Two things happened at the same time: one, I read the first volume of Stephen Sondheim's essential lyric-writing seminar/memoir Finishing the Hat; and two, I got pegged to write a couple of original tunes for possible use by a young female singer. I took the task very seriously, and tried very hard to follow some of the lyric writing guidelines I had just learned from the book. "But Don't Get Me Started" has a playful motif where there is a constant string of "and" throughout the verses and chorus, and it is only at the tail end of the chorus that the resistant word "but" comes in for the title line. I invented this first person character and relationship woes but it still actually gets me every time. These songs were never actually used, by the way. Until now, that is.