Bad Love

Michael jackson's people called me to write a song for him, and this was it, though he didn't record it. it's really the type of song i don't write - a straightforward love song. but i'm glad i
Chance to get out of myself a little bit and do something like this. it wouldn't surprise me if "every time it rains" were the easiest to take for people who've never heard me before.


There's this web site devoted to me, and the people who go on there recently voted on what their favorite songs are. and the songs they like best are the ones like "marie" [from 1
Good old boys] - "you looked like a princess the night we met/ with your hair piled up high/ i will never forget." they like the romantic me, even the biggest fans i have. but i don'
K in that vein much. it's funny. it's like, why me? why not like billy joel?

Something in me can't be straight about romance. i don't completely mean this song - i'm not going to move up next door to my first wife, who lives in idaho. this one reminds me of that neil you
Ng, "look out for my love," which says, "it's in your neighborhood," like, beware. but "i miss you" is genuine. i love my ex-wife. my boys told me i better warn her
This song was coming. she knows me, though - she knows i'd sell anyone out for a song. we were married 18 years and i never wrote a song about her in all that time. actually, i've never written
Ng about anyone in my whole life.

This is pretty damn close to the way i grew up. the family time was consumed every night with watching television: my mother in a chair, dad on the sofa, me lying on the floor and my brother sit
Behind me. that was our family unit, and it's something i was very comfortable with. when i can get my wife and kids to watch television with me, i get a sense of comfort - it's like what i reme
As long as they're watching, i don't have to; i read or something. but at least we're all there together.

The guy in the song doesn't understand why his kids would come over to his house. he thinks, "they have their own tvs; why do they want to come over and watch mine? if you have a telev
, why would you go anywhere?" that's where this person lives - it's his country, televisionland. when i go see my father, he just wants me to go home so he can watch "matlock." bu
E felt the same thing. i'm watching a ball game and one of my kids threatens to come over, and i say to myself, "shit." hopefully i'm not that bad, but i'm pretty close to it.

There's a book called the duke of deception, written by geoffrey wolff. it's about his father, who was a tremendous liar, though he appeared to be completely beyond reproach. he'd created this w
Parallel identity, pretending to have attended certain
Schools, pretending to have certain businesses. he made a profession of lying. i'm not talking about an occasional lie - that does not qualify for "big hat, no cattle." i'm talking abo
Ople who base a whole life on lying, people who have cards that say "producer," or "ceo, cloverdale music." what does it cost to have cards printed up with anything you want?
Ing.

I'ii probably get accused of misogyny for this one, but i don't really consider that me in the song. this guy's going on about how women are so changeable, and he's frightened of some little gir
Can relate to it, though. my wife and i had a turbulent courtship, and she scared me half the time. i'd talk to her on the phone, and maybe when she hung up she'd say, "okay, bye." and
Think, "uh-oh" - it was a bad goodbye. i was like 48 years old or something, and a bad goodbye would just kill me.

The whole thing is trying to anticipate another person's needs, and feeling so superior if you can do it - feeling so smart because you know what this person is thinking. because sometimes
E don't tell you what's bothering them. but maybe that's because they don't want you to "solve" them. i've had more fights with women that start with her saying, "what's wrong?&qu
Nd i say, "nothing." but she keeps asking me until i say, "something is going to be wrong if you keep asking me what's wrong." you can drive each other crazy - it's definitel
Ther variety of bad love.

I read a book by alfred crosby called european ecological imperialism. it sounds awful, but it was great. it was about how everywhere europeans went in the world, their diseases came along with
And killed the native peoples. "they got tb and typhoid and athlete's foot/ diphtheria and the flu." they got all of them. except for athlete's foot - i had to contribute something oth
An what was in the book.

I'll admit to a certain anti-imperialism. i've got stock and yet i root against the stock market every day. i just can't help myself. i'm constitutionally a cubs fan. i've always rooted for
Underdogs, and usually they lose. you know why? 'cause they're the underdog.