“Wastin’ Away” is the ninth track on my debut album, Self Confidence. The first time I tried to record music, it was the first song I recorded. It was actually the first song I wrote that I kept, and I remember assigning a date to it when I got the first two verses and choruses down and considered it complete: December 25, 1994. I was fourteen years old.
The third verse was added in 1998. The second version was recorded in 2000-01, and there was a third version I attempted in 2005-06 but I didn’t keep it. I played it briefly with a band for whom I played drums, an outfit from Burlington called Plastic Astronaut that featured a guitarist who is, as of this writing, currently in Walk Off the Earth.
I will admit, absolutely, that this is partly how I learned how to write songs–I would copy ones that are out there. This one was originally “Golden Brown” by the Stranglers, and once I heard that record again, I rearranged the notes to create something new.
Here’s “Wastin’ Away,” a moody song about unrequited teenage love due to complete impotence, the first song I wrote that I kept.
Sittin’ at home, I’m just sittin’ alone
I’m trying to contemplate nothing
My mind is all clear and there’s nobody here
But I know and I’m sure that there’s something
It seems that it’s you that compels me to do this
As afternoon winds to a close
Wastin’ away
Wastin’ the day just thinkin’ ’bout you
Just wish I had done something different, l suppose
And when nighttime comes and I’m out and I’m gone
Your face I can still see
It’s there in my mind, putting all thoughts behind it
It captures me
I try hard to see you, but I just can’t reach you
And hours they slip idly by
Wastin’ away
Wastin’ the day just thinkin’ ’bout you
If I could forget you, I don’t think that I’d even try
I wake up at dawn finding myself alone
And I wish that I had you beside me
I can’t face the day, and I’m eaten away
By this feeling here deep down inside me
If you could just see me, I know you could free me
But what could I do about it now
Wastin’ away
Wastin’ the day just thinkin’ ’bout you
I know you could love me if you could just know me somehow
©2022 Daniel Butterfield. All rights reserved.
