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Doug Davis - The Prodigal Song

from Round 13, Week 11 by Monday Morning 3AM Music Club

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about

Like so many of the great songs this one aspires to be, it starts from a kernel of authenticity and spirals into a fictional tornado. Were any real animals harmed in the writing? I certainly don’t think so. It’s definitely not an attack on any general sense of anyone trying to fix or better their lives. Does the narrator share my views about addiction, religion, or anything else? Who’s to say?

This narrator is petty and petulant. At first, I thought that I'd better not pursue this idea, but I've been think a lot about songwriter Dan Wilson's assertion that he really freed himself up as a songwriter when he let go of the fear of making his narrators likeable. I'd like to develop these lyrics a bit and make them a little more specific and cutting and to define a little better what creates the narrator's animosity, but there's always time for a second draft.

lyrics

I hear you're back in town again
And showing off the sights
This is where it all began
Where you saw the light

And everybody circles round
For your redemption song
You hold 'em in the palm of your hand
You string 'em all along

But I can still remember
The badges that you earned
The smell of ash and cinder
From the bridges that you burned

You keep saying you've made amends
But I think you've gone soft
They say God loves the prodigal son
But you just piss me off

You got clean and sober
Gave your life to God
Hope you got receipts
For when you're done with this facade

But I can still remember
The badges that you earned
The smell of ash and cinder
From the bridges that you burned

You keep saying you've made amends
But I think you've gone soft
They say God loves the prodigal son
But you just piss me off

I guess I wish I never
Had to know you then
Before you wrote your story
'Bout the miracles within

You keep saying you've made amends
But I think you've gone soft
They say God loves the prodigal son
But you just piss me off

credits

from Round 13, Week 11, released March 13, 2017

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Monday Morning 3AM Music Club Winston Salem, North Carolina

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