The man who sings this song knows that maxim better than most. If you know anything about the life of Gary Allen, well, it hasn’t always been beautiful for him. Far from it. This song comes from his “heart-wrenchingly personal” Tough All Over album, released not long after his wife, Angela Herzberg, committed suicide, a death blamed on depression and migraines. The album also includes the grief-fueled songs Puttin’ Memories Away and Just Got Back from Hell. As the old saying goes, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
This man beside us also has a hard fight with an unfavouring world, with strong temptations, with doubts and fears, with wounds of the past which have skinned over, but which smart when they are touched. It is a fact, however surprising. And when this occurs to us we are moved to deal kindly with him, to bid him be of good cheer, to let him understand that we are also fighting a battle; we are bound not to irritate him, nor press hardly upon him nor help his lower self.
– Ian Maclaren, 1903
Here is another Gary Allen classic: