Tuesday's Track - Lucky Now by Ryan Adams

I real love the music of Ryan Adams. I was introduced to it by a work colleague who encouraged me to by ‘Gold’ back in 2002. I was blown away with the album and I have followed Ryan’s career through many up and downs.

Cardinology was an exceptional album and I thought it would be hard to eclipse it, but last year with Ashes and Fire Adams gave us the best album to-date.

My favorite song on the album is ‘Lucky Now’, which really sums up all the best in Ryan Adams. Melodic, great vocals, excellent thoughtful lyrics and a feeling of intense personal heartache, this truly is a great song.

It has some meaning as well:

“According to Adams, an early version of the song was about Cardinals bassist Chris Feinstein, who died in December 2009. In August 2011, Adams stated, "It was a difficult song to write. The first version was called "Chris". I was trying to write a song for my friend and former bandmate who passed away. The song I wrote was too direct, and I realised that there needed to be more self-reflection. I needed to make this feeling relatable to others, so that it could be relatable back to myself. In some strange way, it needed to be more altruistic, by being more first-person. It's a very strange concept, but when I listen to songs, I need to feel the narrator's shoes rubbing against my feet, you know? I needed to put myself in that place."

Adams elaborated further, "It's the second draft of the song that I wrote for Chris Feinstien. [...] I think it was really fantastic, it was a good thing for me to write. Eventually, because I sat around with it, "Lucky Now" came around."

Lucky Now

I don't remember were we wild and young
All that faded into memory
I feel like somebody I don't know
Are we really who we used to be
Am I really who I was

The lights will draw you in
And the dark will bring you down
And the night will break your heart
But only if you're lucky now

Waiting outside while you find your keys
Like bags of trash in the blackening snow
City of neon and toes that freeze
We've got nothing and nowhere to go
We've got nothing and nowhere

And the lights will draw you in
And the dark will take you down
The night will break your heart
But only if you're lucky now

And if the lights will draw you in
And the dark will take you down
But love will mend your heart
But only if you're lucky now