Alive Tonight
by Jed Moffitt

In the Pacific Northwest, we have these monster storms every year, where giant fir trees in your back yard wave back and forth like wheat on the Great Plains. Sometimes they fall over. Sometimes on your roof. Sometimes we sleepwalk through our days. Same old, same old. We dream about what we would do if we had a million dollars. Retire to the south of Portugal perhaps. Drink red wine. Relax. We think we have it all figured out. I was visiting my sister on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin, and a freak storm came up. There was a giant willow next door. We could hear it crack and then fall over and snap live power lines, spitting sparks like snakes on the pavement. Half the fire department showed up. This song hearkens back to the great power ballads of the 70s. Stan’s Les Paul channels Neal Schon of Journey, and the electricity is palpable.

I listen outside in the dark
The wind blows a cold rain, and the cats run under the bed
Power lines sing, branches break
Windows rattle and shake, to wake the dead

The music intermingles with the wine and the wall of sound
Picking me up and slamming me into the ground
There are days I am living on cruise control, miles away from the light
But man, I am alive tonight

I feel like my hair is on fire
Sometimes I can see me asleep on a Portuguese beach when I retire
Then in my dream the ants come crawling all over my skin
And I long for a song played sweeter by the reaper on a bluegrass mandolin

The music intermingles with the wine and the wall of sound
Like a feedback loop in an encounter group, spinning around and around
Sheep are bleating in the company meeting, sleeping by the firelight
But man, I am alive tonight

I put on some magic glasses and held the whole world in my hands
The perspective of the moon from a children’s tune that nobody understands
From a million miles, crocodiles hover under a Venusian sky
They appear as a souvenir to the naked eye

(Guitar Solo)

The music intermingles with the wine and the wall of sound
I am drinking from a fire hose that goes and goes until I almost drown
There are days that portend an inglorious end in a gunfight under the moonlight
But man, I am alive tonight

Jed Moffitt: Vocals and keyboards
Stan Snow: Guitars, backing vocals and percussion
Mia Boyle: Backing vocals
Mike Stone: Drums
Chris Symer: Bass
Don Gunn: Mixing
Ed Brooks: Mastering

Copyright 2019 Jed Moffitt BMI, All rights reserved.