You’ve already won
This song is, for me, the most captivating song on the record. To my ears, it is the most raw sonically and lyrically. The song is a message, a letter, a missal of hope.
The title and main message of the song—“you’ve already won”—is a message I want to give to everyone. In particular, to people who feel beat down, lost, lonely, wrung out; to those who feel like the best they do is not enough and that usually what they do isn’t even the best; to the hopeless and the desperate.
When I wrote this song I had a particular person in mind (no, I won’t tell you who, and you can’t guess). However, after the song was recorded and the record was done, I had a strange experience in my relationship with this song. After a week of events that left me feeling rejected and down this song, instead of being me speaking to another, grew to also be a song of myself addressing myself. I hear the song now as a message to myself, a message to remember to continue to walk (or to crawl) and to live in the hope that I believe even when (especially when?) I don’t feel it. It is a message to the shadow side of me, the side that does not want to get out of bed, the part of me that thinks that there is no hope or use in trying because the game is rigged and nothing’s going to work out. It is a message to the part of me that is too tired to play the game.
It is a message from the deep part of me that believes, the part that has hope, the part that has seen a vision of the light and seeks to both carry and spread that flame. It is a message from the part of me that is too busy crying out “holy!” at everything I see to have a moment of despair.
I guess, in the end, I tried to write a song with a message that I wanted everyone to hear, and that includes me in the audience.
A close friend recently wrote me to ask why, exactly, he had already won. My reply to him was simple: Because you are loved
You are loved
You’ve already won
Another night of no rest
You carry despair in the lines of your face
Mornings come fast and deeply divided
I’m up at first light, you keep missing sunrise
How I long for you to heal
But it doesn’t matter what I feel
You’ve already won the battle is over
What you’re fighting for you’ve had all along
There’s no way to win cause I’m on your side
What you’re fighting for has been yours all along
Are you lost in the dark? Do you want to come out?
I keep on pounding but you never answer
I need you here, I need you free
I swear I’m not going to let you hide from me
How I long for you to heal
But it doesn’t matter what I feel
You have my word and I will stay as long as it takes for your night to end
You have my word and I will stay as long as it takes for your night to end
You have my word and I will stay as long as it takes for your night to end
You’ve already won the battle is over
What you’re fighting for you’ve had all along
There’s no way to win cause I’m on your side
What you’re fighting for has been yours all along
Words and music by Peter La Grand
please let me know what you think!
