Promise
“The Secret You Can’t Bear To Keep is an audio novella documenting Strickman’s relationship with one of his closest friends.... ‘Promise,’ sequentially works backwards, describing the relationship between the two before they ever got romantic and when they both moved apart to attend college.”
We could watch as the hands move all so blindly on this wall
Brushing by, barely grasping any moments quite at all
So oblivious to life
And this world in which they guide
And the ties they build so close
Just to turn and wear through most
These hands are so stubborn
Incessant and determined
But I won’t let you slip
And watch you fall to their grip
This I promise
We could sit and hear the phone ring less and less with time
Notice that the meaning slowly drains from your voice and from mine
Such a bitter regret
One I could not live with
I won’t reduce you
To “that girl I once knew”
This I promise
I refuse to watch
With open eyes and empty thoughts
As the photographs lay dormant and abandoned
The remnants of something I lost
These hands are so stubborn
Incessant and determined
But I won’t let you slip
And watch you fall to their grip
No, I won’t reduce you
To “that girl I once knew”
This I promise
When high school friends part ways for far off colleges and different career paths, they often lose touch no matter how close they were. I wanted my best friend to know we’d stay close. It was a promise.
- Jesse
Guitar tuned down a half step
Verse:
G/B | G/C repeated
G/B: x 2 x x3 3
G/C: x 3 x x 3 3
Chorus:
G | G/C 2x
G/E G/D | G/C
G | G/C
G/E G/D G/C G
G/E: x x 2 0 3 3
G/D: x x 0 0 3 3
Bridge:
Cadd9 | D | Em7 D | C
C/E Cmaj7/E | D/F# D7/F# | G-v2 Gsus2 | G-v2 (up to here repeats)
Cadd9 | D | G | G/C G/B
Cadd9: x 3 x x 3 0 and then x 3 x x 3 3
Em7: x x 2 x 3 3
C/E: x 7 x x 8 8
Cmaj7/E: x 7 x x 8 7
D/F#: x 9 x x 10 10
D7/F#: x 9 x x 10 8
G version2: x 10 x 12 12 x
Gsus2: x 10 x 12 10 x