Monthly Archives: July 2020

Give the Drummer Some

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On Sunday, I ran through 8 songs in my basement and posted the video(s) on YouTube at my music page. I figured these 8 songs were a good representation of where I’m at in terms of songs and music I’m playing, at least electrically. My hope is at some point to find a drummer, hence the name of the video (parts 1 and 2). I split the set due to a glitch right about midway through.

The title is a reference to both a Big Star song, when drummer Jody Stephens sings “Way Out West,” and Alex Chilton says, “let’s give the drummer some.” Of course, if you know your popular musical trivia, then you know that James Brown says “I wanna give the drummer some of this funky soul, here…” in his song, “Funky Drummer.”

I actually just finished A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton by Holly George-Warren Here’s a review of the book, here. Actually, I like this summation of the book, better.The book was kind of depressing (at least in parts) due to how Chilton pissed away his considerable musical talents through the trifecta of rock and roll, “drugs, booze, and sex,” or at least that was my perception. I’ve written a song about this and will be rolling that out in an upcoming video or recording.

I received positive feedback about the videos from those who watched them. A couple of people asked about lyrics.

Here’s lyrics to my songs and links to the covers (below):

Walking Down the Road

Verse 1

Walking down the road alone, I saw a country lost at home

A mission of hope carried me forth, I lived each day for all it was worth

A president came while I was away, I planned to counter him every day

Hate and division won’t carry us forth, come together and be a force

Chorus:

I wish I had just one more day, I know I had so much more to say.

I love my dad, I love my mom. I’ll miss my friends forever yon

Verse 2

My family back home sent me their love, I wished I got back to give them a hug

We all know what we think we know, but can we strive for a greater hope

Friends I lost along the way, but still I walked another day

Saving earth was what it’s about, some of the haters would jump and shout

Chorus:

I wish I had just one more day, I know I had so much more to say.

I love my dad, I love my mom. I’ll miss my friends forever yon

Verse 3

One hundred days of joy and pain, my feet moved ‘cross the fruited plain

A dirty hippy or something more, why can’t they see my higher road

My face and words live on today, I often wonder what people say

I gave it all held nothing back, but in the end was it done in vain

Chorus:

I wish I had just one more day, I know I had so much more to say.

I love my dad, I love my mom. I’ll miss my friends forever yon

[Instrumental break]

Verse 4

Walking down the road alone, I saw a country lost at home

A mission of hope carried me forth, I lived each day for all it was worth

My family back home sent me their love, I wish I got back to give them a hug

We all know what we know, but can we strive for a greater scope

Chorus:

If I had just one more day, I often wonder what I’d say

It hurts my dad, it hurts my mom. Please remember them from where you roam

[Fade]

© EverysongYeah  2019

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National Disgrace

Verse I

You’re a national disgrace

A fucking public shame

Trashing all your rivals

Can’t ever shoulder blame

Verse II

Talk about corruption

Should be your middle name

Bait and switch the shell game

It’s how you set your frame

Chorus

Deny global warming

Call it just a hoax

You’re a pox on the planet

Tides are rising at the coasts

Greatness offered suckers

No lightning in that jar

History will show us

Exactly who you are

Verse III

Tiny hands and fingers

Grabbing all you can

All your daddy’s money

Won’t float another sham

Verse IV

Some see through illusion

Your divisive world of hate

Fake news is your mantra

You deserved a Watergate

© EverysongYeah  2019

———————————

Spaceship Blues

Verse I

Life it sucks and then you die

Storm clouds in a darkened sky

Fucking morons are all around

All I wanna’ do is leave this town and roam

Verse II

Idiots tell you just to smile

Don’t have a clue, ain’t walked one mile

In land that’s filled with shit

Jump in a spaceship and be done with it and fly

Verse III

Coronavirus its shut us down

Like sheep we’re led to town

Trust the experts they’re rarely right

Load up that spacecraft with supplies and leave today

Verse IV

Facebook friends are posting crap

Take the bait you’re in their trap

Ideology will dead-end

Fly to outer space never to return again

© EverysongYeah  2019

Covers/lyrics

JM (Strand of Oaks)

September Gurls (Big Star)

Berlin Kitty (The Violet Burning)

Motor Away (Guided by Voices)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wisdom Out the Window

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Back in 1985, I’d recently walked away from fundamentalist religion. I’d been a student at a school run by a Baptist megalomaniac named, Jack Hyles. I’ve written many posts about Hyles across the footprint of my blogging that dates back to 1993. Of course, in 2020, blogging is as anachronism, just as outdated as a rotary dial phone. Doesn’t mean it’s bad—it’s just not the way the ignorant masses roll these days, especially the impressionable kids.

I was just an impressionable kid myself back in the mid-1980s when Ray-Bans were all the rage. But, I had determined to dry the wetness behind my own two ears. I figured broadening my understanding was the way to go. Moving beyond mere Bible verses and jeremiads offered in daily chapel services at Hyles-Anderson College seemed like a step in a new direction.

Mark was two-years-old and Mary was working the breakfast shift at the local Wendy’s. I was working the afternoon shift keeping the prisoners at Westville Correctional Center healthy and medicated (I was a medical assistant employed by the Indiana Department of Corrections).

With my morning free save for childcare, I decided to take my three semesters of credit at the University of Maine and see if I could ramp up my hopes of success in higher ed. Purdue University had a satellite campus about 20 miles away from where we were living and just up the road from the prison where I was working in Westville. Not sure why at the time, but I enrolled in Philosophy 101. It was probably a morning time slot thing.

Thinking college was the way to go (Purdue satellite)

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