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Songs I Wrote in 2023: “That’s What Tom Petty Taught Me” – 11th of 13

Realizing it was 30 years ago that I started playing guitar and how Tom Petty’s music served as a major influence on my songwriting style, I easily threw together a song about it.

I am very proud of how this song turned out. Sometimes, it takes a couple of months for a song to come together. In this case, I wrote it and recorded in a matter of just a couple of days:

In the spring of ’94, I turned thirteen – I was practicing guitar chords while trying to sing – The best eleven dollars I had ever spent was a cassette tape of Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits – I was learning to fly into the great wide open – I was free fallin’, runnin’ down a dream – Oh my my, even the losers believe you don’t have to live like a refugee – That’s what Tom Petty taught me – Well it’s good to be king when you’re only thirteen thinking, “You don’t know how it feels to be me”- I grew up tall and I grew up right – Now it’s time to move on – Yeah, it’s wake up time – I’m gonna listen to my heart – No, I won’t back down – I’ve got a room at the top of the world right now – I’m still learning to fly into the great wide open – I’m still free fallin’, runnin’ down a dream – Oh my my, even the losers believe you don’t have to live like a refugee – That’s what Tom Petty taught me

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Songs I Wrote in 2023: “I’m in a Better Place Now” – 10th of 13

I feel that this song is evidence of the major milestone I reached this year, as I ultimately served as my own psychiatrist through the process of writing my Enneagram book.

This song presented itself as I was encountering my darkest, deepest stage of ego death:

Someone tell me why I think it’s gonna be okay – I’m at peace with all the mysteries I can’t explain – If ignorance is bliss then I want more of this – Is this a glimpse of what it’s like to see life as a gift? I’m living comfortably in the uncertainty – I’m not taking things way too seriously anymore – I’m in a better place now – I’m climbing my own way out – This is what a good day looks like – Things are gonna turn out all right – Will I still feel this way tomorrow? Is it even up to me? Can I keep my head in the clouds and look around without something pulling me down to the ground? I’m in a better place now – Something tells me that God is smiling down on me – I’m at peace with who I am now and what I believe – If He is love I guess I’ll trust it works out in the end – Is this a glimpse of heaven when we all begin again? I choose hope over meaninglessness – I choose faith over being a nihilist – I admit I could spend my life believing the wrong thing – But if God isn’t real, my search to find Him still led me to a better place

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Songs I Wrote in 2023: “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” – 9th of 13

I am of the small minority of the people who have ever lived in the entire history of the world to actually reach the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. Not to mention, I got here despite not being extremely wealthy or famous.

Therefore, it is difficult for others to relate to me in my existential crisis that I have been working through for the past several years.

Writing this song helped me at least to better understand what I have been feeling:

Halfway through my life is when I realized I did everything I wanted to do – But I am still alive – I still have so much time and clarity – Roaming the halls – I feel like I am lost in a maze – Somebody help me down from here – So I won’t be so lonely at the top of the pyramid – Like if Super Mario jumped over the flagpole and the game went on without any goals – No real obstacles – Nothing to run from – Nothing to run towards – Can I transcend myself? – Is that the next step? Do I move beyond self-actualization? Who can I teach from this? Who has a crisis where I can be of service?

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Songs I Wrote in 2023: “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow!” – 8th of 13

Randomly enough, I was inspired to write this song while binge watching Barry on HBO; as  characters on the show referenced William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

I majored in English in college and one of my upper level classes was studying Shakespeare. I found it fascinating that the same thoughts going through my head where already penned hundreds of years ago.

So I added a few opening lines on my end, easily making a song from the concept:

I keep bumping my head on the ceiling as I’ve outgrown this place – I’ve seen what’s behind the curtain – Things will never be the same – Tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day – I strut and fret my hour upon the stage – Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow – Life is but a walking shadow – Out, out, brief candle – And all of our yesterdays have lighted the way for fools – To dusty death and then is heard no more again – It is a tale told by an idiot like me – Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

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Songs I Wrote in 2023: “I Feel Like I Used to Be a Good Person” – 7th of 13

As 2023 progressed, the process of writing my Enneagram book continued to help me reveal more about my perception of life. Like with the previous song, “St. Doubting Thomas”, I was in the deconstruction stage of ego death.

Perhaps that is what prompted me to mention the final stages of grief, at the end of the song:

I feel like I used to be a good person – Twenty years ago, I saw the world as beautiful – I felt so alive – That was me there at the dress rehearsal – I was the golden child – Life was wonderful – The future was so bright – I never died as a hero – I lived long enough to get old – I see myself now as a villain – Will this story have a happy ending? What does that even mean to me anymore? Looking back to when I was a good person – That was before I had a chance to crash and burn and was forced to learn – I feel like I used to be a good person – But what the world needs now is the current version – The one who can get the job done – I’m here to audition for the part of the tortured artist – What’s the best we can hope for in this life if we’re being honest? We find ways to cope – It gives us hope or at least distracts us – This is my denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance