An absolutely beautiful masterclass in songwriting

Reminds me of some of Bob Dylan’s songs great lyrics and guitar 🎤🎸

An important reminder to not take things too seriously, and enjoy the ride along the way!  Very well written and performed, love it!

MAN this line is brilliant “always fallin down in ur bread n ur butter” — I agree wholeheartedly let’s forget about the finish line it’ll come when it comes

Life Lessons from the Rock

Over Easy

I’m singing in my favorite key                                       
You know the one, the major G                                    
To keep things easy                                                       
Over easy                                                                           
I’m strumming fast like Johnny Ramone
Although my singing’s kinda monotone
Let’s keep things easy
Over easy

How do you like it                                                           
This life we have become
Some scrambled, some hard-boiled
Some rich omeletted ones.
My shell is cracking
I got a piece stuck on my tongue
Half-baked is so much better
Than completely overdone
Over Easy                                                                          

I once was a complicated boy
Put on a suit and threw away my toys
So much for easy
Over easy
Rebel rouser solely in my mind
That’s why I’m dazed and dizzy all the time
Feeling queasy
Over easy

Chorus

Bridge-  You got some egg upon your face                       
              Wipe it off and stay in place                                 
              There ain’t no time to break on through                    
              Step out of line, this ain’t no joke                         
              Fuck it up and poke your yolk                              
              If it can run, so can you                                        

I’m singing  in my favourite key
I’m singing in my favourite key
I'm singing in my favourite key…you know the one,
you know the one,  you know the one
Over easy …over easy…etc…..



Over Easy

Go All The Way

The future's uncertain, the end is unclear
There'll be songs unsung, new foes to fear
I don't know if we got another 40 years
Or 40 days to rock n roll.

You could die like Janis or live like Keith
Pay penance for the excess with survivor's grief
Embrace your madness and their disbelief
You can rock, you can roll

Chorus

You can go all the way
Go all the way
No turning back
Move ahead, attack
As you go all the way

But I'm still stranded in the jungle of my common sense
I keep the tiger at bay by living future tense
"Never get out of the boat", Fredrick Forrest says
As the cameras start to roll

Yeah you can die like Jimi or live like Keith
Keep sailing till you land on a safer beach
But our  fate and the future's always out of reach
Will you rock or will you roll?

Chorus

Like the Rolling Stones 
you could last a hundred years
But don't forget poor Brian Jones 
Swallowed deep those poolside fears
It could go either way
Life, death and bad swordplay
A single lunge and thrust could steal your time.

The future's uncertain, the end is unclear 
The trophies and the troubles bound to disappear
Turn around to find the same old worries here
Not much rock and too much roll

You  could die like Janis or die like Keith
alone or soft surrounded by survivor's grief
A tale to tell tomorrow, taste their disbelief
As you rock, as you roll, as you…

Go all the way
Go all the way
No turning back
Move ahead, attack
As you go all the way





Go All The Way

life lesson by Sleepaway Camp 1983...Ricky rulez...Bill not so much....
Brought to you by the letter Ch as in cheesy

Why do we fight? All this eye for an eye                     
 Insults and put downs, saying things like “Eat shit and die”   
 We could have better manners                        
 Maybe just forget and forgive
 To paraphrase the Buddah, 
we's all got to eat shit and live….          

Now Bill and Ricky they could not get along              
Sleepaway campers 
Best part of this song
Teenage tigers going tit for tat                                    
Their words like weapons, how they spit and spat 

Juvenile expressions of excrement
Odorous impressions of discontent
Swallowing their anger using bathroom wit
We’re all gonna taste it one day

Bill said,“Eat shit and die Ricky!”                                 
Ricky said, “Eat shit and live Bill!”                               
Bill said, “Eat shit and die Ricky”
Ricky said, “Eat shit and live Bill”
We’re all gonna eat shit and live

Your hands are getting dirty, they will not come clean
After taking a dump in life’s Mensch-Maschine
No soap for your sins, for your body or face
Swallowing now, you won’t enjoy the taste

Billy and Ricky well they know the score
Baseball battles like love and war
Winners and losers, forget all the rules
And mangé la merde
Well that’s French, you tool

Bill said,“Eat shit and die Ricky!”
Ricky said, “Eat shit and live Bill!”
Bill said, “Eat shit and die Ricky”
Ricky said, “Eat shit and live Bill”
We’re all gonna eat shit and live

Perchance to dream                                                       
Perchance to wake                                                         
Lick the icing off your cake                                           
Happy Birthday boy                                                       
We’re glad that you dropped by                  
Now here’s some shit, it waits for you                         
Like Bill and Ricky you’ll be tasting it too                    
But will you live or will you die?                                   

Bill said,“Eat shit and die Ricky!”
Ricky said, “Eat shit and live Bill!”
Bill said, “Eat shit and die Ricky”
Ricky said, “Eat shit and live Bill”
We’re all gonna eat shit and live


words: Hand On The Rock/Jonathan Tiersten/Robert Hiltzik
music:  Hand On The Rock





          



Eat Shit and Live

Dysfunction In My Function                        

There’s dysfunction in my function
There’s a mess inside my mind
Got a crack in the foundation
Too much water in the wine
Gonna stake out, break out,  give up the ghost
Take no prisoners, leave my post
There’s dysfunction in my function
Please be kind


There’s dysfunction in my function
There’s a bug inside my brain
Wired for sight and sound, I hear
The beauty and the pain
As they shake it, break it, keep turning those screws
I'll hammer out this message
Excavate it for you
There’s dysfunction in their function
They're all the same


            So if you want to build it with me
            You’ll have to settle for my carpentry
            Trying to fix it using string and glue
            Embrace the madness, let it fall on you
            Forget those money back guarantees
            Construction stalling with apologies 
            Climb out of the rubble
            Try another point of view

There’s dysfunction in our function
There’s a war within our world
Forget conjunction junction
Too many lonely boys and girls
If you wait for perfection, you'll be stalling too long
Rolling your eyes at this bedroom song
There’s dysfunction in your function
There’s dysfunction in my function
There’s dysfunction in the function
 Of this world



            

             

             




Dysfunction In My Function

my futile attempt at transcendence despite the wise teachings of Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert), whose insightful words bookend this song


Get Lost  

Gonna take a trip inside myself                                                
To find serenity
It’s not a place I know so well
But it’s where I’m taking me
I start this meditation
Close my eyes and count to ten
Lose myself and take a breath 
Repeat it once again

I get lost, get lost
Then I think too much and grok it up
My mantra just got tossed
Get lost, get lost
Conscious seething, breathing
Got my toes and fingers crossed

Drive the coast to Big Sur
A former hippie way
Timmy Leary, Dicky Alpert
What do those mushrooms say?
Well, Timmy went to prison
And Dicky changed his name
And me I go in circles
I can’t understand my brain

Get lost, get lost
Albert Hofmann’s in the kitchen
He can cook that secret sauce
Get lost, get lost
I wanna reach the 5th dimension
Go beyond my permafrost
                                                                                         
OOHH  the infinite beauty
OOHH the infinite me
OOHH the intoxication
Oh don't do don't do
 just be…. Let It Be

Ram Dass, the Dali Lama
Baba is my name
Yogacise don’t moralize
I play the Buddah game
Psilocybin take me higher
Mother Earth I feel her near
Holds me in her sunshine
I dissolve and disappear

Get lost, get lost
Then I think too much and grok it up
My mantra just got tossed
Get lost, get lost
I wanna reach the 5th dimension
Go beyond this permafrost



Get Lost

Star crossed lovers with an arson problem. A mini musical movie about lovers on the run...
Added to the album: "Curiosities Of Outsider Art" (Sept  2025)

(Act 1: Young lovers on an arson spree)
Lyrics:
She puts the gasoline in my truck
And then we drive down
And we like to burn up
Local buildings
And alleys
And trashcans

She likes to come out with me at night
And burn things down
She can't explain it
It's just how she feels
It's what see needs
Simultaneous release
While burning down the Hardee's (a USA restaurant chain)

We got black magic spells right off the shelf
I have a split personality
And I hate Ourselves
We have  a compulsion
To  blow things up
It's all fucked up
Young arsonists in love
Young Arsonists in love (3X)

We have black magic spells
Right off the shelf
The good ones are mixed in
So it makes it hard to tell
We understanding the poetry
Of burning things up
Burning shit up
All fucked up
Young arsonists in love
(End Act 1)


(Act 2 : Chase and capture)
Young arsonists in love (3X)
We're on the run
She says: let's burn down a Chevron

We have black magic spells right off the shelf
The Doctors say we seem alright
But you know that we can't be helped
The Police ask: Is this behavior carnal?
"Officer"
She said:
"Have you forgotten how to marvel?"
Forgotten how to marvel?

Young Arsonists In Love

Ride with me to Galveston
with the windows rolled down
Ride with me to Galveston
with the windows rolled down
Ride with me to Galveston
let's leave this town

we are going
we are going to
have families of our own
we all know
we all know it
that this is the last hurrah
we are going 
to have families of our own

ride with me to Galveston
with the windows rolled down
ride with me to Galveston
with the windows rolled down
ride with me to Galveston
let's leave this town

Galveston

I invite you to listen to my piano improvisation "Games of Shadows".

The sheet music of my compositions can be downloaded from here:
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/publishers/victor-birkan-sheet-music/3028943?isPLP=1

Find all my music here: https://linktr.ee/victorbirkan


Games of Shadows - Improvised Piano Piece

Yes, it's all about the ride, so forget about the finish line
Spoken words mainly from Bob Dishy and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman(in his scene stealing performance as former bagpiping childstar Sandy Lyle) from the 2004 movie Along Came Polly...Let It Rain!

If  you feel the need to bust out and solo,   Mr. Hoffman will gladly demonstrate how to find that freedom to rock out
take a look

https://youtu.be/Z5sH9Gpa4PM?si=d99f_6wXgcx9h1aI

Lyrics

Yesterday's gone                                              
But this race keeps dragging on                       
The rules they believe
Not the same for you and me 
Hard to play fair                                             
Hard not to cheat                                          
Hard just to stand on your own two feet         
No need to deceive                                        
Just walk on by                                                             
Forget about the finish line                           
Forget about that finish line                               

A prodigal son
I'm tasting moonbeams on my tongue 
Your greatest mistake 
Let's celebrate and cut the cake
Face to the wall
I turn and say cheese
Time to confess this misery 
No need to grieve
Let's dance on by
And forget about the finish line
Let's forget about that finish line

One foot in front of the other                               
Lunge, leap, somersault, and roll              
Always falling down in your bread and your butter             
Take a chance and lose yourself                        
It's not the end you need to encounter              
This life in cruise control                                     

Hard to play fair
Hard not to cheat
Hard just to stand on your own two feet 
No need to grieve
Just dance on by
Forget about that finish line 
Forget about that finish line
Forget about the finish line



Forget About The Finish Line

Cyclothymia

Cast of Characters:
Llanpsych -- @llanpsych -- Tez – Fender Stratocaster electric guitar and composition
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken -- drums
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – Fender Precision Bass
J.J. Terrell– @j-j-terrell – synth and organ
The Beautiful Dark -- @thebeautifuldark -- Carl — vocals, whistling, and lyrics
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen — Tom Anderson Custom T model electric guitar, production, mix, and mastering
This song began at the end of last summer, August of '24, when Tez sat down and composed it on his guitar. He shared it with us right away, and while everyone jumped on it immediately, it sat on the shelf for so long because we all felt we needed a singer for it. Fast forward a year, and lo and behold, we picked up Carl, who is down for whatever vocals a song needs. 
  We began construction on this by creating the rhythm section. Ken first adding his explosive drums, followed by Josh completing the rhythm section with his four string, fretted bass, which he used a plectrum to play.  JJ entered the fray next, adding his otherworldly synth and thickening organ. 
  Then it sat. And sat. And sat some more, until Carl found us, or we found him, and he was finally able to add the missing puzzle piece. He also did something that none of us had ever heard before. He added the whistling at the end, too. But before we put it to bed, Stephen added some thrilling solo work with his axe, too, also towards the end. 
  Now that it was a completed song, we asked Stephen to mix it, even though it's really Tez's song, and that honor would usually go to him. However Tez was experiencing some technical difficulty, so the honor went to Stephen, who did his always professional production work on it. 
  This is a straight rocker from Eclectic Collective, being in all of our wheelhouses. This one was all made in house, too, so it's a great representation of our rocking skills as a band. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it. 

Original lyrics by The Beautiful Dark:

Curing core
Great lucid lore
Ore of iron dreaming
Alluring more
Grace lucid door
Assuring new real scening

Iron dreaming
Earth's core revealing

Tick tock that hope
Dream that design
Tick tock that goal
Aspiration in mind
Love locked to luscious
Living for time
New rules got rhyme
The future is fine

Iron dreaming
Earths core revealing

We need not fists
We need no guns
Just words and wits
Dreams for daughters and sons
You get the jist
A felt future is on
We'll clear the mist
Open those fists
It's a hug and a handshake
Then let's all move on

Iron Dreaming (Eclectic Collective)

Varinia was the wife of Spartacus in the Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus. This track is inspired by The Love Theme from Spartacus chart that Bill Evans did of the Alex North soundtrack.

.....

Varinia-10-2-1

Varinia

Hoping you are having a lovely weekend....Just a little French inspired number !
Thank you for your very kind plays reposts and playlists.

Une Histoire

an older tune I cleaned up a bit
it is a tribute to actor, singer, dancer, artist, and author Russ Tamblyn, who turns 91 in December.

I wrote the song around the time I retired from my  medical career. So  along with references to  Russ and childhood memory, there are veiled allusions to this strange  new exciting but a bit unsettling life circumstance in the lyric.

As per Russ 
He danced and acted in Westside story  and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers most famously but was in a bunch of movies in the 50s and 60s.. and ....my favourite as a kid was the War of the Gargantuas, which  for Russ was a creative low point ..but  it got him to Japan
opening clips from WotG...the middle and end clips from his movie Highschool Confidential



PS The line in the last verse Words stuck in my throat..lifted from the song The Words Get Stuck in My Throat From the movie War of the Gargantuas...sung by the wonderful Kipp Hamilton who has to contend with a Gargantua groupie..dont worry she survived....clip of the song in the movie is here
https://vimeo.com/358726099?fl=pl&fe=sh
Devo did a cover of it years later


Russ Tamblyn

I'll get a Tokyo life                             
Say some words off the script          
Monsters in play                                
Career gone adrift                               
I can make it in spite                          
Of the way they dub my lines              

I'll sail to the East
Maybe take me a bride
Dance out regret
Act up with pride
Let me do it 
Let me do it
Let me do it brother, what do you say?
My little boy brain wants to be Russ Tamblyn for a day

I wanna be cool
I’d like to be strong
A fighter who dances
A singer of songs
Add some rhythm 
Put some muscle on these rhymes 

The streets of the West
I'll be taking a side
Living forever 
This world’s opened wide
Let me do it
Let me do it
Let me do it, what do you say?
My little boy brain wants to be Russ Tamblyn for a day 

In 1970                                         
I saw him on the TV screen        
With those creatures, one             
brown, one green                         
My Gargantuan celluloid dream   

They said I could bail    
I’d much rather swim
Head above water
Life on a whim
I can make it in spite
Of their doubts and their goodbyes

Words stuck in my throat
What's left to say?
There's only myself
I can't stay away
Let me do it 
Let me do it
Permit me if I may
My little boy brain wants to be Russ Tamblyn for a day
My little boy brain wants to be Russ Tamblyn for a day





Russ Tamblyn(the Ballad of the HotR)

Urban Fish

Years ago, my brothers and I had spent several weeks getting my dad's house ready to sell after he had passed. I was in the realtor's office ready to sign the paper work when the prospective buyers asked why I wasn't buying the house I grew up in.  I said (not thinking) "Too many ghosts".  The realtor immediately jumped in and said, "he means memories" to which I smiled confirming the needed clarification:)  It does beg the question however, how many "ghosts" haunt our lives; bad decisions, fractured relationships, things we did or failed to do.  I have found hope and forgiveness in the Christian faith, others have found healing in the passing of time, others still carry a heavy burden of what could have been or should have been.  Peter explores the theme in poignant verse to Seagull's quixotic soundtrack.  I am honored to  contribute a few colors to the tapestry;)
Acoustic guitars left & right; David Dunham; @david-dunhamuser589535203
Superb Poetry/Lyrics, Narration; Peter the Poet; soundcloud.com/user-264930040/tracks
Master of the music, lead guitar solo, mix & production;  Seagull @farout-music-studio
Wonderful voice: Clara Sorace
Track art: Bing images
Ghost of a Sense:

Yes, I know you.
I can feel your presence.
I can touch you, smell you.
I see you not by sight of eye
And yet I ken that you are I
That vespered wraith that writhes within
To test my faith, try my sin
Push the bounds to cause offence
A moral, soul thing, ghost of a sense recalls myself, so well defined
Entrenched, walls behind, built so sound of dust that crowned the pity, falling soft amiss,
Deep inside the tears I cry as here I find my self-abyss.

Whispers bringing shadows, filled of secrets therein held,
Memories, morose, piece me still, to wear in time, my wasted face.
And now reside, cast aside, to forge and ever meld,
Of haunting, ringing echoes, that will alone their chime erased.

Ah! But you won't twist me, nor bind me fast, to the sandy doctrines of the misty past,
With its beards and staffs and crinkled testaments.
My future's sprinkled here present with your crass irrelevance and matters not that sat right there,
The blackest chasm in my simpling world so spare,
Where space and time have overspilled the leaking psyche of a crippled mind,
That barely copes, unfulfilled, a crooked, limpid moral health of broken shrines
That hopes to find ....
.......some worthwhile inner self.

Ghost of a Sence (Seagull, Peter, David)

There’s a treasure down deep in this wonderland
To find it, plug your nose, feel the dirt on your hands
The word and rhyme, a message, in a song it stands
my rock n roll Rosetta Stone 



Forget About The Finish Line

Hand on the Rock

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