While He was Sleeping There with You
I found enough drafts of “hurtin’ songs” in Pamela’s manuscripts to make a file of them. She wrote for her own personal therapy, and most won’t get published. By the time (2013) she wrote this gem, however, she could distill her pain into a few words, a good hook, an essential bridge, and the clever device of addressing the “other woman”. Chords are mine, but as an old bandmate observed, Pam and I had a similar sense of harmony. – HH
Video
Here’s Miranda Lever singing it, as part of a project to get Pam’s songs out into the world, off paper and onto video so people can hear them, and maybe sing them, too. Sheet music is below the video.
Sheet music
Lyrics
While he was sleeping there with you
It’s been hard to say I’m sorry
for what I had to do.
I somehow saw within your face
a hidden dream come true.
I couldn’t stay forever
but did you have a clue
I’d be walking away
while he was sleeping there with you.
I had no way to tell you
’bout how bad it could be.
But you are not me either
and that much I could see.
I was drawing strength within myself
but his mind was blind to truth,
that I could walk away
while he was sleeping there with you.
I hear a cry of innocence
I hear a cry of pain
I hear a cry of “How could this
be coming round again?”
I haven’t got your answers,
and my own are much too few,
all I can say is that I had to go
while he was sleeping there with you.
All I can say is that I had to go
while he was sleeping there with you.