1 excuse
July, 2000
give me one excuse not to lose sleep over you,
‘cause I have, and I do, and tonight I’m likely to again,
just a simple fault, some bad habit you conceal from view,
maybe small, to remind me why I’m better off:
your secret drug addiction, emotional affliction, anything at all..
bad breath or sloppy grammar, atrocious table manners,
even something small to show me why I’m better off..
I could be convinced that I’m not your charming prince
as I chill with the frogs who are waiting to be kissed,
& tell me once again why we’re better off as friends,
there were reasons, I’m sure, but I’ve forgotten what they were since then,
was it lack of motivation? political persuasion? anything at all..
do you like Van Halen real loud? have a thing for bands with Umlauts?
(except for Hüsker Dü), could you be the one to get me over you?
so give me one excuse not to lose sleep over you,
‘cause I have, and I do, and tonight I’m likely to again
yeah I have, and I do, and tonight I’m likely to again…
Notes:
G (D, capo 5)
This song was written on a long drive back from Minnesota, in the summer of 2000. I also wrote Don’t Explain and Favor (both of which I rarely play) on the same car trip. This was in response to seeing an old crush for the first time in several years. My standard intro for this song goes something like this:
“This song is based on the idea that, when we have it really bad for someone, and it's clearly never going to happen, would it not be helpful, in that moment, to learn horrible things about them which are not immediately obvoius? 
"