“Invest Your Son” - a song about inveigling
This was recorded at Ft. Worden State park in Port Townsend, WA. This was inside the Henry Benson Battery on top of Artillery Hill.
Story Pairing
I have talked about Project DREW before in these musings, and the short of it is that it’s a pairing of a songwriter and a veteran. We meet on a Saturday morning, the veteran shares their story with the songwriter, and then we have that evening to write a song, bringing the finished version that following Sunday to perform for them and theirs. It’s a beautiful way to bridge worlds and find perspective and ultimately connection. Find out more at https://www.projectdrew.org
These stories aren’t completely mine to share, so instead I personally want to remember how it felt carrying this song around.
One of the many reasons that I make these musings, is that I have developed a sort of personal version of writers block when it comes to songs. These keep me on task, but also feed the problem... I’ve been doing these musings long enough, that I have a pretty standard flow of things. I write a song > I try and memorize it asap > I make a video of it > I share a musing. Because of that, there are two bottlenecks in my songwriting world that I’m personally working through.
First - memorizing. I think this is so important as a songwriter. I typically won’t play an original out live if I don’t have it memorized. There are very few exceptions. The main one is if it’s one I don’t really play much anymore and it get’s requested. I might pull out my little songsheet app and play it for whoever asked. (It’s a highest honor to get asked to play one of your own songs instead of freeboard for the 1000th time from that super funny drunkard that is totally unique). The other is if it’s a song that I’m writing for someone else, I can’t always seem to memorize those ones as easily. Covers, who cares, I’ll play those out of a book all day. This mind has limited real estate and I’d rather try and keep the bank full of my own tunes.
That all said, these Project Drew songs are really hard for me to memorize. They are someone else’s story, and that can be a slippery thing. It doesn’t have all the normal handholds to pull the tune along. And because they are hard to memorize, it slows down my recording process because I want them to be perfect (an impossible task). It’s important to me to honor another story that they’ve shared, so I want to make sure the way I capture these songs for the first time feels right. I broke down and used a cheat sheet for this video…. feels good to get that off my chest :)
That sort of leads into the second bottleneck, and one that is ever lingering in the artists world, the pursuit of perfection. It’s impossible. I know it, you know it, it doesn’t matter. We care about this shit and want it to be the best it can. For this tune, I wanted to record it somewhere outside and in a setting that had some affiliation with war or loss. I had been thinking a graveyard, and was scoping them out as we drove from OH to SD to KS to CO to CA to OR and then to WA this last month. We passed so many options, but it just didn’t feel right. That ultimately led me to missing one of these musings for the first time. That was also because I didn’t have another song in the bank that I wanted to record or that I have written lately, my mind has been focused on this one.
While we had a couple days off, Ashley had encouraged us to hike around Ft. Worden, and that’s when we discovered (already mapped out of course, I use the word discovered in a very focused, individual sense) the abandoned batteries. They were amazing, the sound inside was so unique. I knew I had to record a tune there and this was the perfect song. There was a reason it was stubborn and didn’t want to be recorded anywhere else, it needed to be paired with this space.
We had to bike up to this spot, and when I say up, I mean it. I don’t know the last time you’ve been a 260 lb man biking uphill while carrying a bunch of video gear… but it’s not easy. I just set the camera up far enough away that you can’t smell me or tell how sweaty I am. (Shoutout to Ashley, for biking my guitar up for me, and making it look so easy!)
The audio is untouched. I used my field recorder and put the slightest compression on the file, that’s it. All that verb you hear is natural. So cool!
I’m glad this song is shared. I’m honored that Randy trusted me with his story. I will work on my bottlenecks to be the best songwriter that I can be. If you want to chat about the craft in any capacity, my inbox is always open. Take care and we will meet at the next tune!
Song Structure
Capo 4
Verse & Verse: C - C/B - Am - Am/G - F
Voice Memos
Notebook Page
2026
These project Drew tunes I often type so that I can share at the end with the veterans. My handwriting can be a little odd when I’m rushing.
Lyrics
I walked in his last march
That pall showing a price was paid
The flag maker and the undertaker
Are buying stock in the pine trade
The commodity I’m left with now
Seems like a busted poor payout
But I can’t be painting pictures
Uncle Sam's pockets are low
War’s good for business
War’s good for business
There's money to be won, if you invest your only son
Then the war’s good for business
They covered up his face you see
Hid the truth from you and me
Pictures of the captured men
Held familiar eyes
We searched for any paper trail
Dug up that site, took out those nails
A pile of old gravel
That they sold as a fallen hero
I needed to do something
Double down on what he started
Place my stake in his old memory
Find him if I could
The currency of knowing things
Cracking codes, decoder rings
To do my part felt proper
But parts can be replaced
War’s good for business
War’s good for business
There's money to be won, if you invest your only son
Then the war’s good for business
They gathered on that crying mile
With signs and judgement in stockpile
To spit on passing humans
Who only try their best
Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam
Where their friends had been shot down
To see Ohio listed
Was a punch into my gut
Mothers grab their children back
As if my uniform could attack
Don't they know I do it cause I love them
Not the cause
So I’ll take those filthy stones
And say my last goodbyes
Those boys folded like dollars
And burned away
War’s good for business
War’s good for business
There's money to be won, if you invest your only son
What they don't say is that payday it only comes for some
Then the war’s good for business
From the givers and the getters
I’m happily the former
I’ll turn my hands to healing
Where there’s plenty more to gain
Ocean-scapes and mountain lakes
As precious as the world can make
A land I treasure as every single
beat passed through my heart
I’d bravely hear the call again
For my country and fallen friends
With little interest in the upper crust
hedging all their bets
They will take the microphone
And name the names who won't be home
But think of all the progress
And the riches that we won
They said War was good for business
They said War was good for business
I’ve seen the cost too clear, to let them cash another tear
A box of rocks an insult to the families standing here
Not a war that’s good for business