Take It Easy On My Heart

Lemme get pompous for a second: I've always loved the idea of the unreliable narrator in music, because I think people are a lot less prepared for it in that situation than they typically are when reading prose, watching a movie, or something like that. I think there's something about setting words to music that tends to circumvent people's skepticism and perceive the lyrics as fundamentally honest, rather than as a work of fiction. Having a first person perspective where the viewpoint is either unreliable or kind of a shithead is really interesting, because people tend to take that personally in a weird way. On that note, here's a song that starts off sounding like a take on the "I'm broken and you can fix me" school of love songs, but as it goes on you sorta realize that the person in question isn't just emotionally screwed up but in fact mentally unstable. I had this idea of doing an entire album based around this idea, where it starts off as just a sort of romantic story but it turns out that the narrative voice is a doomsday prepper type who has a basement full of canned goods and guns. This song would be one of the first places where the romantic narrative starts to crack and the craziness shines through. The "naive" person the narrator is in love with is in fact just sane. Lyrics: I don't understand you like you think I do I'm trying to, but it's so hard There's something beautiful I see in you that I don't fully understand Oh darling, take it easy on my heart I'm trying to be everything you need You've gotta take it easy at the start Eventually I'll come up to speed Do you remember when I came to you I told my shame to you, and it was so odd How all you ever did was look at me and say "I don't really understand" Oh darling, take it easy on my heart How can you be so perfectly naive? I'm sick of being everything you aren't and desperate for something to believe I can see you now in my mind surrounded by golden light like a neon sign advertising faith in all mankind And I can see it now in your eyes the sense that there's a grand design that I could never find in my own heart even though I tried and tried Just outside this circle of electric lights there are appetites that've waited so long We're counting down the hours 'til they realize that everything has come undone Oh darling, take it easy on my heart I'm trying to be everything you need We've got to take it easy at the start, if we try to move too quickly it will bleed