OK. Responsible guys need songs of lust and yearning, too. (Not that I’ve ever been one but us songwriters like to stretch every now and then.)
Actually, the protagonist’s purported responsibility evolved through the course of several revisions. At first, it was just that he’d invoked the line “… if I had you to sleep by my side / if I had you to be my bride… ” (Which I recall thinking at the time was one of the first time one of my protagonists had ever expressed even a slight desire to get married… though those protagonists are, in other respects, a wildly divergent lot, from saints to the worst kind of sinners.)
But that apparently wasn’t good enough for my fevered, novelty-seeking imagination… because in the next revision of the song, a few years after it was initially penned, I decided to point my motorcycle toward the ramp up to the shark tank with this line: “When his girl loses her head / a man’s gotta think for two.”
The delightfully archaic patriarchalism delighted my perverse sense of humor — and actually seemed to bring the whole conceit of the song (“what it’s like to be a man”) home…
Anyhow, it may seem a pretty straightforward take on the new chastity and I suppose, on one level, it is… but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a few chuckles out of it. I know I did…
Head Full of Crazy, Heart Full of Fire
previous versions
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
lyrics
Head Full of Crazy, Heart Full of Fire
When I see you
and I look in your eyes
I get a head full of crazy
and a heart full of fire
but I cant talk about it
and I cant act on it
and I couldnt really stop it
even if I wanted
I’m tellin you so that you understand
that’s what it’s like to be a man…
… I work all day and
I sweat in the sun
I’ll work all by life
and I’ll die when it’s done
but if I had you
to sleep by my side
if I had you
to be my bride
if I had you
I’d be glad to be a man
Now I know that you
would really like to stay
but have responsibilities
that must come into play
I must think of what’s right
— what’s right for you
When his girl loses her head
— a man’s gotta think for two
but that’s what it’s like
that’s what its like to be a man
(C)2007, TK Major
