I Care

"I Care"

Music & Lyrics by Scott Cooley.

I'm usually pretty good about not worrying

About the things I can't control

But sometimes I still do and I've got no excuse for that

Even though I'm kind of old

I should be wiser by now, but I'm still young at heart

You'll always be a part of my soul

I care, and I just want you to know

I don't always show it but I want you to be happy

I know most of the time, I act like I don't but I do

I care, even though sometimes I'm a jerk

I get caught up with my work, and don't pay attention

I'm full of myself, but I'm here to help you make it through

Most of the time, I don't waste my mind thinkin' 'bout

How life isn't always fair

But once in a while, I can't seem to smile

So I sleep all day or just sit and stare

I should know better, and I do but I'm human

And you're in my head even when I'm not all there

I care, and I just want you to know

I don't always show it but I want you to be happy

I know most of the time, I act like I don't but I do

I care, even though sometimes I'm a jerk

I get caught up with my work, and don't pay attention

I'm full of myself, but I'm here to help you make it through

I almost always try not to dwell on the past but I know

Some of the time I still do

Whatever you've got going on, I will take time away

From not being able to help feelin' blue

I know I'm not the only one, who forgets to remember

How lucky I am to have someone like you

I care, and I just want you to know

I don't always show it but I want you to be happy

I know most of the time, I act like I don't but I do

I care, even though sometimes I'm a jerk

I get caught up with my work, and don't pay attention

I'm full of myself, but I'm here to help you make it through

I care, haven't forgotten about us

It might be hard to tell, but I want you to know

I get wrapped up in my thoughts, they're hard to stop, but it's true

I care, but there's a side of me that's dark

I'm not a walk in the park, I know I can be difficult

But what matters most, is I won't ever stop loving you

It might be weird to just come out and admit it, but I wrote this after listening to another recording artist - Courtney Barnett, an Australian girl who plays rock songs on electric guitar. I'd seen one of her videos in which she was sort of playing tennis, and I'm a big fan of that sport. I like her style, so I guess I was probably inspired by it somehow, although I'm sure my slow acoustic song doesn't sound anything like her.

I guess it's a love song, with rambling lyrics, in a monotone or deadpan singing style, which is sort of my usual style anyway. It's maybe melancholic with maybe something Dylanesque about it, one could argue. The song is one in which I'm honestly admitting my faults, about how I get on a roll with projects (usually, music-related ones) in my free time in my personal life, and I sort of feel guilty about not spending more of that time with my wife, but hey, at least I'm acknowledging my awareness of this to her, and telling her not to get offended by it, that it's just the way I am, and it's not that I don't care about her and that I do still think about her through it all.

In reality, my wife is awesome and understands my passions and lets me do whatever I want, and I do the same for her, so we have a great relationship that way, and I know I'm lucky. Still, you have to remember to reassure each other that everything's cool from time to time, and we do that too, but this song is a form of me doing that for her. There you go, the story behind the song.