We wrote this song about the people who stand beside you. But a few weeks later I'm not sure that's what it's about anymore.
That's not a complaint. It's the part of this job I didn't ever expect and still find strange.
THE GAP
You write together as a group a song in a room. Four people, a few afternoons, one idea you're all chasing. For me, Damon Sharpe, Bonnie McKee & JHart, the idea was gratitude.
The people who remind you how strong you are when you've forgotten. Family, partners, friends. I've written about that here already and I meant all of it.
Then you put it out, and it stops being yours almost immediately.
I have no idea where BEST OF ALL TIME is playing right now. Somebody's car. Somebody's kitchen at four in the morning after a shift. A room where somebody needed it for a reason I couldn't guess and didn't write for. The song doesn't care what I meant by it. It goes and does its own work.
That's the trade. You get to make it, and then you don't get to decide what it is.
A STRANGER TYPED MY OWN VERSE BACK AT ME
Somebody I've never met left seven words under one of the videos. That was the whole comment by someone we’ll call Mystery Post.
No one thought we'd make it this far
No emoji. No "love this." Mystery Post just typed the line back at me.
I keep thinking about it. Because nobody sends me the hook. They send me the verse:
People never thought we'd make it this far
But now we're breaking the cage
I thought that was just the fight in the middle of the song. Something to lift the second half before the chorus came back around. Turns out it's the part people were waiting for somebody to say out loud: and waiting quietly. I had no idea.
Everybody has a version of this same story. Somebody decided early of what you were capable -- and they were wrong.
But here's what I didn't understand when we wrote BEST OF ALL TIME. The good part isn't proving them wrong. Most people never get that moment and I’ve found that you don't actually need it.
The good part is the day you stop building your life around the argument.
So Mystery Post didn't explain any of that. He typed seven words. I'm pretty sure he didn't need to explain it, and I'm pretty sure that's the point.
THE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM SAID IT FIRST
I'm putting this up here instead of at the bottom, because the bottom is where credits go to be ignored.
Bonnie McKee, who wrote it with me: "It's so good, I'm so happy with how this turned out."
Damon Sharpe, who produced it: "On repeat."
This song is about what people can do together. And the first ones to say it out loud were the three who were in the room while we made it. Bonnie, JHart & Damon decided this thing into existence with me over a handful of afternoons and then were the first ones standing in front of the song saying it worked.
That's not a coincidence and it's not a marketing line. It's just the song happening to the song.
And the dance break in the official music video isn't mine either. @richysquirrel built that one, and it's one of my favorite moments in the whole video.
THE TITLE WAS ALWAYS PLURAL, AND NOW I KNOW WHY
"When we get together we're the best of all time."
I've said before that the plural is the whole point. But I said it as the one of the person who wrote it, about what I meant. I'm saying it now as somebody who watched what happened after.
The song didn't travel because of me. It traveled because people handed it to each other. That's the same thing the lyric is describing. I didn't plan that. It's just true -- and it's the best argument I have for why the title isn't a brag.
WHAT I WANT TO SAY
Thank you for taking it somewhere I couldn't have taken it myself.
I'm going to keep writing about the specific things that happened to me, because it's the only kind of song I know how to write honestly. But here's what I learned this month: the more specific the song, sometimes the more places it fits.
That's backwards from what you'd expect, and I think it might be the most useful thing I know about writing.
Play it loud. That part hasn't changed.
Xoxo SHAB