Song of the Week: December 17 – “Either Way You Lose”

This week’s tune has a bit more background than usual. Please forgive the rather heavy tone of this post.
I started work on a completely different tune last night, and gotten most of it done. I’d had a busy day today in Atlanta with rehearsals and meetings, with plan’s to tweak last night’s project a bit to get it ready to upload.

When I got home around 5:00 p.m., I received news that a friend’s family member had passed away this afternoon. She had been hospitalized only recently, and in spite of signs of an improved condition, she took a turn for the worse. This shocked me a bit, and lead me down a different road.
I actually wrote this piece about a week ago, again with the intent to upload it as a “song of the week”. I improvised it on the piano after coming home one night, emotionally drained from dealing with some personal matters. Feeling numb, I sat down at the keyboard and came up with what you hear. It was borne out of a deep grief and sadness, and a sense that I struggle with occasionally which is that, no matter which way I go with my decisions, I will lose.
I don’t like to be the guy that has the negative attitude, with the sullen face and the depressed countenance. As a man of faith, I believe in something and someone bigger than myself orchestrating events. Having a fatalistic outlook on life is not a viewpoint I typically shoot for. Just the same, the sense of numbness that comes from pain is a real thing. Between dealing with my own personal issues this week and hearing of my friend’s loss (and all of this in the middle of the holiday season), I decided to orchestrate the improvised piano piece and came up with “Either Way You Lose”.
In spite of the rather pessimistic title of the song, I really wanted it to convey a sense of hope, thematically, which I think it does.
I hope you enjoy it!