What Was Really Me" is an Emily Salier song from around 1987. The

version I'm transcribing is from Carboro, North Carolina, on 21 March

1988.



What Was Really Me.



I should have never crossed your path

Funny how the things you want the most

Should soon be taken back

Slap my own hands like a child

Stealing from the candy store

I think I've taken to your smile

And I hunger for your laugh

Do the craziest things like look around

When I know you're nowhere near me

Break my back on a song

Though I know you're not there to hear it

Unanswered questions lying on the coffee table

From a song I haven't finished since last summer

Because I never could decide how much was gin

And how much the sea

Or other incidentals clouding what was really me

Everything I am is bare feet and burning sand

Waiting for the calm cool hand of the sea

A madman of emotions waiting for the drug effect

Of the reason and the intellect to comfort me

Half the time I love you like I love the fall's first breeze

And then you seem as distant to me as the skeletons of trees

Far away outside my window

But inside I think of you

As if I thouht hard enough I'd know which way to turn

And what to do.

I'm quite sure I'll be alright

We all live with some distraction

It's just too bad mine will hang around

All day and night

Like an uninvited guest

You can't turn away, try hard as you might

Lord knows, I've tried

I might let it go and take a long long run

Quit my job and join the coastline baking in the sun

(My tape cuts off here