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Once You Leave Home (You Can Never Return)

from 3200 W 22nd Court by Mike Lawson & Friends

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about

Visiting my childhood home, 3200 W 22nd Court, a place now torn down to make room for a large sewer plant, which my father decided to buy a house across the fence from, seeing it gone... driving around the town I grew up in, everything so different, so much the same... it is easy to get nostalgic or romanticize one's upbringing, or even in some case to overemphasize and never get over it.

I had this idea in my head for a few years, and could not seem to get it going. Clearly it is a play on Thomas Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again..." but it was more than that to me. I finally wrote the thing, holed up in my hotel room at a casino on the gulf coast of Mississippi just as COVID was hitting, my last trip for two years, and days after a devastating tornado whipped through east Nashville, the night before I flew out. The video shows me in my youth, growing, longing to leave, play music, and a deep drive through the beach town I grew up in, where almost none of what you see in that footage exists anymore. Memories, they are just memories. Don't look back.

I recorded an alternate version, with Noah Wall singing with me on it, but then decided it needed to kick up a bit. Maybe I'll release that as an outtake someday.

lyrics

You can’t go back home to your family
You can’t go back home to your friends
You can’t go back to dreams of glory, fame or love that just pretends
You can keep your eyes in front of you, and always look ahead
The moment that you turn around remember what was said

You can’t run away to exile you will always find you there
Ain’t no ivory tower waiting, ain’t no mansion in the air
You can keep your eyes wide open, keep your options near and dear
When you look behind you, you will find your answer clear

So many paths to take, so many roads
So many lessons so heavy loads
It’s easy to forget but oh so hard to learn
Once you leave home you can never return
Once you leave home you can never return

Walk away from conflict trying to move in on your
Run away from people who will cause you grief and strife
Take along there with you folks who need a helping hand
Never look behind you didn’t leave no promised land

You can’t find someone to save you, ease your burden take your pain
Ain’t no one but you can make the choice to come in from the rain
It once seemed everlasting but is changing all the time
Keep your eyes upon the hills and mountains you have left to climb

So many paths to take, so many roads
So many lessons and so heavy loads
It’s easy to forget but oh so hard to learn
Once you leave home you can never return
Once you leave home you can never return
Once you leave home you can never return


Words and Music – Mike Lawson
Psychotronic Music – BMI
Copyright © 2021 All Rights Reserved

credits

from 3200 W 22nd Court, released December 21, 2021
Mike Lawson - Guitar, Vocals
Melisa Dopazo - Bass
Joe Montague - Drums
Scott Guberman - Hammond organ
Tyra Juliette - Backing Vocals

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Mike Lawson & Friends Nashville, Tennessee

Mike Lawson has, over 30 years, recorded and/or performed together with Merl Saunders, Vince Welnick, Vassar Clements, Pete Sears, Gary Talley, John McEuen, Bob Welch, Dennis Robbins, Joe Louis Walker, Jorma Kaukonen, Phil Keaggy, Jack Casady, Scott Guberman, Dianne Davidson, Noah Wall, Tyra Juliette, Bill Vitt, Rob Wasserman, Michael Cleveland, Phil Madeira, and a host of other amazing friends. ... more

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