{"id":317,"date":"2007-04-06T15:31:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-06T15:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/?p=317"},"modified":"2015-11-02T16:55:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T00:55:16","slug":"all-the-way-up-i-was-lookin-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/2007\/04\/06\/all-the-way-up-i-was-lookin-back\/","title":{"rendered":"All the way up… I was lookin’ back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"25<\/p>\n

E<\/span>verybody there used to be somebody once…<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone had a story. Some had been factory workers laid off from a string of jobs. A couple had been suits, grinding away in corporate offices. There was an accountant. He liked to joke that he’d help the others with their taxes for a swig of Mad Dog 20\/20.<\/p>\n

For a while, there was even a doctor, a foreign guy who’d been caught overprescribing. Word was he’d overpribed half the inland empire and, when he lost his license and his world came down around him, warrants out for his arrest, the doc had run away, eventually spending all his cash and ending up under the wide overpass, on the railroad right-of-way… not more than a quarter mile from the harbor. With the rest of the nobodies who used to be somebody.<\/p>\n

When people asked the lanky, long-haired guy with the cloudy blue eyes for his story, he kept it simple:<\/p>\n

“One day… I just fell.”<\/p>\n

That was it. All you could get out of him. He kept to himself and slept somewhere else, only coming into the encampment to trade and occasionally score something to take the edge off. <\/span>Folks said he drank — but he drank alone. Someone said he often sat by the bluffs along the beach, a pony bottle in an inside pocket of his worn, gray parka.<\/p>\n

One day some college kids came down into the camp.<\/p>\n

“We heard about this guy, here. He used to be a rock star.” They said a name and a younger guy with half his teeth missing, taping a battered baby stroller back together with duct tape said, “Yeah, I heard of him.”<\/p>\n

The college kids passed around a photo. It was one of those head and shoulder shots with the top of a guitar showing and a rough and chipped brick wall in the background.<\/p>\n

“Oh, yeah. That<\/span> guy. He comes around here maybe once or twice a week. He’s kind of a loner. So… what? He<\/span> was a big rock star? When?”<\/p>\n

When? A long, long time ago, indeed. A million miles and ten thousand years ago.<\/p>\n

A condo, a fiance, a fancy car, an agent, a dog, and 25 guitars ago…<\/p>\n


\n25 Guitars<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

more stream & DL options<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

previous versions<\/em>
\nTuesday, December 06, 2005<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

lyrics<\/span><\/span>
\n25 Guitars<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Go back home and <\/span>
\ntell all the kids<\/span>
\nthis is what it’s like<\/span>
\nwhen their hero hits the skids<\/span><\/p>\n

go out to the farm and <\/span>
\ntell my ma and pa<\/span>
\nthe higher you climb<\/span>
\nthe farther you must fall<\/span><\/p>\n

I started out thinking
\nthat I’d always know the score
\nnow I hardly know
\nwhat I was counting for<\/p>\n

I lost my one true love
\nmy agent and my car
\nmy condo and my dog
\nand twenty five guitars<\/p>\n

but baby I was lost before
\nI ever got to town
\nI threw the map away
\nthe day I let you down<\/p>\n

yeah I hit the big time
\nbut the big time it hits back
\nand all the way up
\nI was looking back<\/p>\n

Wake me up and say its all a dream<\/span>
\nwe could drink coffee and talk about what it all means<\/span>
\nI dreamed I dreamed I threw it all away <\/span>
\nIf I could just wake up back in your arms today<\/span><\/p>\n

I was on the fat side of heaven
\nhow come it felt like hell
\neach day was a struggle
\none day I just fell<\/p>\n

The bottom dropped out
\nI laughed the whole way down
\nwith a noose around yer neck
\nLA is a much nicer town<\/p>\n

Wake me up and say its all a dream<\/span>
\nwe could drink coffee and talk about what it all means<\/span>
\nI dreamed I dreamed I threw it all away <\/span>
\nIf I could just wake up back in your arms today<\/span><\/p>\n

Go back home and tell all the kids
\nthis is what it’s like when their hero hits the skids
\n
\n<\/span><\/span>(C)1997, 2007, TK Major<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everybody there used to be somebody once… Everyone had a story. Some had been factory workers laid off from a string of jobs. A couple had been suits, grinding away in corporate offices. There was an accountant. He liked to joke that he’d help the others with their taxes for a swig of Mad Dog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,27],"tags":[774,185,186,21,95,191,189,188,184,183,190,187],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1748,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/1748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayearofsongs.org\/blg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}