Poser

Video at https://youtu.be/fajq4lalOyo?si=BOfRXHq3xvn49PUE.
•••••••••••••••••••
A friend from university remembers me leaning out of a car window singing "I wanta get me some hongos". I remember no such thing.  In honour of his recollection I created that song, but from the perspective of a 75 year old. I still wanta get me some hongos, but ...

Verse 1:
I'm sitting here patiently trying to compose
A song about my distant past, all those highs and lows
I don't want to presume that everybody knows
That back in my early days I liked a taste of

Chorus:
Hongos, Hongos
That's the way the song goes
Hongos, Hongos
Wanta get me some Hongos

Verse 2:
Time goes on and on I guess everybody knows
Some things are moving faster but mostly it all slows
There were years oh so many when my consumption froze
And I nearly forgot about the magic of

Chorus:
Hongos, Hongos
That's the way the song goes
Hongos, Hongos
Wanta get me some Hongos

Verse 3:
Way back when if I had a choice I remember what I chose
I was immortal like all my friends, I guess that's how it goes
Now here I am over 70, still trying to compose
A song about my life that still featuring

Chorus:
Hongos, Hongos
That's the way the song goes
Hongos, Hongos
Wanta get me some Hongos

Bridge:
My time is running short
Before I watch my life abort
I might as well resort
To some

Chorus:
Hongos, Hongos
That's the way the song goes
Hongos, Hongos
Wanta get me some Hongos

Hongos!

•Watch the Video•

Odd melody.  Unusual chords. Strange lyrics. I tried to turn this into a song but it didn't want to go. Until it did.

Verse 1:
I’ll be there when you need me
I’ll be there at the source
Of strength and hope in the face
Of sorrow and remorse
I’ll be there in those moments
When all you feel is pain
And even if I’ve been before
I’ll return again.

Verse 2:
When the day is getting darker
And all there is is night
When ground starts to shaking
And the others all take flight
The storm all engulfing
Saps your strength with it’s might
If you think you know who’s with you
You just might be right

Verse 3:
You’re a part of everyone
And we’re all a part of you
No one is ever quite alone
I think you know that's true
You have no need of magic
Or supernatural beings
You and I we are alone here
You and I can share the dream

Verse 4:
When you and I learn things
How the world is full of pain
How injustice and violence
Are enacted in our name
We can draw upon each others strength
And let our voice ring clear
With our brothers and our sisters
We can’t be stopped by fear

Verse 5:
And if you ever wonder
If you can do great things
Just remember what I told you
In the early days of spring
Together we are who we are
And together we’ll be there.
And if you ever doubt it just remember
I’ll be there

I'll Be There

Remixed and remastered 4 January 2025
================================
The phrase "perfect is the enemy of good" is an aphorism commonly attributed to Voltaire in 1770, but even he was apparently quoting an Italian proverb that had been around for a while.  It seemed to me to be a good idea for a song.  

Verse 1:
There was that short descriptions on page 195
It wasn’t really what I had intended to describe
And after many hours of working on the text
I gave up and decided that it was hopeless to expect
That I’d ever have the talent to do better than ok
I tossed that novel in the bin, there’s nothing more to say
It will forever go unread, I did the best I could
Perfect is the enemy of good

Chorus:
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy of good
If I could make it better don’t you think I would
If I say it’s not good enough, I hope it's understood
Perfect is the enemy of good

Verse 2:
Our partnership was based on love and trust and fun
But I was undecided, would she ever be the one
Was she what I wanted, was she a perfect fit
A goddess with golden hair and unrivalled wit
A libertine, a temptress, that lovely girl next door
I let her go, so I'd be free for whatever was in store
Learned a lot about loneliness, more than I really should
Perfect is the enemy of good

Bridge:
Nothing’s ever finished
Nothing’s ever done
Always trying, waiting
While the race is being run
Perfect is my enemy
It keeps me playing small
For all that I’ve attempted
There’s not much to show at all

Verse 3:
The novel I was writing spoke of sadness and regret
For a love I’d lost so long ago that I still can’t forget
With this song I’m hoping for some closure on my past
I’m trying hard - I hope I can redeem myself at last
You’ll probably never hear this song - it won’t pass the test
That just allows perfection - I give up on all the rest
But who knows maybe this time I’ll cut myself a break
And sing this song with all it’s flaws - it’s a chance that I should take
Not perfect but maybe the very best I could
Perfect is the enemy of good

Chorus:
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy of good
If I could make it better don’t you think I would
If I say it’s not good enough, I hope it's understood
Perfect is the enemy of good
Perfect is the enemy of good

Perfect is the Enemy of Good

Perfect Is The Enemy

LONG WAY ROAD
Music by Vlasis Metaxas
Musical arrangement by Overdrive

Check out the beautiful original version:
https://soundcloud.com/vlasis-metaxas/long-way-road

Vlasis Metaxas' wonderful music is available on his Soundcloud page:
https://soundcloud.com/vlasis-metaxas

Hope you enjoy this version.

Long Way Road

Changes

John Hardman - Vocal (Lyrics/Melody); Lead Guitars; Production
@johnhardmanmusic-swampuk

Ron Snyder - Riff Guitar; Bass; Drum Arrangement
https://soundcloud.com/snyderron/tracks

This is our first composition together (11/2024).

Never Ever Thought (This Could Happen)-HARDMAN & SNYDER

One of my more experimental vocal pieces.
Which is saying something!
A cardinal example of the idea that at least other artists on Soundcloud will understand what the -attempt- was, but not necessarily everybody :)

lyrics:

A deer sent a dream to a seal one night
And as if to assuage his fright, he said
My watery friend
Are you too brushed with the pattern of the dappled light
Or are you something else instead

For the nonce
I discovered my entire personality is a trauma response

I can be stupid sometimes
But i kind of have to work at it
It's usually done as a courtesy
At the risk of committing apostasy though
It isn't really lost on me
That I'm watching a macabre monstrosity grow
And that's about the long and short of it

As the tanks rolled into Gdansk
The smugness had gone sour
Like a pigeon riding a surfboard
But the well to do at this late hour
Left this grisly scene ignored

Having settled for a meal at the Spur-Rowel
Was my portly dinner acquaintance
With deportment bordering on the crass
He sported a brightly colored towel
And had an aptitude for silent vowels
Giving directions with a bit of sass
To some caterer's rising star
Manoeuvre them hors d'oeuvres, lass
And you'll go far

He rapidly chattered on at me oblivious of any regrets
With lexical agility like a horse capable of winning the Preakness
Any religion that is famous for death threats
Is a reflection of its logical weakness

He wore these strange kneehighs and his articulation had a certain varnish
As we were playing backgammon
You cannot serve God and Mammon
Leastwise not with the same garnish
We would not wish in the least to tarnish
Our reputation for epicurean varnish 

Having expounded between the tangent and the tractory
He wound down his pithy orations
And concluded by describing
The nearby stink rising from the burning of olfactory ethics dissertations

We'd better get out of here and hide
The Butter-Side Down Kingdom is doing a genocide
We're in for a rather bumpy ride
It's time for prestidigitations

Buy on Bandcamp

Gargantuan Gentry and the Gneisenau Gavotte

Remixed with a new vocal track and mastered January 11, 2025.
============================
I met a guy.  He had very extreme political ideas and seemed to believe in every conspiracy.  I asked him where he learned the things he was saying.  He told me he know of a guy in Germany who was a fantastic source.  Afterward it occured to me that the "guy in Germany" could be anyone, and that it was a pretty dubious kind of source for all his supposed knowledge.  Little by little the guy in Germany became the Random Dude.
=============================
Lyrics:
Verse:
I recognize that look
I see it all the time
You probably think that I’ve lost the plot
You worry bout my state of mind
You think I’m lost in conspiracy
But I can see things you might never see
Cuz I’ve found a place where the actual truth
Is handed out to anyone for free

Verse:
I’ve been searching for the truth
For as long as I can recall
I was pretty young when I realized
They were lying to us all
The government, church and the media
Their lies are a complete disgrace
But I found a source for the real story
He been there a while, out in cyber space

Chorus:
He’s got a website on the internet
He’s the strangest guy that you ever met
Don’t know where he lives or his real name
Can’t say for sure that he’s completely sane
A chip on his shoulder and a bad attitude
But that’s my guy, he’s just some random dude

Verse:
I tried going to the library
Talk to some folks who had a pHD
Conversed with a government entitiy
Took a course at the university
I would watch the news or a documentary
But all of their lies never satified me
He doesn’t need evidence, science or math
To get to the truth, the dude found a different path

Bridge:
The dude told me some remarkable facts
Like world not round it’s completely flat
He says the deep state had JFK shot
UFOs are real, covid was not
Chemtrails are part of population contrl
With 5G & vaccines they’re killing us slow
When he told me 911 was an inside job
I kinda had to conclude
That he knows his stuff, the random dude

Verse:
You might trust your scientists,
Doctors and lawyers too
You might trust your experts and
Everything the media’s feeding to you
But I know better I know who to ask
I know someone who’s thought it through
I know a random dude on the internet
He always tells me what’s really true

Chorus:
He’s got a website on the internet
He’s the strangest guy that you ever met
Don’t know where he lives or his real name
Can’t say for sure that he’s completely sane
A chip on his shoulder and a bad attitude
But that’s the guy, he’s just some random dude

Outro:
I once did my own research very seriously
Looking for websites that agreed with me
But these days I hardly even bother to read
I got more answers than I’ll ever need
He knows a hell of a lot and he’s never been wrong
if you want to know more all you gotta do is go to random dude
That’s random dude dot com

Random Dude

tothm and andy - not of this world

..as observed at a nightclub once upon a time....the whistle is as he walks away...hands in pockets...feigning nonchalance. :)

Time to Time

Outside

I write songs.  I'm not a performer any more than I need to be to have my songs heard once in a while. I hope that better musicians than I encounter my songs and decide to play them.  I just write songs to have them exist in the world. If the world likes them then the world can do with them what it will.  All these recordings are demos.  I've tried to make them as musically interesting as I can but they are all awaiting the skilled hand of someone who knows how to make songs shine.

Hongos!

Daniel Weinstein

Recent comments

Jego and the Androids

Myckael Marcovic

Ladat

COMBSTEAD

Related tracks