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.

when karl marx was a boy
He took a hard look around
He saw people were starving all over the place
While others were painting the town
The public spirited boy
Became a public spirited man
So he worked very hard and he read everything
Until he came up with a plan

There'll be no exploitation
Of the worker or his kin
No discrimination 'cause of the color of your
Skin
No more private property
It would not be allowed
No one could rise too high
No one could sink too low
Or go under completely like some we all know

If marx were living today
He'd be rolling around in his grave
And if i had him here in my mansion on the hill
I'd tell him a story t'would give his old heart
A chill

It's something that happened to me
I'd say, karl i recently stumbled
Into a new family
With two little children in school
Where all little children should be
I went to the orientation
All the young mommies were there
Karl, you never have seen such a glorious sight
As these beautiful women arrayed for the night
Just like countesses, empresses, movie stars and
Queens
And they'd come there with men much like me
Froggish men, unpleasant to see
Were you to kiss one, karl
Nary a prince would there be

Oh karl the world isn't fair
It isn't and never will be
They tried out your plan
It brought misery instead
If you'd seen how they worked it
You'd be glad you were dead
Just like i'm glad i'm living in the land of the
Free
Where the rich just get richer
And the poor you don't ever have to see
It would depress us, karl
Because we care
That the world still isn't fair

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.