Open Mic Week 85: She Isn't Mine (Blues Traveler cover)

I was thinking of getting back to originals this week, but decided to do this one instead. Blues Traveler song, off of ¡Bastardos! (2005), which is probably long, long after you stopped caring about Blues Traveler. I like their later stuff quite a bit although the previous two albums were more to my taste than this one and the ones since.

Lyrics:

Been busted in Texas, seen my share of Colorado rain.
I've seen the anxiety every high school kid feels
Growing up on the Kansas plain.
I've looked to the East Coast, still idling in rush-hour hell.
And the West Coast keeps dreaming, things are tough all over,
But for me it's just as well
Cause she isn't mine.
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.

I promised myself I was done and I could walk away.
But now I am just on the run and with nowhere to stay.
I think of her often and dream of how different I'd be,
Because it can hurt so much that I panic in the pain.
So changeless, I want to change me
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.

Every mention of you, yeah, it splits me in two
Because it feels so good, but I promised I would
Keep it easy and fun but when you're on the run
You scavenge to live, and what I just wouldn't give.
I tell myself "Forget her," that it's only for the better
But I can't help devise some added surprise,
To keep her in contact, to feel her react to me,
To feel her attract to me,
But it's so abstract to me.
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.
She isn't mine.

I especially really like the cadence breaks at the end of the second verse and basically the whole third verse, and the contact/react/attract/abstract internal rhymes at the end. The cadence break almost makes up for the quality of the rhymes at the beginning of the third verse. I wouldn't call this great songwriting but there are things I find worthwhile about it and it's fun to sing.

This song came out not long before a bad ending of a relationship and friendship for me, one that I both valued immensely and screwed up immensely, so I have some emotional resonance there as well. I definitely did that "devise some added surprise to keep her in contact" bit waaaaay too much.