Cinematic and soulful, Tom A. Smith’s breathtaking, brutally honest mouthful of a song “I Don’t Want You to Have to Remember Me for Longer Than You Ever Knew Me” (featuring swim school’s Alice Johnson) is an earnest, vulnerable, and achingly intimate world unto itself – one in which passion and pain collide, coalesce, invigorate, and inspire.
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“I Don’t Want You to Have to Remember Me for Longer Than You Ever Knew Me” – Tom A. Smith, swim school
Wow, what a breathtaking, dramatic mouthful of a song (literally and figuratively)!
The collaboration from English singer/songwriter Tom A. Smith and Alice Johnson (of Scottish indie rock darlings swim school) is a gentle giant of seductive sound and raw, palpable feeling. The best part is, the title really does say it all – but you’ll have to actually listen to “I Don’t Want You to Have to Remember Me for Longer Than You Ever Knew Me” for its full four minutes in order to soak up the heat and heart of this special track.
Cinematic and soulful, Smith’s brutally honest second song of the year (following this past March’s standalone single “Get Me Started”) is an earnest, vulnerable, and achingly intimate world unto itself – one in which passion and pain collide, coalesce, invigorate, and inspire:
Don’t think you know just what I meant
That Friday night when
we were drunk and then I said
If you lost me would you ever forget
If you lost me would you ever forget
The strangest feeling keeps
running round my head
So much good going on
but so much fear instead
But at least I’ve lived my life
with nothing to regret
With nothing to regret
I don’t want you to have to remember me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
For longer than you ever knew me
for longer than you ever knew me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
For longer than you ever knew me
for longer than you ever knew me
“This is in my opinion the best and most personal song I’ve ever written,” Smith tells Atwood Magazine. “I’ve met Alice and the Swim School guys and really love everything they’ve done and think our vocals complement each other perfectly. She was so innovative when working out her harmonies to the point that I can’t imagine it without her. I’m so excited for everyone to hear it and the full-length version.”
“It’s a song about one of those 3 AM deep and meaningful pizza shop conversations about the fragility of life and about insecurities I was feeling and continue to feel,” he explains. “I don’t think I’ve written anything as quickly, and the title of it – although ridiculously clumsy – is the only way I’d want the song to be known. There’s certain songs and subjects where you wonder why nobody hadn’t written it before, and I think this title is exactly that.”
“The bridge came later in the day, when I attempted to record the demo and I worked back from the crescendo. Because I could hear it as a duet, I just really wanted that part to be a coming together. If I had my way, this song would be ten minutes long, but we do have a longer version appearing soon!”
This picture’s clearer than it was before
So I’ll keep trying and I’ll just ignore
I’ve got nothing to prove anymore
I’ve got nothing to prove anymore
But It’s not worth it if I don’t see success
But without these moments
my life would be a mess
So it’s still down to me nonetheless
So it’s still down to me nonetheless
I don’t want you to have to remember me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
For longer than you ever knew me
for longer than you ever knew me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
For longer than you ever knew me
for longer than you ever knew me
There’s something endearing about hear Smith and Johnson come together to spill their souls so unapologetically.
“I Don’t Want You to Have to Remember Me for Longer Than You Ever Knew Me” is an emotionally charged masterpiece, and I, for one, would take a twenty-minute version of this song if they had one lying around. Lay it on thick, and hold nothing back – true art doesn’t play by the rules, nor does it abide by the pressures of the industry.
With a title this long and this potent, you’d expect the music to hit you over the head – and much to Smith and Johnson’s credit, it does.
Said a million times
That this world is mine
But I know most people
don’t agree but your there with me
And they might be right
But for just tonight
Maybe I’d agree
I don’t want, I don’t want…
I don’t want you to have to remember me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
For longer than you ever knew me
for longer than you ever knew me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
I don’t want you to have to remember me
For longer than you ever knew me
for longer than you ever knew me
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“I Don’t Want You to Have to Remember Me for Longer Than You Ever Knew Me” – Tom A. Smith, swim school
— — — —
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