Appears on: She Must and Shall Go Free

Lyrics:

If you want my glory you gotta take my sin
if you want my future you gotta take my skin
If you want my heart, you gotta take my blood
And if you want my bed you gotta take my lust

[Chorus]
‘Cause I’m not a half a man
No I’m not a half a man
Lord knows I love you now
But a saint and a sinner is what I am

If you want my spirit you gotta take my booze
If you want my mystery you gotta take my clues
If you want my child you gotta take my kin
If you want my money you gotta take my rent

[Chorus]

And it doesn’t get better once you see the light
‘Cause you wake to find that the fight has just begun
I used to be a damned mess but now I look just fine
‘Cause you dressed me up and we drank the finest wine

[Chorus]

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Purchase: iTunes Store

Words and Music: Derek Webb
©2002 Niphon, Inc. (Admin by Music Services). All rights reserved. Used by permission. ASCAP

Additional Musicians:

• Derek Webb: National guitar, banjo
• Charlie Lowell: B-3 organ
• Rufus (aka Buddy Greene): Harmonica

Derek on the song:

It just didn’t make sense to me to be known right off the get go for the guy who fought to have “damned” on his record. Although, I really could justify it, ’cause that area of that song is taken from the beginning of Galatians were Paul uses the word anathema, which is the Greek word for “eternally damned by God.” It’s some of the strongest language used in the New Testament, so of course I probably picked a hard area to go into because it’s really strong language, but it’s really necessary when you’re in that subject matter. Again, it was a lighthearted song, and I definitely took some liberties as a writer to use it, so I understood their concerns. And the retail plays such a huge role, and having a real partnership and understanding with the retail and them supporting you and understanding you is so important, that I immediately told them, “We’re going to go in and take it out. ‘Cause I’m not come this far and risk this whole thing on something that trivial, so let’s go in and let’s edit it.” Which we did, so the record will be different by one word from the pre-releases.
—Derek Webb, in an interview with Jason Ewert on CMusicWeb.com

Elsewhere: MusicBrainz