Month: April 2022

I won’t flagrantly blurt my exact age on this website my dear reader, but I will say that the 90’s will always seem at least 10 years ago and I think I will forever feel like I’m around 28 years old. As they say, you’re only as old as you feel.

It’s interesting to witness formative albums of your youth also become old, distinguished, and perhaps classic. “When did that happen?!” I often ask myself. It seems as you get older, time accelerates. I’ve spent most of my life being young, and it’s only just occurring to me that the state of youth can’t and won’t last forever.

The best part about being young is that there is a whole culture built around it which makes one feel even more powerful and immortal that you would otherwise. You almost feel like you’ve earned it! Until, of course, you hurt yourself sneezing and find stray white hairs all over. You’ve actually earned age and you don’t even want it! Age and humility, two bitter tastes that go great together.

I will say that being in your 20’s looks exhausting to me now. As I recall, it was fairly exhausting (and fun).

This song might be sloppier than I hoped for, but you have to let your children be what they are.

E=MC2

The speed of light
Just might
Take you out of the fight
Turn the wrong
To the right

The speed of day
Just may
Get you carried away
to you own dismay

The speed of death
We just met!
Your shoes
Are under the bed
The curtains twist
In the wind

Twist In the wind

The speed of light
Just might
Take you out of the fight
Turn those wrongs
To the right

The speed of time
Horseflies
These are the tilt-a-whirl years 
Hold on to something 
That’s dear

The speed of birth
What’s worse!
You are breath 
of fresh air
You’re coming in
crystal clear

Crystal clear!

Dance, like you’re in a french movie
Exhale into the abyss
Put a T.V. dinner in the oven
Shoot your shot like you can’t miss

Recently, in a certain semi-exclusive power-pop related chat room Peter Gill of 2nd Grade posted (and I’m paraphrasing) “There’s nothing more satisfying than a song that has I IV V progression with someone singing “I want you” in the chorus” I not only agree with him, but I took it as a personal challenge to try my hand at writing a song with those ingredients.

I Want You

Thinking ‘bout the crime
The time you might have 
Slunk into the waiting room

You said a single line
I find, I pine
at the first sight of you

The boss is away
I say in a not-so-pleasant tone
There’s a price you’ve gotta pay
They say for always keeping 
on your headphones

If you want the job
I think you might be overqualified…

Between here and there
We’ll have our share
Of small catastrophes

Put the lamp next to the chair
Let down our hair
And keep things in parenthesis

The kids are alright
We say goodnight in feather down soft tones
Leave the bills we have to pay
Do what we may
Forget about our cell phones

If you want the job
I think you might be overqualified

I want you

If I had to choose a favorite guitar chord, I’d go with G major. When I was first learning to play guitar, the G chord seemed very tricky and elusive. It seems the moment I mastered it, the rest was history, a guitarist I’d become.

I also love the the G chord because it just sounds so full and powerful to my ears, and as soon as I pick up a guitar it’s the first thing I play just to see if everything is in order.

A little while ago, I’d wondered if I could write a song with a single chord and this is – as you might have guessed – in G. It’s not really completely in G, there are other weird C and E shapes in there if you really listen.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Back To The Future, I really like the idea of meeting your parents when they were younger. Time travel is just so compelling! I think if I had casual use of a time machine, and also maybe some kind of invisibility, I’d just sit and chill with my grandparents in their kitchen.

So that’s the song in a G-shaped nutshell…

A Solitary Cord

If there was tunnel
If there was a way
To bend the stubborn arrow
the other way

I’d sit in the corner
and never look away
as you read the morning paper
she cracks an egg

Spin the big wheel
And watch the showcase!
Were you over by a dollar?
Who needed them anyway!

A solitary cord 
Appears on my face
I think I’d be river!
I’d be a lake!

If there was tunnel
If there was a way
To bend the stubborn arrow
the other way

Who’s playing on the TV?
What’s the score today?
Throws another interception
and that’s the game

On the big bed
The stories are the same!
Did he have a change of heart?
Did she get away?

A solitary cord 
Appears on my face
I think I could be river!
I'd be a lake!

It sure seems like there are plenty of people who are wetting themselves with glee when the topic “the end times” comes up. Some folks like bridge, or golf, or baking sourdough bread. Others are truly Armageddon enthusiasts. I mean, when you look around, one can find themselves wanting to give up on the whole thing. But, you know there are nice things too. I personally would be sad to miss out on tomorrow’s Wordle.

The people I’m complaining are usually staunchly, fundamentally, religious, which is generally their whole deal. They are after all the “chosen ones” and will somehow be excluded from the general pain and suffering that we outcasts can look forward to. (I’m lumping you in with me) How low does your self-esteem have to be for you to just blindly believe it when somebody says you’re one of the special exalted few? You’re special? You. Doreen? How about you Trig? “God” wants to hang with you for all eternity? An all-knowing, all-seeing god is really excited when it comes to you? You’re getting raptured? Ok…

This is a song about how it might feel to be left behind. I personally, might find it mildly relaxing, apart from the prevailing radioactive winds and the annoying lack of Dippin’ Dots available.

Those Post Rapture Glory Days

All the good people 
Made it to the stratosphere
And you’re left behind

There’s a heaven waiting
For creatures big and small
How could fate be so kind?

All the canned goods
And modern cinema
Should tide you over
Now

Constant comments
and the petty criminals
Who needs them anyhow

This is your corner now

Party!

Met the other leftovers
just the other day
Forgot how to say hello

Talkin ‘bout how things
are so much quieter now
Since everyone checked out

We’ve got more time
and fewer opinions
To squabble over now

Constant comments
and the petty criminals
Who needs them anyhow

This is your corner now

Party!

The mushroom cloud grows
And where it goes
Nothing grows anymore