New Single!: My Heart Is An Occupied Territory

wredfright · My Heart Is An Occupied Territory

The new single compares love with an armed struggle as the singer of the song attempts to free the territory of the singer's heart from the emotions of the old love.  Lyrically, this is an old theme as the idea of love as war is pretty ingrained in language with expressions such as "captured my heart" or people hitting on someone and being rebuffed being described as "shot down in flames", but this song makes the comparison more explicit.  The lines about the children come from a time when I was involved with an organization that helped children injured in a war zone, and I always thought that kids not being able to be kids and play outside without worrying about being shot or something was one of the worst things about war (and there are a lot of bad things about war and little good).  Musically, it's the usual guitar, voice, keyboard as bass, keyboard, and drums.  For fun, I threw some bell sounds in from a cat keyboard (the keys are the cat's teeth) my kid has.  I like the way the instruments come in throughout the song, building to the end.  I tried to sing it somewhat deadpan, as the subject matter was melodramatic enough already.  Lyrics are below:

My heart is an occupied territory,
but I'm going to break it free

You think that love is warfare and one of us has to win,
but with an idea like that we've lost before we begin.
No more dictators!  No more tyrants!  I'll have no more of hearts of tin!
I'd rather have no love than a love that's imposed.

The sun is shining,
and the street is quiet,
and the children look in disbelief
as the soldiers are gone.

From out of the rubble, I'm going to build myself anew,
and I'm going to dig and dig and dig until I've rooted out every last bit of you,
and then finally you and I--there is no we--will be through,
and the children will play in the street again.

My heart was an occupied territory,
but I broke it free.

Thanks to The Tinnitist for adding the previous single, "All The Onions In The World" to a recent playlist!

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7"!