Death By A Thousand Cuts (Words and Music by David Stephenson, Copyright 2013

I run and I hide from the monsters outside
I'm not safe I'm just scared anymore
Wishing and washing, hemming and hawing 
My calliope crashed to the floor
A faucet is dripping, my mojo is rusting
Like fencing I lost in the flood
The chickens are bloating
My cattle are floating
But I'm still alive after all

Death by a thousand 
Death by a thousand 
Death by a thousand 
Death by a thousand cuts

My head's in a hole, all the time growing old
Love poetry glued to the door
A meteor shower destroyed all my flowers
It's not safe in this world anymore
Distant drones humming
The Authority is coming
To burn my compound to the floor
But they better hurry cause I'm sick with worry
It's not safe in my home anymore
 
Death by a thousand 
Death by a thousand 
Death by a thousand 
Death by a thousand cuts

Death By A Thousand Cuts (Free Download)

Fukushima Baby (Copyright 2013 David Stephenson)

She's my Fukushima baby
My Fukushima baby
She glows in the dark, but that's alright by me

Some men travel air, land and sea
To find the most intimate of company
They bring 'em on home in a gunny sack
But I found mine floating on a pink Cadillac
My heart was dark, the beach was darker
When she really set off my geiger counter

Now she's my Fukushima baby
Fukushima baby
My Fukushima baby
Yeah she glows in the dark, but that's alright 
She grows in the dark yeah, but that's alright by me

When she made landfall on the Oregon Coast
I grabbed her hand and I held her close
When it comes to love some feel a pitter patter
But I felt the heat of her nuclear reactor

Now she's my Fukushima baby
She's my Fukushima baby
My Fukushima baby
Fukushima baby
She glows in the dark, yeah, but that's alright 
She grows in the dark yeah, but that's alright 
She glows in the dark, yeah but that's alright
That's alright, that's alright, that's alright by me

Fukushima Baby/ 福島赤ちゃん

Air Supply

SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy)

Two Worlds Away  (Words music by David Stephenson, Copyright 2014)

She loves to dream of trains that don't run anymore
Overeager porters with fancy dining cars
Remote destinations and strangers by the score
The sunset sun is golden her window steals the stars

She's two worlds away
She's two worlds away
It's ok, She's two worlds away

The landscape disappears into the night
Her perfume lingers like a chinese kite
The rhythm of the track sings her to sleep
The rhythm of the track sings her to sleep

Now she's two worlds away
She's two words away
It's ok. She's two worlds away

I'm wide awake, I feel her twitchin'
Make no mistake she's still bewitchin'
She's just to worlds away.

Two Worlds Away (Original Live Solo Piano Ballad)

Tape Loop Memories (Copyright 2016 David Stephenson)

There once was a man from Michigan 
The land of 10,000 lakes
Oh right, that's Minnesota
I was once never there by mistake
He fought the great war against Canada
But that didn't turn out so great
He was gravely wounded in Canada
But that all turned out to be fake

So he ran thru the bog and he ran thru the willow
He ran but he couldn't get away
He ran thru the marsh and he ran thru the meadow
He ran but he couldn't get away from himself 

He vanquished the Vampires of Hollywood
Fueled by a pound of cocaine
Beat back the Witches of Malibu
Burned them alive at the stake 

(Chorus)

Now he sits in pain alone 
The lights are on but no one's home
Playing tape loop memories 

He chopped down the trees of Oregon
Looking for something to fight
But when the sun shines bright in Oregon
It really heats of the old double-wide

(Chorus)

Playing tape loop memories (ad infinitum) 

iTunes

Tape Loop Memories

I imagine this song as a tribute to Heather who was murdered during the Charlottesville Riot. (For Heather D. Heyer)

Emergency Broadcast System

George Jones (Words/Music David Stephenson copyright 2012)

You can drown the Opry, it's been dead for years
You can drown the Opry, and I won't shed a tear
But Lord don't wash, George Jones away

He loves his lawn tractor for quick liquor runs
He's been getting wobbly since 1961
If you see him drunk in Nashville, makin' the scene
Won't you bequeth him some gold water wings
So don't wash George Jones away

The rats and songwriters will survive the flood
Floatin' on their guitars and chewing their cud
Rats and songwriters don't give a damn
As long as they're drawing their royalty checks
Direct deposit those royalty checks....Lord!

You can't kill Waylon, he's already dead
You can't drown Willie, he's gettin' high in Texas
The ghost of Hank Williams hangs like a dream
Protected from danger by a chicken wire screen
Pray don't wash George Jones away.







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George Jones

Approached the first version with fresh ears and dressed it up a little bit.  Cheers!

Slippin' and Slidin' (Little Richard Cover/Remix/Remaster)

Words and Music by David Stephenson
Copyright 2019.

The Days Before Quantize

I romantisize about the days before quantize
Drunken beats, disorderly rhymes 
The good old days before quantize

In a recess dark sealed with skin and bone
Deep inside this mans mind
Random thoughts unquantified
Sits a brain beyond quantize

I'm wide awake tonight
Counting sheep with open eyes
They clear a steeplechase
Form a random, scattered array
In a field beyond quantize
A grassy field beyond quantize.

Days Before Quantize

TWIST ("Grace" Album Version)

Triple Guitar Attack at Dawn

Let U Go

Someday I hope I find you
All alone in a grassy meadow
I'll be the wandering soldier
And you with a light amnesia

I'll do all the things I did before
But this time I'll do them better
I'll say all the things I said before
But this time I'll say them sweeter

Wind you up and watch the show
Then let you go
Wind you up, enjoy the show
And let you go

I'll open my eyes and shut my mouth
And just watch the dark clouds passing
Open my heart and shut my mouth
And just watch the damsel dancing

Wind you up and watch the show
Then let you go
Wind you up, enjoy the show
Then let you go
Wind you up and watch the show
Then let you go
Wind you up and watch the show
Then let you go

Let U Go

Open Your Mind
(Music and Lyrics David Stephenson 2020)

Some say the war is never over
The war is never over
But Say Hey!
There's a peace to be discovered and it's growing deep inside your brain
Glowing deep inside your brain

All that fear and the anger that you carry
Is strictly voluntary
So come swim in the Sea of Understanding
So deep the hurt can't penetrate
So calm the hatred floats away

And each day a love grows never-ending
A love grows never-ending
Each day a love grows never-ending
A love grows never-ending
Open your heart, open your mind

Brothers and Sisters
Set down all that weight you chose to carry
It's all extraordinary
We're all just crooked saplings
Looking to the sky for rain
Bending to the sky for rain

And each day a love grows never-ending
A love grows never-ending
Each day a love grows never-ending
A love grows never-ending

Shut your eyes
Open your mind

Open Your Mind (Preacher Version)

Naked Eye Astronomy 
(Words and Music by David Stephenson 2020)

If I ever really lost you, I would have had to find you
But the haystack hid the needle
And the needle moved around and around
From town to town

The approach, the collision, the after-parting
Seemed over before it even started
From my position it seemed to last a long, long time
A long, long time

The convergence of our orbits
There's proof it really happened
From nosey neighbors and naked-eye astronomers

Boil it down to the brain stem
Neuropathy, a friction
Were the sparkles a mere  figment
An illusion, pure fiction
Pure fiction 

The convergence of our orbits
There's proof it really happened
From nosey neighbors and naked-eye astronomers

They say it was over, before it even started
They say it was over, before it even started

Naked Eye Astronomer

Every night I scream
I can't see you, I can't feel you, I can't  go on
Far across the distance
Big space between us
You never come,  I can't go on

Near, far, wherever you are
I know that your heart is long gone dear
Nevermore will you open, open my door
Maybe you're here in my heart
But my heart is cold
Baby you're here in my heart
But my heart is cold

Love touched us one time
Is one time enough?
I gotta drive on
Safe to say I loved you
Polaroids I cling to 
Safer said, I gotta move on

Near, far, wherever you are
I know that your heart is long gone dear
Nevermore will you open, open my door
Baby you're here in my heart
But my heart is cold

You're not here
There's nothing I fear
Though I know that your heart won't go on dear
We'll stay forever away
Baby you're here in my heart
But my heart is cold

*COLD* (MOAG/MidiPunk Collaboration)

Expression thru chance/Surrender to chance/Play the dice man roll your own questions on any street corner/Play safe only when it is dangerous to do so/Rip up all your tomorrows throw the pieces into the air/Let them flow follow the heart.  
Tuned for more exciting news...

Discography

Grace  2020
Eudaemonia  2019
David Stephenson 2018
I Become Disaster 2017
High Lonesome 2011
Stereo Side Two  2010
It's All In Your Head 2001

 "David is a great post-protopunk-singer/songwriter-with a dash of industrial-upper-Midwest-infused-drum-machined-mayhem-but-with-soul."  DJ Paul Critz, KFUG Radio. 

Songwriters who have that way with words, that ability to make any phrase sound like rock 'n' roll, they're always interesting, no matter what they're saying or what key it's being said in.  David Stephenson has it!

David Stephenson

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