Now or Never

This song was born during a break at a parking place by the highway on 18th March 2005. The first verse is pretty close to what happened; the rest is fiction. You don’t walk up to strangers, let alone dance up to them, right? The song became part of a 9-minute rock opera I wrote eleven days later. I considered “Now or Never” for my solo album “Heteroscedasticity”, but the context (i.e., the ending of the story) is somewhat missing. Well, here it is, anyway, because I like it and I relate it to two things:

  1. number plates. I remembered the car’s number plate (whose letters were an anagram of the German word for heart, ‘Herz’) and dedicated the opera to its driver. I really wish there was a social network based on number plates. There’s sites where you can rate your teachers (at least in Germany), why not have the same thing with cars? Of course, the potential for abuse is enormous, virtual road rage inevitable. But sometimes I find myself attracted by cute drivers, by friendly people and also by good music coming from the car stereo. Such a rating portal would finally settle the misconception that every considers themselves above average drivers.
  2. moving. The only other thing I remember from back then is that she was apparently moving, or at least transporting quite a lot of cargo. Incidently, I recorded “Now or Never” while I was moving myself. Drums were recorded in Waiblingen-Beinstein on 30th March 2005. Guitars, keyboards, melodica and vocals were recorded in Konstanz-Wallhausen on 10th April 2005. Now I’ll be moving once again next week.

Play: | Download “Now or Never”: mp3 ogg (more music)

She stood next to her car
She wasn’t all that far
All that far away from me
She had her radio on
Playin’ a Nightwish-song
And in a flash of audacity
I walked into her direction
And started to dance along
Even though I cannot dance at all

She waved and said “Hello.”
I asked her “Where do you go?”
She said “I follow you after.”
I told her “You look fine,
But I won’t steal your time,
Just wanna hear your laughter.”
She smiled at me and said
“Would you like some tea?
I’m sorry but that’s all I have left.”

Then she gave me her cup
And a friendly hug
I felt like now or never
So I took her hand
“I wanna see you again,
The sooner the better.”
She looked me in the eye
And said “Let’s meet tonight.”
“Just name the time and place and I’ll be there.”

(words and music by Johannes Schult)