Patience Keeps You Waiting

Lyrics

She spotted me like dalmatians
Her wick was slowly fading
She said, "All I want from you is patience"
But patience keeps you waiting
But patience keeps you waiting

"Where does it all come from?"
She asked me as if I knew
When I started to look above
She just bent down to tie her own shoe
She just bent down to tie her shoe

It was my fault that my lover cried
And I have put laughter in my enemy's eyes
And there are no regrets for either
And there are no regrets for either

And if I lose a finger
Will you still love the other nine?
When I am old I will not need a watch
I will have given you all my time
I will have given you all my time

Logic, my good friend logic
Is only as good as the man
Logic don't always explain
The things that you don't understand

It was my fault that my lover cried
And I have put laughter in my enemy's eye
And there are no regrets for either
And there are no regrets for either

If you can't find a reason
Please don't feel that heavy weight
'Cause a blind man and a deaf man are going to argue all day
And the only thing they can agree upon is faith
And the only thing they can agree upon is faith

I know you don't want me to go now
But I guess it was time I was vacating
She said, "No, all you have to give me is patience."
But darlin' it's been patience that's been keeping me waiting
Patience has been keeping me waiting
Patience has been keeping me waiting
Patience has been keeping me waiting

Reflections

I love the groove on this song.  The bass part was changed in the studio by Mike Ofca and Todd Goodson to give it more of a low-down funky feel.  Previously I had played this song with Howard Hyde as an acoustic guitar duo, and it had had a little different flavor, but no less soul.  In fact, the vocal harmonies are based on what Howard used to do on the song.

The word play in the song is first-rate, if I can say so myself.  How I love puns!  Listening back on this now I think of Carly Simon's song, "Anticipation,"  ("It's making me wait.")

There's a strong element of religion in this song.  The line, "When I started to look up above..." was a way of me saying that the girl I was interested in at the time saw things in very material, not providential or spiritual, terms.  Ah, but yet again it was not my time.  I did not know myself well enough - another case of failed love.  But the repeated line, "It was my fault..." sums up a lot of what I know, and still know, to be true.  That is, sometimes we have to be kind to our enemies but we have to appear to be harsh towards the ones we love.  The former is to create personal union with those whom there is a division, and the latter is to challenge our family and friends in order to help them become stronger.  And I would only want the same in return.

There's another line of thought that I see in some other songs on this record which is the questioning of the supremacy of reason and logic.  When I was that age, I equated reason and logic as an opposition of mystical experience and/or the reality of unexplainable miracles.  I might now word some of that differently.  Although I have not lost any disdain for short-sighted "Scientism," I have a much more well-rounded appreciation of how reason and faith are two wings of the same bird.

The one thing about this song that is a sign of youthful musicianship is the way the main part of the song which is in E minor switches to an A major chord in the "It was my fault..." section.  I don't know if I handled transition from the the minor one (i) to the major four (IV) chord in the best way.  But the switch from minor to major, from unrest to peace, was achieved fairly well.  I might start playing this one again, switching up a few things.