Mike Zivitz Did It

 

Easily, one of the dearest songs to my own heart that I've ever written. Mike was my best pal in the world growing up.  He had his first child, Owen, and called me up to tell me about it. We had been out of touch for a number of years due to the fact that we lived on opposite coasts.  I knew that I probably wouldn't be much of a factor in Owen's life because of the distance and the different paths our lives have taken. Mike was about to embark on childhood again. Sure it's Owen's childhood, but doesn't parenting take us all back to our own? I wouldn't know. But I knew I wanted to tell Owen about me and his dad and how much his father meant to me when we were growning up.

 
Listen  Buy Download  Next Album Donations Submit  
 
 
Mike Zivitz Did It
   

I was a Cub Scout, Den 8, Pack 129. Met my best friends: Jamie, Kyle, and your dad Mike.
Do you like baseball? We sure did played all the time. I was the Mets, he was the Yankees. He won all the time.
We played in your grandpa’s back yard, pitched to the fence. Mike’s old dog Cleo would field the grounders, could she play defense
His Little League team was always better than mine. But when he won I sort of won too, so I was fine.
   
He was good at everything he did I hated being less.
He taught me it was better to compete than be jealous, don’t be jealous.
When the game finally came when I hit the ball And your sort of uncle touched them all
The coach said, ‘Son, who taught you how to hit it? How’d you hit it?’
Mike Zivitz did it.
   
I lived on your grandma’s cooking stayed over nights. We’d trade our Matchbox cars and race on our bikes.
We’d call the girls from Science who passed him a note. And crank call the patients from the nursing home as a joke, don’t ever do that.
He played guitar and I played piano. We formed a band, but he wouldn’t let me sing cause he liked this soprano.
   
We’d race those sunfish little sailboats around the bay. And battle at tennis or hoops or racquetball the rest of the day.
During a game beating his head in was all that mattered. Sometimes I won, sometimes I got splattered.
You’re dad was gifted all his classes were advanced. But there was no way I would have grades lower than that smarty pants.
   
I got into a college I never heard of until he applied.
Unfortunately, he didn’t go there with me, he lied. How was I to survive?
He wrote me letters and talked on the phone And before I knew it the semester was done
It was Christmastime and I was home And I passed all my classes and I felt alive Who gave me that drive?
Mike Zivitz did it.
   
We shared the same phony ID. We were both Robert Muchnick.
He drove if I wanted to drink and he stopped if I got sick. And I did.
I told him about my very first crush and he helped me pick out a braclet.
And when rejection hurt me oh so much, who was there to help me erase it?
Mike Zivitz did it.
   
He met your mom, man she was pretty and smart. I never saw anyone, besides me, so close to his heart.
He asked me what I thought he should say, then he showed me the ring. And choked up when he asked me to be the guy to hand him that thing.
   
So I handed it to him during Pachelbel’s Canon.
Then he kissed your mom and was pronounced man and wife.
Now I live far away in LA, but he called me up just the other day
And said that he and Carol had, by the way, given life To a cute little pike named Owen.
Mike Zivitz did it.
   

Hey Owen, You and I have a lot in common. We should be friends. I’d sure love to play baseball in your back yard if I could be Mets
I was a Cub Scout, Den 8, Pack 129. Owen hold on to your daddy’s hand, you’re gonna be fine.