oh please just pretend oh please just pretend that you understand
oh, like a new york method actor i'm gonna trick you into real
oh, with inflections of my voice i'll convince you i'm sincere
but i've detached myself so far away from the place this song once lived
that i have none of me left in it can you help me what can you give
can you free the colored part of your eye
to dance with the monster of my lyric
will the song be stronger then more believable with you in it
oh please just pretend oh please just pretend that you understand
oh, that's just a postcard from the past from the way i used to feel
oh, that's just a picture of the things that used to mean a lot to me
but i don't wanna cheat your ears out of all that they deserve
i want vicarious to be a comprehensible word
can you free the colored part of your eye
to dance with the monster of my lyric
will the song be stronger then more believable with you in it
oh please just pretend oh please just pretend that you understand
oh please just pretend oh please just pretend that you understand
oh, oh
just pretend you understand just pretend you're getting it
just pretend you feel this song just pretend you're living it
oh please just pretend oh please just pretend you understand
9+10/7/98 copyright Sarah K. Stefanson SOCAN 1998
sarah says: i scribbled down the lyrics to this song at the canadian original music party one night while five minute miracle was playing. later i sat on my front porch at 1am with my guitar (my neighborhood is eerily quiet at that time of night) and gave it music. i played it the next day at the comparty and i'm pretty sure that gives it the distinction of the shortest writing period of any of my songs. it's a song about songwriting, the process of it. when you write a song, it's usually from a position of great passion, whether positive or negative. after you play it a few million times, likely the situation you wrote it in will be long past and you will find it difficult to conjure up the same kind of emotion for every performance. but as any musician (or actor or dancer...etc. etc.) knows, that is something you must do in order to give your audience what they expect and deserve.
