Gingham Shirt

Lyrics:

Your gingham shirt was my favorite
You ever wore
Or took off and hastily threw on the floor
Where I am now
Among all the scenery from that time and I see
Your car everywhere now that I'm not looking

Hold on
Let's break all the rules
Or go on and stay
Broken

I'll miss our inside anecdotes
And all the silly little souvenirs
Can you hear all the songs in my head
That will play for years and years

In an honest question I asked
Could I still keep some parts of us I miss?
You said no because that's selfish

Hold on
Let's break all the rules
Or go on and stay
Broken

Let's break all the rules (let's break all the rules)
Let's break all the rules (let's break all the rules)
Let's break all the rules (let's break all the rules)
Or stay broken
Let's break all the rules (let's break all the rules)
Or stay broken
Let's break all the rules (let's break all the rules)
Or stay broken
Let's break all the rules 

A few notes:

When I found the chord pattern for this song, I was like, This has to be a break up song.
But I don't know how to write one 'cuz I haven't had a break up in like 10 years. #blessed

So, no, this song isn't about me.

Ever watch Parks and Rec?
It is the best show probably in the history of ever.
Probably even better than the Office.
Fight me.

This song is loosely based on when Ben and Leslie have to break off their interoffice relationship because she's running for office. Of course, artistic license, I put a lot of images and detail in there that wasn't in the show.

The "in an honest question" verse is related to season 4 episode 7 when they're trying to be friends at the model UN, but Ben's saying that that they shouldn't spend time together.
And Leslie's like, "But that was in a romantic way. We can still spend time together as friends."
And Ben's like, "It doesn't work that way. You can't just chop up the aspects of a relationship into discreet parts and select the ones you want like a buffet."
And she's like, "Why not?"
And he's like, "Because it's selfish."

Brilliant.
Every time I watch that episode, I just give a standing ovation right there.

And then the whole "let's break all the rules" theme is the key in season 4 episode 8 when they just say screw it and date anyway.

<3 LOVE E>

I really like the guitar-on-guitar action here. When I first recorded the song, it was only about 3.5 minutes, and I made an executive decision to add more music with that sweet guitar slide up to Bmaj7 because it's just so nice.

And then because people respond better to music videos than just music, I'm probably going to do a music video with myself. One side will be me playing guitar 1 and singing, and then the other side will be me playing guitar 2 and doing harmony.

This will be a challenge.
A true one-man-band experience.

Let's break all the rules.