It seemed like a lot of conflict going on this weekend. These friends of mine from the music scene went completely off the rails. About a month ago, we all went out to an open stage and had a great time. And they've been friends for ages. Then this little thing happened, and grew and grew. Now he's going to stay away from the open stages she goes to.

I live in a basement, and my landlords, a couple, often fight on the weekends. And when they fight, their voices are loud enough that I can make out what they're saying. It's the last thing you want when you're sleeping in. You can try to ignore it, or you can treat it as entertainment, but neither is really satisfactory. And there isn't much you can do about it.

And then there's that other conflict where the States is pounding the tar out of one of the poorest countries in the world. Again, what can you do? Wish that people would magically become nicer?

I began writing the song on the same day as the events happened. I had just rented an electric guitar, so that's what I wrote and played it on. I only had the chorus at first (of course) and I wrote the verses on the Sunday.

A lot of what I find interesting about the song relates to performing it. I use different strumming patterns than I usually do. I sing softly. but the words and notes? Hmm.

There's one key part of the lyric: the justaposition of blue skies and feeling blue. Most songs about blue skies and sunny days are about happy things. See "Feelin' Fine". But like "Bring on the Rain" this song takes the opposite of pathetic fallacy. Instead of blue skies contributing to a happy situation, they're looked to as a kind of emotional salvation from unhappiness that the narrator can't control or mend.

Questions, comments or suggestions about this web site? Email me at aaron.bentley@utoronto.ca