Off He Goes

While I was in the garage this weekend and tinkering with the idea of actually finishing the mobile drill press/tool rack/router table cabinet, a familiar old song from way back in the day came on my iPod as it shuffled. My first introduction to this song was when Toby told me to go find it and said Eddie wrote it about me. Oddly I have spent the last decade a bit disturbed when I would hear it, because Toby and I never got to talk much about why he thought this way. But when I listened again this weekend I realize that there was no intention of his to offend... as if Toby has ever said anything to deliberately offend anyone.

I am reading about it online and the consensus seems to be that Eddie wrote this song about himself. I even found one video from a concert in Katowice where he says the song is about being friends with an asshole and points to himself and smiles. Shoot. But like I said, I don't think Toby meant to offend. Besides, I think he was right.



I know a man
His face seemed pulled and tense
Like he's ridin' on a motorbike
In the strongest winds
So I approach with tact
Suggest that he should relax
But he's movin' much too fast

Said he'll see me on the flip side
On this trip he's taken for a ride
He's been takin' too much on
There he goes with his perfectly unkept clothes
There he goes

He's yet to come back
But I seen his picture
It doesn't look the same up on the rack
We go way back
I wonder 'bout his insides
It's like his thoughts are too big for his size

He's been taken...where, I don't know
There he goes with his perfectly unkept clothes
There he goes

And now I rub my eyes, for he has returned
Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned
For he still smiles... And he's still strong
Nothing's changed but the surroundin' bullshit
That has grown

And now he's home and we're laughin'
Like we always did, my same old, my same old friend
Until a quarter to ten
I saw the strain creep in
He seems distracted and I know just what is going to happen next

Before his first step, he's off again