(Debuted December 17, 1988, Peaked #48, 10 Weeks on the chart)
I featured a song by Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers in this blog last April, during my first trip around the 1980s. The link above will give some background about Conwell and his group, but where "I'm Not Your Man" was a very unsubtle, in-your-face massage, the follow-up was surprisingly philosophical by comparison.
Thought it wasn't a #1 Rock Tracks hit like its predecessor (it stopped at #9 there), it reached #48 on the pop chart, which was a better showing than "I'm Not Your Man" managed. While sounding like a mix between the more introspective material that Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp had already been putting out, there's a story going on between the lines that is whatever the listener determines it to be.
Where "I'm Not Your Man" was a preemptive reminder that the narrator wasn't ready to settle down, in "If We Never Meet Again," he's finding that he's leaving part of himself behind as he travels farther down "life's highway." The lyrics (co-written by Jules Shear) don't say whether this was the result of a breakup or was simply the result of a missed connection, only that he's moving on alone and is carrying only good thoughts with him about what happened. it's an interesting counterpoint to the attitude expressed in the earlier single.
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