Don’t Send Me Away
A backstory and an old demo with a lost verse
Don’t Send Me Away has perhaps a longer life than any other tune on AYFB. If you look up the Deluxe Edition of Nothing is Wrong you’ll find a 6/8 quasi gospel version of this song amongst the outtakes at the bottom of the track list. We even tried this version on North Hills as well. In both cases, the tune just didn’t feel like it fit with the rest of the material. It was even in prominent rotation in the live shows. We just never nailed the recorded version. After trying it twice we figured it wasn’t going to work out and decided to put it away, seemingly once and for all.
Fast forward to getting towards the end of writing for AYFB…I felt like I had all the songs I’d need and any fish I might’ve caught at this late stage would just be extra. It was during this time that I discovered the album Hats by The Blue Nile. Griffin had turned me onto it and I soon discovered that it’s a very beloved record and I was just late to the party. Their singer Paul Buchanan has a way of writing melodies that are not only heart wrenching but play with tension and release in a way that always leaves you yearning for some kind of emotional resolution, whether that’s from a lyric or the way he arcs a melody. Suffice it to say, I got real into it. And then one day sitting at my piano in Highland Park I started playing the same cluster chord of B, C# and E as 8th notes and changing the bass notes below it. I started singing to it and pretty quickly had the melody, progression and structure for a new song. I didn’t have any words and had already been feeling that my heftier statements for the record were already written. So I looked back into anything I might have sitting in the bullpen and came across the old words to Don’t Send Me Away. Other than a few tweaks, the music and the lyrics and the emotional energy all lined up perfectly.
Looking back, I couldn’t imagine this record without it. It’s wild to think I had finished writing the bulk of the album before this tune showed up. I feel like it’s a flavor we don’t have much of in our catalogue and it’s become a definite favorite in the live show.
For the paid subscribers - here’s the demo which features an old verse that ended up getting cut so we could get to the chorus sooner (because who doesn’t like that?)
Talk back soon.