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Leave It Alone - Dave Warne

by A Year of Song curated by Andrew Smith

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lyrics

This month we present two songs from two very different perspectives, the first called ‘Leave It Alone’ from a first person, subjective voice and the second called ‘God Believes In You’ from an omniscient perspective.
We begin with Dave Warne, a Vancouver-based songwriter (formerly from Minnesota) who writes and performs solo, with his duo ‘Colourful Language’ and with his band ‘The Deals’. This song is sung by Dave Warne along with his wife, Zoe Fitch – his musical partner in Colourful Language. Check out their music at: colourfullanguagemusic.bandcamp.com

Everyone as they grow into adulthood begins to re-evaluate all that they’ve learned and absorbed as a child. This is normal; we want our children to ‘take our word for it’ – but we expect that teenagers and adults will individuate and decide for themselves how much of that knowledge is something they can personally believe in and ‘make their own’. And so in the spiritual life, at some point all our theology comes up on the table for re-evaluation - from a new independent perspective.

But what if none of your childhood spiritual lessons survive this re-evaluation? What if you arrive at a place where nothing feels like it is your own experience, your own truth? What if, in this process of re-evaluation, everything gets rejected?

These are the weighty questions that the writer wrestles with in this song – for “after all it means everything. Or nothing. That much I know.” So back and forth he argues with himself, and the listener feels the drama and the anguish of soul. One part of him says “leave it alone, because it’s tired and it’s old” but another part says: Wait - some of this is true! Some of this is my own experience. “When I was a boy ... I heard traces of a faraway song ...” and it changed the course of my life.

How did the spiritual life come to feel so irrelevant? I have to “try so hard just to care”. And then at the end of the song, he paints this beautiful picture of the heart longing for what it cannot fully understand or possess. This song lingers with the listener – because we are not let off the hook; the writer leaves the question unanswered, saying “I used to feel the salt in the air ... and if there’s an ocean out there - I want to know.”

"Leave It Alone"
Words & Music by Dave Warne
© 2016 Dave Warne

Leave it alone
because it’s tried and it’s old
But after all it means everything or nothing
That much I know

And when I was a boy
in the forest of night
There were traces of a faraway song
And I came running along

Are you there
cause it’s breaking my heart
Are you there
that I try so hard not just to care

Leave it alone
because it’s tired and it’s old
But I use to feel the salt in the air
and if there’s an ocean out there
I wanna know

credits

released February 1, 2018

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A Year of Song curated by Andrew Smith Kelowna, British Columbia

Andrew Smith is a producer and singer/songwriter from Kelowna, BC.

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