Hollywood

words & music by Doug Howell (Sep 1981)

walking down the boulevard
the eyes so hurtin’, flirtin’ and hard
you’re utilized and tossed aside each moment
and bit by bit enamored by all the trumped up glamour
your greed begins expanding by exponent

you take refuge in the numbers game
forget your honor, despise your name,
you settle in behind your anonymity
just think of all you’ve been denied
and fabricate your alibi
and sacrifice your freedom in the name of liberty

welcome to
Hollywood
they believe in the power of the pocketbook in
Hollywood
everybody loves you when you’re lookin good in
Hollywood
stars and starry-eyed people are trampled underfoot in
Hollywood

flashing lights defy the moon
and draw you to the silent doom
of scavenging some substitute for love
so you chain yourself to endless racks of magazines and paperbacks
two-dimension fantasy, full color and glossy to the touch

welcome to
Hollywood
they believe in the power of the pocketbook in
Hollywood
everybody loves you when you’re lookin good in
Hollywood
stars and starry-eyed people are trampled underfoot in
Hollywood

the neon lights of tinsel town
they’ll hypnotize you and turn you around
your love lies under the spell of the silver screen
so you’re taken in the bargaining
you find your conscience hardening
and horrified when once the truth is seen

better get out of
Hollywood
they believe in the power of the pocketbook in
Hollywood
everybody loves you when you’re lookin good in
Hollywood
stars and starry-eyed people are trampled underfoot in
Hollywood

℗ © 1986 Dweller by the Light Stream Music, assigned to Creative Measures (ASCAP)

2011 Notes

Should be fairly easy to figure this one out. It’s one of the tracks where the whole gestalt of my anger and confusion just spills over from my own predicament into the subject matter at hand. The song was inspired by a trip to Hollywood, but just as much by the conflict that rose in me as I tried to come to terms with what I saw, what I wanted, and who I was. I of course hadn’t figured out fully who I was yet, so that made things worse (as it tends to do). The song’s a diatribe against the superficiality I saw in everything around me—including the music business—but also against my own weakness at being enamored by it and drawn to it. Very much sounds the same messages found in “Liar,” written a couple years earlier. Would come off awfully self-righteous if I wasn’t describing myself. Including myself in the starry-eyed masses. Guess you could say it’s a little look at Hollywood’s downside. Its underbelly. Maybe it’s about as far from an up-tempo praise song as I could get?