First Impression — Two adults meet at a bright Merced bus station while windows, puddles and chrome repeat their first glance through a flowering streetscape

The songbook

First Impression

Words by Douglas Heyes Jr. Listen to the recorded versions and follow the lyric below.

Original Doug Heyes lyrics · AI-generated music & vocals

The narrator questions the reliability of first impressions while recalling city recklessness, small-town gossip and an encounter in the country that unsettles his view of reality. Love asks him to look again rather than trust an easy judgment. What seemed familiar becomes strange, and what seemed lost becomes possible a second time.

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Recorded versions

3 recordings. Different voices and arrangements bring another side of the song into the light.

Lyrics

First Impression

Words by Douglas Heyes Jr

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FIRST IMPRESSION

You say that First Impressions
Are the most important thing
Well, I am here to tell you
They don't mean anything
Lord, the way word gets around
When you live in a small town
I guess that's why they say love's best
The second time around

I grew up a city kid
Just outside of LA
It didn't matter what we did
We'd always get away
I was riding faster than the wind
When I went out to play
But when my dad came home again
He took the keys away

My girlfriend had some medicine
That would take me all the way
I said, babe, you better let me in
I'm so tired of sunny days
I may just have to learn how to pray
Or I'll save it for a rainy day
Looks like we're gonna be up all night
So, Baby, maybe you oughta stay

CHORUS
You might trust your First Impression
But you just don't know enough
It might take an all night session
For you to fall in Love
I got my First Impression
Of a Love I thought was gone
Maybe it's a kind of a confession
But my First Impression was wrong

BRIDGE
I came out to the country
Cuz I had to get away
I can't say what they done to me
But they took it out in trade
Selling honey on a Country Lane
She was smilin’ at me through the rain
She said, come on, honey let me show you the way
Gonna take away your pain

Man, I tell you, I saw things
I've never seen before
I saw this world unraveling
I went running out the door
She tells me we are Travelers
From another distant Shore
I guess my first impression
Doesn't mean much anymore

Hold me close, my darling
Please look into my eyes
Can you feel the raindrops
That are falling from the sky
Can you look inside of me
Please tell me what you see
I've been waiting here for You
As you have looked for me

You are every woman now
And I am every man
Maybe we're in Heaven
Or just the Promised Land
I'm lookin’ for a Great White Bird
It's written somewhere in the Word
Tune into the conversation
Love’s a brand new First Impression
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