MANESS MUSIC MONDAY

I just released my new, old song on YouTube that I wrote about 42 years ago.

I promised I would tell the true meaning to the song in my blog... so here it is!

I went to Arizona...means, I went to Arizona... circa 1970!

And all along the way, I thought about some people there...means, as I was driving there, I thought about my friends who I was going to move in with...Ryan and Joanne Aurand.

I met Ryan in the Army, and he was the greatest singer I'd ever heard, taught me to play the guitar better than I ever thought I could, and became a very close friend, along with his wife Joanne.

They felt so far away...means, it seemed like it took forever to drive from St. Louis to Phoenix, Arizona in that Drive-A-Way car! 

Do you remember the Drive-A-Way business?

Here is how it worked, this girl flew from St. Louis to Stanford University, and then wanted her car.

Her parents paid to have the car driven there by me, but I paid for the gas.

I then flew from San Francisco to Phoenix to join my friends.

 Simple as that!

Enough of that. Let's get back to the classic song.

I went to California, I ran into some rain...means, after living with my friends for awhile, I got itchy feet, and decided to hitchhike to California to become fay-moose, and it didn't work out according to my plan. (Rain symbolizes disappointment, rejection,

and various difficult circumstances.)

I haven't been there since the storm, and I won't go back again...means, I wasn't going to go back to California, but I eventually did, anyway, to visit my sister.

Fireman's in the station, the doctor's on the street, the singer's in the factory without a bite to eat...means the fireman and doctor are where they should be, at the fire station, and in the doctor's office on the street, however, a great singer, like Ryan, was working in a factory where he didn't belong, and not receiving a crumb of recognition for his talent!

The safety of your kindness, the love you know I'll keep, the beauty in your blindness, I'm hiding in my sleep...means, as I was leaving Arizona I wanted to tell my friends how their kindness made me feel safe and warm, I would keep the love for them in my heart, how beautiful it was that they were blind to my faults, and during my years of depression I would sleep a lot, to hide from the difficulties of the world.

The mountains all around me, they shadow all my fear, I leave the past behind me, I hope you lend an ear...means, there were literally mountains that were all around Phoenix, but my true fear was leaving the protection and support of my friends, and then I would soon feel that far away feeling again as I traveled to California.

This is the song I wrote years ago, to share my feelings with my friends!