She's Not You

This is an early song. I wrote this in 1972. It's a very sad song, and as part of a songwriter's workshop I wanted to share it for several reasons. It takes on a difficult subject, a love triangle to be sure but a little more complicated. Anne Murray recorded the song in 1974, and I feel that when sung by a woman it makes better sense. I've written about the song for Aboutthesong.com, a weekly songwriter's blog and an extension of the songwriting workshops that we have conducted for years. In the article I go into more detail about why I think certain ideas take on a different meaning when the song is adapted to male or female interpretation. Some songs work very well for both with only a change of pronoun. But this one may be one of the exceptions. For the video I found it difficult to choose images to support the sad lyric, so I took footage from some of my favorite seascapes. I hope the uplifting wind and waves will put the song in a pleasant perspective from which to contemplate the words. You can hear Anne Murray's version of the song at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaHTtlEK5bw

Added 2 Sept 2026