I Don't Want To Be

“I Don’t Want To Be” - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot - 2003)

Can I divorce myself from any connection to some program on the WB that features all the beautiful people in the world put together in a perfectly packaged half hour? Please? Just long enough to say how much I love this song? I promise I’m not some wuss in Hugo Boss shopping for flavored Lattes in Starbucks. I swear it.

It was fall of 2003 and nobody had ever even heard of Gavin DeGraw, much less his touring mates, the headliners, Maroon 5. Now they’re both everywhere. Off the strength of 1 album a piece. I hate that. Why must everybody else get in on your discoveries and make you hate what you once thought was a very personal moment of magic? I can’t stand Maroon 5 now, but I can’t get away from Gavin DeGraw. Or his amazing album, Chariot. Want to call me a wuss again? A champion of the Top 40? I could care less. I can listen to Nick Drake any day. DeGraw’s album is flawless. And I challenge anyone to listen to it just once.

One of the highlights of that concert in November was this song. (This and his soulful rendition of Marvin Gaye‘s “Let’s Get It On”.) I was not ready for a new anthem, but it hit my ears and I had no choice. Granted, I am not a prison guard’s son. I don’t even know if DeGraw is. For all I know, his daddy could be a banker. He could have rolled out all the funds for his son to make his debut album. But when DeGraw Jr. belted out those words for the first time in my lifetime, to a packed crowd at the House of Blues, I believed him. Absolutely. And I wanted to tell everyone else that I felt the same way.

“I don’t want to be anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately…I don’t want to be anything other than ME!”

And when the rest of the instruments drop out at about 2:30 in, and there is just a piano and DeGraw soaring above the quiet, you feel like you could kick the world in their smug face with the truth that is the absolute authority of YOU. There’s power in them there words!

So, no matter how popular this song gets. No matter how many tv shows are a backdrop for Mr. DeGraws tunes. The soul of this song will never be lost. It is imbedded. And there are always lives to empower.

Now, give me your attention, please. Gavin DeGraw. It’s been over 2 years. Wont you put out an album of new material?

http://www.gavinsounds.com/