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We’ve all seen it happen before. In fact it might have happened to you. “It’s Dangerous.”

Guy meets a girl in bar, and serious flirtation ensues. Relationship starts that was based on a couple shots of whiskey and a slight hand graze to the back of the neck or the lower back. Guy uses girl for a while and then becomes addicted to the idea of having her around. Girl is completely over the relationship and wants out but is too scared to get out because she is completely frightened that she might grow old and she’ll never find another man. So the girl and the guy both stop thinking, give up, and decide to settle for each other. I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times, and each time you really wish you could step in and stop it before it starts. This might be my favorite song on the album because of the simple truth that the song ends with,

“It’s dangerous, the first time… you’ll fall for anybody to say you’re in love.”

Side note: My favorite all-time moment from a Guv’nahs’ band practice came from when we put together the final ending structure for “It’s Dangerous”… you know, the part where the horns are blaring, the organ is soaring, the guitars are wailing, the drums are pounding, and i am repeatedly screaming “It’s Dangerous!”…?  Well, in the moment of pure jubilee that it all came together…. my good friend and bandmate Chris Doody stood up from his keyboard, screamed aloud, picked up our gum-ball machine and hurled it across the room… the glass shattered with a loud boom, exploding approximately 500 gum-balls into the practice space atmosphere. In unanimous approval we all stood up, rejoiced in our successful creation, and immediately went to Barley’s Taproom for a celebratory $2 pint.

The chorus of “Courage” was originally inspired by that moment that happens right before you kiss someone for the first time.

“Courage moves within me,
makes me shake.
Looking for an ending,
without the way.”

When I was in 4th grade, I encountered my first “kiss on the mouth experience.” Someone dared me to kiss my 4th grade girlfriend right before we got on the buses. It was awesome, and successful. I remember my entire body shaking right before the kiss… like a tidal wave of nerves that made my skinny little 85 pound frame convulse with an uncontrollable fierceness… but then the lips contacted, the trembling ceased, and all was well.

The first verse of the song outlines a simple truth,

“What you want is never enough
what you got will leave you in want
where you stand, you’re waiting in a line
put your hand in mine.”

Thesis: You’re not actually kissing someone until your lips touch someone else’s, and you’re not actually doing anything important until you get up and set out to do something important. To do something great you don’t have to know where you are going, but you do have to find the courage to get started.

Music video is coming REALLY SOON. I promise with my whole heart.

james