"Only Ghost"

My son came over for dinner on Saturday night, which was really great. I grilled burgers and the four us of had a nice family dinner together. But before dinner, my son told me he was "going upstairs to record something." An aspiring musician/songwriter, he had brought his acoustic guitar with him. So he headed up to my bedroom, where the seven-year-old eMac desktop computer resides.

About 20 minutes later, while I was downstairs on my laptop, I noticed that my son had posted something new on Facebook. It was a link to a music sharing site, where he had uploaded a new song called "Only Ghost." This is what he had recorded upstairs.

I listened to the song and was blown away. Even though it was a rough "demo" version of the song, recorded on the first take into an old computer, it moved me to tears. The song, which has a folk rock sound, is very personal; the lyrics tell part of the story of my son's journey.

I asked my son if I could share the song on Facebook and he had no problem whatsoever with that.  Not surprisingly, a lot of my friends loved the song and left very positive comments. My kid has a lot of talent.

I wish I could share the song here, but it's posted on the music sharing site under my son's real name and sharing it here would mean stripping him of his anonymity. But if you'd like to hear the song, maybe I can get him to post it to a more anonymous site; or simply give me an MP3 file that I can post here. (If you're friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, I posted the link to the song the other day.)

In the meantime, here are the lyrics to the song. Straight from my son's heart...

"ONLY GHOST"

just another way to kill the pain

just another way to shut me down

just another day that got away

it's all coming unwound

I could pull another couple strings

to get me off the streets

but I'd just as soon embrace the sting

and revel in self-defeat

where did it all go bad?

there's no way to tell

and it's all so sad

I did this to myself

a cigarette burn always marks the site

of my last fall from grace

yeah, you know I cannot seem to wipe

this guilt from off my face

it's a fire raging deep within

pour gas onto the flame

feeding 23 long years of sin

and it always winds up the same

where did it all go bad?

there's no way to tell

and it's all so sad

I did this to myself

I would kill to hold you close

but you're too far away

you could be my only ghost

and I'd love you just the same

(swear I'd love you just the same)