Face Like an Aging Movie Star:

I walked into the grocery store and noticed to a man standing at the Customer Service counter, possibly waiting to pick up his laundry cleaning or to buy a lottery ticket.

He was wearing a walking cast. He wasn't overly tall. He just past middle age and had a very handsome face, like someone famous. I didn't recognize him, though. He may have been a doctor, or an Olympic medalist in judo. He was in good shape and wore a dark V-neck T-shirt with a tan that suggested that he might be a snow bird up from Florida.

Anyway, the first line of the song came to mind:

Face like and aging movie star
Cuts his clothes from a magazine
Makes the scene, black muscle car
Gold cologne, smells like a king, like a king...

Steel blue eyes and a leather tan
Across his chest reads a woman's name
Keeps his money in a coffee can
So long ago he lost sweet Jane, sweet Jane...

I think of this song as a private detective movie. In my mind, I've cast Brad Pitt, looking about how he age by 2036.

Avoids police but he plays the game
There's always someone who needs to be found
Deep in the heart of the Everglades
Gators all know him by his first name, first name...

A trail of needles and bottle caps
Leads him to a ramshackle shack,
Blood on the door and the stench of death
Breathes through a clean, white handkerchief, handkerchief

My brother-in-law Clay suggested the opening single note run. I changed music behind the verses several times. It had to be something easy to play because there were a lot of words to remember in telling the story. 

Finally I landed on the chord progression Em-C-G-D, which is pretty common, as in "If You're Going to San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie, a song I've always liked.

Bullet holes and shattered glass
Body in the bed, eyes open wide
Deep in the shadows, corner of the room
A girl's sweet face too scared to cry, to cry

He carries her out, she's too week to fight
A lady friend puts her up for the night
He takes them out to this place by the lake
Baked potatoes and T-bone steaks all around, all around

This is the emotional heart of the song, where a competent man, someone good at doing his job, is confronted with the emotions of finding a little girl at the scene of a murder. In my imagination, the girl is filthy and frightened. 

I am a dad. As a kid I saw things and heard things that kids should not see or hear. My parents were both very loving and supportive. And yet, there were times during their divorce when it was very dark and ugly. 

The little girl has been neglected for so long, even before her mother was killed, that she welcomes the attention of two well meaning adults. The lady friend I imagine as a woman this gentleman had thought about asking to marry him, but for some reason it just never worked out. 

On a culinary note, of course, the little girl would probably want chicken fingers or mac and cheese from the kids menu along with crayons. But the handsome man isn't used to having kids around.

All the ways of a man
Seem right to him
But in the end they lead...

We all make choices, and if we have kids we pull them through those choices, good or bad.

He hunts down her father but he's out cold
Social worker says she'll do her best
Aunt and uncle have plenty of their own
Big brown eyes in a grown up mess, grown up mess

Hollow man with an empty heart
Pain, confusion, anger and pride
Never been anybody's daddy,
Prays with tears for the strength to try, to try

Has this ever actually happened in real life? A private detective finds a motherless child, tries to go through the proper channels to give her a home and finally decides to adopt her, likely at the same time marrying the woman he's cared for all these years.

Maybe in the movies. Starring Brad Pitt. Based on my song. Thanks for reading and listening!