Sooner or Later

Listen to the song here.

Phelim always used the phrase "three chords and the truth" to describe a lot of my songs.  That was a bit of an exaggeration. Most of my songs have more than three chords.  Not this one. This one has the same three chords in the same order over and over. As for the truth... I'll let you decide.  For such a simple song, it sure took a while to write.  Nearly fifteen years to be exact.  

I started writing this song when I was fifteen. By that point in my life, I was deeply enmeshed in Bob Dylan.  I wanted to write like Dylan, but I was fifteen, and had little hope of acchieveing that. But Dylan did have some deceptively simple songs.  His song, "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" (which you probably would recognize as "Everybody must get stoned") seemed like the kind of song that I could write even as a fifteen-year old. I tried. I came up with a pretty good chorus: sooner or later everyone's gonna hurt you in the end.  I mean, a fifteen-year old can write that, and anyone can relate to it.  But my verses were weak. What I didn't know yet was that Dylan's laundrey list songs are deceptively complicated. They sound like they are nothing more than a rhyme followed by a rhyme leading up to a chorus, but they actually have a direction to them. Listen closely and hear for yourself.

I always thought "Sooner or Later" would become a finished song, but it took another 14 years before I finished it. I had recently broken up with my girlfriend of several years. I had been dumped. We were living together in New York City, which meant that I was homeless.  I mean, I had friends, so it wasn't like I had to live on the streets.  I was spared that pain at least.  For a good three months, I couch surfed.  It was all a blur, but somewhere during that time I wrote the verses to "Sooner or Later." 

They are the words of a devestated man. I had been dumped a day before my birthday, and she gave me luggage as a present.  I jokingly refered to the day as 5/11.  The hurt went deep. And yet... I was very fortunate. I had friends who came to my rescue. Liz, Amy, Wes, Ethan, Drew and Geri ensured that I had a place to stay.  And I was in a band, too. 

Meet the Navigators was recorded around this time. Look at the picture up there, and you can see where I was coming from. It took a few months before the song made it into the repertoire, but it quickly became a staple.  This recording began with David Wallace as our producer.  He played the ripping lead guitar on the song as well.  In a perfect world, he would have become our fourth member, but the stars did not align that way.  I had inadvertantly stolen Phelim from his band, but he was the kind of guy who would help you record some songs despite all that. 

The late Ethan White played keys on the song. In addition to being a great musician, he was a great guy. I let me stay at his place in Dumbo for a while. I got to help him demolish a wall in his apartment. 

One of my fondest memories of "Sooner or Later" is when we first played Bowery Ballroom.  We had a the entire room singing along.  How weird is that? The song is about how shitty people are, and yet it somehow ended up being a sing-along anthem.  I guess it just goes to show that even in our darkest hour, we can find some light. The last verse sums things up nicely, and I'm surprised I wrote it. 

Take a good look at the person sitting next to you

And ask them what they expect of you

They're a time bomb waiting to explode

But so are you from their point of view

So yeah, fifteen years to write a song. You need a fifteen-year old to come up with a chorus so simple that a room full of strangers can sing it when they first listen to it, but you need someone with some real life experience to put that chorus in context.