Aaron Berg & The Heavy Love at Smiley’s – Fri. Aug 29, 9pm

Love & Coffee IV – “Behind Closed Doors”
written in a single night a while back in february of last year at the crushing center of a deadly new york winter. it was one of those songs you just walk right up to and stare in the face. it took me longer to figure out the unusual timing of the chords than it did to write the tune itself. i didn’t play it for anybody for a long time but would slip into sets every now and then when nobody was listening. a lot of good stuff goes down when nobody’s listening. its surprising what you can hear through walls and doors of addition and subtraction across frozen pavement melodies overlapping strange wandering obsessions. the human heart is a flaming beast without method or reasoning. too much time and too little sleep to turn back now. sound is a thought slice divided like cherry pie between memory and longing born on a napkin between some drunken midnight and that diner window where love’s reflection once lived but is now only snow.

behind closed doors

your black hair sparkled in the pale moonlight i waited for you i don’t know why
some things come natural like the stars to the sky or the wind down the avenue
my heart beat soft as i crept through the rain i dont know why i care to see you again
if you only knew, the price i’ve paid within to do things the way that i do
behind closed doors i think i fell for you

if only the soul were as free as the mind i’d climb the ladder and let my heart glide
i never meant to catch you in a lie i just wanted to understand
were you going to vanish without a word-from this bottomless blinding hypnotic blur
or do you still believe that true love can cure the perilous road at hand
behind closed doors i’ll still be your man

headlights blazed on the shadowy bridge i can still feel your broken laughter’s edge
clattering somewhere inside my head i guess we’ll never know now
we walked arm in arm down the cold city street the wind blew hard, you sung to the beat
of the car horn fugue, and the cadence of feet how could you shut it all down
behind closed doors is it that good without

the whiskey midnights spin round for days the dealer grins and the gambler stays
when the roulette is turning its so hard to say if there’s ever any reason why
don’t let my silence give you the impression that i have any answers to your questions
or that i’ll ever need a full confession if you want to look me up sometime
behind closed doors i still wish you were mine

a sad-eyed boy searching for a lone root listening to the drone of his own phantom boots
you will never believe if you always need proof before you can make a change
on orchard street a woman gave me a jewel for good luck she said always keep your heart pure
that’s why now i’m passing it to you if our fate should lead us astray
behind closed doors your memory will remain

love & coffee is written, recorded, and performed by aaron berg

a.b. – vocals, harmonica, guitar, bass, hammond organ, electric and ambient guitars

photo courtesy of ‘the basement’ nashville, tennessee

best if listened to on headphones

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a.b.