Gerard O'Riley

A few years ago when I was going through a period of being single and drinking heavily, I had one of those moments where I started reflecting back on previous women, and this is what came about. Not too sure how much it means to me on a personal level, other than to say this is the sort of stuff that ends up pouring out, good, bad or indifferent.

Not all that glitters is gold.... sometimes it's silver. Perfection isn't real, but suicide is.

My second ever contest win. Wrote this back in the late '90s. My cousin's wife was dying, and there was just something in his eyes that I couldn't explain. A sort of hollowness. This song is written from a woman's perspective (because I wrote it for a female to sing) whose husband is dying in front of her eyes, and the emotions are ripping her apart. Though, it's every bit as much about the sorrow she feels for him being without her, and life in general, as much as her being without him. The second part of the second chorus really explodes as a powerhouse vocalization of pain and angst. I rarely toot my own horn, but singing this back, I can see why it won a contest. It's quite the powerful song, yet simplistic in language and composition. I've always imagined a single piano, maybe an acoustic six string to start, with violins coming in on the 2nd part of the first verse, and full-on band for the chorus.

My father recently passed away. In the latter years of his life, he was handicapped and couldn't get out. The last time I remember him out was at his grandson's birthday party, a beautiful summer day. I remember him saying that he was thankful for "Days like these." I picked up a napkin beside the cake, a crayon, and I went and sat in my truck and wrote this song down after being inspired.

Before I met my current girlfriend, my soulmate, I had a crush on this girl solely because she started off with a crush on me. I had resisted her, but she persisted. So I kinda fell for her, if only for being flattered, then she backed off. And all I could say to her was, "Okay. If you change your mind..." That got me thinking about anyone, young or old, man or woman, who likes someone who doesn't like them back, and sometimes we just hope they change their mind. Wrote a song about it. Like to hear it? Here it goes.