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Some People Never Change

from Almost Moving Backwards by Derek Brink

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about

This one can be filed under the category of "Unsolicited advice to a friend's adult son." You know... THAT old trope.

In 2014 a friend and I sat in a bar together and she told me about how her then teenage son had asked about meeting his dad for the first time. His dad had left the picture when the boy was still in diapers. I knew his dad. I still know his mom. And I kinda know him. It's all complicated.

We talked for a while and at the end of the night I went home and had the basic outline of this song in my head. It probably sounds like I'm angling to be his step-dad. That's not really what's going on here. (Though I AM unattached...ha ha?) Mostly this is just the advice I would've given him that night.

I had the song sitting around since about 2015. In 2019 I decided I wanted to put it on an album--THIS album. I demoed it and sent a copy to the mom because I knew I only have so-much right to tell someone else's story. She approved. And here we are.

I like this one a lot. It makes me feel good about my piano playing and bad about my willingness to reach out to assholes. It's a good one. It goes by pretty quick. I had to break your heart in 2:30. I think I got pretty close.

lyrics

I remember very well
when your mother left your father.
Or at least that’s what the church-folk had to say.
The truth is he had left her
a thousand times before that
and the last straw was more than anyone should have to take.

You were just a baby then.
And I was just a friend
looking in on something that
still doesn’t make much sense.

I remember very well
the last time I saw your father
and every single lie right to my face.
He was king of his castle.
A smug, self-righteous asshole.
And never once admitted making even one mistake.

I was barely 20 then.
He said I was his friend.
Look again,
another generation has gone by.

He hardly knows you.
And no, he never calls, boy.
That’s not your fault, boy.
Some people never change.
But your mother loves you.
She would die for you
if she were ever asked to...
‘Cause some people never change.

credits

from Almost Moving Backwards, released May 29, 2021

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Derek Brink St Louis, Missouri

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