Hole Hearted

Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme perform 'Hole-Hearted' with John Paul Jones, Steve Hackett and Paul Gilbert. Via YouTube

I've been playing an old mix tape which has been stuck in a cupboard for years - a compilation I made in September 1994 (yikes!) of my favourite songs. Surprisingly most of them still do it for me. One of them is Extreme's wonderful Hole-Hearted:

Life's ambitions occupies my time
Priorities confuse the mind
Happiness one step behind
This inner peace I've yet to find

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do

Hole hearted
Hole hearted

This heart of stone is where I hide
These feet of clay kept warm inside
Day by day less satisfied
Not fade away before I die

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why cant I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do

I just searched YouTube for it, and found a fantastic live version which looks fairly recent - Gary Cherone has much shorter hair, as does the luscious Nuno Bettencourt. Mm-mmm, he looks even better with age... (fans self).

I love to sing Hole-Hearted as a worship song. Maybe it's meant to be about romantic love, but its lyrics speak to me about trying (and failing) to find fulfillment in something or someone other than God - a trap I fall into ALL the time.

The Pornograffiti album was a huge favourite of mine. I played it non-stop - and not just the ballads either... in my younger days I liked to ROCK!!! (When vexed, I could often be found in my room shrieking along to Seether by Veruca Salt.)

YouTube also has a version of More Than Words from 1992 - complete with BIG Cherone hair - and many other live performances.

See also:
YouTube: Seether - Veruca Salt
YouTube: Number One Blind - Veruca Salt