Derek's Lament

Song Information:

When I first moved to California ('91), before I became a Christian, I used to hang out with Derek. I was playing for pittance and tips at a place called Gorkys Cafe in downtown LA and Derek was working one of the registers. We became fast friends. One late night after closing a bar in Long Beach, we went back to his place and we were deep into the conversation when I decided I was going to show him how easy it was to write a song. I started asking him questions about his life and an hour or two later we had these lyrics. I picked up the guitar about a week later and wrote the melody and Derek and I had written a song. His reaction was: "The best bl***y Irish song I ever heard was written by an Italian American right in my own apartment." After I got saved I rewrote it several times to make it more evangelical and was satisfied with the lyric about 6 months before I did the vocal.