The Change

The Change está disponible en español. Ver el artículo Το άρθρο The Change είναι διαθέσιμο στα ελληνικά. Δείτε το άρθρο The Change è disponibile in italiano. Vedi l'articolo The Change está disponível em português. Ver o artigo

General information

Written by: A. Lee, T. Balsamo, T. McCord, T. McLawhorn and W. Hunt

The Change is the third track from Evanescence's third studio album, Evanescence. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic chose The Change as a highlight on the album, along with My Heart Is Broken and What You Want. The Change premiered live during Evanescence's show in Nashville on August 17, 2011. It was later performed live during the 2011 Rock in Rio festival on October 2. The band added it to the set-list of the Evanescence Tour (2011-12).

On August 22, 2011, Amy went to Toronto's Liberty Studios to preview five mastered songs from Evanescence to a selected crowd of thirty people. The Change was one of the five previewed songs.

In a Q&A session in Milan in September 2011, Amy explained the song is about that moment in a relationship where you know you have to break up. She added it's not about her relationship with Josh, and they are perfectly fine.

In a track-by-track interview, Amy Lee talked about the song saying:

The song for a long time was called 'Purple' so we're all still getting used to calling it The Change. Yeah, uh, this song came together with the band when we were at pre-production, just really writing as a band. We, this is a cool story, we lived in two apartments in Nashville when we were making the record for like 6 months, cause we were writing down there, and then recording and blah blah blah. Tim and I were in one apartment, and Will and Troy and Terry were in the other apartment. And we wanted to work on some ideas both of us separately and then bring things to the table in the morning and try to write a new song. And I was like 'Let's take the same tuning guitar home' so that maybe if we both come up with some cool ideas it would work together who knows. At least we would be in the same key. So we did, and Tim and I were working on something really cool and got this net thing going which is really the verse, and I came up with the chorus melody idea and stuff. And we came in the next day and the other guys had this very net guitar part. And weirdly enough that guitar part they were working on and the verse that we had that we were so into, totally worked together. And it's like these two contrasting net guitar parts that work together. I mean we tweaked them a little bit to make it work right but that's it. Cool happy accident there.

When asked in an interview on February 2012 which song on the self-titled album the band wrote the fastest, Amy replied with The Change, further explaining how the song was composed:

You know what, it has to be The Change! It started as an idea that Tim had. And it was a completely sounding song at first. We all work from home and make demo recordings and then we bring them together. And Tim had this demo idea that was slow but it was like that verse. We were living in an apartment in Nashville at the time – Tim and I were in one apartment and the other three guys were in another apartment next door. And we all said, let’s just go home tonight and everybody take home the same guitar tuning, so that when we show up tomorrow, you know, maybe whatever we’ve been working on will all be in the same key and turn out to be the same song. It’d be funny if that happened. So they wrote in their room and Tim and I wrote in our room. And I loved the idea that he had for the verse and I wrote the chorus’ chord progression. And so we brought it the next day and the other guys had written this chord progression that totally went – it was different, but it totally went with what we had. So the verse guitar parts are actually the two songs on top of each other. That was really inspiring. That whole song I think came together in a day, and then I went home and wrote all the lyrics all in one day. And that usually doesn’t happen. I usually spend a week or two on the lyrics. So that was a fast one.

Versions

Studio versions:

The Change

• Recording Date: April 2011 - July 2011
• Status: Released
• Released On: Evanescence (track #3)
• Length: 3:42

The Change (Evanescence Pre-Master)

• Recording Date: April 2011 - July 2011
• Status: Unreleased
• Length: 3:48

Live versions:

The Change [Live]

• Performing period: August 17, 2011 - November 9, 2012; November 2015; April - November 2016; April - July 2017; May - September 2019; November 5 - December 11, 2021; January 14 - 21, 2022; May 9-10, 2024
• Example: Rock in Rio 2011

The Change [Acoustic]

• Performing date: May 30, 2012; June 2017; September 2019
• Performed at: BigFM, Wiesbaden, Germany (May 30, 2012); Voronezh, Russia (September 23, 2019)

Download

• The Change (Evanescence Pre-Master)

Lyrics

Thought that I was strong
I know the words I need to say
Frozen in my place
I let the moment slip away

I’ve been screaming on the inside
And I know you feel the pain
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Aah-oh-aah-oh-aah
Aah-oh-aah-oh-aah

Say it’s over, yes it’s over
But I need you anyway
Say you love me
But it’s not enough

Never meant to lie
But I’m not the girl you think you know
The more that I am with you
The more that I am all alone

I’ve been screaming on the inside
And I know you feel the pain
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?

Aah-oh-aah-oh-aah
Aah-oh-aah-oh-aah

Say it’s over, yes it’s over
But I need you anyway
Say you love me
But it’s not enough

Not that I’m so different
Not that I don’t see the dying light of what we used to be
But how can I forgive you
You changed!
And I'm a liar by your side
I’m about to lose my mind

Cause I’ve been screaming on the inside
And I know you feel the pain
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Aah

You’ve been dreaming if you’re thinking
That I still belong to you
And I’ve been dying
'Cause I’m lying to myself

Aah-oh-aah-oh-aah
Aah-oh-aah-oh-aah

Say it’s over, yes it’s over
But I need you anyway
Say you love me
But it’s not enough