Warm Summer Evening

This was actually inspired in part by Charlie Parr and the way he writes stories.

I wanted to do something more real, more story like but still hopefully very relatable.

The actual story is a bit more involved but for now lets just say it was mostly about a girl I met when I was moving with my parents. We hit it off and hung out a bit but nothing really happened which occured to me is probably actually more relatable for most people than the predictable soapy romance and Hollywood ending.

What was the most interesting part of this song is how it came about. 

I was living in my van a few years ago and topping up the diesel on a “warm summer evening”.  

A combination of the first warm night of summer, the humidity and the diesel smell took me back to that particular moment in time.
I remember the trucks pulling up across the road, the traffic noise and the diesel smell in the thick humid air which was all new and then of course this very hot young lady who seemed to have every eye in the place on her and her white swimsuit. 
For some reason she liked me and we hung out a bit one particular night late into the evening just laughing and goofing off, she was cool. 
My family got a house and we left the Motel soon after and I thought I would never see her again. (way before phones and social media).. so that was that.

A bit later I was the new kid in another new High school and she came up behind me one day and give me a kick or grabbed me or something I cant remember. But we were happy to unexpectedly see each other again and started meeting for lunch at a little deli over the road.

Me being a dipshit quit school a few days later and not even thinking about her was leaving school for the last time and saw her through the stairwell glass in the distance heading to our lunch rendezvous.. and that was that.

Something I wanted to put in the song but could never make it fit was how salient that glass on the stairwell was, I remember it so vividly it was old safety glass, a faint green colour with wire inside it.. I’m sure if I could fit that in plenty of people would know exactly what I meant. 
Still writing a cool song is a balance of detail and fittedness so I think I’m happy with it as it is..

It takes the core elements and twists them a bit to fit nicely but keeps pretty true to reality. 
I think the coolest part is how the end ties to the beginning and that it is a story.. the more I write the more I think it has to be real to have real value to anyone else and also that stories really matter..

Warm Summer Evening

Boy’s in that Motel pool again, 
Old man’s topping up the van
Melancholy hauntin' him
On a warm summer evening

He met her in that Motel pool
Never was somebody cool
She drew down on his cigarette
He drew that swimsuit silhouette

The traffic noise was more real that night
Beneath that neon Motel light
Deep in his soul so tired uptight
On a warm summer evening

For thirty years maybe more
He thought about her sweet candour
The way she moved, how late she stayed
The point the moment slipped away..

I thought about her yesterday 
In that filling station bay
If  I could take back one day
Still wouldn’t have a word to say

Me n her met one time
Beneath a neon Motel sign
Bummed a smoke laughed as friends 
Destined to never be again

The next day was my last
I seen her pass through stairwell glass
Still got me smiling pumping gas
On a warm summer evening