Sleeping With The Ghost

This is a remix of this song.

It was recorded in 2010, and I was in a hurry to post it elsewhere because I’m so fond of the song itself. But I’ve always hated the old mix - I lost the essence of the guitars and choirs during mastering because the lead vox was so ear-piercingly sparkly in the original mix.

This is what got left in the box last time I worked on it. It’s exactly the same performances, I haven’t fiddled with any sub-mixes at all (the “band” and the various choirs), just their relative balance and EQ. And the lead’s reverb has changed.

Unfortunately, the remix has brought out certain aritifacts on one of the guitars (known as “cling-film underwear” where I come from) I knew they were there, but hey, there is no way I’m recording and remixing the whole thing lol.

Twas written in 1994. Bits of it have been re-used since in other songs - not sure what I do if I want to record those!!!

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Sleeping With The Ghost - A A J Russe

On a wide wooden stair
Cleaned with great care
I asked you to leave me alone
You follow me still
Take no note of my ill
And promise me pleasures unknown
And what of the days I spend dreaming
The nights I must wander awake
Why can’t you see I’m still grieving
Your offer of pleasure is late

With time necessarily
Unbearably heavily
Weighing on me as it does
I see you each night
Your troubles are light
I see no red stain on your glove
But what of the child that I married
What of the burden I bear
And what of the son that she carried
Both lost on this same wooden stair
What of the son that she carried
Both lost on this same wooden stair

It seems to me
That centuries
Of grieving
And asking
Forgiveness of she
Have not
In any way
Prepared me
To lay with someone
Of your century

So why can’t you see I’m still grieving
I’ll not rest ’til she forgives me

Copyright (C) 1994 A A J Russe. All Rights Reserved.

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What it’s about…
I don’t usually like explaining songs, but several people have asked this since I recorded it, and I don’t think anything I can say about this one can damage the images in the listener’s head.

I’ve actually been wracking my brains to remember what caused it’s creation.

At it’s heart, it’s pretty much all out of my head, and I was exploring the break-up of my first marriage - although I’m not sure I actually knew it was breaking up at the time I wrote it!

I think some of the imagery came from a children’s program on UK TV when I was younger? I think it might have been called The Mandeville Ghost, or something like that, anyway. There is a ghost of “Sir Geoffrey of Mandeville” documented - contains nothing like this though.

Also, the legend behind the plot that Holmes and Watson finally foil in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” had a quite a bit to do with the pictures in my head when I was writing it.