Tune Tuesday – The Distance Between You and Me

I follow quite a few blogs that focus on classic movies, classic TV, and great music.  One of the bloggers I follow posted a bit about Dwight Yoakam and his great song “Ain’t That Lonely Yet.”  You can see that blog at the following link:

Dwight Yoakam – Ain’t That Lonely Yet

When I am driving in to work, or at work listening to my iPod or Pandora, I will jot down songs that I think I might want to post for Tune Tuesday.  The day he posted his Dwight song, I had been listening to my iPod and heard one of my favorites, which is today’s tune.

In 1990, Dwight Yoakam released his fourth album “If There Was a Way”.  It produced 5 top 40 singles – “Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose” (#11), “You’re the One” (#5), “Nothing’s Changed Here” (#15), “It Only Hurts When I Cry” (#7), and “The Heart That You Own” (#18).  He also released a duet with Patty Loveless called “Send a Message to My Heart” which reached #47.  The album also includes some great cuts that never played on the radio:  The uptempo “Since I Started Drinking Again”, the bluesy title track, a cover of Wilbert Harrison’s “Let’s Work Together” and the opening song – “The Distance Between You and Me”

The song opens with a lone guitar lick, and then goes into a classic country riff.  A teacher I had in high school used to say country songs always had an “un-chicka un-chicka un-chicka” beat to them….LOL.  When you listen to it, you will know what I mean.

Dwight wrote this song.  I’m not sure what his inspiration was, but I LOVE the illustrations he paints for us with the lyrics.  He is in a dead relationship.  They two are co-existing.  They are two people who could not be farther apart.  How far?  The lyrics explain.

The Distance Between You and Me

Take a rock tie a rope
Throw it down in the sea
Let it fall to the bottom
Nobody knows how deep
Stare real hard through the water
And you might just perceive
The distance between you and me
The distance between you and me

Take a map of the world
And measure with your hand
All of the miles
Across all of the land
Write it down add it up
And you might understand
About the distance between you and me
The distance between you and me

I lie awake and hear you breathing
Only inches from me in this bed
Not much space but it’s all that we needed
To live alone now that our love is dead

I lie awake and hear you breathing
Only inches from me in this bed
Not much space but it’s all that we needed
To live alone now that our love is dead

Climb the Earth’s tallest mountain
To where it reaches the sky
Take a gun fire a bullet
Straight up out of sight
Where it stops in the heaven
Well that ain’t half as high
As the distance between you and me
The distance between you and me

I love the haunting final chord at the end of this song!  I saw Dwight in concert a few times and he really is great on stage.  I actually had the chance to meet him once and it was … weird. Everyone with Meet and Greet passes all went into his tour bus.  We all sat down and he exited what must have been his bedroom on there.  He walked around to each of us. Shook our hand. Looked directly into our eyes and asked our name. He then repeated our name and said, “Hi,(your name). I’m Dwight.” The whole time I was thinking, “Dude! You have been making records for years…..you have a ton of hits…..we all have tickets to your show….we know who YOU are!!” He was very gracious and signed autographs and took pictures, but it was one of the most awkward meet and greets I have ever been though.