a message from: AL "PUFF" GILBY Re: LUNCH BY YOURSELF

“Allen, when we’re gone, you’re gonna miss us. You’re gonna eat lunch all by yourself!” my friend Laura exclaimed as we ate a late-night dinner at Village Inn. I was a junior in high school, hanging out with my soon-to-be-graduating senior friends, and a few of us were engaged in a discussion about songwriting. Upon receiving Laura’s words of insincere discouragement, I was inspired to write a silly chorus on a napkin. Soon after the chorus was complete, I penned the first verse, and recorded a simple guitar/vocals version of the song. Naturally, its lighthearted lyrics and simple rhyme scheme lent well to a Green Day-ish punk sound.

Two years later, I was in a college band, and we needed some
original material. I remembered that silly little song I had started
years before and decided to complete it. I kept the lunch theme in the
choruses, and wrote verses two and three about my transition from high
school to college. We only played the song once in concert, and not
long after that performance, we disbanded. So, over my 2004 Christmas
break, I decided to record the song myself.

Although I did not mean for this song to be taken seriously (many of the lines are tongue-in-cheek), it does have some truth to it. For those of you who share my trouble with hearing lyrics correctly, here they are in written form:

All my senior friends are gone
It is not gonna rock on
When I go to lunch next year
But in all reality
My junior friends will stay with me
But here’s what Laura tells me anyway…

Lunch by yourself, all by yourself
You will hate lunch, you will hate lunch
Lunch by yourself, all by yourself

Senior year is going well
Except for one thing, let me tell
I love this girl, I think she’s really great
But she doesn’t love me back
I think my heart is gonna crack
My appetite is gone again today

I am upset, I am upset
I don’t eat lunch, I don’t eat lunch
I am upset, yes I am very upset

I feel like I want to die
I feel like nothing’s going right
My hope’s misplaced, I’m a disgrace
But the months fly past…

My high school years are gone and I
Often stop and wonder why
I wasted so much time being upset
With the things that now have passed
And the hurts that did not last
At least I think I’ll learn from my mistakes

Now I eat lunch, now I eat lunch
Not by myself, not by myself
Now I eat lunch, yes, now I can enjoy lunch
Soon there will be a girl for me
We will share lunch, we will share lunch
And we will be oh so very happy

-allen