Travelin’ Businessman 1989

I wrote and recorded this in 1989 while I was performing at a “swanky club” called Innisbrook in Florida. Like all songwriters, I take personal experiences and expand on them. That is to say, yes, there was a traveling businessman, and yes, he got a little too friendly, but that was all there was to it. The song is way too long, and I would cut out the last chorus if I had to do it over again. I’d also take the song somewhere different in the last chorus. Alas, I have many other songs to work on, so this one remains as it is.

I’m on the other side of thirty-five, another gray hair today
Lookin in the mirror is a contemplative thing
Every night I sing my songs in a swanky club uptown
Every day I am at the gym, jumpin left, right, up, and down

Chorus 1
You walked into the club one night, you were a travelin businessman
You bought me drinks, well you wore me out with your jokes and your travelin hands
I took your tip, you tried to kiss my lips, and I just walked away
I ain’t got no time, and I am not inclined to waste myself that way

Well, I got on home, I put my nightgown on, I was thinkin bout the day
Lookin in the mirror, I applied my Retin-A
The cat got fed, I went to bed, and my husband was someplace
I tossed and I turned, and my ulcer burned
cause all I could see was your drunken face

Chorus 2
You walked into the club one night, you were a travelin businessman
You bought me drinks, well you wore me out with your jokes and your travelin hands
We were in the bar, then we were in my car, to this day I don’t know how
but like electric wire, man, I caught on fire, something snapped in me somehow

And now I’m sittin on my patio, I don’t know what to say
I’ll have another beer because what I feel is an embarrassing cliché
I’m on the other side of thirty-five, this is the crisis of my age
but still I see your face, my heart begins to race, lord, I’ve got to feel this way

Chorus 2

Ending

I’m on the other side of thirty-five, another gray hair today
Lookin in the mirror is a contemplative thing…