I’ll be there as soon as I can;
But I’m busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before.

The narrator of “Unintended” by Muse is not in the best headspace. He tells us he is “busy mending a broken heart” and has identified a new candidate to be something more than a rebound. This surprises him. How should one handle a situation when you are clearly in love with your ex, but you meet someone you are really into? The narrator chooses to spell out everything he is feeling and thinking. He tells the new woman what he has to offer. At least he is honest.

He doesn’t promise her summers in the Hamptons, or 2.2 kids and marriage—he “offers” her his “deepest inquisitions.”  In other words, after he is done obsessing about his ex, he will turn his attention to her.  He probably thinks this is a good offer and something synonymous with love.

He “knows” this woman will be better than his ex. He just feels it. I am certain we all expect our next relationship to be better than our last, but there is something about the way he expresses it that makes it all about him. And in a way it is. This is not a real person he has a relationship with. It is an ideal woman or an attractive woman he saw on the street. The feelings and desires are unintended.

The song is an amazing example of how we can sometimes lose ourselves during a breakup. The narrator does not seem to be his best self or ready to date. He is infatuated with a woman he saw and is projecting characteristics onto her that she may not have. The narrator at least has the self-awareness to realize that he might not be ready for this new woman yet, since he is still picking up the pieces of his last relationship. He probably thinks he is closer to moving on than he really is.

Is his offer to her that great? He is basically saying, “If you stick around until I get my shit together, I might then turn my attention to you. Her timeline, wants and desires are irrelevant. Hopefully he has a lot of redeeming qualities that makes him worth the trouble. It is not clear that he sees how big of an ask this truly is.

This is great writing. The songwriter writes in the first person and knows that he probably will not come off as a sympathetic character but takes the risk—and it pays off. Breakups can bring out the worst in us and lead us to say and do things we otherwise might not.

The combination of the weary sound that leads into a wailing falsetto creates the sound of an unstable mind perfectly. The sound is created by a verse that slowly mopes along with a sparsely added acoustic guitar and a synthesizer with slight reverb to add that haunted feeling. The sound coupled with the lyrics paints a picture of a man that is not in the best frame of mind, is not making the best decisions, and is not ready for a relationship. Hopefully the new woman will recognize this and run. Or wait.

Unintended Lyrics

You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended.
You could be the one I’ll always love.

You could be the one who listens
To my deepest inquisitions,
You could be the one I’ll always love.

I’ll be there as soon as I can;
But I’m busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before.

First there was the one who challenged
All my dreams and all my balance.
She could never be as good as you.

You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended.
You should be the one I’ll always love.

I’ll be there as soon as I can;
But I’m busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before.

I’ll be there as soon as I can;
But I’m busy mending broken
Pieces of the life I had before.

Before you
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh

Songwriter: Matthew James Bellamy

Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you?
Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?
I’d gladly do it…

Along with Cream and Blind Faith, Derrick and the Dominoes was another Eric Clapton led band. It was short lived. They produced one album. But it was amazing. In “Bell Bottom Blues” Clapton has it bad for some woman (I assume she wore bell bottoms?). He loves her even though she treats him poorly, and he wants more. (It would be interesting how the reception of this song would have been had it been released by a woman.)

He doesn’t care if he has to beg. He’ll gladly do it. Whatever it takes. In the end he even half threatens her that he will find someone new if she doesn’t take him back. This song deals with very raw, unprocessed and unfiltered emotions and that is why it is so powerful.

Unique to “Bell Bottom Blues” is the guitar work. It sounds like dueling guitars…especially throughout the verses. It sounds almost improvised. The guitars are also extremely distorted for the time period. This was some hard rock at the time. We also catch a rare glimpse of Clapton’s falsetto, and also some attempts at harmonizing.

Also, you can hear the difference between a Cream song and a Derrick and the Dominoes song if you listen to the drumbeat. Ginger Baker of Cream played much more complex beats.

Bell Bottom Blues Lyrics

Bell bottom blues, you made me cry.
I don’t want to lose this feeling.
And if I could choose a place to die
It would be in your arms.

Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you?
Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?
I’d gladly do it because
I don’t want to fade away.
Give me one more day, please.
I don’t want to fade away.
In your heart I want to stay.

It’s all wrong, but it’s all right.
The way that you treat me baby.
Once I was strong but I lost the fight.
You won’t find a better loser.

Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you?
Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?
I’d gladly do it because
I don’t want to fade away.
Give me one more day, please.
I don’t want to fade away.
In your heart I want to stay.

Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you?
Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?
I’d gladly do it because
I don’t want to fade away.
Give me one more day, please.
I don’t want to fade away.
In your heart I want to stay.

Bell bottom blues, don’t say goodbye.
I’m sure we’re gonna meet again,
And if we do, don’t you be surprised
If you find me with another lover.

Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you?
Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?
I don’t want to fade away.
Give me one more day, please.
I don’t want to fade away.
In your heart I want to stay.

I don’t want to fade away.
Give me one more day please.
I don’t want to fade away.
In your heart I long to stay.

I don’t want to fade away.
Give me one more day please.
I don’t want to fade away.
In your heart I long to stay.

Songwriters: Eric Patrick Clapton / Bobby Whitlock

Baby, now that I’ve found you/
I won’t let you go/

In “Baby Now That I’ve Found You” Alison Kraus describes how she will build her world around this new guy now that she’s found him…and she won’t let him go. She laments that he “(doesn’t) need me”, and “you want to leave me.” Perhaps the darkness of the vocal is that it is sort of stalkerish: she sounds like she might not actually let him go! Any song that can convey a strong emotion is on its way towards being a great song.

Alison Kraus

This song sounds slightly different than most country songs. Is it Kraus’ broody vocals? The song just sounds darker than most country songs, but not “my daddy died on the porch and my dog did too” level of darkness. A couple different choices and it might be classified as soft rock or folk.

The Foundations released the original version of the song in the sixties. Their version is good, but Kraus’ is better. The best part of the Foundations’ version is the thundering piano playing. The piano player doesn’t really play piano, he hammers the piano. And it works. The homage to ‘build me up buttercup’ in the beginning is kind of weird.

Now That I’ve Found You Lyrics

Baby, now that I’ve found you
I won’t let you go
I build my world around you
I need you so, baby even though
You don’t need me now

Baby, now that I’ve found you
I won’t let you go
I build my world around you
I need you so, baby even though
You don’t need me
You don’t need me no no (mm)

Baby, baby, when first we met
I knew in this heart of mine
That you were someone I couldn’t forget
I said right and abide my time

Spent my life looking for that somebody
To make me feel like you
Now you tell me that you want to leave me
But darling, I just can’t let you

Baby, baby, when first we met
I knew in this heart of mine
That you were someone I couldn’t forget
I said right and abide my time

Spent my life looking for that somebody
To make me feel like you
Now you tell me that you want to leave me
But darling, I just can’t let you

Now that I found you
I build my world around you
I need you so, baby even though
You don’t need me now

Baby, now that I’ve found you
I won’t let you go
I build my world around you
I need you so, baby even though
You don’t need me, you don’t need me no no
(mm mm mm)

Songwriters: John Macleod / Tony Macaulay