I’ll be writing a series of short posts on the album tracks on “Beauty Survives”.  The posts will have a small insight behind the writing of each song.  The reason I thought I’d share this is because it took me a very long time to actually get into the studio and record these songs and even longer to share them.  I love lyrics, I always have, I miss those times when you had a new CD and opened and read all the lyrics to the songs you didn’t know yet!  Each one on Beauty Survives was written over a few years having taken events that happened around me and in my life very hard (being the sensitive songwriter I am!).  These years included some stressful life events: moving house (and country once!) elements of the being betrayed by people close, experiencing new little lives come into our family; and also losing two members of our family all within the space of a 5 year period.  BUT, it wasn’t all bad!  I love to write, it’s cathartic, healing and you can often tell (sometimes years later as well) how you were feeling about something and it also makes life a little lighter in the bad times, so even though some of the songs on Beauty Survives sound sad, it’s the same for me as Gretchen Peters always says “sad songs make me happy”.  So I like to write regardless: anything, anywhere, anytime, when I’m writing I’ll often be writing about other people and the situations, the lessons that come out are so often helpful personally.

And that nicely brings me on to “You Lie” because it’s exactly what happened with this song.  I have a number of people who know me say they know EXACTLY what you lie is about, but then I give them the timeline of when I wrote it and when I started performing it and they quickly start thinking very curiously.  They want to refer to a time when quite simply put I found everything in my personal relationship at that time was based on a lie, I had been lied to from day one, in the end I had no point of reference for any truth, no sense of what was reality or lie and no grounding to pull myself together!  The only issue was I had started writing the song many years before!  It was originally about someone very close to me and what they were experiencing initially, I then left it for 6 months and finished it by separating the chorus and verse.  The verse actually ended up being the verse of “Cry Now” which strangely was also written about the same person and not my situation, but those two songs are probably the most connected to me personally.  I was distanced from their situation and hearing the stories of events going on second hand and in shock at what was happening.  The events that then unfolded for me in the next two years were like a mirror of what I’d written, almost a premonition if you’re into that way of thinking.  It was totally bizarre, weird, whatever you want to call it.

In essence, the song is about more than being lied to.  It’s about being perpetually lied to, it’s going around in circles.  It’s about the dilemma of not being able to get out a situation you keep repeating, ever heard the phrase “you’ll repeat the same mistake until you learn the lesson?”  Yes, me too.  And, I didn’t, I even saw other people repeating the mistakes, wrote the song, but never saw it myself.  That’s why the opening lines are:  ‘Do you think I’ll ever get out of this mess I’m in, not knowing what today is or how I got here, how did I get here?’

I like the juxtaposition in lyrics of laying a simple lyric next to something a little more complex, so I’ve highlighted a few of my favourite lyrics in this song over on Instagram and Facebook with some clips of the songs.  You can read the full lyrics below and go over to the other socials to check out my favourite lines, and check back for the next “Album song stories” in a few days time. Enjoy xoxo

All info for how you can buy just the single “You Lie” or the full album can be found here: https://shellyquarmby.bigcartel.com

           Music & lyrics – Shelly Quarmby       © 2019 Shelly Quarmby

You Lie

Verse 1 Do you think I’ll ever get out of this mess I’m in, 

not knowing what today is or how I got here, how did I get here? 

Yesterday I was in your arms  and tomorrow they’ll be no more love, or charm 

Pre-chorus: Face to face, here we go again

Chorus

You lie like you’ve never lied before,

You cry like you’ve never cried before,  

You live like you never wanted us,  

But I can’t be without your love

Verse 2

Do you think the sun shines just out of spite or is that way of saying everything’s fine,

as long as it shines 

I feel like I’m walking through a hurricane 

Clinging to that branch before it breaks, and I ache. 

Pre-chorus: I can’t trust what’s right or real

Chorus

You lie like you’ve never lied before,

You cry like you’ve never cried before,  

You live like you never wanted us,  

But I can’t be without your love

Bridge

Do you think that real love will always hurt at times, 

feeling the pain but never knowing the signs,

or just being blind It’s a poisoned weed that never lets go 

until it’s destroyed and conquered your home, and everything you own  

Chorus

You lie like you’ve never lied before,

You cry like you’ve never cried before,  

You live like you never wanted us,  

But I can’t be without your love

oh you lie…  (You lie like you’ve never lied before) (You cry like you’ve never cried before)

Oh and then you cry… (You live like you never wanted us)

did you ever want us (You lie like you’ve never lied before)

You lie, (You cry like you’ve never cried before)

Oh… This is going to be the last time.