Notes from Robyn on Patreon in 2020.
I wrote this song about 10 years ago for Kelly Hogan when she was making a solo album for Anti Records. She asked various songwriters to write material for her, and I was honoured to be included. She and I first met in 1990 when she was the singer in The Jody Grind, who opened for me on one of my early acoustic US tours. She would step onstage barefoot in a wine-red velvet dress, demure yet commanding: their repertoire included Daniel Johnston’s ‘Sorry Entertainer’. Something about the way she carried herself hinted at some heartache that she was cradling, self-sufficient though she seemed. I never knew her well enough to ask her about it - still, when she asked me for a song 20 years later, the title flashed instantly on my frontal lobe: I Like To Keep Myself In Pain. I dare say this applies to me too, but I wrote this specifically for Hogan, who sings it like a sombre dream. Now, here’s my version...
The lyrics to the Kelly Hogan version are very similar to Robyn's demo, but diverge towards the end. The lyrics below are from the Kelly Hogan version with a different verse in Robyn's demo shown at the end