When I first sat down to write "See You Tomorrow" off my upcoming album "The Deal Baby" I took from a number of my own life's experiences. While wrapping up my second tour as a U.S. Marine in Paris, France I met and dated an English woman with whom I spent two years of my life, The relationship was rocky to say the least and ended after an infidelity of hers came to light one 14th of July, the day of France's Bastille day celebrations. Liberty and fraternity meant exactly that on this particular night. I had a gig until late and she was off to the fireman's ball with friends. I came home late after the gig to find that she was still out which wasn't unusual but as the hours went by she still hadn't returned home nor checked in so at one point I began to worry and call around to see if any of our mutual friends knew of her whereabouts. Many things ran through my mind, infidelity, car accident and even death.
Later that morning I received a call from a woman who was looking for her son who apparently had been with my ex the night before and suddenly my fears were joined by anger. At around two P.M. the following day my ex finally came home acting like everything was normal and she gave me no explanation as to where she had been but it was evident that she hadn't been alone. I had been sick of the power struggle and mental abuse that she and I had lived in the relationship but I had never found the strength to walk away. This time was different and in what seemed like an hour after she had resurfaced I began to pack my car and leave without incident and without a definite place to go for good. After months of her harassing me which eventually led to an almighty unthinkable violent public altercation which left me feeling ashamed of myself my life continued and one morning two years or so later I received a call from a mutual friend of my ex and I and she gave me the tragic news that my ex had died tragically in a car accident on her first trip to the states. I immediately thought that no matter how frustrating our lives had been together she didn't deserve to die a premature death at such a young age.
When Johan and I started writing the album her story came to me as I listened to a moving chord progression that Johan played as we started demoing what became the album. I wanted to speak about the suspenseful hours that I awaited her return not knowing where she was nor what had happened to her. I wanted the suspense of the wait to be the starting point. I started with the lyrics "It's 5 A.M. and I'm just getting in, you said you'd go out but you'd be home by ten. I checked all the places, that I thought you could be, even ran through my mind the last words you said to me". I placed the whole lyric in the present because I thought that I would speak for anyone who had lived this kind of tragedy.
IT'S 5 A.M.
AND I’M JUST GETTING IN
YOU SAID YOU’D GO OUT
BUT YOU’D BE HOME BY 10
I CHECKED ALL THE PLACES
THAT I THOUGHT YOU COULD BE
EVEN RAN THROUGH MY MIND
THE LAST WORDS YOU SAID TO ME
YOU SAID "SEE YOU TOMORROW BABY
WHEN YOU GET HOME"
BUT HOW CAN YOU SEE ME WOMAN
IF YOU ARE GONE, GONE, GONE
YOU ARE GONE, GONE
The beginning of the next verse I connected with an experience I lived where I received the tragic news that someone I knew and loved had lost the plot and gone off the rails of reason and was about to be put away for years. What would you do if you received a call like that was my question to myself.
THE PHONE STARTS RINGING
BOUT A QUARTER PAST 2
I’M MADDER THAN A BITCH Y’ALL
BUT I’M ‘ONE CHILL CAUSE IT’S NOT LIKE YOU
THIS IS THE POLICE RINGING IS ALL I HEAR
I DROP RIGHT ON DOWN TO MY KNEES
AND RETCHED WITH INHUMAN FEAR
YOU SAID “SEE YOU TOMORROW BABY
WHEN YOU GET HOME”
BUT HOW CAN YOU SEE ME WOMAN
IF YOU ARE GONE, GONE, GONE
On the last verse I went way back to the baptist church that my grandfather had pastored in my youth and the spirit that circulated. I recalled my experience of funerals both of people unknown to me and loved ones. I lost my dad a few years ago and this is exactly what it felt like walking up to his casket. it ranks among one of the hardest things to do that I know and in the African American missionary baptist church experience where there is a funeral there is music and there are singers who's sole mission in my opinion is to cleanse you of your pain through songs and to not stop until there are no dry eyes in the house AND there was the song "Precious Lord" which was often heard during homecomings.
A coffin is THE last goodbye to a loveless and lifeless face.
DOWN NEAR THE ALTER
HER COFFIN WAITS
A VOICE SINGING “PRECIOUS LORD”
MAKES MY SOUL SUFFOCATE
EACH STEP DRAWS ME NEARER TO AN UNAVOIDABLE PLACE
TO A LAST GOODBYE
AH TO HER LOVELESS AND LIFELESS FACE
YOU SAID “SEE YOU TOMORROW BABY
WHEN YOU GET HOME”
BUT HOW CAN YOU SEE ME WOMAN
IF YOU ARE GONE, GONE, GONE
HOW CAN YOU SEE ME WOMAN
IF YOU ARE GONE, GONE, GONE
HOW CAN YOU SEE ME WOMAN
IF YOU ARE GONE, GONE, GONE, GONE
HOW CAN YOU SEE ME WOMAN
HOW CAN YOU SEE ME WOMAN
IF YOU ARE GONE, GONE, GONE, GONE