Standing on your corner waiting
Standing on your corner waiting
№91 — Shoot First (demo)
organizing an accident is a weekly newsletter where I leak home demos of unreleased songs, first draft lyrics, thoughts on the creative process, & dispatches from music life in Paris.
Listen to “Shoot First” (demo):
This song was written on October 7, 2021
This is demo leak #91
Greetings from Paris,
It’s gray and rainy and cold and those are a few of my least favorite things (sing with me now).
Today’s demo is a song from 2021 at a similar turn of season. At the time, I was deep in an album release cycle, running around town making music videos, taking photos, and corrupting my soul as a one-man-band-manager-marketer-publicist-et al.
Still, as this recording hopefully reflects, I made time to shelter in place away from the noise and write new songs. I look back on that period both fondly and with great reservations about ever going back to something other than writing, recording, and performing my music.
“Shoot First” lyrics
I’m standing on your corner waiting
Humming with the traffic lanes
Past the point of restoration
I tried it, I tried it
Stop before you go and say it
I’m too proud to walk away
Not because my heart is racing
I don’t mind it, don’t mind it
There ain’t much more I can say
You can shoot first
You can shoot first
Even when love hesitates
You could do worse
You could do worse
Just because the door was open
Doesn’t make me feel at home
Sometimes we don’t even know it
But we’re hiding, we’re hiding
Give me any kind of closure
Kiss me or just let me go
Drink until the night is over
'Cause deep down I know you’ll try
There ain’t much more I can say
You can shoot first
You can shoot first
Even when love hesitates
You could do worse
You could do worse
There ain’t much more I can take
You can shoot first
You can shoot first
I know that love finds a way
These lyrics were written in October 2021.
From the vault
What I’m listening to this week
What I’ve been reading
Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Goon Squad
Joseph E. Uscinski - American Conspiracy Theories
Check out my previous demos and writing via the Substack archive + discover my official music releases on Spotify, Apple, or your platform of choice. Find me on all socials at @thisryanegan.
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