I Walk The Line

You want more melancholy (no) then you’re in luck! For whatever reason, I’ve been much more inspired to work on songs than fiction right now. I haven’t written a lot of songs that touch on being a writer. This one does somewhat. Note as/if you listen that I’ve written a novel called "God’s Wife."

The period of writing "God’s Wife" and its aftermath was pretty depressing--around age 24-28, the heart of my twenties. The reason I want to get down these morose, morose songs was because at least something came out of it: I wrote some songs. I was alone, I was depressed, I justified it by writing things.

After that stretch was over, I met my wife. She was stripping at the time and we bonded on the fact that I wrote a book about a sex worker who actually ends up working at a place where she stripped, New York Dolls. I’d never been to other strip clubs in New York until I met her--VIP, Flashdancers, Scores. The first time I went to see her--during Halloween week when she was dressed as a cowgirl--I got raging, embarrassingly drunk. It was weird seeing her dance for other men, or at least I was thinking it would be, so I drank, and drank.

It’s sounds corny, but she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life when I met her. She was dressed in a brown skirt with red trim and high heels. She looked like a forties’ vixen. When she crossed her legs, the trim of her skirt made the shape of a heart. Also corny. She was belligerent, brash--I liked her right off. I had actually been fooling around with a friend of hers at the time. When I heard about S., the redhead, I knew she was going to be something. I met her in a tiny apartment on Orchard St.

So…this song was written before I met her, before my life got some focus. Having the family away has been good for realizing where I am in my life and where I’ve been.

Believe it or not, I wasn't familiar with the Johnny Cash song "Walk the Line" when I wrote this song. It also rips off "Let it Be," though I didn’t realize at the time that I was taking from it. That’s two songs in a row that steal from the Beatles.

"I walk the line between love and life." Get up and dance!

I Walk the Line