There but for the grace of God...
Music Credits:
Music Credits:
Elaine Lucia, acoustic guitar/vocals
Dave MacNab, electric guitars, solos
Cliff Hugo, bass
Alan Hall, drums
©2020 Elaine Lucia Music (BMI)
Recording Engineer: Kenny Evans, MESA Studio, Sebastopol, CA
Mixed by: Dan Feiszli
Mastered by: Bill Hare
Read the Lyrics: The Face of Need
The Face of Need
Words and Music by Elaine Lucia
In the town where I was raised
Lived a woman who spent her days
As the lonely one, she was the only one
We’d laugh at her for fun.
We’d follow her on her way
From the door of the store where she’d start her day
We couldn’t understand how she could take her lunch
Out of a garbage can.
Did you look in her eyes as she tried to turn away?
Did you look in her eyes as she tried to hide her pain?
If you were looking in her eyes you’d see yourself
Looking in the Face of Need.
Where does she go when the sun goes down?
Street lamps on a deserted town show a solitary form
Shrinking from the coming storm.
The years go by and this town’s changed
Friends have gone and moved away
As I’m passing through I wonder what has happened to her
Since that day
Did I look in her eyes as she tried to turn away?
Did I look in her eyes as she tried to hide her pain?
If I were looking in her eyes I’d see myself
Looking in the Face of Need.
Seeing Ourselves Through The Face of Need
I used to commute to San Francisco every day for work, and would stop at a coffee shop near my office. Every morning, I’d see an elderly houseless woman near the door. Over time, we began to talk a little bit; I asked her if she had family, and she shared that she chose the streets because her family had been abusive. Her story stayed with me; I thought of her often, living out there on the cold, hard sidewalks, especially on rainy winter days.
I wondered what her daily life was like—the indignities she faced, how people might walk past her without a glance or, with disdain. I imagined the pain she carried. I wondered who she was; I wanted to know her story but didn’t want to invade her space or pry too much.
So I imagined a story with her in the center, waking up each morning “in the door of the store where she’d start her day.”
I imagined kids making fun of her, out of innocent misunderstanding, because they “couldn’t understand how she could take her lunch out of a garbage can.”
I thought of her on a cold, dark night, “shrinking from the coming storm.”
I wondered: “Did I look in her eyes as she tried to turn away? Did I look in her eyes as she tried to hide her pain? If I were looking in her eyes I’d see, my Self, looking in The Face of Need.”
Her need, her pain, doesn’t (or shouldn’t) separate her from me, or us.
I hope that is what I’ve conveyed in this song.
