I was so into the concept of Rocky’s Diner that I wrote it in 3 different ways.
I had always loved the Billy Joel song “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”. It was 3 songs within one song. I know I said I was trying to keep it simple but I always start with a lot and strip it back.
Like Coco Chanel said “look in the mirror and take one thing off”.
I had a Sinatra quote going around in my head, when he once said to the crowd that he loved the gig because “the place was full of nice smiling, receptive unarmed people”. I wanted to use this somewhere. I started strumming my favorite chords with a capo on the 4th fret because it sounded prettier. Out of nowhere I began to sing “down at the end of a lonely street, there’s a place where the lonely meet, to cook the cold from the day”.