I Just Wanna Know

[Image: 'On The Fritz' Front Cover]

Sections:

Lyrics

Life's too short for small talk
So don't be talking trivia now
Excess baggage fills this plane
There's more than we should ever allow

There's engines stalling and good men falling
But I ain't crawling away

I just wanna know
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to you
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

Folks play follow the leader
But who's the leader gonna obey?
Will his head get big when the toes get tapping?
I just wanna know are they catching what I say?

I'm a little too young to introspect
And I surely haven't paid all my dues
But there's bear traps lying in those woods
Most of them already been used

I just wanna know
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to you
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

Search me, Father, and know my heart
Try me and know my mind
And if there be any wicked way in me
Pull me to the rock that is higher than I

I just wanna know
Am I pulling people closer?
I just wanna be pulling them to you
I just wanna stay angry at the evil
I just wanna be hungry for the true

Recorded Appearances

Albums

Compilations

Promos

Bootlegs

About The Song

From Clone Club News Flash Winter 1986, Winter 1986:

["I Just Wanna Know"] is a simple prayer asking God to keep me from compromise and to enable what I'm doing in music to make a difference.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

From Who Does Not Want To Be a Clone?, Campus Life, January 1987:

The song "I Just Wanna Know" is kind of like "Hero"--the second song I've written that's really me singing. And I needed to write a song like that; it brought the whole [Fritz] album together and, I hope, established why I'm doing what I'm doing. I want to keep my motives pure. I want what I'm doing to have lasting value.

From Now The Truth Can Be Told Liner Notes & Song-By-Song Essays, Now The Truth Can Be Told Insert Booklet, August 23rd, 1994:

During the recording of the On The Fritz album, my co- producer Ian McDonald probably saved this song. I'd written the words as a prayer, based loosely on Psalm 139:23-24 ("search me, o God, and know my heart..."). But for some reason, the night before I was to sing it I decided the verse lyrics were too simplistic, and I came up with something a bit more esoteric (and, in retrospect, lame).

Ian, who was not a Christian, and never seemed to have an interest in any of the lyrics, heard the words and thought it was a joke.

When I told him it was a rewrite, he pleaded with me to go back to the original. I was so taken by surprise that he even cared, I went along with his wishes and sang the original verses. I've been grateful to him ever since.