Adam Ragusea
Macon, Georgia
USA
aragusea@gmail.com

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Fall Behind

So long silent son
But we can hear you hiding loud

So sad you've been gone
But when you've come back
When you come around
And come to you see what you've done
And you've gotta get gone again…

You know I can't stay here another day

Hey, settle down, hold those horses
Take a chair, take a breath
Get the facts before you flog your own back
It's not all bad

Slink in the dark all you want to
Cut your hair, change your name
Try the same old fake
You won't fade away, you'll just fall behind

Get it right, get it right
Get it right, dammit

It's so easy

There’s no mistake you could make
So big we would shake you

I can do it, catch up to it

Hey, settle down, hold those horses
Take a chair, take a breath
Get the facts before you flog your own back
It's not all bad

It’s like I’m trying to hurt you
But I’m just trying to forget the fact that I ever did

So deep in the hole
But we can feel you underground
Bottom out, tuck and roll

When you come up
Back from the abyss
And come to you see what you’ve missed
And you've gotta get gone again…

You know I can’t stay here another day

Hey, settle down, hold those horses
Take a chair, take a breath
Get the facts before you flog your own back
It's not all bad

Get through your head – we love you

Fall Behind

I made this for The Greatest Trek, they own it: https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/greatest-trek/

The Greatest Trek (podcast theme song)

My arrangement, includes some hat tips to other notable covers from through the years.

You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (Righteous Brothers cover)

All music and lyrics by Adam Ragusea, except "The Money Will Roll Right In" which is used and modified with the author's permission.

Wedding/Baby Photos

But I'm Cool Now

Feel Smart

Soon You

The Money Will Roll Right In (Fang cover with new words)

Glue

Free To Be (Not So Mean)

Types of Goldfish: I. Ryukin

This is a parody of "Faith of the Heart," the theme to Star Trek: Enterprise, composed by Diane Warren. We made it for The Greatest Generation podcast.

Faith of the Fart

I made this for the podcast The Greatest Generation. They own it. #GreatestGen

Priority One

I made this for The Greatest Generation podcast. They own it. #greatestgen

IN THE CASE OF WORF V DOORS

I made this for the podcast The Greatest Generation. They own it.

Picard's Field Trip to the Code 47 Post Office

I made this for The Greatest Generation, a podcast about Star Trek that did a special episode about Crimson Tide. They own it.

The Greatest Tide

I made this for The Greatest Generation podcast, they own it.

The Greatest NOOOOOO!!!

I made this for the podcast The Greatest Discovery, they own it.

The Greatest Discovery theme

It smells like birthdays in the haze where small breaths blow out candles
And bated they wait blind to lift the veil, to wail beyond the wall
Be welcomed one and all
It's all that they believe

Till one day they're born(e) away, drafted by the ocean breeze

When the wind blows I've been known for flying south with floozy birds
And cowering under canopies while cradle babies fall like rain
But you try to explain: the bough didn't break, I just made a mistake

I'm sorry
Please forgive me
How could I have known?

I was away on the waves of war
But I would have dropped everything
I would have come up from my submarine
And thrown my body right between all cannonballs and you
I would have kept you out of the red
Or listened to a word you said

For all the girls who'd always watched the water from the wading pool
Things all changed that summer
When swarthy sailors came to slip the salty seas
They waved from the gate with their periods late

It smells like birthdays


(flute part played by Ashley Addington, ashleyaddington.com)

The Blue

I made this for a special episode of The Greatest Generation podcast about "The Hunt for Red October," using music composed for the film by Basil Poledouris. The singers are Clay Young, Peter Schultz, Joel Terning and Cameron Rolling. Whatever original material is here is owned by The Greatest Generation.

Russians Don't Take A Dump, Son, Without A Plan

Lines, planes, hides, veins, make the shapes that beat the brains
The boys quake, the girls fake, and they all get a good ol' give and take

Softy hands sorta understands the barely brutal acts she demands
"Hey hound, don't feel duty-bound, I'll turn around, you face me like a man -- just tell me when it's over"

Lines, planes, losses, gains, asymmetric but no one complains
Deep sighs, feigned goodbyes, she wants the truths and she wants the lies

She's made of circles that go straight to her head
He twirls like a compass, tip skirts the edge
And careless around contours, he slips past the ledge

Lines, Planes

You can shut your eyes so tight that your whole face folds into itself like a fist that you can pound against the wall to the rhythm of your sweet voice singing, "lalalalala, I can't hear you, lalala," if you want, I guess you could, it might feel good

But you won't know the way that I feel about you

You can block the thought, like the memory of your lame first love when you were 10, but you've come a long way since then, and "The Rhythm of the Heat" is calling 

Now you don't want to hear, you've got your reasons, that's fine, it's a free country, it don't bother me

But you won't know the way that I feel about you

Imagine what you'd know if you weren't always such a navel gazer

I'll admit it's quite a navel, but we can touch on that later

Recognition of reality is usually a lagging indicator, but I could see you somehow getting elected mayor, completely unaware 'til you read it in the paper

Oh, all the things I'd tell you if I wasn't busy gazing navels all the time 

I'd have more on my hands if I wasn't always turning tables in my mind

I know I haven't earned the right to play the righteous, nagging agitator, but I think it's crazy we're constantly coming face-to-face, yet hardly ever eye-to-eye

I can shut my mouth so tight that my whole head sinks into my neck like a cave, and you can lie in it like a grave, while I cup you in my stone-cold torso

Down there, I've got all you want: an endless supply of nonchalant

That sound good? Does that seem fair? I'll see you there

But you won't know the way that I feel about you

Lagging Indicator

I made this for the podcast The Greatest Generation, based on The Picard Song by Dark Materia. Whatever original content is here is owned by the podcast. #greatestgen

The Kirk Song

Though the tape's been running ever since your lips met
And the right reel's twice as thick as it was before
Don't think that one day she won't feel regret
And your voice will sound silly as you're walking backwards while
(part the to way the all rewinds she)
She rewinds all the way to the part when
She knocked back her last sips of happiness
That swallow of spit before the kiss
And you'll stand before her glumly forced to agree
That behind her closed lips for a moment
She tastes me

Behind closed lips, she tastes me

Last Swallow of Spit Before the Kiss

I made this for Andrea Muraskin's podcast Ladyparts. She owns it. https://www.andreamuraskin.com/lady-parts-podcast/

Ladyparts (main theme)

Composed 2002-2003 by Adam Ragusea (b. 1982)

Beth Golden, flute
Adam Ragusea, guitar
Andrew Simpson, cello
Brian McNulty, marimba
Zachary Cairns, percussion

Program note:

In the summer of 2002, I read an article in issue no. 401 of the journal Nature describing a set of flutes excavated from the early Neolithic archeological site of Jiahu, in Henan Province, China. The flutes, nearly 9,000 years old, were carved from the ulnae of red-crowned cranes and remain among the oldest recovered multi-note musical instruments. Published in 1999, the article documented an acoustical analysis of the best preserved flute (artifact M282:20) which is still entirely playable. Uncomfortably squeezed into western tuning ratios, the flute’s pitches can be interpreted as follows - F#5, A5, B5, C6, D6, E6, F#6, A6. Reading this article reinforced my supposition that the division of the octave into a modal grouping of a 5-7 step-like intervals is psycho-acoustically fundamental to human pitch perception.

“Jiahu” was composed as an outgrowth of material conceived of in my western ear’s equal-tempered approximation of M282:20’s ancient scale. The work was commissioned by flutist Beth Golden, and is dedicated to her and Caren Cucco’s pet rats - Saki, Bell, and Mimi. In 2004, “Jiahu” was awarded a Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University.

Jiahu (live, 4/18/03)

I wrote this music for a video I made about how cool pecan groves look: https://youtu.be/Yj2WFLtKV1A

Young Grove Old Grove

I made this for the Star Trek podcast The Greatest Generation. Whatever original material is here, they own.

It Is GREEN

Skin 'O My Teeth (Megadeth cover, 2007)

I made this for the podcast The Greatest Generation. Whatever original material is here is owned by them. It's based on The Picard Song by DarkMateria.

The Janeway Song (DO IT)

My name is Adam Ragusea, I'm an American journalist and educator who used to—and sometimes still does—make music.


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