I Came to You

This is about seeking out the counsel of someone who probably has a good understanding of who and what you are. In short, extending trust to someone you believe you can trust.

This was written on one of my Hawaii vacations, where I would buy a cheap guitar at the start of the week and then sell it back to the store in a prearranged at the end of the week (they laugh at me, each time). I think some of that low key feel permeated this one.

We took off ā€œHandle Itā€ this week. Thanks for listening.

How Did I Get You

This is a really old one, heavily influenced by a couple of weeks of listening to Sam Cooke’s greatest hits. This thing was written on guitar, and was always a guitar song. But when I tried to record it that way, it didn’t work. As a last gasp measure before I killed the song for good, I did a take on piano. I started to feel a little better, and I believe what you have here is the second time I ever played it on a piano.

It’s also a really short song. I’m not a fan of anything longer than 5 minutes, but this might be my shortest song. Clearly some of that is the Sam Cooke influence (those tunes were really brief—on his 30 Greatest Hits summary, it takes until the 24th song until there’s one longer than 2:53), and clearly some of it is because it doesn’t have a bridge. I wrote one years later, but during the song restoration process, I couldn’t find it on old tapes. Oddly enough, as I was sitting here writing the blog today, it came back to me. And…we’re good. It didn’t add much.

I took off ā€œAlready Hereā€ this week. As always, thanks for listening.

Jacket of Shame

This song is one of my favorites.

It’s about having to wear a reputation created by an adversary, one who got out ahead of the narrative. I’m sure everyone’s had someone in their life take advantage of them by telling exaggerated stories or telling ones that were missing context. It’s an effective tool, I guess.

We took off ā€œWhat You’ve Doneā€ this rotation. Thanks for listening…

Poison

This is one of my favorites, but I’m really not sure what reaction I’ll get to it.

This song really didn’t work in its first iteration (and maybe not in this one, either…but it’s better than it was). It took a certain scheming, disingenuous individual to pull this one out of me the right way. Anyone out there who knows me and might be concerned this is about them…if you’re not sure, it’s not about you. She knows who she is.

And she earned this.

I took off Damage is Done this week. Let me know what you think at [email protected].

Don’t Run Away

This is one of my favorites. The key line for me is ā€œI may tell you that I love you, long before I do.ā€ The idea came from a situation where someone told me that they loved me so early in a relationship, it felt like manipulation to me. It was awkward, like there was some angle that I wasn’t seeing. And, yes…for those of you that know me…I did, in fact, consider that maybe that person was being honest…but my Spidey senses went off, big time. If you were dating someone that had never really been in a long term relationship, and they told you they loved you really quickly…would you trust it?

I took down ā€œI Want This Fightā€ this week.

As usual, let me know what you think of the site…or the songs, or the blog, or the lyrics, or the blue color… at [email protected]. Really. Like, even if you don’t like it.