Unresolved Lyrics

September 9, 2024 9:05 AM

I'm currently starting on lyrics for a song about unresolved matters and how annoying they can be. What can you tell me about your experience with this?

I really dislike unresolved matters. For example, if I have a technical problem, a bug in software I am writing, and it occurs to me in the middle of the night how to fix it. I get up and fix it. (I suspect I am not alone in this among sw devs).

posted by falsedmitri to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

It's extremely minor and kinda meta, but my first thought was "Shave and a Haircut...Two Bits". See this version from Roger Rabbit, where he can't resist but to finish the lyric.

Or see Cartman in South Park where he can't help but finish the song Come Sail Away if he hears the beginning. (Jump to 30 seconds in if you don't want to see the lead-up.)
posted by hydra77 at 9:39 AM on September 9 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Ha yeah I forgot about Cartman. For future replies, while hydra77's comment is relevant, to be clear I am writing lyrics and looking for your experience, not just existing lyrics, pertinent to unresolved matters
posted by falsedmitri at 9:53 AM on September 9

Being told that I'll never know and can never find out, because the person who does know can't or won't talk.
Look up "ambiguous loss."
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:22 AM on September 9 [1 favorite]

my SO and I participated in a "movie trivia" night with some friends a while ago. We all had fun, but there was one question where I didn't remember the answer, and, out of sheer stubbornness, refused to ask or look up the answer. Now it's 2am and, from fast asleep to completely wide awake, I turn and shake my SO awake and whisper to them "the answer was 'Tom Cruise'". All I heard back was "my god! go to sleep you psycho...!!". When my brain works on something, sometimes it doesn't let go...
posted by alchemist at 12:49 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]

I add the unresolved matter to my todo list and try to forget about it. If middle of night, I ask Siri to add it. I have 200+ unresolved matters.
posted by credulous at 1:03 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]

My ex died. Now I know for sure that they won't ever apologize for the terrible wrongs they did to me. Before that, I was pretty sure they never would (partly because we were only in the most minimal contact, partly because they never admitted they were doing anything wrong). Now I know for sure. It's been surprising how freeing that is. I really wish that I had been able to convince myself a long time ago that they would never apologize, but I'm trying to be kind to that version of me.
posted by OrangeDisk at 1:53 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]

Unresolved things make my brain feel itchy. They give me an extremely strong, hard to divert, drive to fix things. It's what I imagine an animal's "prey drive" must feel like.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:46 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]

It takes on average 7 years to be diagnosed with one of the various autoimmune disease. It becomes a long slog of appointments, tests, food logs, symptom logs, etc, and many people never figure out what is wrong with them.
posted by CathyG at 9:40 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]