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The Republic Theme

from Once and Over Again by Jeffrey Nordstrom

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about

I wrote the music in 2001 and recorded an appalling and hideous 8-track version of it for my 2001 Fundisc, a CD I made for my family for Christmas. I loved the music, but my "You left me in the streets / But I've got more industry / Than you'll ever know" lyrics were admittedly horrible.

Fortunately, sometime in 2004 or so, I came up with this image/perspective: A young woman distracts a politician at a dance club. The politician can't concentrate on his politics after he sees her.

I recorded almost all of this track in Hope, B.C. in late 2005. I'm quite proud of the melodic, chime-like guitar riff that appears throughout the verses and chorus. I should have allowed myself to keep a steady snare in the chaotic, distorted bits. No keyboards appear in the track.

lyrics

I belong to a sphere where words
Are far mightier than any sword
And guard a collective heart.

I belong to suits and ties
Legal process, political pyres
Proceedings, agreements and bargaining tables
Where love is taboo and souls are for sale

But you belong on the streets of the city
In the neon gardens of excess and plenty
Where forgetting is the basic means of survival
And stamina is charged by your fitness and style

You belong in a club where your dance
Tells your story through your gestures, midriff and fluids
Where your movement is a potent pheromone

We all need a place to belong
I feel desperate and vital for a sense of the right place
We all need a place to belong
Over all of the dance, matter, time and space
We all need a place to belong
Mediating movement, escaping the rat race

Yes, you belong to the people
To the eyes of every voyeur
You belong to our collective soul

My jealousy burns
A bright hole in my spirit
Until you return

We all need a place to belong
I envision lands of ample proportion
We all need a place to belong
Worlds expanding by sheer force of your motion
We all need a place to belong
We’ll be the big fish in strobe-lit ocean
We all need a place to belong
I fall down with fatigue and filthy devotion

‘Cause there are so many days when you just wanna’ run
Away from the bitterness in everyone
Away from the rules that you’ve made for yourself
It makes you just want to lay yourself down and dream

And when you dream you always see the same old scene
You see coloured, flashing lights and hundreds of people
And each of them are dancing to that sweet, steady rhythm
That moves through your pores like a sweet body lotion

And you’re always with ‘em dancing out there on the street
And you’re dancing so hard you wear the shoes off your feet
And you’re dancing so hard that they’re giving you room
But you’re moving so smooth that they’re crowding around you

And that hi-hat kicks in you make a little scream
Like nothing in the world could ever stop you from moving
‘cept that sexy Puerto Rican who’s been checking you out
He makes you feel wanted, makes you wanna’ shout…

We all need someone to belong to
I putter on my knees at the legs of your table
We all need someone to belong to
I offer my goals as recompense for your fable
We all need a place to belong
From the darkest legislature to the childless cradle
We all need a place to belong

credits

from Once and Over Again, released September 22, 2007
Jeffrey Nordstrom: vocals, guitars, bass, drum programming.

license

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about

Jeffrey Nordstrom Vancouver, British Columbia

Singer-songwriter, teacher, photographer.

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