Category: Blog

This is one of my favorites. The lyric is effectively an “aren’t I better than that guy?” narrative, except the answer is no–the narrator had a chance and blew it. In the end, they now recognize there’s some bitter symmetry between their own mistakes and the expected failures/weaknesses of the follow up person.

At the start of writing it, I had an obtuse Elvis Costello-like lyric, packing way too much into 32 lines. It took me a bunch of months to finalize it, taking out planks in the narrative to compact the story. It was a definitely a challenge.

We took down “You Chose With Me” this week. Thanks again for listening.

Well…I don’t remember this one. Usually, when I write something and I’ve forgotten about it, the first time I hear it again, I remember the key. I always remember the key. This one? I don’t remember the writing process (though I have a couple draft versions), don’t remember what triggered it…and didn’t even remember the key.

Of course, the funny thing is…I actually like this one, and was happy to discover I’d written it at some point.

We took off “Hard To Give Up” this week. Thanks for listening.

This is about regretting a one night stand because the event painted the narrator as someone who wanted a conquest instead of a deeper relationship. I had a friend recently tell me about a situation like this, where the woman wanted to have the one night fling, and he didn’t want to start off the relationship that way.

This one took a while to write—it was a hard topic to try to fit into a song structure.

We took off “Overindulge” this week. Thanks for listening.

This one was posted first in March, 2016.

This one is unquestionably the most Elton John-y thing I’ve ever written.  I knew it from the second I started it, and I just decided to follow it.   I think it would be right at home on his first album (and probably played better).

I wrote this one while I was out of work a number of years ago, in the latter stretches before getting an offer.  At the time, I was clearly contemplating what mistakes I’d made to put myself in that position, and how to gain some redemption.   I don’t think it was conscious when I wrote it but, in retrospect, I think all that bled into the song.

I actually finished this one on my first day of work at my new job.   My day of hire was an earnings call day, and bringing me in that day was just pure silliness (that should’ve told me something right there).  They sat me alone in a conference room, with a copy of the employee handbook, for two hours, while they addressed fire drills.   I used that time to finish these lyrics.

I’m sure a couple people would argue I should’ve studied the handbook more…

Happy birthday Harry! Harry’s the white dog on the front of the site, who would have turned 18 today. And Hogan’s fourth birthday- (he isn’t pictured on the site yet,) but he joined the family a few months before we lost Harry in October 2020.

We took off “He Can Change Your Life” this week. Thanks for listening.

This is about someone who, according to all literature about their particular mental illness, operates at the emotional maturity level of a young teenager in their personal life. Because of that…I don’t feel remarkably bad about this song having the maturity level of someone, you know…young. She definitely wasn’t it, and this song was well earned.

We took off “Love You At Length” this week. Thanks for listening.