ClumsyMonkey.net

Our Lady Peace

Stealing Babies

Having Elvin around changed my view: there is no time, it's just pictures that you paint. The song that he played on turned out my favourite. We became fast friends and I look forward to hanging out with him in New York. Even though he's about fifty years older than I am, we have a lot of similar tastes in music and what we both finnd funny.

For our album, he used his own kit - the Yamaha Absolute Custom gold sparkle. I conducted him, in a way. Any fragments of directions I gave were just to hold back, or don't go as outside. He had never played in a rock context before. I loved everything he did, but the average person is going to go crazy, or fall over! Once he got the idea, it was one take and it was done. I was standing beside him like a three-year-old! It was unbelievable.- Jeremy Taggart, Drums Et Cetera, Sep. 1999

As the disease progressed, rather than giving in and letting herself go, she [Eve], through charity organizations, travelled the globe to meet other children who had also been infected with HIV and basically gave them a little hope. And that's incredible. That's a 10-, 11-year-old with so much more courage and compassion than most people I know. That touches me a lot more than a really close football finish. That's why our songs end up that way. It's the things that really move us the most that inspires our music.- Mike Turner, Edmonton Sun, 7 Feb. 2000

As for the king -- Elvin -- I met him through Gregg [Keplinger], who is quite close to him. I saw him in Seattle at the Jazz Alley in 1997. After being blown away by his playing, I went backstage and met him. He was very cordial and exciting to be around. We really hit it off on a personal level.

Two years later I conjured up this wacky idea. I called Elvin's cooler-than-cod wife Keiko, and asked if they would like to come up to Toronto. They were into it, so we hung out in the studio for a night and cut the track. I have a DAT tape of the out-takes, which I would love to let everyone hear eventually. There's some unbelievable stuff -- about ninety minutes of gold. After that night, Elvin and Keiko sort of "adopted" me as their Canadian-born son.- Jeremy Taggart, Modern Drummer, Jul. 2000

Lyrics

Central Themes

I'm teething on answers you're saving
How you gonna make me sleep again?
Well I'm dreaming while you're stealing babies
When you gonna make me understand why
How should I say, "I'm so sorry?"
How should I pray to know that we're alive?

Eve stands alone
By the knock on the door
By the thin in her bones
She's courageous and loving
Exhausted and cold
She's not ready to go
So the ghost on the phone
Helps her safely into her dream

You're leaving pieces of family
How you gonna help them understand?
I'm screaming, you're stealing babies
Why'd you want to knock us down again? Why?
How should I say, "I'm so sorry?"
How should we pray to make us feel alive

Eve stands alone
By the knock on the door
By the thin in her bones
She's courageous and loving
Exhausted and cold
She's not ready to go
So the ghost on the phone
Helps her safely into her dream

It must be our egos
It must be my lack of faith
And it might not come back

It must be our egos
It must be my lack of faith
And it might not come back

I've been weighed down again
I'm way down again
I've been weighed down again
I'm way down, way down, way down, down, down, down...

see concise lyrics