Song Club #38: Let-Downs

Disappointment is a gateway emotion in songwriting.

This week, I experienced a slew of low-key disappointments in my self and my circumstances. They were silly little things that grazed my emotional elbows: time set aside for creative practice that got subsumed by paid work; letting myself off the hook for every planned workout because work was stressful. Nothing dramatic, but I noticed. 

Alongside this I’ve been rummaging around an attic containing a lot of partially discarded old selves and feeling the heaviness of having let those selves down. Time and again. Let-downs and disappointments have been on my mind. 

Some of my most favorite songs contain pained lines about being a let down to oneself and others. “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius springs instantly to mind, as does “Why” by Annie Lennox, with it’s opening line “How many times/do I have to try/ to tell you that I’m sorry for the things I’ve done”. 

”Why” in particular is brutally honest. There’s a clear-eyed look at self. And yet, it is also defiant. There is a sense surrender to brokenness that comes with a ‘fuck you for expecting I be any different’. 

And these are just one flavor of let-down song. Others are anchored in blame, anger and retaliation (You Oughta Know), others yet in nonchalance (Loser). There’s a broad palette when it comes to let-downs and disappointments.

This week in our songwriting, let’s dig into our disappointment and see what spills forth. 

Big love and keep going, 

Lucy 

---

SONG PROVOCATIONS

Write a song about the ways you let yourself down.

You might use a simple list as an entry point for writing lyrics here. What are all the ways, big and small, you have let yourself down? What are the ways you continue to let yourself down? Be as brutally honest as you can stand.