7. I'm Good Now - Bob Schneider
This is the title track off of the album that introduced me to Bob Schneider. I often pair it with Thin Lizzy's "Cowboy Song" since they both boast western sensibilities. In fact, the song's narrative plays out as if it were a film shot in the transition between spaghetti and post-modern western. There are explosions, knife fights, Mexican bars, dangerous women, and a laconic anti-hero.
The title is the only line to be repeated in the song. A different character speaks it each time, and they do so twice. It appears at the end of the first refrain:
Well, I've had a mighty bad run of luck
since you left this town.
Sometimes you hit the brakes
but you can't slow down.
I know what I want on my damn tombstone
when they put me in the ground.
Tell 'em to write it big and tall, or not at all.
Just put, "I'm Good Now."
I'm Good Now.
Schneider's song is the 21st century analog to Johnny Cash's "Satisfied Mind". People deal with mortality in different ways. Ignoring one of life's constants would rob a person of the human experience, or so I'm told. I admire the tough guys who reach the end of life, give a smirk, and say, "Well, that ought to do it." I want to be a tough guy like that. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, but I know how I wish to behave when I get there.
The title is the only line to be repeated in the song. A different character speaks it each time, and they do so twice. It appears at the end of the first refrain:
Well, I've had a mighty bad run of luck
since you left this town.
Sometimes you hit the brakes
but you can't slow down.
I know what I want on my damn tombstone
when they put me in the ground.
Tell 'em to write it big and tall, or not at all.
Just put, "I'm Good Now."
I'm Good Now.
Schneider's song is the 21st century analog to Johnny Cash's "Satisfied Mind". People deal with mortality in different ways. Ignoring one of life's constants would rob a person of the human experience, or so I'm told. I admire the tough guys who reach the end of life, give a smirk, and say, "Well, that ought to do it." I want to be a tough guy like that. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, but I know how I wish to behave when I get there.