The Bullet
I’m partial to this haunting blues number.
Melissa claims it crept out of the night, spawned by having watched HBO’s “True Detective.”
We didn’t take HBO at the time the show morphed into a cult hit, so we had to wait until the series starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson became available for purchase.
Quite a story. And if you saw the series you’ll remember the indelible theme song, The Handsome Family’s “Far from Any Road.”
So, I think that’s what gave Melissa a sense of the song’s origin, since it is a little different for me. She might be right.
But I was looking for a spark to ignite some songwriting and had been told that as songwriter if I change instruments or tunings, it just might spark something.
So, I grabbed my electric Telecaster down from the shelf. I seldom play it because an electric guitar is truly a different instrument and I don’t know how to play it well.
But three songs jumped off that Telecaster, the first of which was “The Bullet.”
It’s POV is clearly a different one for me, but an important one, and not so foreign as you might think. I know first and second hand the horrors and consequences of addiction. I lost a parent to a bullet. My children navigated a “ghetto” school, as they fondly called Grady.
So, this is real, which is the first requirement of the blues.
The above is just me and my guitar
The Bullet
Sometimes, you can’t get enough
Sometimes, it gets in your blood
Then you’ll spend your life like
a homeless man looking for work
Sometimes, you got to choose
Yeah sometime, you got to move
Cause that man out there is looking for you
all the love in this world
can’t take back a bullet
once it’s left its gun
They said, just stay in school
And you’ll get ahead if you play by the rules
but just to be on the safe side
we’re going build some jail cells, too
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BB King would like this one