Friend of a Friend

Album: Two Lanes of Freedom (2013)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This Mark Irwin, Josh Kear and Andrew Dorff penned piano-based ballad ends with a memorable coda. "That thing could've went on," McGraw told Billboard magazine of the outro. "We had about three full minutes of that. We were all sitting there watching (guitarist Michael) Landau play the lead on that, we had it done for like an hour, but we kept making retakes because we just wanted to hear him play. Just mesmerizing."
  • The song plays out like a movie as the narrator longs for a former girlfriend who has moved away and married, but there is a twist at the end. "People want to project themselves into the song, or project themselves onto the screen when they're in a movie," noted McGraw to The Boot. "They find a character that they can identify with and walk through this scenario with them. That's what music does when it strikes the right chord."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Who Did It First?

Who Did It First?Music Quiz

Do you know who recorded the original versions of these ten hit songs?

Bill Withers

Bill WithersSongwriter Interviews

Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."

Tim McIlrath of Rise Against

Tim McIlrath of Rise AgainstSongwriter Interviews

Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath explains the meanings behind some of their biggest songs and names the sci-fi books that have influenced him.

Bob Daisley

Bob DaisleySongwriter Interviews

Bob was the bass player and lyricist for the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums. Here's how he wrote songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" with Ozzy and Randy Rhoads.

La La Brooks of The Crystals

La La Brooks of The CrystalsSong Writing

The lead singer on "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," La La explains how and why Phil Spector replaced The Crystals with Darlene Love on "He's A Rebel."

Ed Roland of Collective Soul

Ed Roland of Collective SoulSongwriter Interviews

The stories behind "Shine," "December," "The World I Know" and other Collective Soul hits.