One Thing or Another — An adult in a bright Central Valley workshop considers guitar, wrench, train, bicycle, orchard and highway as every choice curls into one flowering road

The songbook

One Thing or Another

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

Original Doug Heyes lyrics · AI-generated music & vocals

Family upheaval, workplace pressures and everyday interruptions keep blocking a couple's plans for a different life. The narrator imagines escape to a cottage by the bay, but even marriage and devotion remain vulnerable to the next obstacle. His impatience with postponement runs alongside affection and the fear that another goodbye is coming.

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Recorded versions

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

Lyrics

One Thing or Another

Words by Douglas Heyes Jr

Save Lyrics as Text
ONE THING OR ANOTHER

Well, it's One Thing Or Another
That always seems to get in our way
One Thing Or Another
Maybe up until our dyin’ day
Mama's closin’ up the diner and she's gone to Carolina
Papa up and gone and passed away
Yeah, it's One Thing Or Another
Maybe time to take a holiday

I don't know if it's even possible
For either one of us to get away
Maybe it's illogical, certainly improbable
I'm shattered as my colors turn to Gray
We travel on the road to the impossible
And we try to make a getaway
I just know I want to be southbound
With my baby to a cottage by the Bay

CHORUS 2 :
Yes, it's One Thing Or Another
That always seems to get in our way
They got a deal at work so you got to walk the walk
It don't matter how you feel when the gossip won't stop
Better take the key and just drop it in a box
Cuz you'll never be free, and you'll never pick the lock
It's always One Thing Or Another
But, baby, now it's time to Rock

THUNDERBOLT GUITAR SOLO

Baby, One Thing Or Another
We got to change it all around
We're in the bed of the River
On the other side of town
When we talk about Forever
You show me satin wedding gowns
But baby, One Thing Or Another
Seems to always take us down

Come on down by the River
Maybe time to set yourself down
We pray  Our  Sweet Lord will deliver
Cuz the devil want to pull us on down
We hope and pray that there will come a day
When we will GTF out of this town
You can never live your life on layaway
When your Sun is going down

We're underneath the Moonlight
And I'm playing my Guitar
You're just another Angel
Who has fallen from a Star
It's simply undeniable
That you are who you are
You came into my life for to be my wife
Till it's, One Thing Or Another, Goodbye
*********

© Douglas Heyes Jr. All rights reserved.