I Gotta Be Alone — An adult songwriter sits alone beside a brilliant turquoise Merced canal beneath an orange tree while distant town life carries on in the sun

I Gotta Be Alone

The songbook

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

Original Doug Heyes lyrics · AI-generated music & vocals

It isn't that I don't love you. It's that everybody's voice has gotten so loud I can hardly hear my own. I need a stretch of road without answering for every step. Let me find the quiet before I promise anything else. Going away for a while isn't the same as having nowhere I want to return.

Listen

Recorded versions

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

Lyrics

I Gotta Be Alone

Words by Douglas Heyes Jr

Save Lyrics as Text
I GOTTA BE ALONE

It's not that you aren't
Always on my mind
But we both know we live
In changing times
Sometimes it goes so fast
I think I may not last
Remember how we used to ride
Down by the Riverside

Somebody once told me
That the Road would set me free
It's the only Home I know
And I guess it has to be
But everywhere I go
Someone wants a piece of me
Seems this long and lonely Road
Might be my Destiny

CHORUS:
I Gotta Be Alone
To find myself again
I don't remember who I am
But I still try to pretend
Ever since I left my Home
The Road’s the only Home I've known
Another day like yesterday
Another chance to find my way

Sometimes I really wish
That I could leave it all behind
Like these old and faded memories
In the corners of my mind
I remember our first kiss
On a Summer Night like this
Another time to wonder why
Why we have to say Goodbye

I promised you we'd be together
Till the end of time
I just don't know how I can ever
Keep these promises of mine
I don't know just what that means
I just know I still have dreams
A life, a love, my one and only
Alone with you and never lonely

CHORUS:
I gotta be alone
To find myself again
I don't remember who I am
But I still try to pretend
Ever since I left my Home
The Road’s the only Home I've known
Another day like yesterday
Another chance to find my way

The lights come on and you're not there
I can't see you anywhere
I know you're somewhere out there
I can feel you in the air
Another place, a saving grace
The smile upon a stranger's face
Reminds me I'll be coming Home
Sometimes I Gotta Be Alone
*********

© Douglas Heyes Jr. All rights reserved.