Running Home

Todd DeFeo • Running Home

Released in Fall 1999.

  1. Running Home
  2. We’re Living in a Tabloid World
  3. Turn Night Into Day
  4. Can’t Turn Back the Clock (Can’t Turn Back Time)
  5. So Much Wiser Than Yesterday
  6. Good-Bye to Yesterday
  7. Jewel of the World
  8. Long Gone
  9. Late for Tomorrow
  10. Indiana Skies

All songs written by Todd DeFeo (ASCAP).

(c) 1999 Todd DeFeo. 2 (c) 1997, 1998 Todd DeFeo. 3-5, 8-10 (c) 1998 Todd DeFeo.

The album was included on the limited-release The Todd DeFeo Collection.

The Story Behind Running Home

Released in fall 1999, Running Home was not an album in the traditional sense. It was a collection of songwriting demos that were ultimately allowed to stand on their own.

The recordings began as working versions of songs rather than finished studio productions. The idea was that they could later be refined, expanded and recorded again with fuller arrangements. Instead, much like Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, the demos became the record. Their directness, limitations and unfinished edges became part of the album’s identity.

The earliest sessions date to early 1998 and produced “We’re Living in a Tabloid World,” “Turn Night Into Day,” “Can’t Turn Back the Clock” and “So Much Wiser Than Yesterday.” Several of those songs were recorded more than once before the final versions were selected.

Another group followed on Nov. 24, 1998, including “Indiana Skies,” “Late for Tomorrow” and “Long Gone.” By then, much of the eventual album had already taken shape, even though the songs were still being treated primarily as copyright and songwriting demos.

The final pieces arrived in fall 1999 with “Good-Bye to Yesterday,” “Jewel of the World” and the title track. The same period also produced several outtakes, including “Slip Away,” “Keep On Holding On,” “Passing Time” and “Where the Road Unwinds.”

All except for “Passing Time” were released on live albums recorded on WDUB-FM in Granville, Ohio.

In the end, Running Home became a document of songs in their original setting. Rather than being rebuilt into polished studio recordings, the demos were released largely as they existed, preserving the immediacy of the writing process and the moment when the songs first found their form.