Lyric of the Week: I DON’T MIND

The chips are down, the days are bad

The worst times I ever had

Though I survived my fall from grace

I left town with my name disgraced

Just when I think that I’ve come home

Open the door and I’m alone

No one to turn to nowhere to go

I’m in a state of vertigo

CHORUS

I don’t mind if you settle down here

Just as long as you say you never leave me

Had enough of these three day romances

I thought with you I wouldn’t have to take my chances

I try to get myself awake

The way things are my life’s at stake

I get in trouble for the things I do

And I can’t seem to make it up to you

The word spreads back to the friends I know

Now all my friendships are about to blow

There’s nothing left in the world for me

Yet nothing seems to let me be

REPEAT CHORUS

If you knew this was a passing mood

And not a change of attitude

Then our love wouldn’t be at its end

And me’n’you could be one again

REPEAT CHORUS

©2015 The Hesh Inc.

Not a photo of anything that inspired the song, but this is where it was written ... what was once my high-school dorm, as it appears today.

I started writing songs as a high-school freshman, and predictably, I wore a lot of influences on my sleeve and the results were at best stilted. But by the time I neared graduation, I had rounded the rough edges somewhat and wasn't quite as blatant with showing the influences. This one was the first one that I could really consider a Song, one that I would be unashamed to include in setlists well into adulthood.

UNfortunately, too many people in my social circles, for some reason, deemed it The Best I Ever Wrote, and even well after I had gone on to what I considered greater accomplishments, these people kept on coming back to this as the epitome of my songwriting. Nothing I did afterwards impressed them as much as this one did. I don't know why—maybe because they were so impressed at how "mature" I was when I wrote it as a 12th-grader.

But when it came time to record the REALITY SHOCK album in the early 2000s, musical partner Izzy Kieffer and I decided to include this, if for no other reason than etching it in stone as part of our history. And as far as I was concerned, throwing a bone to the folks back home who could not get over the fact that I had moved on. I hope they are happy with it.

Here it is, from my Boardwalk Mystic collection, released in 2015: