From the recording Handbook For The Recently Chaotic
TRACK NOTES
NIGHTMARES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY
Drums – Jeff Asselin
Bass – Mat Falvai
Fender Rhodes/Hammond organ – Rod Fotheringham
Percussion – Bruce Cawdron
Guitar/vocals – Greg Paul Stone
Backing vocals – Anouk Gregoire/Bethan Nodwell
Nightmares In The Middle Of The Day popped out of my mother's closet on my last visit home to Australia in 2018. She came in one day with a box containing old sports trophies, souvenirs and nicknacks. At the bottom of the box was a tattered old notebook of song ideas containing this little number.
It was a song that I never really did much with when I wrote it so I guess it sat there waiting for its time. I had forgotten about it until I looked inside the box. I'm glad I could bring it back to life. I'm not sure when I wrote it, perhaps in the late 90s?
I see it as an ode to the outsider; those who are misunderstood and dismissed. The kind of people mothers shoo their children away from and you might cross the street to avoid. They might be shunned for many reasons and their repulsion can even be innocuous. I can vividly remember a customer I served at K-Mart as a teenager whose crusted, greasy hair actually gave me nightmares. I can still picture him but instead of horror, my reaction now is compassion for someone who needed help.
I wanted Nightmares to have a swagger in its step, a loose feel and some flex in the tempo as it moves forward. I love the drag at the start and the slow tightening of the rhythm as the song develops. All credit to Jeff Asselin here. His drumming is so damn good!
Lyrics
LYRICS
NIGHTMARES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY
I was born in a tin shack on a desert plane.
The doctor had a heart attack and they buried him in the rain.
My mother took a look at me and took her own life.
My father was a mad man who lived by the knife.
My flag flies at half mast almost every day.
My face is painted with shadows of black and blue and grey.
In my eyes you can almost hear the death march howl in the New Orleans reign of a tuba man's growl.
I was raised on buckshot and the undertaker's wood.
Jesus'd like to heal me if only he could.
If you see me walking by, you better look away 'cause
I can give you nightmares in the middle of the day.
I was moaning low as soon as I could talk.
I was on the road as soon as I could walk.
You were screaming bloody murder like the slaughter man's sow.
When everyone is gone I'll take the final bow for a cast of walking skeletons who'll bleat their pains to the wild.
In a city full of orphans you'll never find a child.
You're hoping that you'll see me at the funeral parade to give you back your mask before the final masquerade.
I was raised on buckshot and the undertaker's wood.
Jesus'd like to heal me if only he could.
If you see me walking by, you better look away 'cause
I can give you nightmares in the middle of the day.