517 E. Highland

I called you at home but your home isn’t home for you anymore, anymore.
I called you at home but your home isn’t home for you anymore, anymore.
I put on my make up. I put on my old shoes that I wear when something goes wrong.
Goes Wrong.
Goes Wrong.

Your home isn’t your home anymore.
Your home isn’t your home anymore.

Now I’m tired of mascara running down my face.
I’m tired of our life and my feet are aching.
The sun is rising.
The sun is rising.
The sun is rising.

A man on the corner drinks a bottle of after shave. We get on the bus.
Heading west. He laughs into a handkerchief. And I smile for him and the mascara runs down my arm.
My hands are tense and tired. And your not at home. We have no home.

JOHN: Although it sounds influenced purely by Pop punk, the initial inspiration for the music came from Madonna and Sublime.  I love this song by Madonna called "Music."  I felt jealous that she had someone sample an acoustic guitar for a pop song.  It's a pretty damn great song.  I structured the beginning of 517 based on that style of sampling, but we didn't have the time or budget to make that happen, so I dug up a casio out of my closet and we used that instead.  I think it was a good choice.  It gave it a 80's feel that I hadn't originally intended, and it lead to the great bass part Phillip created.  The mid section is definitely straight forward pop punk, with simple repeated lyrics like the Ramones, but I am proud that we could bookend this pop sound with other influences and still make the song flow.  The ending I modeled after Sublime.  I didn't know much about that band until Jesse Michaels introduced me to it.

The lyrics are based on a "before and after" exercise in writing.  You get the beginning of the story and the end of the story, but you are not quite sure what happened to her once she put on her good shoes, left her home and went out into the night.  You only know that she is now sitting on a bus early in the morning watching a homeless drinking aftershave, and she begins to cry.  The man drinking aftershave image is borrowed from my Neo-Futurist friend Jessica Anne.  She wrote a play about a man on the bus drinking a bottle of mouthwash.