Wild Sage
Lyrics
I leave the house as soon as it gets light outside
Like a prisoner breaking out of jail
And I steal down to business fifteen-five-oh-one[1]
Like I had a bounty hunter on my tail
And somebody stops to pick me up
But he drops me off just down the block
And along the highway where the empty spirits breed
Wild sage growing in the weeds
Walked down the soft shoulder and I count my steps
Headed vaguely eastward, sun in my eyes
And I lose my footing and I skin my hands breaking my fall
And I laugh to myself and look up at the skies
And then I think I hear angels in my ears
Like marbles being thrown against a mirror
And along the highway where unlucky stray dogs bleed
Wild sage growing in the weeds
And some days I don't miss my family
And some days I do
Some days I think I'd feel better if I tried harder
Most days I know it's not true
I lay down right where I fell, cold grass in my face
And I hear the traffic like the rhythm of the tides
And I stare at the scrape on the heel of my hand
'Til it doesn't sting so much and until the blood's dried
And when somebody asks if I'm ok[2]
I don't know what to say[4]
And along the highway
From cast-off innumerable[3] seeds
Wild sage growing in the weeds
Banter
- It's a song about a fellow who has - you know, I bet you there's several people in this room who are this fellow and there's several more, probably most of us, who know somebody who is this fellow - who one day wakes up and he has a voice in his head. And it's hard to live and just do your thing when you have a voice or two or three running around on a loop in your head. (2006-08-10)
- I've been puzzled by the few things that people have had to say about this next song, so I'm just going to violate my own policy and tell you explicitly what it's about. And I am telling the truth. Sometimes people say, 'Oh, he lies when he describes his songs.' That's not true either. It may seem like a lie now, but give it a couple of years. But this is true, that the fellow who narrates this song is losing his grip on things as they are. He's going insane, as they would put it and so that's why he feels like he does. He hasn't lost anybody or anything like that. He suffers from a sort of solitude that most of us, thank god, can only really imagine. So, I wrote this for a lot of people that I used to work with and whom I think of from time to time. (2006-08-22)
- People keep saying that the new album is a breakup album. I don't really know where they got that idea. But at the same time, you don't want to argue with people, in case they're fixing to say good stuff about your record, so: 'Oh yeah, you like it, and it's a breakup — oh yeah, breakup! Absolutely.' The fellow in this song is more, uh, breaking up with, uh, the basic units of what constitutes him as a person. Uh, he hasn't lost anybody except himself, and that's sort of what makes it a much more solitary place to be than just your standard lose-someone-you-love, 'cause there will be somebody else but you only have one brain. (2006-09-29)
- Wild Sage was really the first song I ever wrote about mental illness. I worked in healthcare... when you work every day in hospitals you can become numb to the struggles of the people you're working with, and then every once in a while somebody will come in and you'll see maybe that it's his fifth or sixth time through, and he's starting to look defeated, you know, and it can get to you. And what you do is you try to keep that feeling with you when you work so you never forget that you're there to help people who are having a hard time helping themselves. This song is the, I think, first time I tried to write about that, and it's called Wild Sage. (2013-03-24)
- And in an oblique sense, this song is kind of about that [who I am as a person]. (2013-06-22)
- I feel like I'm shorting you on sad ones. I have to come up with something really sad. Where are the sad songs? Sad songs are on...2007's Get Lonely (2023-10-29 The Heights Theater)
Live Performances
Footnotes
- 1. "Business Highway 15-501" (2013-06-05, 2023-10-29)
- 2. "John are you okay" (2013-06-05, 2023-10-29), "are you okay" (2013-06-12)
- 3. "endless" (2013-06-05)
- 4. "I'm not okay" (2013-06-12)