This song was written in collaboration with Laurens Reij who came up with the guitar riff for which I later wrote some lyrics.
The song was inspired by an ex-band member of the Fruitcakes who unfortunately died after fighting a battle with cancer which he had little to no chance of winning.
His name was Paul and he had played sax in The Fruitcakes many years ago. I had completely lost all contact with him and many of the other band members until I was approached about 5 months before his death by a friend who wanted to organise a band re-union to play for Paul while he was still alive and able to enjoy it. So said, so done. One Sunday morning we all met up again after about 20 years and after a few cups of coffee we started practising. Even though some of the band members hadn't played their instruments for years the band sounded exactly the same as it did 20 years ago. The same songs, the same energylevel and even the same mistakes. It was very uncany but very enjoyable. After a few hours practise in the evening just before our performance started Paul was wheeled in by his wife and re- introduced to all the band members. It was a very moving experience. He was obviously very sick and his head was quite swollen due to a tumor but he was in great spirits and managed a chat with everyone. I can also remember seeing him getting wheeled out of the cafe after the show and into a waiting car. I can clearly remember thinking this is really goodbye and I will probably never see this guy alive again which was in fact case. He died 5 months later. I did go to his funeral and accompanied a singer on piano with a version of Marvin Gaye's Aint No Mountain High Enough. It was a very moving experience which I used to write the lyrics to this song.
A year later or so I met his widow at one of our Lakeside Stories singer/songwriter events and I told her that I had written the son insprired by the her husband's resilience and determination to keep going despite all the odds. The song is still not finished musically but I'm sure I will complete it together with Laurens one of these days.