I wrote Worn Yesterday towards the end of my senior year at
CHS. It was March, and I had The Godheads going with Ben Daniels and Pete
Leonard, but I knew as I wrote it that this song wasn’t cut out for that band,
which was more along the lines of Nirvana and Green Day. It’s a dramatic
ballad, unique enough that I can’t think of any easy analogues. I wrote it,
didn’t know what to call it, and was driving around Manayunk one night and saw
the boutique on Main Street
called Worn Yesterday, and voila, there it was. I played it for a few CHS
people like Adam Garrett, and it was a staple of my repertoire when I arrived
in State College later that year. Yet, when I
started seriously recording in the late 90s, I never felt I could do it
justice, and (to be honest) I still haven’t done it justice. It needs, I’ve
always felt, a string section, something ornate and baroque to elevate its sound. This particular recording of Worn Yesterday was done at my 23rd
and Arch apartment in 2010, using Audacity. As to who the target of the song’s
lyrics is, there’s no easy Carrie or Jen here. I seem to have tapped into a
situation beyond the confines of my own life. Who knows?
