I can't say that this song ended up in a particularly autobiographical space, but it did start with one extremely specific memory: riding through the mountains, sometime around 1990, in the back seat of my friend David Hooker's car, with David and his girlfriend, Tiffany, and with Lisa, with whom I was in the early days of what would be a long and lovely relationship. The windows of the car were open, and we were all singing along to a Belinda Carlisle song, at top volume, a song that we all we were way too cool to admit that we loved. It was a moment of almost cartoonish innocence and youth, something that we all surely realized, as it was happening.
Musically, I very much wanted to write a classic early 60's R&B kind of song, a Ben E. King or Sam Cooke song, but of course, the song took its own path.
lyrics
I remember how we listened
to the rhythm of the August night
I never wanted anything the way
I wanted you to hold me tight
with the windows all rolled down
ocean of the wind was the only sound
I remember every riot of the
summer's dying light
when you were young
you didn't think you'd know
you'd grow up to sing
the same sad songs
if I could spend another
minute with you
I wish I could tell you
what you meant to me
what you mean to me
when I looked up into the sailor's sky
I started losing you forever
it was easier than looking in your eyes
trying to say something clever
I wish I'd heard the race of your heart
so restless for the world to start
young enough to think I was
old enough to never say never
when you were young
you didn't think you'd know
you'd grow up to sing
the same sad songs
if I could spend another
minute with you
I wish I could tell you
what you meant to me
what you mean to me
credits
from Small Stars,
released January 8, 2021
from Small Stars, released January 8, 2021
Doug Davis: vocals, acoustic guitar, Epiphone Sheraton, virtual Mellotron, piano, bass guitar
Corky McClellan: drums
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