So Many Me's

The idea for this song originally came to me while I was a preschool teacher in Oakland. There was one little girl whose parents had just split up that really seemed to be pulled in two directions at once. I also vaguely recall reading some news story about a dad running away with his young daughter. Combined with those experiences was the shocking experience of turning thirty that year. My, that seems like light years away! Many of my friends were starting to settle down and have families and here I was teaching preschool, making no money, and still dreaming about being a rock star. Unlike Eddie in the song, I never made any pretensions about being a happy bachelor and I’d wanted a wife and children for many years. In the months prior to writing this song my life had completely come apart: I quit my job, and then got laid of from another. I decided to go back to school to get my teaching credential, only to run into snafus with my application to Cal State Hayward. As a last ditch, desperation move, I asked my parents if I could live with them and decide to apply to Northridge. I then abandoned my blossoming solo career in the Bay Area and spent the next year and a half in L.A. where this song became one of my most popular tunes in the numerous coffee houses where I performed. My brother Jimi’s guitarist pal, Ken Kazmen often accompanied me on some of those later gigs and his guitar playing on this song was great.

I laid down the basic tracks to this song last summer and they sat there for months and months waiting for lead guitar which never came as I begged and cajoled several different players to no avail. Finally, I recalled that my original demo of this song had a synth solo and I went about trying to transcribe it to the guitar. Through the wonders of digital editing, I was able to produce the very Buddy Holly sounding solo that you hear now, eventually adding a harmony lead for the middle solo. It fits well for the drum pattern and I think this song remains one of my best pieces of pure pop songwriting.

Amy is only four years old
Loves her mom and dad and she does what she’s told
Now her daddy’s running with Amy in tow
Her mommy is searching, searching high and low
Screaming
Where’s my little girl?…
There’s nothing sadder than a mommy alone
She cries at night as she waits by the phone
She’s been a faithful wife, a devoted mother
But her husband’s running with her daughter and his lover
She’s sobbing
Where’s my little girl?…

Without the man, she’ll do the best she can
But the little girl is her whole world

Eddie’s past thirty, feels he’s getting on
Says he’s a happy bachelor, but he knows it’s a con
All his friends are married with kids of their own
Now he knows he’s not happy living all alone
He’s singing
Where’s my little girl?…
Ellen and Stan have a brand new daughter
She’s just been christened with Eddie as her godfather
Ellen lets Eddie hold little Renee in his arms
And he’s slowly overwhelmed by the little one’s charms
Now he’s singing
Where’s my little girl?…

The bachelor life, he can do without
But it’s a wife and child that could make him shout
He’s shouting...