When I was in the later days of my teens and rode my way in to my early twenties I wasn't just some young stud that thought he was impervious to bullets or death. The fact is I was wiser than my years. But I think most teens are. They just have too much energy to harness.
I wanted to sing in a band and one day I achieved it. But as I prepared for stage I lived life. I paid my dues. I fell in love, I lost love, I learned how people use you and abuse you in business. I learned what the real world was about.
And from this I wrote countless songs. I zeroed in on music or musicians that shared my vision. One comes to mind tonight. And I thought of them after recalling how my last teen romance ended with a young girl named Noel. This band called the Rainmakers had a song called: Small Circles.
There were two devastating stanzas of lyrics I held onto for years....
Then she grew up and I grew up
And she got tough and I got tough
So much for love, so much for love
As we move in small circlesNow we make money and we're all right
And we drive cars and wield our might
We make love to people that we don't even like
As we move in small circles
So read those words friends. I suspect anyone reading this is not some twenty-something. You are a grown adult that has seen what life is about. You must admit those words have some punch. And think of it... some young gun wrote them. A young musician with wisdom beyond his years wrote them as he felt them. He had to have encountered them. I heard that song a long time ago and I was bitter just listening to it. I think back now of that girl Noel... she was a great person that taught me a lot about friendship in love affairs. Why else would a man write lyrics, "We make love to people that we don't even like"? When Noel and I parted, it was a friends, no big fight, not lovers quarrel. She went to work for a bank, I wore my suit and tie to my white collar corporate job. We both followed a parallel path, yet in different directions. It seemed such a waste. I wrote my own songs like Small Circles. I took a positive approach though with words like, "You epitomize why I should try." I refused to accept that love was a myth. You just need to make room in your life for it.
The Eighties produced a ton of great music which of course now sounds dated, but I suppose music of the 90's and new millennium will soon sound just as dated. In the end each era will have musicians that write lyrics well beyond their years all due to love and heartache. May we all suffer from broken hearts. LOL
I mentioned the Rainmakers... Small Circles is a nice tune, but the real bitter song I latched onto was No Romance. It wasn't a single, it was just a song. For me it became an anthem for years until I finally sang in a band of my own. I was living with my half empty glass calling it half full.
NO ROMANCE
If you're looking for some answers
Well you've come to the wrong place
You might find lines, but no valentines
Written all over my face
I bear no grudge, I wear no frown
I just come with calloused hands
And I don't mean to bring you down but
There is no romance.
I've spent too much of my life waiting
Hoping, dreaming, wishing, believing,
And way too little of it living
Smashing it up and taking and giving
I wish someone had warned me
While I was still a young man
And saved me lots of time and money
There is no romance.
No romance, no romance, no romance, no romance
No romance, no romance, no romance, no romance
Save your stories for the bartender
And your crying for the theater
And your poems and your diary pages
To kill some time in your old age.
There may be gods who hear your prayers
And honest men who, men who care
And young lovers who say they will wait forever
Lives that look like movies and books
But the sooner that you learn this
The sooner you free your hands
To get on with things that really matter
There is no romance.
