This song dates back to a real-life incident that took place, I’m quite sure, in 1995, when I was fifteen years old. I’m on my way to a high-school baseball game, and I’m in the front passenger seat of the car. At a red light, a car pulls up, and there’s a pretty teenage girl inside, and she gives me a big old smile.
A few seconds later, the light turns green, the car pulls away, and we continue on. Later that night, I wrote down the verses, with chords and lyrics. I had played the guitar for about a year at that point, so it was pretty easy to generate.
There’s one significant difference in this new version I’ve recorded–instead of:
A / / / G / / / A / / / G / / / / for the verses, it now goes
A / / / Bm / G / A / / / Bm / G /
and just for fun, I decided to keep the melody the same. It creates a temporary sense of dissonance (or non-resonance, or odd-resonance, or unresolved-resonance) until the B minor chord kicks in at the end of the first line of each verse.
I first recorded a grungy demo of this song in 1998, and a clean version in 2000-01. I tracked this one in the fall of 2021. I re-wrote the lyrics in this new one to reflect a sense of hopefulness. The old lyric in the chorus was “I write down these words / That’s the closest I’ll ever get to her.” At least in this version, I know there’s a cute girl around town somewhere and I might run into her at a bar or somewhere. Far more hopeful.
The lyrics:
Verse 1:
Driving down the street
In the passenger seat
I look out my window I see your face
Catching your eye
I think I’m gonna die
I’m caught staring helpless in your gaze
I break out a smile
I wish that we could talk for a while
I’d take your hand
And hope that soon I’d be your man
Verse 2 & 3:
Green light drive away
So much for today
My dream moves on like the evening sun
So soon I’ll forget
The girl I’ve never met
At least that’s what I thought ’til the day was done
She’s still on my mind
I wish there’s a way her I could find
So I’ll look around
I know there’s a love for me here in town
The lyrics video, with vocals, keyboard solo, and guitar solo:
