The Desire

The Desire

The promoter compliments our set
But he’s gritting his teeth
And I know that we’re the only act that
He didn’t see
‘Cause we played to 9 members of the opening bands
And a lonely bartender
With too much time on his hands

Then the bartender says
“I’ll buy you a round.
You guys have got a really great sound!”

We don’t do it for the money
We don’t do it for the fame
But the desire to be heard
Still remains
We don’t do it for the money
We don’t do it for the fame
But the desire to be heard
Is still the same

It’s a Tuesday night
And we’re sharing the stage
With some hip young acts that are
Half my age
I meet a music journalist
From my hometown, she says
“I didn’t know you guys were still around.”

Then a 22-year old
Shakes my hand
says “You inspired me to start
My own band”

Saturday night
And I’m sitting at home
Hunched over a keyboard
Plugged into headphones
I’ve been working on this track
Since 7AM
My family wonders if they’ll ever see me again

Then I adjust a fader
And then I press play
Now this track says exactly
What we want it to say…

We don’t do it for the money…
We don’t do it for the fame…

EO – these are all approximately true stories (the names and nights have been changed to protect people), loosely inspired by Joel Oesterreich’s book “Hitless Wonder”, and numerous conversations I’ve had with musician friends.  We’re not famous, we’re not rich, we have little to no chance of ever becoming either, so why exactly do we keep doing this?  Well, because we have to.  We’ve got stuff to say and songs to write.  And every once in a while, in the face of complete frustration, something happens that says “yeah, you just connected with somebody.”  And that, right there, is the reason I wrote this one.