Opener

It’s another day that I feel like I want to quit

Another psychopathic look at how rough the game can get

It’s easy to see how I’ve been telling myself a lie

Got so damn sure I’ll get it all before I die again

But I redeem myself in the end

I know that I’m changing

I know that I’ve lost

Those pieces of those pages

Where I gave up and walked

Got ripped away and I know that it’s gone

Something else I must do over

Before I move on

I got to stay

And I carry it all

I’m telling myself something every time that I fall

I get to stay

And I deal myself the same hand

The game isn’t changing

The picture’s the same

The only thing that’s different is

I try not to get in the way

And it takes so long

To know I’m doing nothing when I’m building up walls

I get locked away

Inside of it all

I’m telling myself something every time that I fall

I see people by my side along the way

I can’t see no logic to the ones that slip away

Some hidden force just seems to take away their faith

They don’t know… they drop out of the game

But I redeem myself in the end

I know that I’m changing

I know that I’ve lost

Those pieces of those pages

Where I gave up and walked

Got ripped away and I know that it’s gone

Something else I must do over

Before I move on

I got to stay

And I carry it all I’m telling myself something every time that I fall

I get to stay

And I deal myself the same hand

The game isn’t changing

The picture’s the same

The only thing that’s different is

I try not to get in the way

And it takes so long

To see I’m doing nothing when I’m building up walls

I get locked away

Inside of it all

I’m telling myself something every time that I fall

I see a head trip I want to get away

All that’s left in the way

If I could get out of the way

Then this is the last time I’ll stay

It’s already happened-I’ve already seen how it ends

I’ve already looked from the other side- and I see… my friends

If there’s one song on the Anthology of Sorts that I think will make people ask, “Damn Dr, what did you put that one on there for?”, this is the first one. But it’s important to me, particularly the words. And I do think the music is good, but probably somebody else could do it better. Help yourself. It’s one of my many songs that touches on my belief in reincarnation, and for me it really does sum up the cycle I believe we go through over and over until we get it right.

The music started out as a Nova Brain song. It never really got as far as words with them, but I liked the chord progression, the back up “Heeey-ay-ay”s, and the speed up part at the end. So I just needed to come up with the verse part which I did. When I recorded this for Dr Wippit’s 1st Time Out, I went ahead and had Joe and Andy from Nova Brain play their guitar and bass parts, and I did everything else. In the end I could not get over the fact that Joe’s guitar sounded out of tune. And I was never really happy with the vocals. I called the song “Opener” because I was using it to open the album (after some Wippit Theme of course), and it’s not an Opener anymore but it is the name of the song so there you have it.

On re-recording this for Anthology of sorts I decided to keep the bass and drums, and do everything else over. The bass is a little distorted so I had to keep it lower in the mix than I’d like, but I sure wouldn’t do a better job Andy, it’s the perfect bass line. I’m okay with the vocals now but not excited about them. I did steal Joe’s descending guitar lead for the transition to the fast part, other than that I played pretty much the same guitar as before through better gear. In the end, it’s really up to me whether or not it’s any good, eh?