My interest in songwriting coincided with my starting to play in a hobby cover band. As we improved we were invited to play the odd birthday party or fundraiser. When you book six gigs a year max, what are the odds one of them would fall on your spouse’s birthday? Turns out, not great. At the time of writing, I recalled watching a great doc about Apollo 13 (this was before Ron Howard’s fine effort), and also reading Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air about the Everest mountaineers who were force to descend in a storm. It was important to give the listener a sense of the sort of similar metaphorical fire that I, too, suddenly found myself playing with when choosing band gig over birthday cake.

Lyrics

Three men in a rocket on the way to the moon / A break-down in outer space, check-out time is soon / They call down to Houston, gotta right the ship / Or the ship turns to coffin on an everlasting trip / With a sense of terror, some trial and error, they figure how to turn it ‘round / Always a Way, Always A Back, Always a Way back home / Two men on a mountain, coming down from the top / Snow storm screaming in, mercury drops / Ride it out or risk it, it’s a toss of the dime but odds are either way their clocks run out of time / From the gates of heaven with the luck of seven, they cheated fate and stayed alive / Always a Way Back home etc / One man in a doghouse, really wedged in tight / He missed his baby’s birthday playin’ chords all night / With a long probation / Remediation / He lived to play another day / Always a Way Back home etc