I Need You

Written: 1973

Writers: David Jenneson, Alan Hovden,

Status: Recorded but unpublished

Genre and Style: Pop anthem.

Comments: Dave: This song was written during the height of the Watergate Scandal about President Richard Nixon when he was the most hated man in the universe. America’s youth were dying in Viet Nam. It has a grand yet heartbroken feel. For thirty years I have thought of it as nothing but a curiosity from the past. However, seeing it now it is clear it applies every bit as much to President George W. Bush and his wasting the lives of American servicemen in Iraq. Some things never change.

Comments: Al: I love this song… another one I would like to do again as parts of the demo drive me mad and other parts are so inspired.

I need you like a hole in the head

They freed you from the book of the dead

And with your cold old soul

You loved each line that you read

Gonna take heart to a good mortician

It was blown apart

And now my only mission

Is to sit and watch while the street musicians play

I need you like American Pie

Indeed you are the whiskey and rye

And them poor young lads

Toast to the mud in your eye

And I really don’t think they want to listen

To songs about love, songs about kissing

Because for them those things just picked up and died

Do you remember when you had

Children arm in arms all around you

Oh how your broke their hearts

When you raised your crown

They put Old Glory in the ground

I need you like a mouthful of lead

They feed you on the whitest white bread

And the cold cold North

Is where I’m laying my head

Gonna take heart to a good mortician

It was blown apart

And now my only mission

Is to sit and watch while the street musicians play

I followed your dream but you turned it around

I followed your dream but you turned it around

I don’t need you.