Killing Civilians

I just spent the last two days trying to write lyrics about the fall of the Ottoman empire for “The Princess is in Another Castle (working title).”

I wrote it from the POV of the Sultan, from the POV of the Sultan’s daughter, from the POV of a small village at the edge of the empire that’s lost communication with the capital, from the POV of the Sultan’s daughter/wife barricaded in the room of a crumbling castle in a town at the edge of the empire whose walls had just been breached by barbarians, and from the POV of the Sultan’s daughter/wife who had been exiled to a town on the outskirts of empire that experienced a long, slow decay into barbarism after decades of being out of communication with the capital.

I wrote a goddamn novel trying to write these lyrics, and they didn’t work. Not a single line. It was all horseshit.

So after realizing that I had blown two days failing to write lyrics for one song when I need to write lyrics for four songs by Sunday, I decided “The Princess is in Another Castle (working title)” is going to be a love song that has absolutely nothing to do with Ottomans, empires, or falling.

The lyrics should be done in approximately half an hour.