Finally I get to post Tabula Rasa, a song about finding your way through the darkness. I wrote Tabula Rasa and then sat on it for 2 years. I liked the tune a lot, but it just wasn't ready to say hello to the world, so I was patient with it. Then I met a producer friend from New York, Joseph Beaty, we began working together, and I realized what Tabula Rasa was waiting for. Joseph did some real magic with this song.
You'll find I tend to speak of my songs as if they're living creatures. It's because I view them that way. They come from somewhere far away, and they pretty much do what they want. I just bring them here. Little aliens. 🤭
What this song wanted everyone to know was that when you find yourself in the empty place, and it’s only natural to at times, often the only way out is through. Gracefully dive in and exit the other side. The journey is an erasure. You can’t control the darkness, but you can come out of it renewed. And that is the context of "Tabula Rasa" which means "Blank Slate."
To celebrate over 2,000 Spotify plays, I also performed this one live acoustic:
Crystal Casey - Tabula Rasa © 2016
Some nights I’m just flatlining,
Riding an unbent coaster through the void,
Like an arrow through a great gorge that never ends,
Or a rattle that sighs from a lung that gives in.
Some nights all is quiet inside
And static but gently moving too
Like a paper airplane down an empty hall
I’m just gliding through.
No words no words can take you to the space I’m crossing
Or the dark delving in.
No thoughts, no love, no hate, just a captainless ship,
And it’s getting late.
Some nights I’m just a shadow
Moving across the wall without a noise,
Like a puppet through a light screen, dancing but bound,
Or a storybook boy that won’t grow up or come down.
Some nights all is quiet inside
And static but gently moving too,
Like a paper airplane down an empty hall,
I’m just gliding through.
Some nights all is silently torn,
But whole in its free and mysterious way,
Like a deer cut from its herd by hungry wolves,
I’m just falling prey.
No words no words can take you to the space I’m crossing
Or the dark delving in.
No thoughts, no love, no hate, just a ghostless machine,
And it’s getting late.