Backstory: In 1976, three months prior to turning 16, and getting my driver’s license, I was somehow able to persuade my Mom to let me “borrow” one of the cars on the nights that Dad was at night school, unbeknownst to him. I illegally delivered pizzas for my buddy’s place, The Country Chef. General teenage angst and frustration at being “misunderstood” was the “driving force” of this tune.
My P.O.S., 1973 Ford Maverick gave me many issues. That led me to learn mechanics, and electronics, to keep my car on the proverbial road, thereby assisting me in earning money for important stuff. No, not my pending MSU seducation. Important stuff like guitars, and a TEAC A3440-d, multitrack tape deck.
Since then, I’ve been in debt for recording equipment, having started my own facility a few years later. The constant evolution of gear mandated that I earn money recording other people’s projects to pay for the gear, or lose it. As technology got continually better, I had to regularly acquire capital intensive, state-of-the-art equipment to continue competing in the industry marketplace. (I even re-mortgaged a home to buy a lot of gear to partner with a guy in my late 20’s.) In an industry where the SBA wouldn’t lend start-up money, despite a solid credit score, due to the fact that the recording industry back then had a 96% failure rate in the first 24 months, I had only the option of remortgaging, or going to work for someone else. My then-wife was cool enough to believe I was in the 4% that would succeed. So, the long and short of it is, this song got me interested in recording way back when.
That interest has never left me.
Having to earn money to keep a business afloat, while raising a family, was sketchy, and it made me shelf recording my own material just to pay the bills. But hey, it EVENTUALLY got done.
Hence this project’s name, “What’s The Rush?”
Lyrics
I Know The Streets
I know the streets, and the beats of the city all too well.
Streetlights verse my night flights. Monotony is Hell.
Ya, the gray concrete hurts my car’s tired feet.
But she keeps a’rollin’ on.
Making runs everyday, she’s my mainstay.
Without her I couldn’t get along.
They say it’s no way, not the right way.
But it’s the only way for me.
They think my day schoolin’, and my night toolin’
will get the best of me.
CHORUS
But, I know not me. I said, “I know, not me.”
I said, “I know, not me. No, not me.”
Their traditional roles, flanked by telephone poles.
The barriers that bind me within.
Even though they try to beat us, I’ll refuse to view defeatist.
Labeled loser’s gonna win.
I know the streets, and the beats of the city all too well.
Streetlights verse my night flights. Monotony is Hell.
Ya, the gray concrete hurts my car’s tired feet.
But she keeps a’rollin’ on.
Making runs everyday, she’s my mainstay.
Without her I couldn’t get along.
CHORUS
But, I know not me. I said, “I know, not me.”
I said, “I know, not me. I know, not me.”
They say it’s no way, not the right way.
But it’s the only way for me.
They think my day schoolin’, and my night tooling’
will get the best of me.
Their traditional roles, flanked by telephone poles.
The barriers that bind me within.
Even though they try to beat us, I’ll refuse to view defeatist.
Labeled loser’s gonna win.
CHORUS
But, I know not me. I said, “I know, not me.”
I said, “I know, not me. I know, not me.”
Ya, the gray concrete hurts my car’s tired feet.
But she keeps a’rollin’ on.
Making runs everyday, she’s my mainstay.
Without her I couldn’t get along.
Their traditional roles, flanked by telephone poles.
The barriers that bind me within.
Even though they try to beat us, I’ll refuse to view defeatist.
Labeled loser’s gonna win.