2024 October 31
There are mornings when I wake up and a new song is fully formed in my head. All I need to do is write down the lyrics and record a demo version of the music. Then I usually set the demo song aside and come back to it in a week. If I still like the song, I team up with a bunch of talented artists to record, mix, and master the song after which it’s distributed through all the usual streaming and download channels. About one out of every four songs I get to the demo stage sees the light of the day as a released song. Everything else is safely locked up in my music vault.
Simple.
Writing the song Little Lies wasn’t like that at all.
I first began writing a short story that’s the basis for the song on 2023 March 23 for the Ankh Live project in the voice of the character Shelly “Traction” Jones. The underlying question was: is there ever a good time to tell someone you love a lie in order to save them from a huge amount of grief–the type that could psychological crush a person?
As a kid, I had been brought up that lies where an absolute “no” in our family. To the point that the one time I did lie I received a very old-school punishment to ensure that I didn’t make the same mistake again.
But then the year 2022 happened and my wife and I experienced taking care of her dad and my mom 24 x 7 as their lives ended 4 months apart from each other. For the most part, it’s fair to say that the four of us didn’t have a fun time.
During the last two weeks of each of their lives, they regularly asked us the question “am I going to be ok?” Depending on your life philosophy, personal perspectives, and religious beliefs, the answer could be either “yes,” “no,” or “I don’t know.”
Obviously, the answer each of them was looking for was “yes.”
So that’s what I told them every time they asked. But my heart was telling me “you don’t know” and my brain was telling me to stop lying to them.
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