Peto-A-Go-Go Lyrics: Words and Backstories!

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Click on the song titles from the list below to go directly to that song's background story and lyrics.

All songs written by Peto Gerth

"Just One Night"

I used the writing process of this song as a mental way to dissipate feelings of past relationships that were seeping into a newer one that was just developing. It's a note on how irrational certain feelings can be, until that is, they turn out to be 100% true.

It's just one night – I know in my head
So why does the past paint such a picture of doom
Why can't I just be fine without the dread
I guess it's because I recognize this empty room

No big deal and so I keep to myself
I've done this so many times it's a familiar cell
Distraction is good I keep telling myself
But what comes next I also know too well

Just one night
Just one lonely way of saying goodbye
Just one night
Just one awful way of letting me down
It's just one night in my life

I can get through, this is just my way
And the truth behind the lie will calm in time
It's just how it burns that gets in the way
When, really, I just want what I feel is mine

Just one night
Just one better way of saying goodbye
Just one night
Just one remedy to feeling so down
It's just one night in my life

It's not what I want to believe
It's just that damn history
Am I twenty? Am I thirty-two?
It doesn't matter, if it's just goodbye to you

Just one night / Just one heart / Just one night / You broke my heart
Just one night / Nothing's well / Just one night / It feels like hell

"Open Mind"

I started writing this on a trip back to Seattle in January '06. I'd been really discouraged with my life in Portland and this was the second in my series of trips to places of my past of which I was considering returning (the first being my trip to LA/San Diego in October '05). Aside from considering new places to live for the future, I'd also been trying to adopt a "living in the moment" mind set and just keeping a general openness about possibilities while trying to enjoy life a bit more and reconnecting with people I have enjoyed knowing in my life. How very Zen, I know... the funny part is that my sister and I commenced a Scrabble game (she kicked my ass!) both picking mantras to post in Scrabble tiles representing our current states in life... her's was "truth" mine was "open mind"... and thus the next day while spending the last night of the trip at a friend's, I started writing these words. I brought them home with me and immediately started on the music. It's a fun song for me because it's the first song I've done completely by myself in quite awhile (a lot of friggin' work!)... and the first song on which I recorded myself playing bass. Bass is a whole helluva lot o' fun! Only thing is... I still haven't decided if I'm moving back yet... [updated note: I moved to NYC in August '06 instead!]

So cavalier
So insecure
So 80 ways my mind's unsure
I'm reaching out
I'm staying in
I'm at loss to say where I begin

But I will be what I can be

Everyday there'll be new circumstancs to find
Everyday I want to keep an open mind
Any day I'll see a change of a different kind
Any day I'll learn to keep an open mind

No trust in hope
No clear way around
No steady way for me to find my ground
I'm seeking love
I'm shedding skin
I'm working on the hell that lies within

And I will be what I can be

chorus

It's unacceptable just standing here
Got to shift out of life's passing gear
And I can't bear to shed another tear
Or waste yet another year

So excavate
So work that nerve
So get upset and drive on through that curve
I'm on this now
I'm on display
I'm all but ready, set and gone away