From the Album "Take this Moment..."
by Will West & The Friendly Strangers

Track 4. The Devil Within
Lyrics by Will West

Last night, I had a dream
This god damned devil was chasing me.
I’m running now… think I’m free
His hounds at my heels, won’t leave me be.
Eyes on fire, outstretched wings
God damned devil was chasing me….
Lord this devil won’t leave me be.

I’m looking up, are angels laughing from above?
I wonder why, If I am feeling so much love.
There is no mercy only pain, all this anger in the rain.
Rage and war seem ever more, but I will ease away the pain…
Until we fall…
We all Fall down….
Lord we Fall…. Hey we all fall down.

Late nights…..  broken spell.
Your fire is burning, but you don’t look so well.
Is it my time, my time to go?
Won’t really matter now, cause I will never really know.
When I die….drifting away…
Will I be smiling at these things we used to say?
Laughing loudly at these things we used to do?

We’re fucking up….  I’m running from your love…
Oh getting high… but there’s no feelings in these drugs.
My heart is racing like a train.
Blood is rushing to my brain.
I’ve never felt like this before, but then it all starts to fade away….

I’m looking up, are angels laughing from above?
I wonder why, if I’m still feeling so much love.
There is no mercy only pain, all this anger in the rain.
Rage and war seem ever more, but I will ease away the pain…
As we ease away this day….
Until we fall…
We all Fall down….
Lord we Fall…. Hey we all fall down.
Let’s take a ride……
We all fall down….
We’ve gotta get back up….

Last night, I had a dream.
This god damned devil, was chasing me.
A closer look, it can not be…
Lord this devil, he’s dressed like me.
Lord this devil, he is me….
My enemy is within….. let’s dream my friends….
Our enemy….. We’ve gotta get back up…..
Let’s dream my friends….  We’ve gotta get back up…..
Let’s dream again…. We’ve gotta get back up….
Let’s dream my friends….  We’ve gotta get back up!

Song note:

An earlier version of this song appeared on the "To Inspire" CD.
The song kept evolving in the studio but we could never put together an ending that seemed to fit.
"We gotta get back up" came to me when we were riding in the car one afternoon listening to a mix of the song....
Seemed like a perfect resolve to a "darker" tune.

Skip vonKuske laid down some sweet mandolin work.
Justin Bennett chimed in on "We've gotta get back up"
Justin Blankenship added final touches with the gut wrenching screams at the end of the song.
(Check it out with headphones)

Aside from the shakers, we tracked the entire song at Sessions on 12th Studio.
This was my first try at playing/recording Bass
~ $100 Squire Jazz Bass from a local pawn shop.

Percussion consisted of finger snaps, djembe', brushes, pots and pans.
One of my favorite tunes to perform live....

-will



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