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about

Powerful nostalgic rock track off The Sick-Leaves third album Last Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Songwriter Eksteen Jacobsz explains the inspiration and songwriting process for the song:

This was one of the first song I wrote after Stone the Crow was released. Up until that point I haven’t done a classic rock song as such. At the time I listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen and I guess the influence can be heard. I absolutely love the power of this intro and Wayne did a sterling job on the drums.

This was definitely one of the songs that benefited from the approach that less is more. On the demo there were some psychedelic guitars in the verses but we took it out to make the song more lean and to the point. The guitar solo is also a highlight for me. I lay it down in one take and as I played the last note I knew that that was it.

The songs, as well as a lot of the other songs on the album, also benefited from using different guitars. It’s a case of filling out frequencies, as say a Les Paul tend to cover the mid to low frequencies, whereas a Jaguar or Telecaster would fill out the higher register. What you basically get is a warm tone but it still has that bite and growl.

The song is basically a metaphor for someone’s heart being as big as America. I try to stay as far away from cliché’s as possible and this metaphor gave me a lot of imagery to work with.

lyrics

In the heartland of your America
there’s a world on your shoulders
there’s a hold on your mind

In the heartland of your pale blue sea
there’s a place I keep breathing
a truth I can believe in

So I waited for your other halve
to show up next to us
tumblin’ down through a cloud
your eyes betrayed your fear
anyone can walk around and say what they mean to say
because we all allowed this to happen

In the heartland of your America
there’s a call on your heartache
for the price of your fate

In your heartland I’ve been waiting for
you to lead me through blindness
to grant me one last kiss

The way you are I can see it now
we’ve waited for too long
I had it’s eye, stay with me, we’ll walk one last time
how we know is we can live or die to tell the tale
or slide away

In the heartland of your America
They’ll run you over
They’ll burn you cold

In the heartland of your soul
There’s a fly on your window
There’s dirt in your snow

credits

from Last Dance Of The SugarPlum Fairy (2010), released March 8, 2010
Composed by Eksteen Jacobsz.
Produced and mixed by Darryl Torr.
Mastered by Lapdust.
Published by Sony/ATV.

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The Sick-Leaves Pretoria, South Africa

The Sick-Leaves is the solo project of singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassist Eksteen Jacobsz.
The Sick-Leaves have released three albums with the first & second albums being nominated for South African music awards in 2007 & 2009 respectively.
Fourth album Breaking Away is to be released in January 2012 to follow from critically accliamed 2010 released 3rd album Last Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. ... more

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