Week Twenty (TWENTY!)

DOUBLE AGENT
By Kim Davidson
(c) 2010

I’m standing over you, and I can see my reflection in the blood pooling quickly round your head
Cold steel in my hand, and I warned you this was coming, but then you’ve never listened to a single word I’ve ever said
Let’s go back to the beginning

Spring, two years ago, at a café on a Paris street I see you for the first time from afar
And I hope against all hope that you are not my target, even though I know exactly who you are
And it’s ill-advised at best, but the work lends an intensity, and Fate every now and then will intervene
So there’s nothing to be done, but to put the ball in motion and hope that I can stick to the routine

CHORUS: And it’s hard to keep my story straight
They tell you not to get your heart involved, well sorry it’s too late
I know everything you’ve ever done
But I understand it all too well, and suddenly it’s fun
Imagining that it could work, and I am on your side
Playing Double Agent on the run

Winter of this year, and I’m so deep under cover that I hardly can remember what is real
I try to focus on the mission, and what I’m here to do, but all that I can think of is how you make me feel
And it’s dangerous for all concerned if I forget myself, thank God for years of training finally kicking in
One dark and deadly night I’m reminded who you are, and I vow that you will hang for every sin

CHORUS: And it’s hard to keep my story straight
They tell you not to get your heart involved, well sorry it’s too late
I know everything you’ve ever done
But I understand it all too well, and suddenly it’s fun
Imagining that it could work, and I am on your side
Playing Double Agent on the run

BRIDGE: We’re approaching zero hour
Every detail is in place, and so is my will-power
I believe that nothing can go wrong
Til you turn and say you’ve known who I was all along

Guns are raised and hammers cocked, we stare across the room into eyes that are fin’ly open wide
And I do not back down when you tell me you will do it, so will I and there’s no place left to hide
And it feels like a movie in slow motion as the past two years flash through my mind just as you draw a breath
Instinct does the work, as I somehow dodge your bullet in the moment that mine sends you to your death

And I’m standing over you…

I love it when I have a song complete (or close to complete) and then I suddenly come up with another song idea. It’s happened to me a couple times this year. For the first time, however, it happened and I didn’t need to coordinate schedules with a duet partner or video cast, so for the first time since Week Four I am AHEAD a week. Yay! Took long enough!

I don’t exactly know how or why this song idea jumped into my head. Maybe because I’ve been watching a lot of “NCIS” lately (LOVE that show!) I can tell you that it was the first line that first appeared in my twisted little brain. It made me want to rub my hands together and make evil laughing noises. “Mwahahahahahah…” I wrote it down and immediately thought, “Okay, now what kind of spin can I put on this so it isn’t just a typical ‘dark Kim’ song?” I mean, let’s face it: dark and twisted and sad and tragic is kinda my wheelhouse. I am kind of proud of myself this year for not having twenty weeks and counting of sad and depressing songs. There’ve been a few, but it could EASILY have been ALL. You have no idea. Anyway, as soon as the idea came to me I started thinking outside the box and it was pretty quickly decided that making the situation involve some kind of secret agent was going to get me out of trouble and into far more creative territory.

It was fun writing this one. I have a friend who always tells me I’d make a great double agent. I’m not quite sure how to take that. I’m as loyal as the day is long, so I think I’d have a hard time with the playing-both-sides-of-the-fence part. But whatever. It’s not like it’s ever going to happen, so the best I can do is write a song about it. And because it wasn’t a poor-Kim-dark-depressing-love-is-horrible kind of song, I could say whatever I wanted to say and it was okay. So that made it even more fun.

Of course, rhythmically it’s a nightmare. I mean, it’s like the strum-part from hell, at least with my limited guitar prowess. I hope to someday fully produce this one. I can’t even imagine what kind of instrumentation we’d use… but it would be fun, I have no doubt.

This is an impressive song for me for one simple reason: there are only three chords in the song. I don’t think I’ve EVER written a song with this few chords in my life. I’ve tried to simplify over the past couple years, after being teased by both my former band-mates and my studio engineer about using too many chords in my songs. I’ve gotten better, but this is by far the most simplistic chord progression. And I don’t think it’s really lacking anything musically because of it. I mean, sometimes less really is more. And sometimes you just don’t NEED a whole bunch of extra chords to get the arrangement across. So yay for me. Growth!

I’ll tell you a secret: this chord progression was actually going to be for another song that I started at the end of 2009, as I was gearing up to start this project. It’s a song that has yet to be finished, and may or may not ever make this blog. I didn’t actually realize at first that I was using the same chords. Once I did… well, it wasn’t like I needed to “save” them for the other song. Trust me. Besides, if that other song ever gets done, it’s not like I can’t reuse the same chords again. God knows I’ve done it before, as we talked about last week. At least they’d be different “same” chords than I typically use!