Why Don't You Leave Him

from True Lovers of Adventure by Mary Lee Kortes

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about

Co-written with Arnie Roman. I read a statistic that 75% of all women who are murdered by their partner are killed after they leave. I was stunned by this, since so many people ask why women don't leave abusive relationships. It occured to me that maybe it's because their partner said "Leave me and I'll kill you" and they believed him, because they know it's true.

lyrics

WHY DON’T YOU LEAVE HIM (M. Kortes/A. Roman) Magda Lane Music (ASCAP)/Romanesque Music/Annotation Music (ASCAP)


I like to imagine
I live in old times
See men on white horses
Cathedral bells chime
The townspeople scatter
At dusk to their homes
The children are safe
Kings and queens on their thrones

What’s one more illusion
In this head that’s spinning
Like a dream world where love rules
And women are winning
So I don a long cape
‘Cause it covers the proof
That here in the present
I’m battered and bruised
Long gone the days full of honey and sun
When kisses fell on me like rain
We promised our lives would forever be one
Now they say

Why don’t you leave him
Why don’t you leave him
He said he’d kill me
And I believe him

The eyes of the devil
Are staring at me
They crawl in my bed
And destroy all they see
Was he born this angry
Was it family or fate
If God only knows
Why can’t God uncreate him
I pray for a miracle
Come over me
Carry me where I came from
Make me invisible
That would be freedom
They say

Why don’t you leave him
Why don’t you leave him
He said he’d kill me
And I believe him
There will be shelter
And air you can breathe in
He said he’d kill me
And I believe him


Say “no” to the roses
In the fisted glove
The roses will wither
The fist will still shove you
Deep in the forest
Where boundaries fade
Screams turn to silence
As shadows parade and I
Pray for a miracle
Come over me
Give me the strength to become
Make me invincible
That would be freedom
They say

Why don’t you leave him
Why don’t you leave him
He said he’d kill me
And I believe him
There will be shelter
And air you can breathe in
He said he’d kill me
And I believe him

Why don’t you leave him
Why don’t you leave him
He said he’d kill me
And I believe him
There will be shelter
And air you can breathe in
He said he’d kill me
And I believe him

credits

from True Lovers of Adventure, released April 23, 1999
Produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel

Mary Lee Kortes: lead vocals
Andy York: guitar & background vocals
Stephen Butler: guitar,
Joe Chiofalo: accordion
Brad Albetta: bass
Graham Hawthorne: drums & percussion
Sibel Firat: cello

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Mary Lee Kortes New York, New York

"Songs so meticulously crafted they sound completely natural". Jon Pareles, The New York Times
“Mary Lee Kortes's voice—the high mountain sunshine of Dolly Parton with a sweet-iron undercoat of Chrissie Hynde." David Fricke, Rolling Stone
"Mary Lee in concert... a feast for lovers of great songwriting that thrives in live performance for its wit, insight and glowing humanity." Billboard ... more

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