Fantasia from Stills by Sara Davis Regan

Abe (our producer) always had a movie on in the background when we went in to track. On this particular day he had Fantasia (1940) playing. The melody seemed to fit the film well, so we temporarily named the tune "Fantasia". Then it stuck.
Ironically, lyrically the song has nothing to do with Fantasia and everything to do with another film Abe picked during tracking, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I had never seen it, but watched it 3 or 4 times in a span of two weeks after this. Joel wrestling with the tension of aching for Clem but wanting to purge himself of her memory stuck with me. I was a month away from getting married and i couldn't wait, but i knew that meant leaving a lot of other people and experiences i love behind.
A lot of the lyrics are quotes from the film, and the chorus is my trying to grapple at my circumstances:
Ready and desperate for the inevitable change with this painful conscious recognition that I'll miss everything I had in that present time. Death of one, raising another. Wanting two things at once. I'll miss it, I miss you.
The lyrics kind of flow in and out of my own consciousness to the film's

Tracklist

3.	Fantasia	4:34

Lyrics

"How far ya going man? Me too.
Call me right when you're home... you shouldn't go"

Weakening for change, six of one, half a dozen,
Longing just to stay the same.
I won't let you go; River Charles to tributary.
You're my only alone (You'll never know).

"I erased you like a lark, Joely let me go.
Familiar impulse, a ripped page."

Weakening for change, six of one, half a dozen,
Longing just to stay the same.
I won't let you go; River Charles to tributary.
You're my only alone (You'll never know).

"It's our place for tonight, my lonely one.
I can't wait to see you, there will be no other."

Try to remember me come February.

Credits

from Stills, released November 13, 2017

License