Originally, I had already written a song called “Don’t Walk Away”
It was a song that I had written back in 2001.
That was another life.
It was a song about a girlfriend I had just after graduating high school.
I had fallen head over heals in love with a girl that I had, in reality, only known for a couple of weeks.
She had moved on the moment I fell in love with her.
She had all this baggage that she didn’t want to take responsibility for.
But that’s not what the song was saying at all.
It was saying something about how awful it felt, her walking away from me so easily.
The lyrics were something like…
Hey pretty baby
where are you going
Don’t walk away
from me now
cuz I’ll be lonely
without you
Blah blah blah, All that crap that when you feel like you’re nothing without somebody.
Not that there isn’t a place for that but at the moment I didn’t necessarily agree with how I felt anymore about the situation.
Original Demo Version
Originally I wanted it to be a sad song that sounded like a smoky bar room, with accordions and a Piano that needed tuning.
I also liked the idea of whistling in a song like G&R did in Patience.
I was getting my instruments set up and I had grabbed for my acoustic.
I was going through the whole situation in my head again.
something that had happened back in 1990.
as if it were yesterday.
remembering my reactions to it on my drive home.
I ran out of gas.
I never had any money back then.
I was in the habit of only putting $2 worth of gas in the tank at a time.
It was a different time.
I began to think about the last conversation I had with her.
It was over Facebook.
She denied knowing me at all.
She acted as though I never existed.
She acted as though she had somehow been too good of a person to have even associated with me in the first place.
I confronted her with what had happened and how it ended.
let’s just say I caught her with someone else.
The way that she denied it was unbelievable.
In her mind she had always taken the high road.
and I was the kid from the other side of the tracks who was obviously always going to take the low road.
I would have cheated on her anyway She had told herself a million times.
She never trusted anyone and she never gave me a chance to allow her to trust me.
I held her baggage for a long time after that.
For years I believed that I’d never find love like that again.
honestly I don’t think I ever have since.
But it doesn’t affect me anymore.
I remember sticking my thumb out on the interstate begging for a ride to a gas station.
because remember I was out of gas.
This happened a lot.
and back then hitchhiking was a lot more common.
I ended up getting a ride.
luckily the guy had a gas can because I didn’t even after all the times I’ve ran out of gas.
after I played a couple of the first chords, somehow I just shouted out “You take the high road I’ll take the low!!”