I’ve only written two dozen songs, but I’m proud of all of them. Most of them are love songs to my wife of 45 years.There are a few parodies and then there’s the song that isn’t about me in any way. Well OK maybe a little. I had a mad crush on a woman in college. She needed some help journaling once (long story). Fifty years later, and I still remember her description of her first real kiss (not with me). As I find is often the case, a phrase or two can grow into a song. “ I feel better when you’re around even if you’re not in the same room as me” became You Affect Me.

“ Made my toes curl, made the room swirl“. Just dream up a tied line, “made me feel like a girl” and you have a triple rhyme.

Her words: “I had kissed and been kissed before.” Me: “This was different. This was More.”

I’ve been reading author interviews all my life. They alternate between “it’s easy for me to imagine being the other gender“ and “it’s difficult for me to imagine.” I came down somewhere in the middle. Every time I hear this song, it brings a smile to my lips and a tear to my eye. It’s tough to write about someone else’s love when it’s real.