Richard Franklin Morse: Music & Lyrics

• MP3 play whole song, lo-fi (modem)

I had a streak of 5 years or so when I was miserable on my birthday, and I thought ‘Someday I’ve got to write a song about this, I can’t be the only one who’s felt this way’. It all came to a head in 2003 when I was alone in a cheap motel in Vancouver on my birthday and Christmas as well, an experience I don’t recommend. I break up every time I sing the line ‘Happy birthday dear Papa’; when we recorded this I was so choked up I could barely sing, and I said, ‘Let me take it again and try to stay in tune this time’, but I allowed myself to be convinced that it was best to leave it as it was, choke-upedness up and all. Sure was fun to write those string parts. I held myself back in the string arranging, didn’t want to overdo it, it was my first time, after all.

Happy Birthday To Me

Another year older, the sun’s going down
On a shabby motel room in a sad part of town
Get a beer, turn on the TV
Happy Birthday To Me

Half blinded by ashes from the bridges I’ve burned
My life’s like an atlas of every wrong turn
All wreckage and scattered debris
Happy Birthday To Me

This is my special day when regrets come to call
Have I finally hit bottom, have I farther to fall
I blow out a match and I make me a wish
Is there somebody out there who can save me from this?

Then the telephone rings and I suddenly smile
There’s laughter and singin’, the voice of a child
Long distance from over the sea
Happy birthday dear Papa
Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday To Me