Mike Peterson and Dennis Bales

You Drive Me Insane

Words and Music

Mike Peterson

Musical Assistance

Dennis Bales

Other Versions

Private Lives 1981

Geerlings Peterson Gagon 1983

MP And Friends 1985

Peterson Silcox Giles & Grant 1999

Notes

This is the first song I ever wrote.

And when I say "wrote" I am being overly generous to myself.

In the very early days, I was almost totally musically ignorant. I composed this piece as a set of lyrics, a somewhat off-key vocal and a vocal approximation of the solos, breaks and riffs.

Dennis Bales, my old friend and music teacher, took what I had and worked out the chord progression.

This recording was done on a borrowed 4-track recorder at Dennis's home in Redondo Beach.

It was my first attempt at recording a song.

Fortunately...no copies survive...it was not especially good.

Lyrics

There's not a person in the world
Who's completely sane
Beyond all chance of doubt
There's a little of the lunatic
In all of us
Just waiting to come out

I thought i was OK
Until i met you babe
Thought i was in command
But the games you played
And the tricks you pulled
Were more than my mind could stand

You drive me insane ...

Oh there's only so much
That a man can take
Before he goes out of his mind
Starts weaving baskets
In the loony bin
Leaving reality behind

For some it takes war
Starvation, disease
Concentration camp too
But i must be the weakest of all
For me all it took was you

You drive me insane...

So they locked me up in the mental ward
On the high security floor
Napoleon is screaming on down the hall
Preparing his troops for war

Well i just had a talk with jesus christ
He's in the very next cell
I told him what you did to me
And now you're gonna go to hell

You drive me insane...