Save Me a Place
 

Written by L. Buckingman

Don't know why I have to work Don't know why I can't play Turn me off, turn me out But don't turn me away Save me a place I'll come running if you love me today Don't know why I have to go I don't know why I can't stay Guess I want to be alone And I guess I need to be amazed Save me a place I'll come running if you love me today I'll come running if you love me today

WEBMISTRESS speculates:

Who is Lindsey talking to here? It sure isn't Stevie; at this time he was spewing vitrolic lyrics towards her. This is a nice song, so I think he was either talking to a girlfriend at that time (I think it was Carol Ann Harris) or perhaps his family. But then again, the family association might just be my own - my mom used to always tell me she'd save me a place at the table whenever I wanted to come home, and I always think of that when I hear this song. For the purposes of this speculation, I'll assume he's talking about Carol Ann.

Lindsey is spending a lot of time on the road, he has "to work." But it's not just that - even when he's home, he's still working, working, perfecting his music with little thought to anything else, including his girlfriend. After all, much of his material on Tusk was recorded in their very home. I can imagine that many times, even when he wasn't technically working and he was with her, he might have seemed distant to her. He's just so wrapped up in what he's doing that his mind is always at least partially engaged elsewhere, mentally planning and arranging what he wanted to work on next.

He realizes this situation is trying for her - she probably feels second place to his music, hurt because he wasn't paying nearly enough attention to her. He tells her that if she'll be patient, and "love [him] today", he'll "come running" eventually. But until then, he needs to do his thing, to "be alone" and "be amazed". Still, he assures her that it will all be worth it in the end, he'll make it up to her as soon as the craziness is over if she'll just "save [him] a place."

 

SARAH speculates:

I think this song might be about his frusturation with the way some fans perceived the Tusk album. I think it's a great album but some fans might have been disappointed that it wasn't more like Rumours. I think that don't know why I have to work and can't play means that he doesn't understand why he worked so hard on Tusk and it didn't get the response he hoped for. I think that the part where he wonders why he couldn't stay is him wondering he didn't stay so popular after Rumours. And in the last part I think he's telling the fans that his music amazes him and if they decide they like his creative masterpieces then he'll keep making music performing for them.

 

Tusk | BN Albums