Hey everyone, did you know it’s windy outside? Well it got me thinking about a song I wrote with my old band Saturnine about 12-14 years ago, which is called ‘The Wind Is Blowing Like an Outlaw.’ It was always one of my favorites to perform, because it had a nice momentum and a lot of fun chord changes (via the Byrds, who were a huge influence at the time). I was also thinking about it today because I got kind of worked up about a post that Choire linked to on The AWL written by a non-homosexual guy basically lamenting the fact that non-heterosexuals seem to be pushing for ‘gay marriage,’ which every1 knows is an oppressive, bourgeois institution. (In writing the article, he completely overlooked the idea that ‘gay marriage’ is a shorthand for wanting the same civil rights available to non-homosexual couples.) Anyway, it got me thinking about this song, which I wrote at a very difficult phase of my life, when I was exceedingly ‘closeted’ and feeling trapped by the need to embrace the life of non-homosexual. Hence this song is about wanting to escape something (like a marriage) from which there is no escape — but somehow making the best of it — which as I listen to it now could perhaps transcend questions of sexual orientation? So in honor of the wind:
Listen on tumblr b/c posting it here totally fucked up my feed maybe?
‘The Wind Is Blowing Like an Outlaw’/Saturnine
Swimming out into the water
Looking back into the sky
I see you now
Shaking off the latest questions
Burning smoke into my eyes
If I told you that I loved you
I was younger than the years
They fell so hard
When I see you in the morning
I wipe the tears out of my eyes
The wind is blowing like an outlaw
I could travel in a car
If I hoped to leave you now
It’s a hope that won’t go far
But we’ll see what morning brings
When I wake up I might listen to you sing
The wind is blowing like an outlaw
I could travel in a car
If I hoped to leave you now
It’s a hope that won’t go far
But we’ll see what morning brings
When I wake up I might listen to you sing
Life is short you know, but longer when it rings
