The Game
Creating music for the films I write and direct has become my principal way of pursuing my “other love.” I embedded Healing River, the song used in the opening of my feature film Over-the-Rhine, in my first Music from My Movies post.
Here (below) is The Game, a song that appears later in Over-the-Rhine when Alec, a young drug addict, finally hits a point where change is no longer an option, but a necessity. Like most fiction writers, I tap veins (in every sense of the word) from my own life in order to infuse truth into my characters.
I started writing The Game at a low point in my own young adult life many years ago. Drugs weren’t involved, but a profound sense of failure was. I started with the line, “Life is just a game we play,” and went on to say that we’d all be happy if we just accepted that life has no meaning. But in the midst of writing that I realized I no longer believed it.
Years later, looking back on the time my life changed forever, I finished the song from the perspective of a young man who dares to hope he’ll eventually learn the purpose of his life. The lyrics embody Alec’s wistfulness as well my own turning point in life:
VERSES 1 & 2
Life is just a game we play to pass away the years.
Yeah, that’s what I used to say, but it never stopped one tear,
and a tear is just a drop, you see, in an ocean of regrets,
and a sea of grief could never free a heart so far in debt.
Even though I know I’m not enough, I keep trying anyway.
I keep thinking when I’m up to snuff, I can blow this fog away.
But if I had a million years, and all my Sundays, too,
I could never set the balance straight for the things I didn’t do.
CHORUS
Someday I’ll know, and I’ll never forget
that what I do in the end is what matters,
so I won’t fall in love with regrets – no regrets
VERSE 3
I keep thinking if I drive all night, I can finally lose this load,
but I’ve never really known the way, I don’t recognize the road.
I’m deluded, mad and half insane, but I’m feeling better now, thank you.
To know you don’t know anything is the one thing you’re allowed to know.
CHORUS
Someday I’ll know, and I’ll never forget
that what I do in the end is what matters,
so I won’t fall in love with regrets – no regrets
At least not yet.
≅
This recording was produced by the composer of Over-the-Rhine’s score, Steve Goers. The vocal is performed by Noah Berry.
Nice, real peaceful. Has a good feel to it. God bless!
Love the back-story and the lyrics… wonderful!
Thanks, Dori.
Very cool, Mitch! I have written around 250 song lyrics of various types if you ever need a collaborator… Just sayin’… That was always what I wrote until this blog. Now it seems I only write a few a year. I should really learn music… Ha
Hey man, good job.
🎬🎼🎟
What a journey you have been on and it is so great that it is reflected in your music and your art!
the lyrics grab the soul
Really wonderful. Great message as well.
Thank you.
“When I’m up to snuff, I can blow this fog away…” A little miracle of a line, Mitch. Just perfect.
Why, thank you, Meredith.
Lovely song! I enjoyed listening to it.
Well Mitch, you never seem to have a limit on talent. Stay on the path of enlightening us.
Wow! You are brilliant composer 🙂
Aw, thank you, Martina.
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Wonderful song Mitch. I love it, such a wonderful message.
Thank you, Carla.
Wow, Mitch, I love the song. And knowing the backstory adds an even sharper edge to it.
Thanks, Vera.
Beautiful… Love this song, Mitch!! 🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵
Bless you, Dori.
That was worth waiting for! Very good, Mitch!
Thank you, Ann!
Awesome !… Thank you, Sir.
Hi Mitch,
Thanks for opening up and sharing. The song was great. It really says it all.
Gary