Recorded and mixed in Redwood City, CA in 2010 by Paul Fifield.
All instruments played by Paul Fifield. Vocals by Paul Fifield.
I entered the workforce reluctantly in my late teens. A friend got me a job in his uncle’s machine shop and in spite of myself I found that I liked the work and the environment, though I didn’t stick with it right away. When I was 21 I got married for the first time and I knew I needed to find steady employment, hopefully doing something I enjoyed, something that would keep my hands and my head occupied. I’d already experienced jobs I hated. So because of my prior machine shop experience I decided to go to school to learn to be a machinist, in a federal program called the MDTA program, where I learned just enough to be dangerous in a real machine shop. But I had enough interest and aptitude to progress in the trade and within 5 years I became proficient enough to find journeyman level work. Over the next several years I worked in many different machine shops and eventually, in 1981, I landed in the R&D shop of a leading laser company, and after 4 years there I got the opportunity to become the supervisor, then the manager, of that captive model shop, where we made parts for prototype lasers. I held the shop manager position for 24 years until the company closed the shop in favor of contracting with outside shops for prototype parts. That was in early 2009 and I was 59. I never worked again. The economy was in the tank and I gradually eased into retirement. A few months after losing that job I wrote this song as an expression of the fact that I finally had the time to devote to songwriting and performing, and that I had nothing to apologize for if I didn’t want to find another job. - Paul Fifield
I Don’t Need A Reason
© Paul Fifield 2010 All Rights Reserved
Forty years in the race, it was never my pace
Now I don't need a reason for floatin' downstream, gettin' lost in my dreams
There's more to me than my job, I'm coming out of a fog
Ya know I don't need a reason for floatin' downstream, gettin' lost in my dreams
Been avoidin' for years, through the blood, sweat and tears
The life I could grow, somethin' different, you know, been avoidin' for years
So I'm lookin' inside, and I'm tryin' not to hide
From the fire that's burnin', for the life I've been yearnin', yeah, I'm lookin' inside
Oh the price that I paid, for the life that I made
Now I don't need a reason for floatin' downstream, gettin' lost in my dreams
They ask, "What are you doin'?", they say, "You might come to ruin."
Still I don't need a reason for floatin' downstream, gettin' lost in my dreams
Been avoidin' for years, through the blood, sweat and tears
The life I could grow, somethin' different, you know, been avoidin' for years
So I'm lookin' inside, and I'm tryin' not to hide
From the fire that's burnin', for the life I've been yearnin', yeah, I'm lookin' inside
They ask "What will you do?", "Here's an idea or two"
But I don't need a reason for floatin' downstream, gettin' lost in my dreams
We have money for now, it'll work out somehow
Ya see, I don't need a reason for floatin' downstream, gettin' lost in my dreams
No I don't need a reason for floatin' downstream, gettin' lost in my dreams