I GOT SAD TODAY

I GOT SAD TODAY

Rarely do I actually get sad. Well, not about myself anyway. But today I got sad about myself.

Oh, on occasion I become melancholy, but I enjoy being melancholy. But I do that primarily for aesthetic reasons (it helps me with creativity) and for personal enjoyment. But I do that intentionally. That is, I intentionally, from time to time, put myself into an intentional state of melancholy.

But rarely do I get sad and only on very, very, very rare occasions do I ever get sad about myself.

Today, however, I got sad. After taking Dorett to pick up her car I stopped by 2nd and Charles and Mr. K’s.

At Mr. K’s I picked up Les Fleurs Du Mal by Baudelaire in English translation. (The Flowers of Evil.) Perhaps my favorite foreign book of poetry read in college. I tried to get it in French to practice my French (I’ve been getting old texts in Latin and Greek and other foreign languages to work on my language mastery) but no such luck.

At 2nd and Charles however I got four CDs – the 36th and 38th symphonies of Mozart, the 6th symphony of Mahler, the 2nd symphony of Enescu, and four symphonic poems of Bax including Tintagel and the Happy Forest.

I was riding home listening to Tintagel (a favorite symphonic poem) when I suddenly thought of all of the symphonies and tone poems and concerti and operas and far lesser musical compositions I have either already sketched out or are in various states of composition and it made me very sad.

For lately I have felt a really pervasive, almost all-pervasive, desire to compose music. (Maybe because it is springtime, I don’t know, or maybe it is just one of those phases that hit me occasionally.) But I know I have no time. Certainly not the time I would need to do the kind of quality compositions I wish to do. For I am a self-taught and slow composer I have great ideas but am slow in execution.

And between my attempting to become a published fiction author, an established poet, a song-writer, seeking funding for my inventions and start-ups, and helping my wife establish her career and getting my kids through college (or into college) I simply have no time for anything else, and often not enough time for any of the things I am already doing. And that saddened me.

As a matter of fact I have come to the conclusion that I may never have enough time to do all that I wish. For their will always be other things that will also demand my time (children, family, friends, grandchildren, etc. and I am not complaining about those things, as they bring me satisfaction and joy, but I acknowledge the truth that they are a drag on my work efforts) and if I live to be one-hundred or more I may still not do all I have assigned myself to do. Or simply wish to do.

And unfortunately, given my current situation, music and art must take a back-seat or go completely ignored for the sake of my other efforts (which are likely to prove far more profitable and important anyway).

(I often, still to this very day, wonder if I did indeed choose the right careers to pursue, and should or will I ever be able to pursue all of the things I so very much desire to pursue. I guess only God knows, as I suspect I may never know. Not, perhaps, in this world anyway.)

But still, if I had the time then I could spend many a day in composing music and drawing and painting things.

I simply do not have the time.

So I don’t.

But if I had the time it would make me quite happy to do so.

Yet because I don’t have the time it makes me sad that I cannot…

I’LL TAKE A JOB

I’ve either been out of town a lot lately or my back has been really screwed up (due to prior and recent injuries), or both. So either I haven’t been able to sit at my desk a lot recently or I couldn’t stand to for very long due to the pain (and I can take a lot of pain). But pain plus crippling has dissuaded me from blogging much, and has been just a bridge too far, you might say.

Nevertheless I have been writing and songwriting and inventing and so forth. A lot actually. But I’ve done all of that by long-hand, by memory (while clearing land, etc.), in bed, or in my notebooks for my daughter to type out later.

I’ve also downloaded and begun testing some new 3-D printer software for my Ikon™ start-up project.

And despite my back I’ve started preparing for Hell Week (which I had to delay due to my injuries) and started refurbishing my garage to convert it into a gym. Which, just to be honest, has probably not sped up my back recuperation rate any. I guess I should also mention that I’ve been trying to get more than three or four hours of sleep a night. You know, to be better set for Hell Week.

Finally I’ve begun finishing and preparing some new short stories and other materials for the Autumn magazine season.

With all of that in mind here is one of the new songs I’ve written lately. I’m still looking for a good composing partner. So if you’re one and are interested, or know of one that might be interested, then contact me here.

I’LL TAKE A JOB

I’ll take a job for nothing, like everybody else
I’ll do it all for nothing, ask me it’s just as well
One day I’ll leave for elsewhere, cause it’s nowhere that I’ve been
Like to say I’d come back, but I’m looking for the end

I’ll take a job to go there, work my way on through
Once I’m there I’ll leave it, like everything else too
One day I’m gonna up and go, cause there’s too much I ain’t seen
But mainly cause you live out there, I saw it in a dream

I’ll take a job
I’ll take a job
One they’ll rob
Of hope and pay
But I don’t care
Because one day
I’ll make enough
To look for you,
And that ain’t
No real job to me

I’ll take a job for what I want
I’ll take a job because I don’t
Much care the cost
Or time I’ve lost
In getting there to you

I’ll take a job with overtime
I’ll take a job, no loss, it’s fine
The money’s poor
But so am I
When I stare up at the sky
To see the stars
Of where you are
When I am here alone

I’ll take a job for nothing, like all the others do
I’ll use my job for something, and that something is for you
One day I’ll leave for where you are, just watch me here I come
Cause where I am ain’t nowhere when I’m somewhere all alone

I’ll take a job to get there, work my way on through
Once I’m there I’ll leave it, then I’ll start again with you
Soon I’m gonna up and go, cause there’s too much I ain’t done
But mainly cause I’m missing you, my job has just begun…

VOX VULGARIS – CANTIGA 166

DARK SONG – FIRST VERSE

These are lyrics from an unfinished song I began last week. It’s my First Verse entry for today.

DARK SONG

There’s a dark song in my soul right now
And I can’t shake it anyway,
Might as well just sing along,
See where it goes

Well, there’s a dark song
I hear it on the wind

There’s a dark song
Where are we going?

Can we ever make amends?

Well, I don’t know this road no more
But I know it’s me

Where are we going anyhow?
What do you want me to see?

There’s a dark song in my soul right now
I can hear it far away
I’ve known, I’ve known it all along
We’re on the same road

But to where?

Just tell me that…

To where?

JOHN BARLEYCORN

THE DARK ROAD – FIRST VERSE

It has been awhile since I’ve posted a set of my song lyrics. I’ve been so busy with my two start-ups and my novel that I’ve had very little time to write any new songs. But here is part of one I recently started for Halloween and which I like. It is unfinished as at the moment I am pressed for time…

DARK ROAD

There’s a dark road through the old woods
Ain’t never lost a man they say
But if a man can’t find his soul
He’d best just go another way

The witches ride the moon each night
The snakes they slide the mud
What can’t be seen hides in your sight
Like shadows in your blood

A cabin green with moss and things
That no man seems to know
Creeping up the hidden graves
Those dead things from below

Well it’s a Dark Road
A Dark Road that men don’t know
A Dark Road, no road above but down below
There’s a Dark Road,
You can find me there
If you ever dare –
No way back through the poisoned air
Or the black despair
Of the Dark Road,
Oh you just don’t know
Where ya gonna go
On the Dark Road

AFRICAN ANGEL – FIRST VERSE

I wrote this song two weekends ago. I was driving home one evening when the first few lines occurred to me. I worked on it for three days before finishing the lyrics.

This is the first song I’m publishing on my publishing schedule First Verse. Hope you like it.

I dedicate it to my wife, who although she is not African, she’s American, her ancestors were African. If you wish let me know what you think of it.

AFRICAN ANGEL *

Skin so soft, smell so sweet
Hair so dark, eyes so deep
Wish I knew just what you were
I think that once I might have heard

Of African angels

Yes, African angels

I wonder now if you might be…
An African angel

Your lips invite, rich and full
Whisper me a miracle
I want to know just who you are
Are you the same or similar…

To an African angel?

Some African angel?
Where will I go
Having been with you
When will I know
If this is true?
When will you prove
What I think I know
That you heard above
When I prayed below

For an African angel

Yes, an African angel
Oh, where can I go
Once I’ve seen you
When will I know
If this is true?
When will we
Take up your wings
See if we don’t both agree
You’re doing everything

Like an African angel

Well, I dreamt of gold and Zanzibar
Of silver seas and endless stars
The nights were black the moon was bright
You smiled at me, I saw the light

Of an African angel

My African Angel

My African Angel…

 

* Note: the artwork is not mine but by a very talented artist by the name of Kerry Rockwood White

see here: http://fineartamerica.com/art/digital+art/african+american+angels/all

 

GUILD OF THE GOLDEN DOOR

GUILD OF THE GOLDEN DOOR

I searched for the Guild of the Golden Door
Across the Fields of Filidhic Lore
To the House of the Wights who shielded the Scop
Neath the blouse of the night through the tales that crop

When grown under moon, and groaned under woe
Sprout slew from the Earth, as above, so below
Then the Master’s Apprentice to servitude bent
Broke under sentence, in fervor all spent

(Chorus)

Guild of the Golden Door
Gild yourself in guilt
All the wrongs adorned
All the harm you’ve built

Guild of the Golden Door
Gate of the ruined hoard
Facade of the secret morn
That dawns on the desperate horde

Golden Door, Golden Door
Hide and then reveal
Guilded Door, Gilded Door
Open wide, conceal

I sought for the Guild of the Golden Door
In the high merchant hills and the long shipping shores
I went to the banks that circled the world
Found all was lank loss, not a swine for a pearl
All the gain hidden, and all the made-men
Chains long forbidden, the same once again

Golden Door, Golden Door
Open, hide, conceal
Guilty Door, Giltied Door
Despised in your appeal

I watched for the Guild of the Golden Door
In the streets of the cities, in the eyes of the poor
It would not appear, was disguised far too well
The shrewd financiers were as crafty as hell

Guild of the Golden Door
Gate of the wasted hoard
Arch of what comes before
The birth of the desolate horde

I tried for the Guild of the Golden Door
Heard they governed the Halls of the Temple Floor
Found them buying and selling dressed in their rags
Pretending to credit; deceit, theft, and swag
All the pain ridden, your principles thrown
You claim to be bidden, you’ve purchased your thrones
Disguised by your voices, a’swim in your vice
Covet your choices, then play them like dice

Guild of the Golden Door
What is it that you’ve built?
All the wrongs so long adorned
All the blood you’ve spilt

Guild of the Golden Door
Won’t you share your guilt?
Yes drink of the cup of your own reward
For all the blood you’ve spilt

You should drink of the cup of your own reward
By the door of the world you’ve built

 

 

THE CORRUPTION OF THE GUILD OF THE GOLDEN DOOR

This is my next song for FAWM.

I worked on this until about 3:00 one morning. Then went to bed and got up around 9:00 or so and worked it again. Finished it that day.

I’m pleased with the final product, though I may change it around a little more before I eventually post it to my blog and use it on my new album, Locus Eater. It came out to be a lot longer and far more complicated song than I had anticipated. (I had expected it to be a small song and the short tie in to the Myrddin’s Tower poem.)

Originally it was a song about government claims to be assisting the poor and they are really just disguised profiteers seeking to use government as their “Golden Door” for personal advancement. Using government tyranny to line their own pockets by deceiving the ignorant and the naive.

But eventually the song became about financial and monetary corruption in general (such as crony or socialistic-capitalism), and in all fields, but especially by those who openly pretend to be working on behalf of the poor but are actually using them (and everyone else around them, including their partners) for their own grasping, covetousness, and greed. Hence the corrupting aspect of the Golden Door , and the corruption of the song itself from my original intent.

I didn’t plan on the song going that way, it just did. It became much bigger than I had expected.

I still, at this point, plan to use it as the sister-song for Myrddin’s Tower but it may have grown far too big for that. It may have to stand entirely alone.

THE CAVE OF THE UNKNOWN PROPHET

This is my second song (the lyrics) for my FAWM project and my new album, Locus Eater. I finished this three days or so ago but didn’t have time to write it up on finalize it.

I’ve been behind because I started late (only recently heard of FAWM – though I was already gonna write a new album), because of power outages, and because of repair issues, and family health problems. But I’m still working it. So here ya go, The Cave of the Unknown Prophet.

The Cave of the Unknown Prophet
Glittering and bold
The dust of ancient ages
Relics all foretold

The throne of sceptered tyrants
Cast down with a curse
A man to grind down mountains
Cut valleys in the Earth

I saw the prophet wander
Across the broken skies
The future all in labor
While ruined kingdoms died;
His cave the great circumference
Round which the world did turn
His name is now forgotten
Yet still his omens burn

Cave of the Unknown Prophet
Well of the Wasted Past
Womb of the Coming Ages
Born in the world at last

He spoke of Countless Wonders
If only we would heed
The things he heard in thunder
When the dawn was but a dream

I saw the prophet’s anger
When we ignored his voice
The present much endangered
By our reckless, selfish choice;
The wind it moaned at midnight
The seas they rolled in fear
Time shook like an earthquake
Ruptures soon appeared

He asked of man a miracle
That love might guide his hand
Not hatred, blood, and murder
To soil and taint the land, but

The cave of the unknown prophet
Was buried with the man
Whatever he had foreseen
Written in the sand

I’ve looked a thousand ages
To find it all within
There are no maps or pages
To lead me back again

I saw the prophet Wizened
With the burden of his Sight
He sought to warn of darkness
We never saw the light

The Cave of the Unknown Prophet
Does he sit there waiting still
For us to finally answer, and
His words to be fulfilled?

BABA YAGA STANZAS

Some of the experimental stanzas for my song Baba Yaga on my new album Locus Eater.

…Bind me in a chain of gold
With silver teeth to chew your babes
Fires, wolves, and howling ghosts
I bred (or bled) the Witches Crone and Queen

Baba Yaga, yarn and thatch
A trap of thorns, a bowl of blood
Baba Yaga, dark and dread
I’ll stitch (or break) your bones inside my hutch…

LIVING THE BLUES – a song

LIVING THE BLUES

Ain’t got no future
Ain’t got no past
You’re through with me
I’m through with you
Ain’t got no reason
But I got proof

I’m livin the blues
Cause baby, come high or low
I’m livin, oh must be dying
Living with you

But,

Still, ain’t got no future
Ain’t got no past
Done thought about it
Can’t make it last

Now, ain’t that a shame
Don’t know what to make
Of this…
This mess o’ ours

Now, this ain’t good
This sho ain’t right
But I ain’t gonna fight
No mo about it
Cause baby, I’m living the blues
You know it’s true
Now woman
You bringin the blues

Ain’t got no reason
But I got proof

Don’t matter the season
Cause you tha proof

I’m living the blues
Woman, don’t you know
I’m livin, ought not be trying
To live with you…

Living Proof (by Buddy Guy) inspired me to write a new Blues Song of my own, Living the Blues (even though they’re on completely different subjects), which I did while I waited on the girls. Or I wrote 90% of it anyway. I’m going to edit, rewrite, and finish it today. Everyone who has read it so far really seems to like it.

Over the weekend after listening to the whole Guy CD I also began to write four inter-related songs which I call the “Bad Road” songs. I was going to call the first song, Hot Sun on a Bad Road. But then as I started writing lyrics I got the idea for a set of four related “bad road” songs, each dealing with a different point on the compass. All will deal with a similar theme, a bad woman who leads a man in the wrong direction.

So now I intend to call the songs: Bad Road Down South, Cold Road North, East Road to Nowhere, and Hard Road West.

The South song will be about a Black woman, the North song about a blue-eyed blonde, the East road about a green-eyed brunette (jet black hair, a Witchy woman) or possibly a red-head, and the West road about (possibly) an Hispanic woman, though I’m still thinking on that one.

I’ve got about two thirds of Bad Road Down South written, and sketch notes for the other songs already developed.

HARD LOVE (a song)

Woman you got hard love
The kind that cuts and bleeds
Woman you got hard love
The kind I’m gonna need
Woman you got hard love
Make it sting and burn
Woman you got hard love
Make me twist and turn

Woman want your love
Woman want it now
Woman you ain’t near as tough
As you pretend no how,
Yes you’re mean and angry
But you’re lonely too
I’m the man with love so strong
I’ll fix what’s wrong with you

Woman I got hard love
Love so hard it breaks
Whatever’s down inside of you
Let’s see what you can take
Woman I got hard love
You ain’t seen nothing yet
I’ll get so deep inside of you
Be begging me to quit…

CYMATICS

SHORE OF THE SEASON

To relax tonight, and to listen to some Halloween music (this time of year I like to listen to darker, more moody, spookier music), I’ve been listening to the soundtrack of Howard Shore’s soundtrack for The Hobbit.

To be honest, although a few tracks are weak, overall it’s nearly as good as Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for the Man of Steel. I don’t think Shore is yet as good a composer as Zimmer, but in his own way he’s quite fine.

And some of this music is very atmospheric indeed and perfect for Halloween and this season of the year.

THE MAN OF BRONZE AND THE MAN OF STEEL

Today, when my wife and I went out I got a new Doc Savage novel (Phantom Lagoon) and the Doc Savage Man of Bronze film (which I had seen before, but still…)

So, BOO-YAH!!!

“A wise man once observed that trouble has walked around in skirts since the beginning of things.
This particular wise man did not proclaim such a thing in so many words, but every man knows it to be true…”

Phantom Lagoon

When a novel opens that way you know it’s going to be good.

Also, I got the soundtrack to Man of Steel. My Wife and I both agree that soundtrack is some of Hans Zimmer’s very best wok, and he has done some excellent work. If you ask me composers for film are some of the very best composers working in the world right now.

I’m not absolutely sure why that is (I mean aside from the obvious, it is an excellent and profitable music market), but I’m beginning to think that’s it because the music being composed is associated so directly with powerful visual images (in this case derived from film). That seems to me a very logical conclusion.

One normally thinks of music and the composition of music as a more or less strictly auditory (or perhaps even mental experience), but suppose modern film composers are so good because they are intentionally (or perhaps even subconsciously) directly associating powerful visual images with the musical ideas they are composing and expressing? (This technique could be both self-limiting and self-liberating depending upon how it is employed.)

That might very well alter the underlying compositional patterns and techniques these composers are employing. It is a logical chain of reasoning but I’m not sure how many are considering that it could be very well greatly altering their innate composing habits.

Anyway, thinking on these matters and having deduced a probable cause I’m going to try some experiments of my own in attempting to compose music “visually,” rather than auditorially, or to fit word and phrasing patterns (lyrical composition or song composing), or as a purely mental exercise.

See where that leads me. I’ll let you know what my experiments yield.

WHERE WOULD I GO – a song

I thought that I would be alone
Then found myself with you
My heart was just a helpless thing
That passed away like dew
Beneath the sunrise of your love
Yes, you know it’s true
Beneath the sunrise of your love
What did you do?
I need you too

I thought that I would find myself
Without a child or wife
Sure that nothing but myself
Would ever be my life, but
Then you took me in your hand, and
Took me as I am
You made me better than I was
Made me a better man
Than long ago
So long ago

Help me now to understand
Help me now to live
Help me now to take these things
And grow them as you give
Yourself to me
Yourself to me

I’ve always been a lonely man
That never bothered me
You never know how far to go
If you have never been
My soul was just a wanderer
That never had a home
Until you took me in my dear, and
Now I never roam
Where would I go?
Where would I go?

I’ve always said and it’s still true
That somehow this would work
That sometimes it would be a breeze, and
Sometimes it would hurt, but
Either way, just name the day,
I won’t be going far away
From you
I’m not alone
Alone with you
No, not alone
When I’m with you

So help me now to understand
Help me now to live
Help me now to take these things
And grow them as you give
Yourself to me
You’re all I need

Yes, all I need

I TOOK MY GUNS

My latest song. It will have a decidedly Western flavor. It’s a vengeance song – avenging a set of murders.

It’s unfinished but I plan to finish it tonight.

I TOOK MY GUNS

I took my guns to town with me
Riding rough like the wind
I came home too late to help
My neighbors were all dead by then

The night was cold the wind was hard
The fires burned, the coyotes roamed
My horse was spent but I was not
Murder and mayhem I won’t condone

Take your guns wherever you go
Take your guns so they will know
Take your guns whenever you ride
So you don’t have to abide
No more a this…

My gut was empty, my heart was stone
You don’t kill men in their own homes
Their ghosts still whispering in my ear
“Find them, get them, be what they fear”

Well the streets were barren, empty, dark
Everything stabled, doors all locked
Except for the Dead Pony
My revolvers both cocked

Take your guns wherever you go
Take your guns so that they know
Take your guns wherever you ride
So you can set right
The wrong that they did…

I swung down from the saddle
The streets were all mud
My horse stood his own ground
We both wanted blood

I kicked in the door, there he sat cold
Smiling and toothless, nursing his drink
I shot off his mouth
Cause whiskey ain’t cheap

THE RIVER

Because it’s Pink Floyd. Actually, I hope it is closer to their earlier work than their later work.

Pink Floyd Roll Out Plans For ‘The Endless River,’ First LP in 20 Years

“‘The Endless River’ is a tribute to Rick Wright,” says Nick Mason. “His playing was at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound”

Courtesy Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd, ‘The Endless River.’

By Andy Greene | September 22, 2014

After months of rumors, Pink Floyd have finally announced the details of their new album The Endless River, which hits shelves on November 10th. It’s the group’s first new release since 1994’s The Division Bell. According to a press release, The Endless River is a “four-sided instrumental album,” though one track, “Louder Than Words,” has lyrics by David Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson. It was produced by Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson and is available for pre-order right now.

Related

Readers’ Poll: Your 10 Favorite Pink Floyd Albums

The project began with Gilmour and Floyd drummer Nick Mason sorting through music they recorded with keyboardist Rick Wright (who died in 2008) during the Division Bell sessions. “We listened to over 20 hours of the three of us playing together and selected the music we wanted to work on for the new album,” Gilmour said in a statement. “Over the last year we’ve added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album. With Rick gone, and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire.”

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/pink-floyd-roll-out-plans-for-the-endless-river-their-first-lp-in-20-years-20140922#ixzz3E4JVWOJ5

I COME A CREEPING…

I COME A CREEPING…

I come a creeping
Gun strapped to my side
I know where you are
My knife in my hand

I know it’s a trap
I don’t give a damn
I know who you are
But you don’t know me

It’s quiet and it’s dark
I’m silent and unseen
I’ve hunted other men
Much worse than you

Step out or hide away
Won’t make any difference which
I can sneak, I will stay
I can wait, and still I’ll creep

Get ready now, here I come
Look around, what do you see?
Listen hard, the old place creaks
And I’m still here

I come a creeping
Best knife in my hand
Loaded for bear
Though you’re just a wolf

Hide away or step on out
I’ve got no favorite
I’m coming on, I always do
We’ll finish this, I’ll finish you

Ambush on your mind
The same thing in mine
One of us will be better at it
One of us will be right

I’m crouching low
I’m moving slow
I smell you up ahead
I smile to myself

I know ‘bout your traps
I know what you think
I know what this is
I don’t plan to leave

And you won’t get the chance…

THE DREAMER’S DILEMMA

I’ve recently noticed that I’ve been composing a lot of music in my head. I even woke up with a rather elaborate theme running through my head this morning.

However I’m a rusty composer with very little time to compose right now. Most of my effort is going into my novel, my inventions, and my businesses. So the best I’m able to do at the moment is sketch out a few phrases and motifs.

I’ve long had a dream though of going somewhere for about a year or so and doing nothing else but compose. Man, I’d really like to. But I just don’t have the time.

MIDDLE LOVE

I want a little middle love
The kind that’s easy at the ends
The kind that starts before it does
The kind that borrows when it lends

I want a little middle love
So you can be my better half
So I can be a better man
So you can smile and I can laugh

Middle love, my middle love
You fit me like a well-worn glove
The softness when I hold you tight
The night is quiet, the moon is bright

Your middle love is never far
It wraps around me, keeps me here
Its outer edges mark my heart
So I won’t wander from you dear

I want a little middle love
To buy the future with our past
I want a little middle love
Because that is the kind that lasts

I want a little middle love
The kind that plays, then gently sleeps
My middle love, my truest love
Give your all, and all I’ll keep

Middle love, my middle love
You fit me like a well-worn glove
The gladness when I hold you tight
The stars come close to share your light

And I’m with you girl, here tonight…

EVERYONE

Today after working out I decided to take a short nap. Since the wife and kids were out seeing the Transformers I lay down in the bed with Sam (my Great Dane) for a nice, peaceful, quiet nap before my daughter’s birthday party started.

I didn’t sleep long (I wanted to sleep longer but couldn’t) until I woke up with a song running through my head. I heard both the music and the lyrics in my head. My mood was very, very odd. I never get depressed, though I do have intentionally melancholy moods from time to time (which I enjoy a lot), but this song and the music and the mood surrounding it seemed both very depressing and almost foreign, as if it were coming from someone else entirely.

Occasionally I will hear music and song lyrics in my dreams and then when I wake up I will write them down, but this song didn’t really start until after I woke and then it started immediately. As if I were listening to and just becoming aware of a radio on somewhere in the house, but nothing was playing.

And like I said the music, the tone, the mood, it all seemed very depressing to me. But mostly it seemed foreign, like it wasn’t me writing it, but someone else.

Nevertheless after I completed the song I made a Google lyrics search and could find no song similar to it. So I guess I didn’t remember it from elsewhere, it was just an odd, sorta alien song playing in my own head.

Anyway after writing the whole thing down in bed when Sam and I got up I came downstairs to my office and started hammering it out and arranging it properly. And overall I’m very pleased with the lyrics. It matches the music very well, which is moderately slow, rather simple, and sad in tone.

The single lines are the chorus and instrumental sections of the song, whereas the stanzas are the body, so it has a sort of reverse chorus-stanza structure. It may not be completely finished, but as far as I know at this moment, it is.

If you wish let me know what you think of it.

Jack.

_____________________________________________________

Everyone you see is broken-hearted
Everyone you meet is sick like that
Everywhere you go the what-if’s started
Every song you sing seems like the last

Everyone, most everyone, has passed

I wish that I could dream in endless colors
Wish the sun would rise above my head
Wish that I could tell you from the others
Wish that you could hear just what I said

But being me is awful long and lonesome
Being me is hard as hell
Is there any way to beat this road home?
Is there any way for me to tell?

Everyone I meet has their own problems
Everywhere I go it’s all the same
Sinner, Saint, or child we’re all just odd-ones
Waiting for someone else to ease the pain

Seems like everyone knows everyone today

Now let me wander on to where I’m headed
There’s another day must come and go
Doesn’t mean I know, whoever said it,
“Everyone was happy long ago…”

I’LL DO ANYTHING – lyrics only

These are the actual and original lyrics I wrote for this song

I’LL DO ANYTHING

I’ll do anything to keep you baby
I’ll do anything you ask
I’ll do anything you need now darling
Just set me at my task

Babe, I’ll do anything you tell me
Anything the law allows
I’ll do anything to prove it woman
Don’t matter when, or where, or how

Baby I’m a listening, baby I’m still here
Don’t want to see you going, don’t ever disappear

Well I thought you were a fad girl
Something much less than a friend
But I’ve no one else in this world
Gonna see me to the end

Seems the better part of you babe
Is only worse when you’re away
So I’m asking you to stay girl
Don’t see any other way

Baby I’m a listening, baby I’ve no fears
Everything I’m knowing just makes it all so clear

I’ll do anything to keep you
I’ll do anything you say
Just don’t ask me to exclude you
From the nights that light my way

I’ll do anything you tell me
Anything a man can do
I’ll go anywhere you want babe
Just as long as it’s with you…

© Jack Gunter, 2013

I’LL DO ANYTHING – song and music

I’LL DO ANYTHING

This is a link to Reverbnation and a song I wrote (I wrote the lyrics) called I’ll Do Anything.

It was sung by my friend Sherryl Craig and the music was written and performed by her husband Gary Craig. Gary is a member of a band and has previously made records.

When I wrote the song I told the Craigs that I envisioned it as an old hard knock down joint Blues piece. Instead Gary made it into a a sort of very old country blues piece with an antique style record intro and a much slower tempo than I had originally imagined.

After I listened to it for a couple of times I really liked what they did with it. It seemed to really fit the lyrics. I’m very pleased with it.

Originally I had also written it to be sung by a man. Since Sherryl wanted to sing it they slightly altered the lyrics for it to be sung by a  woman. I hope to do more recordings and to write more songs with them.

If this link doesn’t work well I’ll make another post with the link posted into the body of the text.

If you wish let me know what you think of it.

JOKER JESTER FOOL

For my very first real post I thought I’d submit a set of song lyrics I recently wrote for a Rhythm and Blues song.

JOKER JESTER FOOL

Well there’s a Joker never got a laugh
The joke was all on him
The Jester couldn’t make it work
Her virtue was her sin

And the Fool
The Fool of All
The Fool was better than them both at what they did

When you laugh at your tomorrow
Then that’s the sport you play
Come love or lasting sorrow
The dark’s as good as day
You jest to hear it spoken
Joke to hear it sung
But far away from everything
You know they were the one

There’s a Fool, a fool who jokes the Jester at their game

The Earth she is a jester
The Moon Man’s just a joke
The future’s all in motion
The past is just all smoke

And the Fool
Well, but the Fool
The Fool is better than them all at what they do

Love is never steady
Seldom is it kind
It’s jested with the ready
Played jokes upon their minds
I’m foolish if I listen
Yet damn me if I don’t
I wish a greater distance
But I know I won’t
Between the jest I want to hear
And the joke upon my heart

There’s a Fool, a fool who jests the Joker by his name

Now the Joker never works the show
In quite the way he thinks
The Jester she don’t ever stop
Cause everything is linked

There’s Jokers all inside of you
There’s Jesters just like me

But the Fool
The Fool in us
Is better than us all at what we do

Yeah, the Fool
That lonely Fool
Is better than us all at what we do…