I heard a Rock station out of Youngstown, Ohio when I was 12. I heard Springsteen's double LP, The River, shortly after. I wrote some poetry for English class. I read Shakespeare. I saw the first video as it aired on MTV. Rock seemed cooler than Shakespeare. I heard Bob Dylan's LP Highway 61 Revisited. My parents bought me a guitar. I skipped town. I wrote 1,000 songs. They mostly sucked. I read Thoreau & Steinbeck. That helped. I heard Muddy Waters. That helped. I heard Tom Waits. That helped. S.R.V. & Cobain died. I stopped listening to radio. That helped. I skipped town. I played two songs and no one threw anything at me. I wrote another 1,000 songs. I skipped town back to the last town I skipped. I formed a band. We played dives. The Great Recession began. And that's about up to speed for this group of songs. Hope it helped, but I have my doubts.