13 November 2026 - Tracy Bonham - Sharks Can't Sleep

Twelve years ago, I did a short piece about this song. It was the third single from Tracy Bonham's 1996 debut album The Burdens of Being Upright. 

This is one of those songs I know by heart.  Every lyrics.  It's one of my favorite songs of all time, sincerely.

And the story behind it is really cool.  Bonham explained the process herself in an interview, with a comparison with her song "The One", which was really about one ex-boyfriend.

"Sharks Can't Sleep" was more of a global thing. It was around that time when I was contemplating what it means to be in a relationship with someone else, but it was less about this ex-boyfriend and more about how people say they're in love and so close with someone one day, and then just turn their backs on them the next day, and that included myself because I was looking at myself and past relationships and confused by the about-face. One day I could feel like I want to spend the rest of my life with this person, and then it seemingly felt like the next day I was moving on, and I didn't have anything to do with that person. So it really felt like the Nature Channel. Like sharks, how do they sleep? How do they go to bed at night? That was the metaphor I was using. - Tracy Bonham

I always wondered, but assumed it was a metaphor. 

Since I wrote that article in 2012, a lot has happened. 

In 2017, 21 years after the original album, Tracy Bonham rerecorded the songs from that album and made something new, Modern Burdens. The twist with the 2017 version is that it featured a vocal with Tanya Donelly (which, you'll see in a minute, Bonham bills as "from Belly, Throwing Muses"), and brings a new feel to the song. 

Of course, "Tanya Donelly from Belly, Throwing Muses" wasn't available for the official release party, so Tracy took her song back.

The next chapter begins today. 

You see, TODAY, Tracy releases her new album, LIFT, which is, well, another reimagining of The Burdens of Being Upright. As of the time I am writing this, I have not yet heard the LIFT version of this song, but I absolutely will have by the time you read this. 

I can tell you it's going to be arranged for strings. 

The closest thing I can guess that I have is the version of the song from the last night of her live residency in Boston earlier this year. 

And as I finish writing this, it's out and it's good.