Story Behind the Song: If/Everything’s Going to be Fine

Story Behind the Song: If/Everything’s Going to be Fine

If/Everything’s Going to be Fine

By Barry Keenan

“Everything’s Going To Be Fine” was written as the opening track on my album, “Contrary To Popular Belief.” The song’s point of view is that many of the world’s problems boil down to selfishness. In all of us. I also believe that while that selfishness lies within us, so too does love. And that if we manifest the love rather than the selfishness, then many of society’s problems will be reduced and “everything’s going to be fine.”

When renowned studio tech, Charlie Bolis (Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty) called me after listening to the song in his car, he suggested that I re-release it. Out of the blue, in the same week, I was contacted by Kevin Lewin (World Entertainment News Network) suggesting the same thing: that I re-release the song. This prompted a discussion with Matt Forger (Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones) to do a re-mix of the song.

Forger then adapted the Rudyard Kipling poem “If” as an opening to the song. I then had arranger Barry Fazman (Billy Joel, Fame) orchestrate the poem. Next I contacted poet Loring Evans who came in from Idaho to recite the poem.

The finished version can be heard at www.invisiblepoetkings.com.

To finish off the project, I brought in Photographer/Author Paul Zollo (Songwriters On Songwriting, Volumes 1 & 2 and Conversations With Tom Petty, Expanded Version) who contributed many of his photographs for the “If/Everything’s Going To Be Fine” video, which was edited by Forger. The video can be view at the link provided above.

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Story Behind the Song: I’ll Meet You in the Middle

Story Behind the Song: I’ll Meet You in the Middle

I’ll Meet You in the Middle

By Dale Menten

My first wife died in 2008 after a ten-year struggle with cancer.

In 2011, I married a lifelong friend, Julie Johnson. It didn’t take us very long to discover that our political views were ‘slightly’ at odds: she was ‘slightly’ left of center, and I was ‘slightly’ right of center. I wrote this song in an effort to bridge the gap.

It’s a musical plea for non-partisanship. “We are more alike than we are different.”

Julie and I are happily married, and residing mostly in the middle.

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Story Behind the Song: Best Days of Our Life

Story Behind the Song: Best Days of Our Life

Best Days of Our Life

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Smoke

Not long ago I experienced a life-threatening incident. A real one. Theoretically we all know we’re not going to live forever, but when you see how easily, and without warning, it can all go away—when you truly feel that experience—it changes things. You don’t have to make a list of “what’s important.” You know. With a kind of clarity that only such experiences create.

One morning, not long after this incident, I was sitting in our great room watching my wife making breakfast. Something she did every morning. But this particular morning I was not preoccupied. I saw her clearly. I realized that this small thing was important. To me. It wasn’t important to anyone else besides us. But at that moment it seemed so important that it was, in fact, a unique and beautiful moment. I understood that my life was held together by these moments. Small moments. I also realized that the important moments in my life were almost all small ones. And that they happened with much greater frequency than I had imagined.

In fact, they happened every day. They had happened every day before then, but I just hadn’t noticed that…

These are the best days of my life.

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Lyrics:

Best Days of Our Life

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Smoke

 

I see you in the morning, makin’ breakfast

A moment untouched by time

It makes me happy, after all these years

Baby, you’re still mine

 

Life is messy, sometimes worse

Hard to see how pieces align

But ev’ry night when I kiss you, before we go to sleep

I see imperfect perfection and I feel fine

Chorus

These are the best days

These are the best days

These are the best days…of our life

 

Sometimes we say nothing, for hours

A silent lovers’ lexicon

Funny how the small things, become the big things

What you miss most when they’re gone

 

You’re not perfect, not even close

There been times I been halfway out the door

When we let each other be who we really are

Somehow…we love each other more

Chorus

We’ve been hurt, we been mended

Lovers’ hearts are strong that way

Love is a light in the darkness

Love can heal a broken yesterday

 

I no longer feel invincible

Tomorrow could be a no-show

We live forever in hearts of the ones we love

And my songs go where I can’t go

And my songs go where I can’t go

Chorus

© Stephen Smoke 2019, All Rights Reserved – Published by Kitmun Music