fbpx

Election Day

The second side of The Hard Feelings explodes out of the tender explorations of the first and onto the political stage where the lessons learned at the level of family and initmate partnership come to inform who we are in the wider world.

I wrote “Election Day” during the presidential election of 1992 and I’ve thought about it a lot, particularly its third verse, ever since Hillary Clinton started running for president in 2008. I could never have known how much that family and their sexual politics would define my generation but on some level I must have intuited it.

I was hanging out a lot with Dan Bern when I wrote “Election Day”. He showed me how to slide an open C fingering up a couple of steps to get a really cool sounding D chord that became the song’s foundation. It’s a trick I use all the time. So much in fact, I almost forgot where I got it. Thanks Dan.

Lyrics

Election Day

Don’t ya feel like you’ve finally
found a friend in a world of enemies
Well ya found somebody who won’t adjust their stance
or their pants until
election day until
election day until
election day and then you’re on your own

Well you can trust ’em all the way to the bank
and you can trust ’em all the way to the gas tank
Well you can trust ’em all the way from Yakima
to Scranton by way of Panama
Yeah, you can trust ’em
Sure you can
Sure you can until
election day until
election day until
election day and then you’re on your own

Well you can read my lips
and you can gaze upon
yeah you can gaze upon
my never ever gratifying hips
until election day

Well the candidate appeared before my eyes
and though she spoke the truth
all I could hear were lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and lies
and still more lies
’cause everybody’s pretty ’til the polls are closed
and the mudslinger smells as sweet as a rose so
how is anybody supposed to ever fucking know until
election day until
election day until
election day and then you’re on your own

Credits

Written by Andras Jones
Engineered by Mike Deneen, Colin Mahoney & Earle Mankey

Andras Jones – Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
John Nason – Electric Guitar
Marshall Thompson – Piano & Keyboards
R. Walt Vincent – Bass Guitar
Colin Mahoney – Drums

Purchase

$1.50