Songs From The Past (Part One)

I was going through some of my old stuff and found a bunch of lyric sheets from songs I wrote back in the mid-nineties and thought I would share a few of them with you. Most of the back story has been lost to the ages, but what I do remember about them I will share here with you.

Your Memory's Strong

Let's start with a song I wrote after my grandfather died. Actually it took a couple of years to write it, but what came out was a nice song that foreshadowed what I would be going through again almost a year later to the date. The song is called "Your Memory's Strong". I wrote this song a couple of months before I graduated high school. My grandfather was a very important figure in the lives of my siblings and I. We spent virtually every Sunday with him growing up. I had fallen out of touch as I got older and work took up my Sundays, but I remember driving to my grandparents house to show them my new car (the 1991 Dodge Daytona). I am not sure why I decided to head over there that day before work, but I am so glad I did because shortly after he was gone.

My grandfather died of a stroke while making a snack in the kitchen one day. I still remember the day it happened and my dad being home when we came off the bus (very unusual for him). He let us all know and then asked us to stay upstairs while he broke the news to my mother when she got home. It is something I will never forget as long as I live. It's amazing to think that God gave me one more visit with him before he passed. An out of the blue visit at that. So here is my song "Your Memory's Strong".

Away From Misery

The next song I want to share is a song I wrote shortly after I started what I consider my first serious relationship with a girl named Julie. Up until that point I had a couple of short relationships and many crushes, but Julie was really the first major relationship I would have.

I had a rough time fitting in with everyone when I moved from private Catholic school to public school in seventh grade. It didn't really change much until some time around the end of my sophomore year. By then I had been playing music with my buddies in a garage band, and that opened up my social life a lot. I was no longer the recluse that I had been before that.

By the start of my senior year in 1995, I had a solid group of friends, a good job at Target, and was starting to really enjoy everything life had to offer. On top of that, my good friend Josie and I won our high schools homecoming king and queen honors (see image). This was a HUGE change in my life. I was never one of the popular kids, but thanks to my brother and his friends I was recognized by my peers in this one moment. This is really the backdrop to where this song comes from. I am homecoming king with my best friend Josie, I have started a relationship with Julie, I have a core group of friends that have made me feel great about life, and I have a fun group of guys that I enjoy playing music with. And as you read the lyrics, I believe it really captures the emotions that I was feeling at the time after a year of breaking out of the shell I was keeping myself in for so long. So here is "Away From Misery" (Notice the spelling error on Misery in my lyric sheet).


Part Two will be coming soon. I hope you enjoy this short series of blogs.

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