“Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say
“Pride will tear us both apart”
Well, now pride’s gone out the window
‘Cross the rooftops, run away
Left me in the vacuum of my heart

What is happening to me?
Crazy, some’d say
Where is my friend when I need you most?“

© Taylor/Rhodes/Le Bon/Cucurillo, 1993 from “Duran Duran” (aka The Wedding Album)

Well, this is the first of the songs that are in the process of composition for the future album Time Demands. And, while a lot of other writers would be sensible and wait for the finished product before writing about it and recording it for posterity….. nope, thats not my modus operandi. I’m particularly keen to deliver Added Value, my dear followers… you get to find out about the stuff while its gestating, as it is building, while it makes its journey from first draft (like this one) to finished track. None of that corporate flim-flam here. Nooooo….

… and then, when I should come back later and edit it and say “well, it started out like this, but ended up way over here somewhere instead…”… yeah, that bit sometimes/most often falls under the table and doesnt get done.

But here we are and I’m not really going to break the habit of a lifetime just yet.

So…… Parallel Lives, then. This was put together as an important part of the album and is largely self explanatory. It is about my best friend and I and how he has been part of my life for the best part of 30+ years and how I would not be the man that I am without his influence and his friendship. Some may think it is too autobiographical and I have to admit, I havent spoken to him about it and whether he is happy about me being as candid as I am in these lyrics. And some may say, more than a little raw. I guess that will find its own level during the track’s gestation period. I suspect, conversely that one track that he has written which I had produced and played on back in 2012 may have been about me as it sure as heck lines up with a lot of my life events of the time during my first marriage, but then again a) I never asked him about it and b) if you look long and hard enough at any song you can read any meaning into any of it… viz the comment by James Grant about the middle 8 in Jocelyn Square from the “Strange Kind Of Love” album….

“All the memories that flower and blossom in this pale endymion hour, they paint a picture of you, too good to be true”...

when I first read that I was thinking “jeez, how can I compete with that… endymion … wtf does that mean?… Oh thats what it means? The sleep of the dead…. so while he’s sleeping the sleep of the dead, his mind is creating this image of her thats too good to be true… bloody hell, thats brilliant”. There is no way I will ever be worthy, etc etc... and James himself later said “oh that, yeah I saw it in a book and thought ‘that looks good, I’m having that’ and dropped it in. Dont ask me what it means, I dont know”. Talk about crushed,, LOLZ.

So, in a roundabout way, I may have got off on completely the wrong foot, but having said that, what I say within the song is true, there is very little artistic licence and it is an honest and open paean to the man who has been, for most of my adult life, my best friend. It is absolutely true that if I had been posted into the military unit that I was sent to in 1992 on any other day, if he and I and another member of his band hadnt crossed paths on the day we did, every single day of the following 35 years would have taken a very different turn and I would absolutely not be the man, the writer, the lyricist, the producer, that I am now. My whole adult life from the age of 27 turned on that moment.

Parallel Lives tells that story. Much as we have a friendship that I hope will never be broken, much as real life has demanded our day to day attention for as long as it has, much as he is finding music not to be the comfort that I found it to be when I was in a darker place… that bond is one that I will be forever grateful for and will treasure and I hope he finds his way back into the light when he is ready. Obviously, it only focuses on parts of our lives, its not warts and all, but its about what has bound us in its own way.

And, as per the caveat in an earlier paragraph, it is a first draft and it is subject to change.

Parallel Lives

I dont know if I was your best friend
But for so many years, you have been mine
I didnt really need to know, our parallel lives just used to flow
The most precious thing we gave each other was our time

I took your songs and believed in you
More for your good than mine
Onwards we walked, down that same long road
Side by Side, always Side by Side

And we’d share a stage, night after night we’d play
Searching for our place in the big time
Night after night, music under lights
Smoke in our eyes, our art demanded our sacrifice
When all our hearts really craved was real life
It all got left a little further behind.

I thought I had found love three times
In the time it took you to find the one in your life
And you stood by my side in my darkest hour
On the last day I ever saw my wife
We shared some unforgettable times
Where our music sealed its mark on our lives
And we stood by each others sides

And after thirty years, even though you loved her like no other
She wanted more than you said you could give
I was too many hour behind, I couldnt be anywhere but online
But you knew I’d still give you all of my time

Thank you for the you that once appeared
My life would not be the same after all these years
You gave me someone to sing to through the thunder and the rain
Somebody to lean on through the thunder and flame

We’re only human, we’re all made of mistakes
In a broken world of broken people
The most precious thing is our time
The most precious thing is our time.

© Lyrics by Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2025