Story
Story
Living on the Edge was inspired by a conversation with a stranger, a man approaching his 40th or 50th birthday (I forget which) with dread. He was questioning absolutely everything about his life and had a desperation about him and a sense of urgency that bordered on subdued panic. I hope I gave him a voice in this song. Women are generally more open about questioning everything, but in my experience men are still expected to "hold it together, tow the line, be brave, suck it up... " etc. As a professional told me once, sometimes we need to fall apart; disassemble in order to reassemble, stronger, leaner and wiser.
Back to the song... I had fun with the five/four time in the chorus. I submitted it to a song contest once and had to smile at the comments of one of the judges who said something like..."Interesting polyrhythms going on in the the chorus. Not very commercial." Uh.... no polyrhythms darlin', just a little time change. A guy by the name of Sting used them a lot in his very commercial top-10 hits. He kinda got famous, I think (insert wicked grin here). Oh well. A little misunderstanding, I guess.