Post number seven of song stories from ‘Beauty Survives’ is the song Battlefield.

‘Battlefield’ is my favourite song to sing live on this album.  The sound resonants with me so well when I’m singing it.  If anyone has ever had a singing lesson with me they’ll know the weird little ways I have about ‘feeling resonance’!!  Battlefield started off as a poem, I didn’t feel I had enough lyrics for it to be a song.  But, although short, one day I started playing around with some music on an Italian reed organ I have, which sounds similar to an accordion but without the dynamic changes.  The feeling sounded solemn and a little like a soundtrack to a war or military scene.

I wrote the lyrics to Battlefield in 2014 when I was visiting Austin, Texas.  I had just been out to see a great band one evening and I was so totally drawn into the vibe they have in Austin that I forgot about whatever I was going back to at home.  It was one of those nights where music takes you away from everything and you get lost for a little while.  I had someone in mind back home that I was really wanting to write about, but I felt I had no material, no background.  But, it still intrigued me.  But, I realised that night through the storytelling of the gig I had just been to that I was so caught up in always writing about the truth and true events, that I forgot you can have creative licence to create your own story.  So I did.  And I thought about it on the way home, stopped on the side of the road and wrote the lyrics down into my notes section on my iPhone and kept it there as a short poem until I was ready to use it.

I won’t meet you on your battlefield, I’m not the one to fight.

Battlefield had a very clear inspiration for me, which reflects in it’s feel.  In essence, it’s about walking away from the fight, not willing to even engage in conflict, even where the potential of love is at stake.  It’s a story of a heart broken that wants to find the missing pieces in someone else, but that other person not being able to give what they don’t have.

But, also that the storyteller knows they could easily “hold their ground” if needed to, but this time chooses to walk away.  The short lyrics said everything that is needed, this song, (like ‘Cry Now’ in its own way) does what it says on the tin!

I’m nowhere near the battlefield

Battlefield  

Music & Lyrics – ShellyQuarmby

She broke your heart into a million pieces, you’re still trying to put it back. 

I can’t help you find what’s missing or put you on the tracks. 

But what I do know is what you’re doing now is not the way to go. 

I’d love to maybe stick around should you ever feel alone. 

But I won’t meet me on your battlefield

I’m not the one to fight

I’m not a mountain you’ll have to climb and I can’t stay in constant flight

No, I’m nowhere near the battlefield 

But I can hold my ground 

Don’t push me until I break 

Because this is love you’ve found. 

Instrumental 

No, I’m nowhere near the battlefield 

But I can hold my ground 

Don’t push me until I break 

Because this is love you’ve found. 

Check out the song on the media or shop page of my website here. And follow the link below to Spotify.

Listen on Spotify