New Year's Prayer

This song is based on a poem Buckley wrote called My New Year's Eve Prayer, which he read at the annual New Year's Day Poetry Marathon at St. Marks Church in New York City on January 1, 1995. The night before, Buckley performed at the nearby Sin-é café, one of his favorite haunts. Buckley is one of many esteemed wordsmiths to perform at the Poetry Marathon, which started in 1974. Patti Smith, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Suzanne Vega have all performed there. Buckley's poem begins: You, my love, are allowed to forget about the Christmas You just spent stressed out in your parents' house It goes on to offer a kind of romantic liberation that left so many of Buckley's fans entranced: You, my love, are allowed to be soaked like a lovers' blanket In the New York summertime with the wonder of your own special gift The song distills the poem into several lines that Buckley repeats: Feel no shame for what you are Stand absolved behind your electric chair, dancing It's the same feeling of freedom, but without the additional prose.

New Year's isn't mentioned in the lyric, but is significant because of the timing, as Buckley read his original poem on New Year's Day. The new year is when many of us put pressure on ourselves to be better than we were the year before, making resolutions to reshape our bodies or minds. Buckley is letting us know there's nothing wrong with the way we are. We have nothing to be ashamed of.

Buckley recorded this song in 1996 or early 1997 with Tom Verlaine of Television producing. It was intended for an album called My Sweetheart, The Drunk, but Buckley died before it was finished (he drowned on May 29, 1997). The song first appeared in 1998 on the posthumous album Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, which is comprised of material from these sessions and other outtakes.