You and I

you and i, we started out all right

clearer heads prevailed in the light

it's taken years to figure all this out

for you to come and layer it with doubt

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when you crawled out of the sea

not much more than possibility

to blinding light and burning sand

a world for you to understand

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(refrain) please hear me out / it can't wait

the way i see it, we might be too late

please help me out / don't do me in

everyone will lose out in the end

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you left a mark everywhere you walked

a pile of bones, horses carved in chalk

you used me at every step

with a willingness to forget

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then brother moon hit you on the head

you became aware of what you did

pulling tides, pushing seas

do you remember what you used to be?

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please hear me out / it can't wait

the way i see it, we might be too late

please help me out / don't do me in

everyone will lose out in the end

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this is the latest co-write with my Dotted Lines bandmate Aaron Howes. as usual, it's his music, and this time he had the first verse and the refrain. which was very good, because this lyric would never have been written by me on my own.

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if i had to put him in a box, i might say that Aaron is, among many other cool things, a left-leaning, right-thinking vegetarian environmentalist, with a whole lot of integrity, and, thank god, a sense of humour. he spends quite a bit of time thinking about these things, and doing what he can to improve our world. so it's quite natural that he start a song about it, with a Neil Young sort of sound.

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and i didn't have much trouble getting the gist and finishing three verses. Aaron has already been performing it solo, and we've talked about how to make it work with the band. i think i will probably do it on my own as well.

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which is a bonus, as i would never have written it on my own. there are so many well-intentioned topical/political/protest songs out there that make me squirm at their earnestness and indignation - i don't even think about attempting it. but, with a little help, i think this one is both pithy and palatable.

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thanks Aaron!