Don't Let This Happen To You

Weirdest. School. Reunion. Imaginable

This weekend I am in an emotional decompression chamber after a week spent helping two guys I was at school with sue the Catholic Church over allegations of child sex abuse.

I hope I'll be able to write about this at some point. In fact, I hope that I'm going to feel a lot freer to write and talk about a wide range of things, because of what we were able to achieve this week. But first, I have to let the news sink in.

We know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that it really happened. Not to me (I just got the standard institutional brutality, lucky me) but to people close to me.

Weirdest school reunion ever, and most muted celebrations imaginable.

In other news: guys who haven't seen me in twenty years tell me that nowadays, I look like Eddie Izzard, or Philip Seymour Hoffman. It could be worse, I suppose. I had better lose some weight, and learn to wear makeup.

Dream Brother

There is a child
Sleeping near his twin
The pictures go wild
In a rush of wind
That dark angel he is shuffling in
Watching over them
With his black feather wings unfurled

The love you lost
With her skin so fair
Is free with the wind
In her butterscotch hair
Her green eyes blew goodbyes
With her head in her hands
And your kiss on the lips of another
Dream Brother,
With your tears
Scattered round the world.

Don't be like the one who made me so old
Don't be like the one
Who left behind his name
'Cause they're waiting for you
Like I waited for mine
And nobody ever came...

I feel afraid
And I call your name
I love your voice
And your dance insane
I hear your words and I know your pain
Your head in your hands
And her kiss on the lips of another
Your eyes to the ground
and the world spinning round forever
Asleep in the sand
With the ocean washing over.

Written and Performed by
JEFF BUCKLEY

Problems With My Head

I woke up this morning with a splitting headache.

It took me an hour and twenty minutes to get around to taking some pain killers.

This tells you a lot about my inability to focus my attention, doesn't it?

Sleepless Nights

My Age:

What Happened:

7

Writing. Fame. Death.
Nightmares
Sleepless Nights

It was around about the time of the Third Age of Gordie that I began to have bad dreams. I would wake up afraid, unable to breathe, and unable to shout for help. (To this day, one of the weirdest and scariest things about bad dreams is the way I try to shout for help and make no sound whatever.)

I suppose it's no big deal these days... is it? As Paul Simon once said, I don't expect to sleep through the night. But I don't feel right when I wake up in the night. I question myself, more fundamentally than I do in the daytime. I feel like I've been abandoned, I feel on the wrong planet.

I don't think I understand this song; I just like it. What's the lie he's talking about? Why is the cross in the ballpark? Anybody got any thoughts, please leave a comment.

I’m accustomed to a smooth ride
Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost his bite
I don’t expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don’t expect to sleep through the night
Some people say
A lie's a lie's a lie
But I say why
Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?

And in remembering a road sign
I am remembering a girl when I was young
And we said these songs are true
These days are ours
These tears are free
And hey
The cross is in the ballpark
The cross is in the ballpark

We had a lot of fun
We had a lot of money
We had a little son
And we thought we'd call him sonny
Sonny gets married and moves away
Sonny has a baby and bills to pay
Sonny gets sunnier
Day by day by day by day

I've been waking up at sunrise
I've been following the light across my room
I watch the night receive the room of my day
Some people say the sky is just the sky
But I say
Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?

Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself
How its strange that some rooms are like cages
Sonny's yearbook from high school
Is down from the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hand through his thinning brown hair

Well I'm accustomed to a smoother ride
Maybe I'm a dog that’s lost his bite
I don’t expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don’t expect to sleep through the night
Some people say a lie is just a lie
But I say the cross is in the ballpark
Why deny the obvious child?

PAUL SIMON

Song For My Father

I paid all my dues
I picked up my shoes
I got up and walked away
Oh, I was just a boy
Nobody else to blame...

I’ve worked hard and failed
Now all I can say is
I threw it all away
Oh, I was just a boy
Giving it all away...


Sail away, sail away,
Ooh, I know better now,
I know better now
Giving it all away

Ooh, I know better now,
I know better now
I’ve given it all away...

Went out in the world
Too much for my nerves
Only myself to blame
Oh, I was just a boy
Nobody else to blame...

I’ve done all I can
Now it’s out of my hands
I'll stand on my head and say
Oh, I was just a boy
Giving it all away...

Performed by Roger Daltrey
Written by Leo Sayer and Dave Courtney