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Beats the Hell Out of Me

My father useta beat me
if I raised a little Cain
he'd say the burn of his belt
would beat eternal flame

now sometimes I'm still sleepless
sweat soaks my pillow and sheets
and I know I feel that chill
cos in my dreams he still
beats the hell out of me

when I gave him report cards
I knew I was damned
he handed them back
with the back of his hand

so at fifteen I hit the bottle
and it hit back as hard as could be
even now I pray
when the mem'ry of those days
beats the hell out of me

tomorrow's what we make it
we all have our private hells
and when some people can't take it
they take it out on someone else

I forgive my father
his dad beat him, too
but as for my own children
the pain ain't passin' on through

they may raise a little Cain
just trying to be free
but how a whippin' at night
teaches wrong from right
beats the hell out of me

beats the hell out of me
beats the hell out of me

(c)2005 Stu Rosh/Robert George

Whee...I'm at a Quandry, Rob,...

I normally Detest lyrics with any heavyhanded Violence in 'em.

"KUDOS" for this one, however. I've lived this Lyric..came to the Same Conclusion.

Hope it's a Hit & saves at least a few kids from those "Spare the Rod" Idiot Parents. (WILL credit my Stepdad with keepin' me outta Jail, however.)

Enuf Said...Good Luck with a Good'n' Amigo!

Big Guy-Hug,
Stan

Hi Robert,

I agree with Stan's quandry! I have a few random thoughts that I'll just ramble on about...

It's so poignant -- I keep thinking about it. If you read this whole thing, you get to the uplifting part. However, it occurred to me that the first few paragraphs make you feel like you're getting punched in the nose, and unless you want to get punched again, you might not want to come back. My husband was walking by, and I asked him to read it. He read the first paragraph, and said he didn't want to read anymore 'cause it was disturbing. When I made him finish reading it, he loved the sentiment. That's how I felt too. So, I was wondering if there'd be any way to hint, in the beginning of this, that something more uplifting is coming. Maybe the phrase "the pain ain't passin' on through" could appear somewhere earlier? (It'd make a good title, too!)

Just some thoughts to take or leave--
Lisa

this tune's recently gotten airplay in Houston, Philly and P-Burgh. it's not for American idol but it is gonna be released as an indie next month on a really cool jazzy/Americana cd. I'll post details later...I want that Lexus, haha.

Your lyrics are almost always....well worth the read Couch...
but..the music on this...is exceptional.. Who was the trumpet?
h,
Kaley...

Kaley, I do not know, haha. My co-writer did the session and I don't know who the players were. I think they were Nashville cats, though.

Nice bluesy sound to this, Rob! I wondered what genre this would be when I first read the lyrics ... wasn't able to listen then but did now.

So what color of Lexus will it be? ...

the color of my dreams for now, haha.)

Hey Robert

cool beans, didn't get that depressing feeling while listening; this here baby has Tom Waits written all over it!

Robert,

Great lyric. Great music. Great match between lyric and music.

Makes me very glad I had the father I did. He did give me lickings from time to time, but he always mixed mercy with justice. He always told us when he was forced into a place to pass out discipline, "This hurts me worse than it does you." Got to say, I believed him, too. I knew he liked giving us a licking about as much as he liked having to permanently dispose of a litter of kittens with no prospects of a home on occasion. It made my Dad actually physically ill to have to do the right thing as he knew it at the time. But he did it anyway.

I recall one week when he was away to the North working all week, and us three kids had been particularly awful in getting into more trouble than my hardworking and slight of build Mom could properly correct us for. She told us, "When your Dad gets home, you'll get what I'm not strong enough to give you by way of a licking for what you've been up to." Dad got home that Friday evening to discover he had been duly elected judge, jury and executer of punishment for his offspring. Mom was the tearful prosecuter. I think she would have sold the three of us for a dime and given a quarter back for change at that point. I really can't blame her. All three of us kids were strongly choleric in our tempraments, and neither of our parents were.

Dad held kangaroo court in the living room, with Mom listing our childhood crimes, which consisted of such things as throwing all the rocks off the back wall down into the yard, refusing direct orders to do chores assigned, ect. For each of us kid's personal infractions, a certain number of lashes from a boot lace were assigned as due punishment. It was as orderly and impartial as a mathmatical equation. Each of us knew exactly what we would be punished for, how much we would be punished for that, and why. Kind of like a microcosm of the final judgment, only family style.

Once the investigative and judicial part of the process was complete, Dad rose up and gave each of us three kids in turn the prescribed number of licks with the leather bootlace in our turn, starting with the oldest and going to the youngest. That bootlace hurt like fury. It raised welts. By the time Dad finished, he had tears in his eyes. (So did we!)

Afterward, he sat in the big "Dad chair" in the front room with us kids sitting on his lap and on either arm. We were weeping and wiping our tears on his shirt sleeves. And he rubbed the welts from the lace until they quit hurting. We cried as long as we could. We rather enjoyed him feeling bad about having to give us our spankings.

In theological circles, there are those Christians who have a very difficult time believing God can be both a God of justice who will actually punish man's sins, and also a God of love who cares for us deeply and does only that which is for our own good, at whatever cost to Himself. As for me, I've never had a problem with putting those two things together. God can be both the Policeman of the Universe and also Daddy (the Greek word is "Abba", the intimate term for "Father" that Jesus employed) to us all. I know it is possible for God to be both a disciplinarian and a loving parent. I saw both of those things in my own father as a boy. That's how my Dad was, and still is.

Lickings with a belt or a bootlace were the least of it. I don't believe I was ever licked in anger. My father waited until he was in control of his own emotions before he ever dealt with us. I recieved my final childhood spanking as a 9 year old. My Mom gave that one to me with a rat tail comb from her purse. My last spanking was the first one I didn't cry for. Plainly, corperal punishment was no longer effective. After that, discipline came in the form of loss of priviledges--being "grounded" after school, and the like. Frankly, in most cases, I would have rather taken the licking. It was over quicker.

When I was a teenager and even into my college years, my father saying a single sentence that let me know he was disappointed in something I had done could stop me in my tracks, walk me to my car for many miles of driving, and set me to a face to face with someone I had wronged, righting to the degree possible, what I had done in harm toward the person involved. It didn't take a licking anymore. It only took the briefest reminder of the difference between right and wrong, and a nod toward where I'd missed the mark. Solomon wrote, "A rebuke goes deeper into a wise man than a hundred blows into a fool." Apparently, some wisdom on some level had gotten through.

In Hawaii, the domestic abuse and child abuse you depict in this lyric were prevelant, particularly in certain cultures. Students sitting in my classes dealt with this sort of thing in their homes. It tended (as your lyric points out) to be passed from one generation to the next, unless a person made a conscious choice to be the end of the line for that sort of behavior. It can be stopped, but only by clear intention.

This lyric helps to clarify the issue that is the problem in a way that is personal and can be felt immediately. But it does mopre. It also provides the solution. As such, it is a valuable piece of "poor man's counselor/priest/shrink work"--and a notable public service for the good of the listeners. (As lyricists, we probably play those roles to a greater degree for many people than those officially assigned to deal with these matters.) I applaud that use of your considerable gifts as a lyricist, Robert. The ink that drips off the end of our pens often is blood...and that not always our own.

Keep writing.

Skip


P.S. I met a songwriter over on North Shore of Oahu once who played a song with a theme similar to this one. When he finished, he lifted up his shirt and showed me the long, ugly scar where his father had used a machette instead of a fist, or a club, when he was still a kid. The pain of the memory was as keen as the day he recieved the blow, though the physical wound had healed long before.

Hi Couch,

Congrats on the airplay!

I had fun re-reading my original post here that you bumped up from January 2006 -- the same month that I joined JPF. At that time, I had stated that I wanted your song to give a hint of the uplifting part, closer to the beginning of the song.

However, I've changed my mind (I think). I guess I've become jaded over time, and now find this to be very tame!

(Hey -- do you think you could edit your post above so that it gives the illusion that you responded to me? Otherwise, when I write to you, I feel like...helloooooo out there....anybody home? anybody listening............am I talkin' to myself?????!)

Lisa

thanks again folks. Lisa, don't feel bad, haha. I tend to wait till I get a few comments before I reply so I don't bump my lyric over and over. as a result, some of them slip away without my reply.

this is now available on Amazon at this link: http://www.amazon.com/American-Vern...mp;s=music&qid=1178415046&sr=8-1

just trying to scare up a little attention for this baby. the cd got a great review here: http://obscuresound.com/?p=1107

it's also got 3 songs posted which are excellent. check 'em out.

Hey Robert!

This is an awesome tune. I agree with Kaley, the trumpet rocks!

I like the way you brought the whole thing around to correct itself in the end.

Charlann

thanks Charlann.