Here is to all the real people out there looking for love.  Some people don't get it once in a lifetime.  Decadence makes it harder than ever.  See what I mean...

Decadence

You don't care about nothing
So you don't care about love
If you want me to come back you better change
You better give up talking about money
Begin thinking of love
If you want me to come back you better change
You better change for the better
It cost more than dollars in sense
Take it from me there's got to be
And end to this decadence
...This decadence
You don't care about people
So you don't care about pain
If you want me to come back you better change
You better change for the better
Start using some common sense
Take it from me there's got to be and end to this decadence
For decadence is fatal
It's the beginning of the end
In self defense I cannot recommend this decadence
You don't care about real life
You're too distance and strange
If you want me to come back you better change
You better change for the better
It may be rather intense
Stop this caprice you've got to cease
This Fin de siècle pretence
For decadence is fatal
It's the beginning of the end
In consequence I cannot recommend this decadence

This is a great song about being with someone and never really knowing them as they put up a front.  On the exit you learn the truth which gives you closure except for the curiosity of how someone can actually do that to another person.  No ethical standards?  No moral compass?  Anyhow.. great song.

Feels Like a Memory

Stone, iron and steel
These are the things I can touch
Things I can hold in my hands
But what you left with me
Is somewhere right in between
Fiction and fact

It feels like a memory to me
Even though it never happened
To me

I wake up again
The nightmare¹s always the same
You fading out like a picture
Then I get lost for a while
Confused by all of the facts
The fact you never were
In my life

It feels like a memory to me
Even though it never happened
It feels like a memory to me
But it never happened

I¹m all tied up
But no rope holds me
'Cause I¹m all tied up in love

It feels like a memory to me
Even though it never happened
It feels like a memory to me
But it never
never
never happened

The stories
The pictures
Everything you left with me
The summers
The winters
The rest of my life...

It's amazing how some songs sum up things you feel better than your own words.  I've written a number of personal poems in the past about my divorce, but they are too personal to post.  I knew this song was out there on a hard to find album I had already been in search of.  I have to give the nod to this tune as it explains in the best of terms what it felt like the day ...   more »

This goes out to all I know that seek solace.  Solace is ephemeral, it’s rest for a tired heart, it’s a pause in the grind of life, solace is a safe haven, a sideline where you see the action all around you and you know you are going back.  

I wrote Seek No Solace years ago about not searching for solace as it happens upon you serendipitously.  Someone once told me, “everything in moderation” and I’ve lived by those words... solace is something you can’t live for, or make happen.   Solace is your friend indeed but it’s not your lifeline to living.  Solace is a reprieve from a bad situation like resting in the shade on a hot sunny summer day.  You have to get out there in live to make a better life.  Solace is ephemeral, make life happen instead. 

This song below is by A-ha.  They are not the A-ha of the 80’s that most people peg them for.  Listen to Solace and you’ll be better for it.  One of my favorite words is solace.  For them to pay a tribute of sorts to this word put a smile on my face the first time I heard it.   I have good memories of this song.  From days driving up the street to my home where my family waited, to skating in central park listening to it as I cut up and down hills.  I’d hear the verse, “No one got ahead ...standing in line...” and I’d look all around me at the countless people thinking how so many of us refuse to see the beauty in life.  I would wonder how many of these people where “standing in line”.   To hear the song takes me back to moments like that, gliding under the shade of the central park trees framed by the skyline of buildings.  Suddenly I felt my moment of solace too.  Some songs don't have meaning until they fit your life.  Listen to this one and you decide.

A-ha has an interesting perspective on Solace. I like it.  It’s about finding solace, a different view than my own. They begin with a woman that has...    more »

So let the people talk
It's Monday morning walk
Right past the fabulous mess we're in
It's gonna be a beautiful day
So do the bluebirds sing
As I take your hand
And you take my kiss
And I take the world
'Cause out of all the people I've known
The places I've been
The songs that I have sung
The wonders I've seen
Now that the dreams are all coming true
Who is the one that leads me on through

It's you
Who puts me in the magic position, darling now
You put me in the magic position
To live, to learn, to love in the major key...
The major key, the major key, the major key.

And I know how you've hurt
And been dragged through the dirt
But c'mon get back up
It's the time to live
So give your love to me
I'm gonna keep it carefully
Deep in the treasure chest below my breast
'Cause out of all the people I've known
The places I've been
The songs that I have sung
The wonders I've seen
Now that the dreams are all coming true
Who is the one that leads me on through
It's you
Who puts me in the magic position, darling now
You put me in the magic position, darling now
Let me put you in the magic position, darling
'Cause I'm singing in the, the major key
The major key...   The major key.
Let me put you in the ...Major key!

Paradise

I feel the weight of your heart
And I know a way it can change
I know the weight of your heart
I know a way we can rise

Just hold my hand and we can make it to paradise
Just slip inside and we can make it to paradise

Because, just like a forming rainbow
Just like the stars in the sky
Life should never feel small

We are losers now
It wouldn’t hurt to try
Oh wrap me up in passioned arms
And tell me, tell me you love

For I need to know if we’re to get to paradise
Just take my hand and we can make it to paradise
Because, just like a forming rainbow
Just like the stars in the sky
Life should never feel small

And we roll and dive and laugh and cry about it
Right out into paradise
Just like a forming rainbow
Just like the stars in the sky
Life should never feel small
Oh, never feel small
And we roll and dive and laugh and cry about it

I used to imagine the Rebel Richard Bush sang about.  The young boy that left home with nothing but heart and came home a man.  The opening open guitar chords would always give my solace thinking that rebel was worthwhile.  Later the guitar work was simple and perfect, the keyboards seemed so ready for the 80's yet smooth and perfectly selected for production value.  The whole song had heart.   When Bush would belt out his passionate verse... "So be kind when he approaches.... cus that Rebel could be me!" at the end of the song you really knew he meant it, and you got the idea he really wanted that girl to take him to heart.  I hope she did.  Richard if you are reading this... you were a way cool guy I looked up to.  I hope life has treated you fair.  Your music still lives with a lot of us.   If you'd like to learn a bit more about on of my favorite bands The A's, read here.

When The Rebel Comes Home

He’s a refugee from the highway

Out there fighting for years

Whether for God or glory

He’s been traveling through his tears

He always feels like the next step

Will surely set him free

So be kind when he approaches.... cus that rebel could be me!

Doesn’t know the roads been dying

Dying for so many years

He’s been traveling in darkness

He’s been traveling in fear

He left long ago as a young boy

Left the young boy in him behind

Now his reasons for leaving

Are just a little hard to find

When the rebel comes home,

Please don’t leave him alone no no!

Let him rest his head on his shoulder

You can't insult this ...   more »

At 19 years of age... I belted out this song in the shower like there was no tomorrow "What's in your heart will never change!"  ... It's all the same... It's only ... it's only, it's only change. You ain't never, you aint gonna change...

My son caught me signing in the shower the other day...

People talking
And they're saying that you're leaving
So unhappy
With the way that you've been living
Oh oh oh
We always wish for money
We always wish for fame
We think we have the answers
Some things ain't ever gonna change (change)
It doesn't matter who you are
It's all the same (change)
What's in your heart will never change
Look in the mirror
And you see how you've been taken
You won't surrender
But now your heart is breakin'
Oh oh oh
We always wish for money
We always wish for fame
We think we have the answers
Some things ain't ever gonna change (change)
It doesn't matter who you are
It's all the same (change)
What's in your heart will never change
Do you remember
When you got your lucky break
You're looking back now
And it seems like a mistake
Oh oh oh
We always wish for money
We always wish for fame
We think we have the answers
Some things ain't ever gonna change (change)
It doesn't matter who you are
It's all the same (change)
What's in your heart will never change   more »

What Kind of Fool

Somewhere, somehow...
Take me to the place I knew so well
When life was all it was supposed to be.

Love me, hate me.
Make me feel invisible again.
I can forget I even knew your name.

What kind of fool are you?
What all you want is everything.
What kind of fool are you?
When you don't want my love...?

Who knows, who cares?
Why you had to play that stupid game.
You know you've only got yourself to blame.

What kind of fool are you?
What all you want is everything.
What kind of fool are you?
When you don't want my love...?

How many times did I hear my friends tell
How many times did I listen to a word they said.
How could I know that there was someone else you were loving instead.

What kind of fool are you?
When you find that all your search for means nothing at all.
With no one by your side.
 
What kind of fool are you?
What all you want is everything.
What kind of fool are you?
When you don't want my love...?

What kind of fool are you?
What kind of fool are you?

Today I bring to you In the Palm of your Hand by Alison Krauss. I have often listened to this song many a night for years.  I find myself listening to it while I work late at night, or in this case, through my afternoon.  Yes, this is a song for those of us that believe in God.  However if you don't believe in God, I think you will still find this song to be quite peaceful and pensive.  It's got a great message too.  Money and the selfish need for it will not bring you happiness.  I have to agree.  Some of the happiest times in my life were days when I all I had were the people I loved and no more.  They say God is the answer...  Listen to this song and you decide. 

In The Palm of Your Hand

If I could have the world and all it owns
A thousand kingdoms, a thousand thrones
If all the earth were mine to hold
With wealth my only goal

I'd spend my gold on selfish things
Without the love that Your life brings
Just a little bit more is all I'd need
'Til life was torn from me

I'd rather be in the palm of Your hand
Though rich or poor I may be
Faith can see right through the circumstance
Sees the forest in spite of the trees
Your grace provides for me

If I should walk the streets no place to sleep
No faith in promises You keep
I'd have no way to buy my bread
With a bottle for my bed

But if I trust the One who died for me
Who shed His blood to set me free
If I live my life to trust in You
Your grace will see me through

I'd ...   more »

Send Her My Love

It's been so long
Since I've seen her face You say she's doing fine
I still recall a sad cafe'