Verse 1:
Lift up my hand, and lead me away from this place
Then pick up my legs, so we can fly all around
Please hold up my hair, so I can see so clearly
And look at my face, and tell me it's OK

Chorus:
That's the way it should be
That's the way it could be
That's the way it should be
When we can find a place, and the time

Post-Chorus:
At-a-way, at-a-way

Verse 2:
Look at my eyes, and tell me they will stay blue
Hold onto my cheeks, so you can tell me you love me
Just look at the way, that I'm looking up to you

Chorus: (repeat)

Verse 3:
Follow my lead, so you will know the way
And hear what I say, so you will not forget
All of these things, that nothing can take away

Chorus: (repeat)

Flying Solo

That's The Way (it should be)

Verse 1:
Oh I’ll wait, for you to get the meaning of my words
And I’ll say, something that’s not so ordinary...

So, that you know,
that I, have a dream,
to show you my(eeyai) way

Verse 2:
Oh let’s say, I may not look so fetching to you now
But just wait, I’ll persuade you with winsome banter...

So, that you know,
to not go, and think
you won’t regret this day

Chorus 1:
Oh I’ll wait
I’ll wait
For my spot in second place

Verse 3:
So let’s play, a game of chance of my romancing you
And I’ll say, the magic words to find the inner you...

...that you know,
I won’t go, unless
You enjoy mistakes

Chorus 2:
(Chorus 1, + guitar solo on 2nd time)

Verse 4:
So what’s left, if my best is never gonna be enough?
It’s no guess, that we can never ever be in love...

What a shame,
to go on, and live,
In someone else’s shade

Chorus 3:
(Chorus 1 +)

Oh I know
It’s better I go
In second place I’ll own my fate

Reluctance

Second Place (alternate)

This song was written pre-1990 (before I was in the band), and I always loved it.  Glenn's main guitar riff was truly one of kind (like much of his riffs), and Jon's voice just rocked the house.

Lost & Found McGinnis

Earnest

My favorite from Instant Coma, a "pat on the back" song to myself when I was down, back in my early 20s.

Instant Coma

Have a Drink on Me

This was a James Brown cover, with some other guy who briefly played bass before I joined the band.  Pretty cool I think.

Cold Sweat (James Brown)

This is a cover a David Bowie song from 1979 that I believe did the song justice.  It was one of my favorite covers, although I wish I had a copy of our Ruby Tuesday cover, or Once in a Lifetime, or even the Laverne & Shirley theme song that we used for opening a show.   Ahhh, good times.

Look Back in Anger (David Bowie)

This is a Syd Barrett cover, with my favorite reverse guitar solo.  I would change that way I sang it if I were to do it over again, but it's not that bad.

Soup

Octopus (Syd Barrett)

Stare off into space
No doubt there’s a better place
Holding on by a thread
To dreams instead of this

Instead of this
I wish, instead of this

All the earth selfishly
Makes hating easily
Far from fully evolved
Yet so sure it’s all solved

I wish, instead of this
I wish, instead of this

That is all, after all
That is all who we are
After all
We devolve

Worry up your whole life
Well spent in a box
Stress-ball Sunday, hate world
Hurl yourself to the Earth
Add up the lack of worth

Instead of this
I wish, instead of this
Instead of this

That is all who we are
After all
We devolve
That is all who we are
After all
We devolve
We devolve

May 1998

Comfortably Humm

Devolve

Rolling & turning my way
Lay down to sleep in your eyes (any size)
Lift up my arms on your way
Following birds when you’re high
Throwing the morals away
Push away clouds in the sky

Winter sunshine, any day that I am better
Winter sunshine, and I think that I am fine

Rolling & turning my way
Way down on knees at your side (pick a side)
Holding my head high today
Thank you be there when I slide

Winter sunshine, yeah I feel that I am better
Winter sunshine, and I think I am much better
Hey, I followed you, and it’s true, and it’s true

When you’re rolling & turning my way
Looking way down from the sky
Throwing the pressure away
As I’m watching the waves in the tide

Winter sunshine, yeah it seems that I am better
Winter sunshine, and I feel that I am home

Hey...OK...All right...

Rolling & turning my way
Rolling & turning my way
Push away clouds in the sky
Knowing & growing each day
Yeah, I will be free all the while

Winter sunshine, any way that I think better
Winter sunshine, you could say that I am so much better
Hey, I followed you, and it’s true, and it’s true

August 5, 1995

Winter Sunshine

This is song #2 from the Might MuCoy endeavor, with Glenn Sherman and Suzi Gottesfeld.

This song is about people being happy again, for no good reason whatsoever.
This isn't to put down anyone's happiness, but rather this is more about people in a cult-like state of happiness.

Happy Again

Fumbling through the past
Turning pages, ever so fast
Catch my breath, but keep your soul
Losing things worth losing
And finding out how good it is to be there

You could be 
A shooting star
Holding on until it falls apart
Why worry, when the time has come for you to be there

Shut your mouth
Shut your eyes
It’s not the quantity, it’s the size
So, shut your mouth
Shut your mind
Cause you’re a part of me

And you know it’s supposed to be the last...

And so I am marveling
From how starry-eyed, you can be from me
Caught my breath, and kept my soul
Lost the things worth losing
And finding out how good it is to be there

Shut your mouth,
Shut your eyes
If it’s what you need, it’s right
So, shut your mouth
Shut your mind
Cause you are on my side
Right there

And you know it’s supposed to be the last...
It’s supposed...

1998

The Last

And so you stand
Feeling in some way you are a god
And so it seems
Feeling lots of green it is a rush
What do you need
With all those sinners at your side

And so you care
But somewhere deep inside ain’t satisfied
What do you fear
That the happiness you gain
Brings you back to another pain
Look down

Greed, I think therefore I need to believe
It’s so great, soul degrade, down

And so you stand
With money in your hand, it’s all you’ve got
And of course you bleed
Somehow what you need ain’t everything

And of course you dream
Of being all you dream
And find you yourself a fool to be
Look down

Greed, I think therefore I need to believe
It’s so great, soul degrade, down

Greed falls down ...

And there you stand
Feeling in some way just half a man
And still you care
Though life does not seem fair
Cause lovely things look greener way up there
Way up there, way up there...

Greed, divide up all your needs, plant your seeds
It’s so great, soul degrade, down
Greed, I think therefore I need to believe
That it’s so great, soul degrade, 
Down upon your knees
Surviving’s all that you ever need
But it’s so great, soul degrade, down

Greed falls down ...

January 16, 1996

Greed Falls Down

Somewhere above, impressed by love’s depress
Yet, who am I to suppress
The flower’s on your dress
I was a mess, until

There are your eyes
Two stars light up the skies
Ease off yourself
Believe in things happening for yourself

My cynical self will leave, eventually

Why should I, take a chance
At another dance
Yet who would I, still be
If I weren’t me
See what I see, and I believe

In all it’s size
Two birds fly through the sky
Ease off yourself
Believe in thing happening for yourself

And if, it weren’t there
I’d be picking up these pieces of myself
Left a cynical self
And I do believe
In relativity coming to me

My cynical self will leave, eventually

Who am I
To decide that the thickness of your skin
Is much to thin
I guess, I guess I’m not so wise
By polishing this prize
Ease off yourself
Believe in things happening for yourself

My cynical self will leave, eventually

January 27, 1996

Cynical Leave

I will start the song
And within a year it might be done

Sometimes unsatisfied by the chords and the rhymes I’m using
It’s a wonder how I have anything written at all

But I will
Yeah I will

I will stomp the ground
For the regulars that get you down
Oh it’s a shame, it’s a waste of time and space that they are using
Though it’s not my place to say anything at them at all

But I will
Yeah I will

I will, I will...

So catch the sun and the rain will follow
Here today and left with shadows
Say no regrets but the feeling’s hollow
But not a wasted day for my own will

I will, I will...

January 25, 1996

I Will

There you are sitting pretty
My mistake, that’s how it goes

Live my life as a donkey
Who’s to say, it has no worth

Fortune can smile upon my face
And on a dime, turn a fall from grace

Into a state of mild regret
But I’ll fly away
And soon I won’t forget
If it weren’t this way
I know we never ever had met
But I’m flying away, flying away
Into this misty song

Happiness, if you are
Not too manic, it’ll take you far

Breathing softly in the twilight
Don’t lose focus, the sun will come

You and I, we may not reach the sky
But what’s the point of being realisitc

Slipping into a state of mild regret
But I’ll fly away, off into a red sunset
To another day, and a chance that I will get
So I’m flying away, flying away
Into this misty song

It’s not too bad, and not so hard
To make life simple, or very hard

Relevancy has no importance
It doesn’t matter, if you’re wrong

Looking all the way back in the rear-view mirror disappoints
And no one’s ever perfect, that’s the point

Into a state of mild regret
But I’m flying away
And though I won’t forget
If it weren’t this way
I know we could not have met
But I’m flying away, flying away
Into this misty song

March 16, 1997

Misty Song

Do you remember the days 
When you were small and impressed by the age
When you would be so tall and
Hope to see
Who I would be
Looking up from the top of a tree

And I can think of how
It seems to be somewhere ‘round eighty-three
And I can be so far away
Wondering if I’d ever be
Back at the stump of a tree

Who knows
If it would be so bad, if it weren’t me
But it wouldn’t be so good

There’s no use fighting who you’ll be

There can be so many ways
That I would think that I’m so very strange
For being so happy-sad and one part three
Another eighty-three
But it’s not so bad you see
It’s not so bad to me

Who knows
If it would be so bad, if it weren’t me
But it wouldn’t be so good

There’s no use fighting who you’ll be

May 17, 1997

Impressed By The Age

And so, I will sit here smiling, knowing that I’m leaving today
And then, I will feel much better when it’s in the rear view mirror someday
Oh you could say, that my head is gone and off on its way
Though you may know, there’s nothing stopping me when I go

And yeah, these troubles quickly crumble
Cause I’m knowing that I’m leaving today
And there, I may find some other trouble
Then I’ll leave it if it’s too much too take

Knowing that I’m going away
Knowing that I’m leaving some piece of mind
Somewhere left behind
Me, I’m free to go
Knowing all I need to know, yeah 

Just knowing that when, the moment has arrived
I’ll thank the time for coming to be
And so I’m be sailing with a smile
Cause the chains are overboard in the sea

Though you may be one I may have wanted to need
Just goes to show
That one may never know, when it’s time to go yeah
But I do by the way you’re looking at me

Knowing that I’m going away
Knowing that I’m leaving some piece of mind
Somewhere left behind
Me I need to go
Knowing all I need to know, yeah
Just knowing, I’m going away

And though, that I know what I am doing
It only seems I’ve lost my way
And so, all the while I sit here smiling
Cause I’m living for today
Nothing left to say
As I close the chapter, turning the page

Knowing that I’m going away
Knowing that I’m leaving some piece of mind
Somewhere left behind
Me, I’m free to go
Knowing all I need to know
Just knowing that...

January 18, 1996

Knowing That I'm Leaving Today

There you are sitting pretty
My mistake, that’s how it goes

Live my life as a donkey
Who’s to say, it has no worth

Fortune can smile upon my face
And on a dime, turn a fall from grace

Into a state of mild regret
But I’ll fly away
And soon I won’t forget
If it weren’t this way
I know we never ever had met
But I’m flying away, flying away
Into this misty song

Happiness, if you are
Not too manic, it’ll take you far

Breathing softly in the twilight
Don’t lose focus, the sun will come

You and I, we may not reach the sky
But what’s the point of being realistic

Slipping into a state of mild regret
But I’ll fly away, off into a red sunset
To another day, and a chance that I will get
So I’m flying away, flying away
Into this misty song

CODA:
Would you believe it’s true
Part of me holds onto you
Would you believe in who
Gave it all right back to you

It’s not too bad, and not so hard
To make life simple, or very hard

Relevancy’s no importance
It doesn’t matter, if you’re wrong

Looking all the way back in the rear-view mirror disappoints
And no one’s ever perfect that’s the point

Into a state of mild regret
But I’ll fly away
And though I won’t forget
If it weren’t this way
I know we could not have met
But I’m flying away, flying away
Into this misty song

CODA:
Would you believe it’s true
Would you believe in who
Would you believe this fool
Would you believe this misty song
Would you believe this misty song
Would you believe this misty song
Would you believe…

March 16, 1997
January 1, 2006
January 7, 2006
February 26, 2006

Misty Song (updated)

A great late one we did in early 1993.  One of my faves.

Best of McGinnis

One Man

Solo Artist (songwriter, guitarist, bassist, lead vocalist, drummer [since 2020]) - 1995 to present.
LTK (songwriter, bassist, backing vocalist) - 2019 to present.
The Vegetables (songwriter, guitarist, bassist, lead vocalist) - 1995.
Trick of McGinnis (bassist, songwriter, backing vocalist) - 1990 to 1993.

J. Scotte Barkan

Popular tracks