Yesterday I was on the way home from picking up Cameron from school.  As has become common practice for us, we began talking about the things he did in school that day.  Who did you play with on the playground?  Did you read a story at circle time?  What story?  Did you take your nap?  Did you get in trouble?

Then came an innocent sounding question:  What did you have for lunch?

This is actually a common question even if I was the one who packed his lunch.  As it turns out, I didn’t pack it that day.  While his very strong preference for lunch over the past two years has been PB&J, I knew that Beth had picked up some Lunchables and wondered how the whole cracker-goodness-meal worked out.

So…  What did you have for lunch?

“I cut the cheese, Daddy.  And I put it on the crapper.”

He corrected his mis-speak right away, but how do you let that just go away?  You don’t.  You post it on the web for all to see.  Enjoy!

Ok.  This is one of my earliest songs, written some time in the mid-1980s and recorded in the early 1990s at a little studio in Santa Clarita.  When I originally wrote the song, it was shortly after receiving my first real keyboard and I was in the midst of a real Depeche Mode influence.  Later when I recorded it I was beginning to really feel passion for acoustic instruments.  The piano solo in the middle posed a dynamic juxtaposition (I’ve always wanted to use that word!) with the very digitized instruments through the rest of the song.

Here are the lyrics:

I’m hurtin’
I wish someone would care
She said it wasn’t me
She told me she was sorry

I don’t see
A stake burns in my heart
It’s happened to me before
I’m closin’ off my door

I wish that I could find
Someone to love me
Someone to care

Tell me why
I don’t know what to do
About this life I’m givin’
Tell me what’s wrong with just livin’

Lie to me
Tell me that you love me
Tell me that you care
Run your fingers through my hair

I wish that I could find
Someone to love me
Someone to care

One of the things that’s always bugged me about this song is that it’s not all that long.  I remember that somewhere fairly early on in my music awareness I learned that a song has to be around the three-minute mark to be considered playable on the radio.  This one (at just two-and-a-half) never fit the bill.  And at the same time, I didn’t think it needed any more lyrics.  So I left it.

In hindsight, I kinda dig it.  It’s clearly about wanting to be with someone and not really caring if any feelings were reciprocated.  Combine that with the aural dissonance between the piano and the digital-keyboard-ness and it’s all a bunch of dramatic contrast.  So, clearly I wrote it!

Enjoy…