right.

“Trying for Some Kind of Love” appears on the debut LP Broken People (click here for where to buy). Lyrics written by Banks Nelson, copyright 2011 Broken People Music. All rights reserved.

Now that we’re over the small talk about weather and such, let me update you the next blog series. Broken Stories will be a twelve-part blog series—yes, that’s one for every song on Broken People (I know, I’m pretty clever). In each blog, I’ll take a song from the record, talk about the story behind it, and if there’s enough nerdy enthusiasm, possibly talk a bit about the nuts and bolts of the song (form, musical structure, and the like).

If you want to hear about nerd stuff like songwriting technique, musical structure, and production, leave a comment below to let me know you’re interested! Anonymous nerdity is acceptable, of course.

Next blog: Broken Stories: Trying for Some Kind of Love.

We met Nicholas Young, Heather Bond fan and recent Banks Nelson convert. (What can I say, I’m like a cigar-smoking evangelist!) After an intimate acoustic set and a beer or two, Nicholas picked up a copy of Broken People, mentioning something in passing about a new internet radio venture he was about to explore.

I’m pleased to say that we just recorded an interview, complete with strategically-placed tunes from Broken People and intermingled with a lot of interesting conversation—a bit of my backstory as well as music talk, spiritual talk, and hack pop culture commentary. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you might pick up a cigar.

Keep up with Machine.fm’s “Inside the Machine” launch details by signing up on their email list.

On a side note, there are still a few more patient project fuelers waiting for their rewards packages. Rest assured, I haven’t forgotten about you! Your rewards will be on their way shortly.