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The Man Who Sold My Face

from Optimist by Kevin Calaway

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about

This song is about a beautiful charcoal portrait that someone made of me - without my knowledge - that I stumbled upon one day at my community college. The theme of the song is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it became a metaphor for the pure and unconditional love of our savior Jesus Christ by the end of it. Of course, for such a hopeful song, it was only befitting to set it to a seizurefolk dirge in C# minor.

lyrics

I never thought I was that much to look at
People would tell me I wasn't that great
Am I nothing more than a kitsch piece of pop art
That's good for a laugh but not selling upstate?
I don't see the price you'd pay for me

I never thought I was that good a person
People would tell me I needed to change
Am I an invention that nobody asked for
For six easy payments of minimum wage?
I don't see the price you'd pay for me

But none of that mattered to the man with the frame
An eye for a shutter and impeccable aim
No one could capture this poor wretch's grace
As the man who sold my face

His fingers turned black as he wrestled the canvas
A war of attrition, lopsided, it's true
And unlike the smudge I've placed over my own life
The work of the master seems flawless and pure
Still, I can't see the price you'd pay for me

The rain in the window is simple yet potent
Nostalgic and tragic, poetic and sour
And though beauty fades like a rainbow in sunshine
Emotions like love can endure through the hours
Still I can't see the price you'd pay for me

But none of that mattered to the man with the frame
An eye for a shutter and impeccable aim
No one could capture this poor wretch's grace
As the man who sold my face

credits

from Optimist, released June 5, 2018

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Kevin Calaway Seattle, Washington

I could while away the hours conferring with the flowers, consulting with the rain - but who has time for that? I regulate my mood with musical catharsis and publish my diary on the internet for the whole world to hear, wearing my heart and my influences on my sleeve like a man who really needs to do laundry. ... more

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