YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS - ExMormon Song Parody (Tom Petty)

Here's another ExMormon-themed song parody based on a Tom Petty song - my fifth parody of his songs.  I find it interesting that his songs have provided such inspiration for me.  Of course, like I've said in past posts, I'm a huge Tom Petty fan, so perhaps that's why they speak to me so much.

This one talks about the fact that no one knows how leaving the Mormon Church feels to someone who has left.  For me, I was frightening in the beginning [as I said in one of my other song parodies - The Leaving (was the Hardest Part)], probably because it was the only thing I had known my entire life.  I was 52 years old when I began discovering all the lies, and it took me another 2-1/2 years before I was finally able to walk away.  But when I finally did take the leap, it was truly amazing - so liberating and life-altering.  Definitely worth all I went through getting to that point.  All the researching.  All the contemplation.  All the soul-searching.  All the self-doubt.  All the struggling.  It was worth every single minute of it all to reach the point where I am now - because I am living an authentic life, finally away from a religion that tried to squelch my true personality, stifle my independent thoughts, and turn me into a clone.  That's what Mormonism attempts to do - create a bunch of cookie cutter people who mindlessly go along and "just believe" despite the mountain of facts and evidence against its validity.  I'm so glad to finally be away from that destructive mindset.

So here's my latest song parody.  I think it's funny that I've chosen to parody this one in particular because the chorus in Tom Petty's original song says, "But let me get to the point, let's roll another joint..."  How un-Mormon - and yet, somehow, so apropos...

YOU DON’T KNOW HOW IT FEELS

Sung to the tune of You Don't Know How It Feels by Tom Petty

Let me tell you how I feel
Now that I’ve had the time to heal.
Mormonism left behind,
So many lies are intertwined.

[Chorus]:
But let me get to the point, just why I split the joint,
And I’ll repeat it out loud, because I left and I’m proud.
And you don't know how it feels,
You don't know how it feels… to be free.

Went along, just believed,
Many years was deceived.
I woke up and could see
It’s not true, so clear to me.

[Chorus]:
So I’ll say it again, repeat the why and when,
Just why I walked away, I’ve got so much more to say.
And you don't know how it feels,
You don’t know how it feels… to be free.

I was Mormon, born and raised,
All those years, I wasn’t fazed.
But then I finally saw
It’s filled with lies, the final straw.

[Chorus]:
So I’ll say it again, repeat the why and when,
Just why I walked away, I’ve got so much more to say.
And you don't know how it feels,
You don’t know how it feels,
No, you don’t know how it feels… to be free.

You don't know how it feels,
You don't know how it feels
No, you don’t know how it feels… to be free.

© Diane Tingen, 4/29/2015