THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS...
THE LAST SESSION

WHEN YOU CARE
words by John Bettis
music by Steve Schalchlin

After I finished the first three songs, I called my old friend John Bettis. I met John back when I worked for National Academy of Songwriters. He was on the board. A respected and intelligent songwriter, he was one of the few "big guys" who would call the office and get involved in the day to day experiences of this motley group of musician/volunteers trying to rescue a bankrupt national songwriter organization.

And all the new songwriters coming into town competed to be able to write songs with wordsmiths like John Bettis.

When we needed something, we knew a call to John would get us that thing. It was a resource we tried to use sparingly and wisely. And John took a personal interest in us, too. When I first tested positive for HIV he immediately sent me to his personal doctor/acupuncturist, encouraging me and caring about me, even taking me out to lunch when he knew I was feeling particularly stressed out.

So, it was only natural that I would call him and tell him about my new songs. I was standing at the elevator when he came into his building. He took one look at me, didn't recognize me and then did a double take.

"Oh, my God I didn't recognize you."

I was quite a bit skinnier than the last time he'd seen me. The wasting was already showing in my face. I can imagine I looked pretty horrible.

We went up to his apartment and I told him how I'd been writing these really unusual songs. I told him, "John, you know I've never been one to play songs for you..."

(Though I had played "Connected" for him the previous summer.)

I sat down and played the new version of "Connected" with the new verse he had told me it needed. He liked it. Then, I asked him to listen to a new one, "The Group." He called it "perfect." And then I sang "Going It Alone." He was really taken aback. Normally when your friend plays a song for you, you fear it's going to be something horrible.

But I could tell that John was moved emotionally. Then I said, "Uh, I have this one other song and I only have a verse and a chorus. It would be so cool if John Bettis wanted to cowrite it with me."

Then I played him the first verse.

There's a line holding us together
There's a line holding us all together
You can call it fate
You can call it life
But everything changes

When you care
When you care
You don't need an explanation when you care
Either you love or you don't
Either you will or you won't
You don't need an explanation when you care

We changed it a bit in the final version, changing "line" to "light." When I finished this song fragment, John jumped up off the couch, ran over to a desk, pulled out paper and pencil and began scrubbling furiously.

"Keep playing the melody," he said. And I did. Soon, he told me he had something. I grabbed the paper and with the first few words, I knew I had asked the exact right person to write this with me.

There's a word

It sounded so good in my throat.

Stronger than the silence
There's a word stronger than any silence
You can call it love, you can call it God
The name doesn't matter, it just doesn't matter

When you care
When you care
You don't need an explanation when you care

Either you love or you don't
Either you will or you won't
You don't need an explanation when you care

He kept throwing sheets of paper at me.

Out of time
everyone is running out of time
And the river keeps on rolling
You can live every day. You can die every day.
Which way doesn't matter, no it just doesn't matter

When a hand
reaches in the darkness
When a hand touches you in the darkness
It might be a friend
Or someone you don't know
Which one doesn't matter, no it just doesn't matter

When you care
When you care
you can only make a difference
when you care
Either you love or you don't
Either you will or you won't
You can only make a difference
when you care

The reason John was the perfect person to write this with me is because "When You Care" was, from the first note, an anthem. Not the quirky, personal kind of song which I seemed to do well. (And John had written the words to one of the good ones, "One Moment in Time.)

Anthems are difficult to write because it's so easy to fall into cliche when you're making big statements. You have to find a way to make the words feel natural but be tricky enough to keep the song interesting.

One way to do this is to make each repeating chorus different in some way. The phrase where "you can only make a difference..." became the changing phrase from chorus to chorus

I suggested we write a bridge. I stole some chords from an old song of mine and improvised new changes and a melody. He began writing again as I played it over and over.

(This sounds like an old movie.)

It seems to me life's mystery
is written in the language of the heart

This wasn't just lyric writing. This was really beautiful.

We learn to read from what we need
and everything the poetry of living teaches us
It teaches us
everyday it teaches us

The concept that we learn to live by reaching out to others when we ourselves are in need and that life becomes poetry when we love -- well, that's what it means to me.

And I love the phrase, "the poetry of living."

When you care
When you care
You can only lift the darkness when you care
Either you love or you don't
Either you will or you won't

He said, "Save 'lift the darkness' for the last chorus" and I did.

You don't need an explanation
You can only make a difference
You can only lift the darkness when you care.

This song has become the most performed song from TLS. Choirs all over the country have begun singing it and it's been featured in fundraising events.
 
 

NEXT: The Preacher and the Nurse.

BACK to list of songs.
 
 

The Group copyright 1996 by See No Evil/Lil Shack O Tunes