Pay The Price

by @grayland

Pay The Price
grayland
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Liner Notes

#rock

I'd been playing around with this chord progression for several days and it kinda stuck with me, so I wrote this story about a friend who is struggling with a narcissistic person and can't seem to make it work even tho she loves him so very much.

Lyrics

Pay the Price By Gary Ray Knowland

We could go the distance With some good advice But you get so damned angry And its me that pays the price

Baby how I love you But sometimes you're not nice We lash out at each other You and me, we pay the price

CHORUS Does it have to be so difficult From where does all the anger come? What can I do... what can I say? If we can't fix it, baby we are done

Ask you why you're yelling But yelling you deny You claim it's me attacking you And again I pay the price

You pretend that nothing happened And disregard the fights Oh god I'm feeling so confused And in the end I pay the price

CHORUS Does it have to be so difficult From where does all the anger come? What can I do... what can I say? If we can't fix it, baby we are done

© 2026 Grayland Studios

Comments

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Dealing with a narcissist is one of the worst things I went through. I gave up on understanding this weird disbalance of nice and naughty. You turned this into a great song, especially the lyrics, from where does the anger come? Definitely not from you. The harmonies are awesome, and licks yep, that works!

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@johnstaples sent me here. Yes, definitely a top rocker. Well done.

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Love that chord progression, what a great hook. I'd say that's a difficult situation but I'm seeing more of myself in these lyrics than I'd ever admit on a public website on the internet, that's for sure. Rocks, it does. JS recommended this song and I'm glad he did.

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Oh, and I even forgot to mention your lyrics and how perfectly they describe the narcissistic insanity your friend has to deal with! I'm curious whether you will share this song with them?

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Man, that is such a killer chord progression with superbly strong crunchy guitars panned both left and right! And damn, those guitars complement each other so perfectly! I could listen to just the guitars through a whole song!

But wait, there's more! A lot more! When your vocals come in it is a delight! This is the perfect key for your voice and you give a powerful, confident performance that soars! As an aside about mixing, your vocals are placed perfectly on this track! I LOVE clear, understandable vocals and I sometimes get mine too hot but you have managed to sing, record and mix your vox just about perfectly and they sit right in the center where they belong while the guitars thunder on either side of them. I'd like to know more about just what you did here and I'd like to try this on one of my own songs!

The drums are killer too and they sit beautifully in the mix, And I just can't tell you how much I enjoy your excellent guitar soloing! When (if) I grow up I wanna play guitar just like you!

And a word about your harmonies...they are AWESOME! I always love how you seem to know just where to toss in a vocal harmony part and I am trying to learn by copying you! My standard technique used to be 1) no harmony on verses and 2) too much harmony on choruses! But I am learning (from you) that harmony vocals can be a whole lot more advanced/interesting than that!

So yeah, this is a DYN-O-MITE song. Probably my favorite @grayland song of this FAWM (so far!)

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surprise - not a hope with a narcisisst you will never work them out! great music moves perfectly - i remember when this would have stormed the airwaves - pity it still doesn't awesome.

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This rocks. The chord progression is great. The guitars sound good. The drums have a rolling feel to them that rocks but feels malleable... or maybe... heavy but not concrete, if that makes sense. Anyway, I'm enjoying this rocking song.

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I like how the chord progression feels like a frustrating conversation that you keep having with a friend. It's interesting that the chorus kind of feels like a pre-chorus, the way it holds tension and resolves back to the verse.

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There's a lot here to enjoy. I particularly dig the hi hat pattern on the verses. The tom grove and guitar riff totally rock, and intertwine together well. The guitar solos remind me of Robert Quine, from Matthew Sweet's, "Girlfriend."

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Cool song! I heard a hint of Iron Maiden in the chorus which I loved. I'd be curious to learn a bit about your demo-recording process. I've been limited to acoustic single track demos so far but would like to add some layers. Are those real drums?

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Love that crunchy guitar tone. Having known quite a few narcissists, the lyrics definitely paint an accurate picture, that harmony on the last line of the chorus going into the solo is absolute ‘chefs kiss’. There’s a great intense and ominous vibe which again reflects how it is living with a narcissist. Nailed it

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@sbs

The lyrics capture it beautifully. Speaking of "done," been there and *done" that! When you grow up with a caretaker like that (and don't know what's going on), you end up marrying one. Brilliant music and vocals - wow!

[FAWM]