Teri

One of my favorite songs to sing, Teri has been through a few recordings and revisions since its 1989 debut off Moonlight Chronicles.  Basically a variation on a song that Richard Thompson did from Daring Adventures (Jennie)  Teri is written about an old friend of mine Teri Cortesio who was a co worker who somehow liked the early music that I did back then.  I think she was in her mid 30s when she worked at my place of employment and she was a chain smoking babe as well.   When I came back from Arizona in 1987 after being kicked out of my aunt's house and as I returned the U Haul at a Marion store she popped in and said she was moving somewhere else and we gave each other a hug and wished best of luck.

That said Teri was never a girlfriend of mine.  She seemed to be restless woman trying to find something of value in life. To which I hoped she did find.

The 1989 version is more preferred, it's very slow and very reflecting,  plus it leaves room for a guitar solo as well.  In 2002 it was revisited as a more uptempo song.  I recorded Teri at the beginning of The Road Less Traveled but left the recording off the finished product (later reissues I put the song back in but for the most part it could be on Observations From The Forefront, an odd and sods albums of outtakes and greatest hits at that time), for a run through it was actually pretty good.  A third version was recorded in August of 2008.

It could be masquerading as a love song of wanting somebody you'll never get but in the end it's basically a song that is more about friendship saying goodbye one last time.


Teri (my love)

It's been a while since we last met
It's good to see your face again
Spent the last part of the decade
Wondering where you're been
You used to say we were the best of friends
Even though we kept separate beds
Still we fought a losing battle
To save from a bitter end

But you were set in your ways
And your image even today
As you smoke your cigarette (clearly)
Through smoked filled eyes I  see you, Teri my love

Seeing you through the looking glass
The smile has left your eyes
And while we talked about the good ole days
There's something on your mind
Made a promise that if I loved you
I'd write it in a song
But as I hold you, I wonder
Why did it take so long

But daddy's little girl
Lives in her own special world
Giving fantasy a whirl
But does the world revolve around you  Teri my love?

Well I guess I'll be leaving now
It's time for me to go to work
I like to thank you for your sweet time
Yes, you're still a friend of mine

But you were always a wayward soul
Who always goes where the wind blows
Never made a promise that you didn't kept
But deep in your heart you know better
Teri, my love

(C) 1989 R.Smith