"Not I"

“...a machine to collect your calls” – that dates this song a bit! At the time I wrote it, I really thought the idea of settling down into a life of peaceful domesticity sounded like a prison sentence. Now, 25 years later, it doesn’t sound so bad! I just finished reading 10% Happier by Dan Harris. In that book, Harris struggles to reconcile the need to feel driven by dissatisfaction with the desire to find inner peace. I can relate to that struggle. What I can’t relate to is the fact that even as he’s engaged in that personal struggle, he is holding down a high profile career as a successful newscaster. At my level, mere survival is the primary struggle. I’ve never been able to find a book that I can totally relate to on a peer-to-peer level. I guess I’ll have to write it myself.

Current listening: David Bowie, Lodger

"Not I" on SoundCloud 

Not I

© 1990 Wally Koekebakker and Brian Hutzell

Don't you see?

Life would be so boring without me.

He can offer you clothes - look at his tailored suits

A fine new hat and expensive boots

Have your own house, a car at the curb

Settle into an armchair and not be disturbed

If you want domesticity, if you long for that simplicity,

Go with the other guy, go with the other guy

Not I

Go with the other guy

Cause I will not provide that kind of life

I cannot provide that kind of life

All the modern conveniences, every bill met

All the modern comics on the TV set

You've got a machine to collect your calls

Appropriate artwork for the walls

New and used furniture in proper amounts

Go to the in places, know everyone who counts

If you want that domesticity, if you long for that simplicity

Go with the other guy, go with the other guy

Not I

Go with the other guy

Cause I will not provide that kind of life

I will provide that kind of life

Oh no, I couldn't be more opposed

To the thought of settling down to that routine

That doesn't mean it isn't right for you

I won't stand between you and the other guy

Not I

I honestly thought we had it made

But I like the sun and you like the shade

Now there's a man who's qualified to give you what you want from life

Not I

Not I

So goodbye, goodbye

“Page 3”

Brian Hutzell

From Ages of Pages

Part 2 of MMXIII Variations