WEEK 93: Not Gonna Stop You (Demo)

Hello. This "week's" MP3 is an old demo of an old song called "Not Gonna Stop You."

Keep in mind this was January 2002, before I really played guitar very smoothly (I am really HITTING the strings hard) and my throat had yet to be removed of some very large tonsils that made my voice fairly congested sounding.

But the point is to put up an old rough demo, cause I feel like doing that.

This song has somewhat simple lyrics, but I've always thought there was a lot of complicated denial and unreliable narrator stuff going on. This was written before I was ever in any relationships, so it's basically a fictional character kind of song, which most of them were at the time. The guy in the song doesn't want to quite admit that his girlfriend (wife?) is leaving him, so he's acting like it was his idea and that he couldn't care less. He even thinks that SHE thinks he's going to be chasing after her at the airport, but he's too lazy to even do that.

Mostly the narrator is not trying to stop the breakup out of spite. "Oh you think I'll beg you to stay, well fuck that, I won't."

I love writing songs about self centered and hugely flawed people, and having the lyrics be warped by that mentality, with only a few hints at the "reality" going on for people to discover. This song is the ultimate example of that.

This song is so easy and thus really fun to play live. It's all about those last few high notes. You know songs that have a really satisfying ending, it's all worth it just to get to the last 10 seconds? That's how I feel about this one.

Lyrics:

You oughtta know
Before you go
I'm really really slow
I'm really, really slow

If you should run
And not for fun
You'd be the only one
You'd be the only one

And if you want to leave
Then you can go and leave
And you want me to let you
So I'm not gonna stop you
I'm not gonna stop you

And on the plane
You don't have to wait
For me to show up late
I won't be late

I'll be inside
While you ride
I will be inside
I won't be at your side

And if you want to leave
Then you can go to leave
And you say I won't let you
But look I'm not gonna stop you
I'm not gonna stop you

You may have left
But there's something that you did forget
I think you did forget
Your thoughts remain
With me over here
Not inside your brain
There's no thoughts in your brain

And if you want to leave 
Then you can go and leave
And you think I won't let you
But I'm not gonna stop you
I'm not gonna stop you

---

That last line is another favorite, he's trying to say a sweet thing like "I will always think of you" but it comes out as an insult. Wordplay, words all mixed up, the meaning getting confused, I love that stuff.

Download the song by clicking here

Or simply preview it, I'm not gonna stop you:





Thanks for listening, come back soon. I'm in the mood to put more old rare demos up.

-Jordan