I was half-way into writing this when I got writer’s block. Unfortunately, it took the tragic death of a former student in a traffic accident to shock me into finishing the song.
© 1997 Steven E. Cutts (ASCAP)
recorded in March 2000 at Bias Studios (recorded and mixed by Jim Robeson)
on All Alone . . . But Hardly On My Own
Steve, acoustic guitar, synthesizer, & vocal
Robert Bartley, percussion
Lightning doesn't seek permission when it strikes;
The thunder rumbles afterward and not before.
Assassins do not notify their targets;
They simply pull the trigger and then run for the open door.
The avalanche slashes down the mountainside;
The head-on drunk swerves across the double line.
Lives change in just a single heartbeat.
In the blink of an eye whole worlds turn upside down.
Too fast things fall apart and ships can run aground.
Jack Kennedy could never have imagined how that autumn day
Would end down there in Dallas back in nineteen sixty-three.
Buddy Holly never figured that his plane'd go down that snowy night
The Iowa cornfield claimed three music casualties.
The Hindenburg was not supposed to crash in flames.
The Lindbergh baby paid the price of Daddy's fame.
Lives change in just a single heartbeat . . .
I'd better say the words I mean to say -- hug the folks I need to hug;
Forget about the things that simply waste my time.
I'd better try to find the harmony; find some peace in every day; try to find what gets me,
What gets me to the bottom line.
Because we can't see around life's corners;
Because we cannot be sure what single moments will become
Best not to assume that we will get another day
To get things right, to finish all that's left undone.
"And now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my soul to keep" because
Lives change in just a single heartbeat . . .
We'd better say the words we mean to say;
Hug the folks we need to hug
Forget about the things
That simply waste our time.
We’d better try to find the harmony; find some peace in every day; try to find what gets us,
What gets us to the bottom line.