Lyrics & Stories Tijuana Bible
Track 10
Things I Cannot Change
Dustin Welch, Super Rooster Music (SESAC)
I been walking these streets all night longLike I ain't never gonna see the morning dawnI might go talking to myself about something strangeBut there's just somethings I cannot change
When the pilot light went out in the boiler roomThe woman I loved left me way too soonNow I knew it wasn't ever gonna be the sameCause there's just somethings I cannot change
ChorusThe rising sun makes the shadows fallWhat's done is done once and for all
If you're looking for trouble it won't be hardWell, I'll be waiting down at the wrecking yardYea, you got your mind mind up under lock and chainAnd there's just somethings I cannot change
I might go outta my mind and get outta handI might lose control and lose commandBut won't somebody please try to explainWhy there's just somethings that I cannot change
ChorusThe setting sun makes the shadows fallWhat's done is done once and for all
I been walking these streets all night longLike I ain't never gonna see the morning dawnI might go talking to myself about something strangeAnd there's just somethings I cannot change
Played by
- Dustin Welchlead vocals, banjo
- Jeremy Nailelectric guitar, background vocals
- Scotty Bucklinkeyboards
- Trisha Keeferviolin
- Steve Bernalbass
- Eldridge Goinsdrums, percussion, background vocals
The story
This song was basically a study in futility. Before I officially moved to Austin, I came to stay for a month to scope out the scene. My band, the Swindlers with Justin Townes Earle had just split up, my girlfriend at the time had left me to go find paleo-Indian civilizations in the Great Smokey Mountains, and I was well on my way to losing my mind. I lived in an old Airstream trailer in the backyard of my sister's then-time boyfriend and my future guitar player, Kyle Ellison. Kyle is an honest-to-goodness Rock God, who worked with the Butthole Surfers, the Meat Puppets and at the time shared a studio with Paul Barker from Ministry. A fairly large leap from the old-timey string band I had just left. Kyle asked me to record some instrumentals to pitch for an HBO project they were working on which eventually became the basis for the songs 'Poor House' and the instrumental section of 'Green Badge' off the Whisky Priest album.
I wrote this song as a way of letting go, liberating me from my need to control everything, and accept my present situation in life, no matter how deranged I might be. It also was the first glimpse I had at achieving the sound I'd always wanted to develop. It would be another three years before I would move to Austin, and by then I'd been around the world with the punk rock band and knew what I needed to do in order to fulfill the sound I been dreaming of.