As my guitar lies bleeding

Just thinking about something when I first starting using drugs. I remember taking a cocaine for the first time and put this song on very loud it seems like I really was into that song. That strong almost never occured later, it was brilliant

I know he's said it's about writer's block - something like he saw a bunch of posters of himself and got paranoid about not being able to do it anymore.

I'll see if I can track down where I read that

Lately ive been takin' a shot of vodka before listenin to it, out of fear i'd lose the feeling it gives.

The song is about something deeper beyond, can't be about writer's block just cz he says i cnt write a love song or i cnt sing no song of hope....

well it's a little deeper than "writer's block", even though as a writer I'm well aware how intense writer's block can be and how much it can **** with your emotions

what I got from the interview I still haven't hunted down is it's about the fear of having to live up to the image, of "if I can't reach this massive standard, am I worthless?" and of craving recognition/validation and how terrifying it is to think you've ****ed yourself out of ever having that validation again because your image spun out of control and now you have to not only reach that level, but go higher if you want that same praise and recognition and validation

The bit about the posters of himself goes back to the comments I read...he pictures himself walking into a room filled with posters of himself and they are all pointing at him saying go ahead right a song...the pressure of having to keeep writing...

Haha you're absolutely right. I over think most things and music is no exception. I don't care about Jon's hair, Richie's weight, who he's sexing, who he's not. Just give me a block of good lyrics to think about, really.

...This is why These Days is such an amazing album…It talks about hard times… struggles in our heads, lives...and it doesn't tell us to pick yourself up and dust your self off. It understands that you can’t always do just that!

Jon has said that people tell him These Days is a dark album...he's says he was...or he thought he was happy when they wrote it! I think it's a realistic album for how real life is...all the optimistic stuff since is idealist.

My take on "My guitar....." is that he feels that life has sucked everything out of him...all the negative things in the world have got to him...leaving him numb, deluded and unable to do anything about the terrible things going on and the way it has made him feel...I don’t think is depressive...it’s that he can only see the bad things (that are real enough) and unable to balance it with positive things...ying/yang

About 7 yrs ago I had an opportunity to ask Jon …
Q: Have you ever had a creative block? If so, how did you overcome it?

A: Don’t push it. It might be a week or a month maybe a year. It happens. I’ve realised it’s OK, so, I’ll wait it out and start reading scripts or different books or sometimes listen to other records. Sometimes it’s as simple as watching a movie. One line of a dialogue can bring on a whole new song.

Nice question!! Thanks for sharing that with us.

In Jon's q&a in Nashville yesterday he talked about how different artists handle writing a song, he said, for example, Elton John, only gives it 15 minutes and gives up if nothing comes to him.

deb

I don't think it's simply about the pressures of songwriting. There's something deep down... "Life is feeling kind of strange, since you went away", makes it seem, to me, as if it all might have been sparked by this person going "away". This line changes to "And I can't fight the feelings, that are burning in my veins". I'm guessing these "feelings" are of depression, in my mind initially caused by the person going "away".

That's what I say, anyway.

This is what Jon said about the song around the release of TD.

”Basically the concept I learnt on ‘Bed of Roses’ was, if y’can’t come up with something, don’t just put down the instrument.

And in ‘Guitar Lies Bleeding’ I had these visions of the scene in ‘Tommy’ where he walks in and there’s posters of him all over the wall. I had visions of me walking into a nightmare like that, posters of me, staring at me going, ‘Well, well, go on then, write a record!‘

That’s the shit I’m dealing with in ‘Guitar Lies Bleeding’. And it’s cool to write that frustration down and admit the fear.

It’s a constant fear throughout the writing of every record. Every song on every record is like that. Will I ever write another song? Can I? Will I? You question yourself all the time.“

http://users.tinyworld.co.uk/johngarbutt/page49.html