Name: Better Than Love
Duration: P00H03M57S
Description: I wrote this song after a visit to Cape Otway. There's a tiny cemetery not far from the old lighthouse, surrounded by bushland. One of the stones is from the 1860s, marking the grave of the lightkeeper's two infant children.

Better Than Love

from Better Than Love by Mike Debenham

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about

I wrote this song after a visit to Cape Otway. There's a tiny cemetery not far from the old lighthouse, surrounded by bushland. One of the stones is from the 1860s, marking the grave of the lightkeeper's two infant children.

lyrics

out by the old church on the day i was wed
my mother made light of my fears
she smiled half a smile and she wiped back my tears
you're not the first girl to be married, she said
but if you can, find something better than love
yes if you can, find something better than love

christopher says not to dwell on the past
there's a purpose in all we can't know
he climbs up the tower and shines out a light
they lie in a dell where the wind doesn't blow
and mother said find something better than love
my mother said find something better than love

mary came by with her spaniel in may
how are you, mary? i asked her
she frowned as if lacking for something to say
surely, she said, i once knew the answer
my mother said find something better than love
yes if you can, oh

huddled inside all the shells we've outgrown
helpless against our own armour
thinner than paper and harder than stone
and what would i be if i cast off my pain?
a scuttling crab on a beach with no name
and would i then find something better than love?

christopher tells me we'll see them again
risen in glory and safe from all harm
he climbs up the tower and shines out a light
he sits up at night with his head in his arms
as if to say, find something better than love
my mother said find something better than love

credits

from Better Than Love, released February 2, 2024

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about

Mike Debenham Melbourne, Australia

I'm a writer and musician based in Melbourne, Australia.

Not actually a goat.

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