2014 – for The Frank Horvat Band – 5:58

Music by Frank Horvat
Words by Lisa Horvat

Recording

Album: Strange Machine
Buy Song: iTunes or CDBaby
Date: March-June 2013
Location: THE FARM, Toronto
Musicians: Frank Horvat, Christine Duncan (vocals), Justin Haynes (guitar), Joseph Phillips (bass)
Producer: Frank Horvat and Jean Martin
 

Programme Notes

I wrote Take From Me after I discovered an old notebook which contained angst and rage-filled poetry that my now wife, Lisa, had written as a teenager. The words really jumped out at me as something that would work well in a musical context. This is one of many poems that I used when writing for my two band albums, I Can See You and Strange Machine.

Take From Me was actually recorded during the I Can See You sessions, but never made the cut for that album because it did not blend well with the other tracks. It fit better on Strange Machine because that was a much more stylistically eclectic album.

Take From Me might be my most “rock” oriented song I’ve ever written. The vocal line is really virtuosic to show the true pain of this character – a lover scorned is never pretty! And the quirky electronics and percussion combined with Justin’s “unique” guitar improvisations really gives that extra edge that we were looking for in the studio.

– Frank Horvat

Lyrics

Four months to fell
Four months to know
The pain and the sorrow
As the list grows longer
I don’t want to know

Of the girls lining up
Ready to throw
Stabs at my heart
Tear and claw at me

No sense in words
No sense in action
Till the visage of my desire
Is blocked by that of a friend
A foe. Et tu Bruté?

As something swells
As something breaks
A leaking of faith
So tear me down
Take what I want
Have the little I got
For it will soon be dawn
My realization of right, of wrong

For as soon as it’s gone
The suffering will be shared
So take from me
Take from him
Take him from me
For I have no joy

Yet I sit and wait
For the moment in time
The moment time sighs
It’s farewell good-bye
To that of which I do not have

LT#074