Name: Live For Today
Duration: 5 min 14 s
Channel: Mike Allen
Description: License options are available for this song. Country Ballad

Single $1

Country Ballad

singer songwriter folk southern rock country americana roots mike allen texas music

Mike Allen

Americana Artist and Texas Songwriter

Texas Singer/Songwriter Mike Allen. Always a writer, Mike had his first song recorded in 1984, "Whiskey and Tears", and has been an ASCAP writer and publisher since 2001. Falling into a cross between Country/Southern Rock/Roots/Americana/Blues and Folk, Mike's music is REAL. Whether it is about a love gone wrong, one newly found or just the pitfalls of everyday life, everyone will find something of themselves in Mike's songs.

Song Info

Genre

Country • Americana

Charts

Peak #418

Peak in subgenre #18

Author

Mike Allen

Rights

2014

Uploaded

April 18, 2016

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.8 MB • 128 kbps • 5:14

Story behind the song

Used to watch ths young rodeo cowboy that came out to this club we played a couple of times a month. He had gotten pretty busted up on a bull ride and was told he couldn't ride anymore without the risk of getting paralyzed. He was always already drunk by the time we got there and kept going til closing time, I guess he just couldn't deal. One time we went back and he wasn't there, never came back. one of the regulars told me he got married and got a job as a mechanic. This was my take on it.

Lyrics

Live For Today-
Sitting on a barstool holding this cane/Where I'd been for almost a year/The doctors told me I could never ride again/And those were words I couldn't bear to hear/Then an old man walked up and sat himself down/Laid a worn shoebox on the bar/He nodded to the silver buckle that I wore and said, "Aw son, I've been where you are"/He bought another round and opened that box/Showing me three buckles like mine/ He said like me it ended by no choice of his/And he just wanted to lay down and die/So I asked how you give up the one thing you know/Cause I just can't find a way out/He just smiled and said he never gave up one damn thing/Just found something new to know about 

CHORUS: 
You can never lose the thrill of it all/The high of a good ride, the lows of a fall/You'll never forget the people and places you've been/Memories are nothing but some things and thoughts/Keep them in your heart and an old shoebox/But live for today son, It won't come around again

He pulled a wedding picture out of that box/Faded from years long gone/He said that pretty lady wasn't just his wife/But the best friend that he'd ever known/After twenty five years with her by his side/The life, love and kids they'd shared/ She left him all alone to walk through this old world/And no other loss ever compares

(Repeat Chorus)

I have never seen him since that one night/But that old man taught me alot/ I traded in self-pity for a nine to five/ And the world didn't end like I thought/There's even a girl that I'm seeing now/We're making plans that I never dreamed/I've got a shobox for that buckle and my memories/But they will always be a part of me|| (CHORUS)