This was the first single off of Up There Down Here. We recorded it in LA at a studio called Sound City, a very famous room where Nirvana's Nevermind was recorded along with several of Tom Petty's albums and scores of others.

This song was written in a batch of tunes that came at the tail end of the Up There Down Here sessions. It was the classic "I don't hear a single" conversation that was going on at the time. There was all sorts of talk like "you don't have enough songs with the title of the song in the chorus" and things such as that.

I was listening to Radiohead's "High and Dry" at the time - great song. The chorus of that song is "Don't leave me high/Don't leave me dry" so I paraphrased..."Don't Let Me Hide" and wrote words around that. Blatant yes, but any writer that tells you he hasn't done that in some form is lying. To be sure nothing was left to chance, I repeated that phrase over and over...and over again in every chorus. I even put the title of the album in the B Section - "Up There, Down Here" (we had already named the record when this was written).

Actually, I was just pissed off and sick of trying to write a single. I didn't expect the song to get recorded let alone released. It became the only single off of Up There Down Here before we descended into label hell.

   - Bret Alexander

Next: "Poison Ivy" →

Badlees Songs Blog