Are You Coming Home?

Are You Coming Home by timpepper

Are You Coming Home? There's a story here and it goes like this:

I've lived a life of great expectations. I don't know if it's because I'm part of generation X, or is it Y? Either way it's been said that we all expect too much. We feel entitled. I don't recall a time when I ever consciously felt entitled but perhaps there is some truth to it. I've always expected that I was capable of great things and what's more I've expected that great things would happen to, around, in the general vicinity and basically all over me. What sense of entitlement?

Seriously though...Somehow I, and perhaps my whole generation, have been raised up with this idea that greatness is not something to be strived for but rather something that we deserve and expect. I've lived enough life to realise that greatness is not a bad thing to desire but that to expect it just because I live and breath and walk around is maybe a bit naive.

The picture I was painting in the song, "Are You Coming Home" is that of a person sitting alone in the universe waiting for God to throw a big lump of greatness, or maybe purpose, or achievement, or some such thing into their laps. After striving for a dream for a few minutes I got pissed off that what I expected to happen didn't happen.

Maybe one of the best lessons I've learned in the past few years is that expecations are often not met. It might be one of the best things that ever happened to me that I learned that goals don't reach out and touch you...you have to reach out for them and probably keep reaching and growing and reaching some more. It's probably a great thing that I learned this lesson early. Once your expectations are shattered you can move on and start to get things done.

Of all the songs I've ever written, this one of the ones I am most proud of. It's had a couple of incarnations and versions and what not. The one above is a little more rocked up and "Nashvilled" than the original but the message is the same: If you're searching for purpose...keep searching. If you're striving for greatness...keep striving. Get mad and angry and then get over it and get on with it.

The first time I played this song in public I cried. Yeah....I cried. And I'm not ashamed to say it.

The Killing Kind

I was on a Skype call with my parents yesterday. I had just sent them an mp3 of a new song and my mom asked me what it was about. I avoided answering the question because it’s not always easy to say what a song is about. I mean..I know what I’m trying to say but if it were that easy to just say it I wouldn’t probably write a song about it. I’d just say it. But then a lot of things I write songs about aren’t that tricky to say or explain. So what’s the deal?

There are times, I think when I write about a thing that is complex in the sense that it’s not just an idea that words can express but it’s got a lot of personal history and some sort of emotional baggage attached to it. It’s the sort of stuff I might share with one or two people but I might not want to tell everyone. So the idea and the personal history and the emotional baggage get distilled into this 3 minute song and hopefully there’s enough there to make the listener think something and feel something…and hopefully not turn it off half-way through.

A few weeks back I wrote one of those kinds of songs and I’m really proud of it. I’ve been playing it around town a bit and usually I get a few positive comments and I’ll notice a couple of people nod and smile as if to say… “yeah, that’s pretty much the way it is.” It’s a song about my journey here in Nashville and I guess there’s a little more to it than that. If you’ve been through everything I’ve been through or at least something really close to it you might know exactly what I’m saying. If not then you may get something completely different from it. I’d like to say that I write songs to be a little bit universal so that everyone can get something from it. The truth is that I just write songs. I don’t think much about who it’s for or why I write them when I write them. I just love the process of it all so I keep doing it. Mostly I write songs for myself I think and luckily a few people seem to like them.

So here’s “The Killing Kind”. I hope that there’s something in it for you. It's free to download and share....

The Killing Kind by timpepper

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more from Tim Pepper

http://www.timpeppermusic.com/