When You and I First Got Together — A clearly adult couple remembers their first meeting at a bright Central Valley roadside café as flowering time spirals connect past and present

The songbook

When You and I First Got Together

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

Original Doug Heyes lyrics · AI-generated music & vocals

A relationship once imagined as permanent has gone sideways, leaving the narrator unsure how to move forward. Names carved into an old tree recall the couple's earlier freedom, while images of falling and fire express the present collapse. Despite acknowledging the damage, he keeps offering a homecoming and another chance to begin.

Listen

Recorded versions

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

Lyrics

When You and I First Got Together

Words by Douglas Heyes Jr

Save Lyrics as Text
When you and I first got together
We thought that it would be forever
We loved each other
In 1000 different ways
I guess that wasn’t meant to be
Sad endings for you and me
Lovers at the end of days
Our love is Goin’ Sideways

I went by the old oak tree
Where we carved our names
We were young and wild and free
And no one knew our  game
Now we know enough to know
Time for both of us to go
Long cold nights and lonely days
Since our love went Sideways

Where to go, I just don’t know
There’s not anywhere to go
Pick one of a million ways
It don’t matter anyway
No way can I walk away
Now, tomorrow or today
Time to play it as it lays
Ever since our love went Sideways

CHORUS:
Goin’ Sideways
Seems like only yesterday
You and I were on our way
Now there’s nothing more to say
Since our love went Sideways
I promise you that this is true
I’ll be waiting here for you
Forever till the end of days
Our love will never go Sideways

Searching for a trace of all
The things that used to be
Nothing could prepare me
For the end of you and me
I just don’t know where to go
What to do or what to say
i can’t even cry or pray
Since my heartbeat went away

Goin’ Sideways
Up over the guardrail
And falling all the way
Goin’ Sideways
A wildfire that started
From a little spark
Our love’s about to flame out
like a candle in the dark

We’re Goin’ Sideways….
Goin’ Sideways

Babe I pray that you and I
Can find another way
Way too many tears to cry
At the ending of the day
Night must fall on one and all
There's just not much to say
Babe, I am in love with you
And I am here to stay

Come on home my little one
You’re not the band on the run
Come to me, my runaway
It’s a brand new, sunny day
All the while you were away
Like a child on Saturday
Chasing birds and skipping stones
Say the words and come on home

CHORUS:
Goin’ Sideways
Seems like only yesterday
You and I were on our way
Now there’s nothing more to say
Since our love went Sideways
I promise you that this is true
I’ll be waiting here for you
Forever till the end of days
Our love will never go Sideways
*******

© Douglas Heyes Jr. All rights reserved.