lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: don't give that girl a gun

1997-05: jeff clark keeps 'em coming for amy ray, stomp and stammer:

the crumbled relationship you sing about in "don't give that girl a gun," is that based on something you recently went through?

"oh yeah. all my songs are based on fact. they're literal. that's my life, you know. it's real direct. i'm not quite sure everything i meant by it, but it's kind of a tortured love song. it's literal, and most people know what it's about i mean, don't print who it is. she knows it. but, i mean, you can say i'm gay 'til the cows come home...

so are you going to be on the cover of people magazine with a headline going 'yes, i'm gay!' next?

(laughs) "uhh nah but it's a breakup song, and it's also a love song. it's a 'don't let go' song, that's what i'd call it, and it's sad. but it wasn't supposed to be as sad as it is. it's kind of a drag."

1997-05-31: hey kind friend, creative loafing:

"i said [to emily], 'i'm going to ask you to play a certain way and do a certain thing," amy recalls. "like in 'don't give that girl a gun,' i wanted her to play electric guitar in a way she wouldn't normally do, and she really ended up being more herself. it's inside her, and she knows how to do it, and so we would do a song like 'scooter boys,' and she wasn't even in the right tuning, she was just hooked up and messing around. i started playing the song, we learned it in 10 minutes and then we recorded it. that was it. we kept that take."

amy's turn came on "caramia," the swooning, arching love song with the five violins, two violas and two cellos - in fact, a song whose harmonies were written by amy. but when they recorded it, emily asked amy to do "things i wouldn't even think of, that wouldn't occur to me to do," amy recalls. "she [said] to me, 'i think that note might not be right, can you do this instead.' or, 'i think that might be a little too harsh.' or, 'i didn't want your voice to stick out that much, can you try singing back a little bit.'" but don't mistake this for a compromise: "[emily] produces her own songs and i produce mine. we take direction from each other. and there's a lot of things she challenged me on this time." and vice-versa? "it's stuff that's inside us both but it's not what we would naturally do."