Recorded live (vocal and guitar simultaneously) at Whiskey Hill Studios in Woodside, CA in 2011. Engineered by Roger Choplin. Mix-mastered by Vince Hudson in Redwood City, CA in 2012. Guitar and vocals by Paul Fifield.
This song came about as a result of a class assignment at an Esalen songwriting workshop in 2010, taught by JohnSmith and Julie Baker. We drew song titles out of a hat and then we each went off and wrote a song, or at least the beginning of a song. Of course there was lots of editing in the weeks afterward but I wrote the gist of this song while sitting on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Big Sur, with fog beginning to roll in. Hence the metaphorical coastal references. - Paul Fifield
The Long Sorrow
© Paul Fifield 2010 All Rights Reserved
Wave after wave, relentlessly batters the shore
The fog has its way, as over the treetops it pours
Off in the distance a light tries to guide someone home
But it’s wasted on me, I don’t want to see
Where I am anymore
Storms come and go, each taking a piece of the earth
I should move inland where sunshine could fuel my rebirth
But it’s hard to let go of the land where you once held my heart
Though it’s falling away, a bit more every day
And the borders are blurred
So many times I have tried, so many times I have died
So many times I could just walk away
But I stay-ay-ay-ay, and I stay
Year after year, tear after tear
Such a long sorrow, in the land of my heart
I should move on, greet a new dawn
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll make a new start
I want to go down to the ocean and throw myself in
But I’m so scared of drowning I never can seem to begin
So I stand on the shore and I gaze at wave after wave
I’m stuck in between, I don’t know where to be
And there’s no way to win
So many times I have tried, so many times I have died
So many times I could just walk away
But I stay-ay-ay-ay, and I stay