“Apple” - a song about desperation
Another 360/VR video for my techies out there!
Story Pairing
It’s an odd thing that I experience when on the road, but it’s one that has repeated itself enough to be a pattern.
In general it happens like this.
Enter small town
Play a show, don’t suck
People think your famous (or at least aren’t about to eat a bag of beef jerky and a package of almonds and then go sleep in your van)
An individual (for me, normally a fellow artist of some kind) sees you not as a person but as a lifeline to possibly escape what they view as an inescapable life structure they live day in and day out while watching their dreams dry up and crumble like sand through their fingers while never realizing that they have the complete power themselves to walk away from whatever situation they want or at least the ability to challenge themselves to make incremental changes to their situation in the hopes that bit by bit they climb out of the desperation they’ve surrounded themselves with and finally plant their flag in ground of their own choosing and then blossom into the beautiful potential that they have always been…
I have to politely turn my pockets inside out
They think I am either lying or are surprised they didn’t see my floating door clearly can only support one.
We part ways. Both sad.
It really is common to see these islands of potential around the US. Small town poets, local painters, songwriters, builders, movers, shakers, etc. They almost always blow me away with their talent, and ultimately a conversation comes up where either I wonder why they aren’t sharing their art or they start daydreaming and saying they wish they could share their art. (Now I will say, the process of sharing doesn’t make art more worthy, if anything you have to trade a little bit of it’s magic to share with anyone outside of yourself, that said I see that in more cases than not, people feel driven to add their beauty to the walls of others that may not have the same. It’s amazing).
Anyway, all I can do is listen and politely encourage them to give whatever their dream is a shot. It could crash and burn. I personally think about that all the time. In the back of my head there is a small part of me, sitting at a desk, watching me do all this music stuff, tapping a pencil on paper, and waiting (the 9-5 is always waiting, watching, and waiting). But screw that little blip of darkness, I will never look back at this time in my life and be like “I wish I wouldn’t have traveled the country and wrote songs that matter to me”. Explaining that to another artist is easy, in the moment we both get excited and I hear things like “Yea, screw it, I am going to stop just talking about it”. I am normally gone the next day, so I don’t know the success rate, but I do hope that there is a small trickle of makers out their finding a way to add more of their sparks to the collective flame.
I am not saying everyone should go quit their jobs and frolic in the musical field. That isn’t feasible (but I would love to find that field).
I am not saying it’s easy to move your life around to put you and your craft first. It’s often viewed as socially selfish and it’s hard.
I am not saying I know anything or am happy all the time. This is hard work.
I am saying that I believe in people.
I am saying that you don’t need to wait for an outside force to come blowing into to town, asking you to jump onto their magic carpet. You got this shit. You. There are people out there that may be able to help, but it’s gotta start with you believing in you.
Ok…. that went into a very preachy stream of conscious writing… but I mean it.
Anyway… hope you like my little song. I messed up in the 3rd verse. Had to get that off my chest.
Song Structure
I capo this on the 3 now, that may change, but from today until then… capo 3!
Verse: C / F / G / C (ole reliable)
Chorus: F / C / Am / G
My mind is in a constant state of “don’t overcomplicate things” while also saying “man, you gotta start getting some fancy chords in there or people are going to get tired of you fast”
Voice Memos
Notebook Page
Jan 2023
Lyrics
You should get away from me my darling
You should get away from me my dear
Start walking or running, or flying away from here
If you’re sitting down beside me, let me make it crystal clear
I’m full of shit, and you should get, away from here
You should get away from me my darling
You should get awar from me you see
Im rotten as an apple that lost it’s apple tree
I suggest you get to rolling and if you disagree
This one a day would make you pay terribly
You’re pretty nearly perfect in every way that I have found
Nothing I can ever do but only drag you down
It’s cliche but you're an angel, you should live among the stars
You’ll never get to shining next to me and where you are
You should get away from me my darling
Because I love you so
Only way we’ll both be happy is if you finally know
That I’m broken and im twisted, and the good is all a show
You should quit and permit, yourself to go
You’re pretty nearly perfect in every way that I have found
Nothing I can ever do but only drag you down
It’s cliche but you're an angel, you should live among the stars
You’ll never get to shining next to me and where you are
You’re pretty nearly perfect in every way that I have found
Nothing I can ever do but only drag you down
It’s cliche but you're an angel, you should live among the stars
You’ll never get to shining next to me and where you are
You’ll never get to shining next to me and where you are
You’ll never get to shining next to me and where you are