Leading up to the June 2 release of "Through Private Wars" (available for pre-order now), I'll be posting brief thoughts on each of its songs over the next few weeks. Today, track #9, Two Lanes.
This is my current favorite song to finish shows with, though it continues my unstoppable impulse to end songs on the IV chord, which tends to leave people unsure if it's actually over. If you've noticed my overuse of ellipticals, it stands to reason that my songwriting tends to trail off mid-thought, just like my speech...
Inspired by too many drives home to Philly from points elsewhere on the godawful Pennsylvania Turnpike, as well as (obviously) the arrested development of being a Lost Boy in a rock band. We were lost once in Wilmington, DE, after it was discovered that the band member driving the van (who shall remain nameless) was looking for an intersection he later remembered was actually in Harrisburg, PA (“They all look the same at night!” he cried, not inaccurately).
Another song about being broken and doing the wrong things, albeit sometimes for the right reasons. There are any number of more reasonable things I could do with my time than drive around hollering songs at people, but it does seem to be what I do, mostly. I have a lovely wife at home, who I probably SHOULD be taking better care of, but instead I'm out at bars causing trouble. I won't grow up, indeed.
This is also the third song on the album in the (reasonably uncommon for rock) key of Ab, following “Strange the Way” and “Moon Over My Shoulder”. Evidently I like making keyboardists sweat a little… but Kevin handled it with aplomb, as per usual, even when being tossed an unexpected organ solo during the first days of tracking. Rob’s chiming twelve-string (played on my glorious Eastwood semi-hollow) re-jiggered my mind a little bit, and Eleanor and Elie came in with an ambitious vocal arrangement (augmented by my insistence that there had to be a Beach Boys-y “oooooooo” swoop SOMEWHERE on the album) to lock it down as the first single. Also the source for the album’s title and narrative through-line (inasmuch as it has one).