Winding Roads

Arguments Between Friends

“Chasin’ dragons with plastic swords
Jack off Jimmy, everybody wants more
Scully and angel on the kitchen floor
And I’m callin’ Buddy on the Ouija board

I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout catchin’ a train
Leave my phone machine by the radar range
“Hello, it’s me, I’m not at home
If you’d like to reach me, leave me alone”

— Sheryl Crow, “A Change Would Do You Good”

“The pivot,” is one of those new, but overused, terms that admittedly sounds cooler than “I changed my mind,” but still means essentially the same thing. I use it…a lot, but that may just be because I am trying to keep up. For a long time, I did my absolute best to avoid using “the” in any context. That…was stupid. Anyone who tells you, “the word ‘the’ is unnecessary, don’t use it,” immediately ban from all your social networks. If someone is going to nitpick your writing over “the” then they will likely nitpick you over anything. Trust me. I’ve been there. Same thing with contractions. An apostrophe is not the end of the world.

But sometimes you just have to pivot, and it is the best word to convey your change in approach.

Sheryl Crow is so relentlessly optimistic, she is not a natural go-to for me. Her political views generally gibe with mine, and she is also a great philanthropist. There is nothing not to like about Sheryl Crow, unless you have a dark – or missing – soul. But I do not want my singer/songwriters to necessarily be happy and upbeat. I want introspection, hard questions to mull over, preferably with a searing guitar solo or extended sax solo.

“All I Wanna Do,” “If it Makes You Happy,” and “Everyday is a Winding Road” are not generally on my playlist. The lyrics are REALLY upbeat and so is the music. I generally sprint away from that genre. And yet…

Sheryl Crow also happens to be a brilliant songwriter who can meld a bunch of different genres together and make it work. Her career is underrated even though she is one of the most honored, most recognizable female singer/songwriters in the world. Her induction into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame was such a no-brainer, mentioning it here almost feels like I am devaluing her entire career.

Ironically – or perhaps fittingly – Sheryl Crow also is open about how she suffers from depression. Given that she has been treated for breast cancer AND a brain tumor, her optimism is worth emulating but nearly impossible to replicate. It isn’t TOTALLY impossible, but I would probably be huddled in a corner with me hugging my knees, pulled up tight against me, quivering from fear the next gust of air might knock out my wi-fi connection.

My point being…despite being one of the most reliably positive singer/songwriters of the last three plus decades, Sheryl Crow has had to pivot a couple of times in her career to stay relevant, stay interested and to continue to sell millions of records. That takes guts, maybe not as much as fighting off breast cancer and a brain tumor, but gutsy nonetheless. I am in the midst of deciding whether to make a pivot in a different direction. Breaking down your own notion of yourself and recreating a new one is not as easy as Sheryl Crow makes it appear, and I am not even dealing with multiple health issues.

“I get up in the evening
And I ain’t got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain’t nothing but tired
Man, I’m just tired and bored with myself
Hey there, baby
I could use just a little help”

— Bruce Springsteen, “Dancing in the Dark”

Flip the daily time slots around, and I feel much more like the Boss, circa 1983-84. “Dancing in the Dark” was my first Springsteen song that I realized this guy might be a little depressed, and I did not even know what “depression” was in 1983. This is also the first (and I think only) Springsteen single certified platinum. Famously, this is the song Jon Landau urged Springsteen to write to get a hit off “Born in the U.S.A.” and which led to a fight between the two men. It is also the first off that album which was misinterpreted by the general public. It is a legitimately great song with some of the best navel-gazing lyrics ever written, but it is still underappreciated.

“Stay on the streets of this town
And they’ll be carving you up all right
They say, “You gotta stay hungry”
Hey, baby, I’m just about starving tonight
I’m dying for some action
I’m sick of sitting around here trying to write this book”

— “Dancing in the Dark”

I blame Courtney Cox.

As much as I like “Dancing in the Dark,” (especially the acoustic version), I might prefer Crow’s “A Change Will Do You Good,” for the reasons I generally prefer Springsteen (and Mellencamp, Dylan, Chapman, etc). The song is essentially a permission slip to go out and try something new. I even prefer the imagery she uses, and I hardly ever sell Springsteen short on his lyrics. It even may have the best kiss-off line ever written:

“Hello, it’s me, I’m not at home
If you’d like to reach me, leave me alone”

“Dancing in the Dark” is me at this very moment (and most other moments); “A Change Would Do You Good” is like a friend having a lighthearted argument with me, telling me to pivot to something new.