How Soon We Forget
I did not want to come back from Louisiana. I knew what was waiting for me here. I thought it would be a life-changing experience. “Tell everyone what you saw here,” they said.
It’s impossible not to think about God in a place like that. It’s easy not to think about God in a place like this. It’s real easy. Some people do it for their whole lives. I went about a week, avoiding the issues that deep down I knew I would have to face eventually. But it’s easy not to.
And in the meantime… I had been wanting for some time to get a definitive recording of my old songs, and this seemed like a good time. I was working on one song in particular and was really pleased with the sounds I was getting with new technology that I could only dream of as a starving artist. But I knew that when it came to recording vocals, I would not be able to do the song justice. I am in a very different place now than when I wrote it, and could never capture the sense of bitterness that the song requires. I needn’t have worried, God was all over that one. Circumstances aligned nicely to recreate those old feelings.
It’s easy to get to a dark place. It’s hard to get back out again. Shouldn’t have opened that door, Boy, you knew what was in there… Sometimes the tales say that when you release a spirit from imprisonment, they are so grateful that they will grant you three wishes. I imagine that, more often, they’re just mad as hell.