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We Need A Better Word

from Standard Deviation by Danny Schmidt

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SONG DESCRIPTION:

This is a song about miscarriage. Through processing several miscarriages of our own with our closest friends and family, my wife and I came to understand just how common, almost ubiquitous, these misfortunes are. But we're all so uncomfortable talking about it, that it adds an additional layer of shame and isolation to an already heart wrenching feeling of failure. So I wrote this song to put an open conversation about miscarriage out into the world, hard as that feels.

lyrics

LYRICS TO "WE NEED A BETTER WORD"

It seems to me we need a better word
To fill the gap between the facts of what we say and what we’ve learned
When absolutely damn near every mother that I’ve known
Has miscarried and lost a baby a time or time before
It seems to me we need a better word

It seems to me that someone needs to say
As simple and as open and as obvious and plain
Cause the shame is in the secret and the secret is the shame
When absolutely damn near every mother that I’ve known
Has miscarried and lost a baby and held herself to blame
It seems to me that someone needs to say

It’s just a word, as if she dropped it on the floor
It’s just a word, as if it’s something she did wrong

It seems to me our bodies know what’s right
An ancient meditation on the chemistry of life
A thousand generations casting blessings in disguise
When absolutely damn near every mother that I’ve known
Has lost a baby and felt it carried off into the light
It seems to me our bodies know what’s right

It’s just a word, as if she dropped it on the floor
It’s just a word, as if it’s something she did wrong

Seems to me we’ve all defied the odds
Cause to lie among the living is to fly among the gods
To share the mother’s heartbeat and to pass the mother’s blood
And absolutely every single time a baby’s born
It chose to be and knows to be the holiest of forms
Seems to me we’ve all defied the odds

It’s just a word, as if she dropped it on the floor
It’s just a word, as if it’s something she did wrong

It seems to me we need a better word

credits

from Standard Deviation, released March 8, 2019
SONG CREDITS:

Danny Schmidt - Vocal & Guitar
Colin Agnew - Drums & Percussion
Will Robertson - Bass & Keyboards
Fats Kaplin - Pedal Steel Guitar & Strings
Mira Stanley Costa - Harmony Vocals
Cara May Gorman - Harmony Vocals
Carrie Elkin - Harmony Vocals

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Danny Schmidt Austin, Texas

Named to the Chicago Tribune's "50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years," Austin, TX-based singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt is considered a preeminent writer, an artist whose earthy poetry manages to somehow conjure magic from the mundane, with lyrical depth drawing comparisons to Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt. ... more

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