Song Notes: We Need Each Other

Peter talks about the lyrics:
This is a lovely little song that we wrote back in the days of Suffer Machine. For the most part it seems like a simple plea for companionship, but in the second verse I revealed my growing scorn for revolutionary dogma. I was heavily influenced by the Clash and liked the idea of being a punk rock revolutionary illuminating injustice and hypocrisy with my righteous sword of rock! Ha ha … most punks were young kids who knew next to nothing about the world and had enough problems managing their own personal relationships let alone healing the world. I once saw an interview with Kurt Cobain in which he was asked about the anger in his songs. He answered something to the effect that he supposed it was because he did not have a girlfriend. I thought that was one of the most honest things I had ever heard an "angry young man" "voice of a generation" say.

Stephan talks about the music:
This came about from one of our more creative bursts in Suffer Machine - circa 1991, when Scream of Love was being recorded - this one missed the cut by a few months. It was originally a warm-up exercise for me. I had this compulsive ritual of doing some padding to test out all the MIDI connections and then went on to some more frenetic exercises to get the blood flow to my hands - every practice was the same. One day Ted started playing drums to my test pattern and much to my chagrin (I thought the chord progression sounded dated and saccharin) it was picked up quickly by band members and jammed to - Pete came up with lyrics almost right away from what I remember. Our guitarist at the time wrote that beautiful turn around right before the chorus and that was it for 14 years.

When it became obvious 'The Cool Mothers' was going to resurrect this song for its own repertoire, I really wanted to get another part down since it seemed musically repetitive to me. Plus, a former band member rewrote parts of the song and I felt co-opted, but challenged to add more to the song at the time. It reminded me of something or someone I really liked but I could not put my finger on it. Peter nailed it when he said it reminded him of John Lennon.

Peter Adds:
I have been resistant to doing Suffer Machine songs in the Cool Mothers, but Stephan kept persistently hounding me. My perspective was why dwell on the past when we can write some new great material. However, that is easy to say when most of the onus for writing songs is on Stephan. Also, this song was never recorded by Suffer Machine and it is a very fun song to play live.

It just ain't black and white
But every colour in between
Nobody wants to be left out
Nobody wants to go unseen

Just like that Al Green song
I'm tired of being alone
I'm tired of being alone

(Chorus)
We need each other

You look like Jimmy Dean
You speak like Che Guvera
Well it's all been said and done
And it don't make me feel much better

Yeah, after you had your fun
It's all been said and done
It's all been said and done

(Chorus)
We need each other

(bridge)
All you slaves are gonna' hafta' lose your chains

C