What Goes Around (a demo)

This was written in response to yet another early death due to heroin. (I don’t use the term overdose, as that implies there is a standard dosage.)

Seems these newsmakers’ deaths happen with some regularity, followed by the usual astonishment and disappointment.

I was lucky that I couldn’t stand needles, or I might well have tried heroin in my younger, experimental days. Luckier still my children, who lost several friends in high school and college to the drug, never partook.

It surprises most people to learn that heroin was first sold by the Bayer (aspirin) Co. out of Germany. It was marketed as a cough suppressant for children! Its chemical affects on the lung are one reason why addicts are known by their cough. It’s similar to overmedicating a symptom that ironically increases its traits. Or over using an antibiotic renders it useless.

Anyway, this song traces how the addict(s) slides down that very slippery rope. It also contains one of my favorite reversals, which is what I call turning a cliché or axiom upside down, as in this song, where it says:

           it so easy to be right

          and so hard to do wrong

 

This is somewhat based on the notion that addicts must go to great lengths to get their dope. Same idea about how methodical and well organized criminals often are.  It’s harder work than most folks realize.

Seems like it’s a lot easier just to do right!

 

The above is just me and my guitar.

 

What Goes Around

So many things he said he’d never do
heroin was of them and she probably said it to
now look at ‘em on a saturday night
he’s throwing up and she’s getting high

 

    Now he’s the one who worries a lot
    And she’s the one heating that black tar
    What goes around comes around again
    Doesn’t really matter if you’re sorry then
    Or if you swore it wouldn’t happen again

 

There’s so many things a man will do
that when says he’s done he’s never really through
you don’t have tour Afghanistan
to be a lost soul in this promise land

 

    now he’s the one looking out for cops
    she’s the one who’s coughing a lot
    What goes around comes around again
    You can’t buy salvation at the five and 10
    But better not wait til the very end

 

        it so easy to be right
        and so hard to do wrong
        we’re all made in the same light
        but when darkness comes
        we don’t all know how to run

 

    now he’s the one keeps hearing gunshots
    she’s promenading in the parking lot
    What goes around comes around again
    and when the music stops it won’t start again
    when the preacher’s finished we all say amen

 

 

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