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about

This is an old song, written in 2012. It is one of the original songs that I wrote and that Greg Newlon helped me arrange on guitar not long after MapleDream folded.

This is a confessional song that pokes fun at my realization that up until a few years ago, I was very driven by needing to be seen, not (just) from vanity, but in a “do I exist?” kind of way. It comes, frankly, from growing up female. I’ve largely moved on from the space this song describes, but I sometimes still feel like this, usually when I am not at my best. I wrote it a few years after going on tour with Michelle Shocked, which, among other things, revealed to me how big the hole was around being seen and valued. No matter how much anyone I loved, hadn’t even met, or anywhere in between told me how good I was, how good I looked, how well I played, sang, worked, whatever … I never believed them. Writing this song was a step in staunching that limitless void.

See Me tends to appeal to women, especially women my age, because they get it. One audience member shared with me that the song “finished sentences” for her. I wanted it on the CD despite its age because it’s a gentle and amusing way of pointing something out to help let it go.

I owe a lot to Greg for this one … not least the totally cool guitar part he came up with. I also owe a ton to Kenny, my producer, for helping it find its groove.

lyrics

I’ve never had a caricature drawn of me
Because I’m terrified of what I might see
My nose out to there and my crazy hair
And eyes as big as the sea
Full of nothing but a pathetic plea

I remember his eyes, they were emerald green
The night before my wedding they fixed on me
Trying to bridge the space, the gaze was out of place
But he told me what I’d always dreamed
That he loved me though I’d always felt unseen

See me, see me, thinking I will see me in your eyes
When all I see is what I am to you
And I forget why I looked as if I ever knew
See me, see me, thinking I will see me in your eyes

You see therefore I am, I am because you see
That’s pretty much the shape of my pathology

I conjure you when you’re not there
‘Cause I feel I might vanish without the stare
But to vanish would mean that I’d once been seen
And believing that doesn’t have a prayer
If the truth is something I can share

See me, see me, thinking I will see me in your eyes
When all I see is what I am to you
And I forget why I looked as if I ever knew
See me, see me, thinking I will see me in your eyes
In your eyes, in your eyes

Words & Music © 2012 Martha Groves Perry

credits

from These Hands, released March 1, 2020
In addition to songwriting, lead vocals, and writing the harmony vocals, I played acoustic guitar. Kenny Schick, my producer, sang backing vocals and played or programmed all other instruments. Kenny recorded his parts at Basement3Productions in Nashville, TN, and I recorded my acoustic guitar and vocal parts in April 2019 with Steven Glaze at ToneFreq Studio in San Jose, California.

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Martha Groves Perry San Francisco, California

Martha Groves Perry is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in San Francisco, California. Her bold, alternative Americana original music has a straightforward, compelling and sometimes edgy clarity with strong blues, rock, and experimental influences. Her penetrating, poetic lyrics reflect the fearless truth-telling and unbothered amusement of a seasoned, female point of view. ... more

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