Song-a-week 2025

Song-a-week 2025 #1

Prompt: The passage of time

These are two stories I heard from these fires in LA.  My heart goes out to all those affected. 

(Trigger warning - If you've been through a fire, this could be hard to listen to!) 

Photo credit: Josh Edelson/ADP/Getty Images (Fair Use)


#palisadesfire #eatonfire #lafires #hurstfire #sunsetfire #climatechange #forestfires #firefighters #fireinsurance


Where Fires Burn

Song a week 2025 #2 -

Prompt: Off the Rails

I was staying up way too late doomscrolling, LA fires, war, impending doom of 4 years of a dangerous megalomaniac, climate change... And by the time I tried to go to sleep I was just too stressed. I need a lullaby. So, I started singing myself this lullaby. I found it quite soothing. 

I turned on the light wrote down the words, went downstairs and recorded a bit on my phone, and went back upstairs and went to sleep.

Simple, but effective.

photo credit: A painting I picked up at Goodwill with no signature

Dream Deep

Song a Week 2025 #3 

Prompts: 
Lost in Translation (using another language) 
and Roses (well, that's the part that I used) 

The title/chorus is a french phrase that is generally translated as meaning "Let's send them packing". Specifically, it translates to "Let's send them on top of the roses", as in, throw them into the thorns. 

If you are curious about what I refer to in the last line of the last verse, check out electiontruthalliance.org , SMARTelections.us , and Dire Talks on YouTube. The graphs are intriguing, if not straight -up damning. 

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Photo: Adobe Stock Image

Envoyons-les sur les Roses

Song a week 2025 #4

Prompts:
- Dorian Mode
- "How Did You Know?"

This started with some chord progressions and the chorus came up, kind of non-dorianish, and various bits of verses and a bridge came in with some of the dorian-ish progressions.
I usually write lyrics first, so this was different. It's more cohesive than I thought it would be... Although it doesn't make perfect linear sense, It's still a song. 

It's basically reflective of the angst of going through a month everyday since January 20th, with general disconcerted musings. 

Trigger warning - It includes some vague imagery of a disturbing situation. 

Where We Are Going

Song a Week 2025 #5 

The "Ask an Axolotl" song was stuck in my head, like an earworm that has hacked into many of our brains recently. And what's going on in D.C. would not leave my head either. 

I wrote another song this week, but I couldn't finish work on it, because this one was insistent on being written. 

It's odd writing about this insanity with a children's song, but, this is all so very, very odd. 
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Photo Credit: Fair use; author unknown; please advise, if known

DOGE Hacker (Ask an Axolotl Parody)

Song A Week 2025 #6 - 

last week's prompt was questionable choices on Reddit and I wrote the lyrics but got distracted by the DOGE hacker parody, so I wrote The Melody this week. 

Questionable Choices

Song a week 2025 #7 -

Prompt- Lydian Mode 
(Not sure if I succeeded in that) 

Once again, I'm writing about the liminal state at the edge of sleeping and waking

And I Dream

Song-a-week 2025 #8 

Reddit prompt: Deceit/Betrayal

Just ranting... 

They Thought He Cared

Song-a-week 2025 #9

Counterpoint to all that political crap - 

Spring is gonna spring

Life Keeps On

Song a week 2025 #10

The prompt I used for this was Phrygian mode. I played with some weird chords and wrote a weird song, with few words and some exploratory vocals.
 

If the Aliens Came

Song a week 2025 #11

Jesse Colin Young passed away - I started to sing "Get Together" and realized I had to rewrite it! People kept talking about how disempowered they've been feeling, so I wanted to write something to lift us up, to remember that every little thing matters, and that it's enough, even if we can't see it right now.

Original by The Youngbloods

#parody #protestmusic #protestsong #politalparody #musicwithamessage #oligarchy #autocracy

Get Together (Parody)

Song a week 2025 #12

true story. photo from back then, too. 

Hanging with the Hippies

Song a week 2025 #13

I used a backlog of prompts: 
Reddit - Birthday and Blue Sky
Songaweek.org: Outlast, (Takes) what it takes, Bended knee, None other, Second to none

I had an intense conversation with someone yesterday who was telling me how he was preparing for his son's future.  This is his story. 








Photo Credit: Synergee (Fair use)

On Your Eighteenth Birthday

Song a week 2025 #14 - 
Prompts - Save Your Breathe (songaweek. org)
and Thought Police (reddit)

I didn't use these prompts explicitly, but they framed the story for me. 

I came up with the eerie melody line for the chorus, and then the words came from there. 

Photo by Marilu Domingo-Ortiz

They're Coming

Song a week 2025 #15 - 

Prompt: "Stream"

I started with a stream of consciousness babbled into my phone while I was driving down the highway.  However, I couldn't hear the words very well on my recording, so I rewrote it. It's no longer stream of consciousness, but it's about streams, nonetheless.



Flowing Going Down

Song a week 2025 #16 - 
Three random word prompts - 
Temperature, Meditation, Patient

Flames Will Purify

Song a week 2025 #17

Prompt: Reuse, Recycle -

This tune and chord progression started from "Grand Reminders", written in May 2024

These words are from merchandise on the "You're Going To Die" (yg2d.com) website. I added a few lines, but most of the words are from three pieces of writing in the yg2d store. 



Photo: Poppy from my niece's wedding

These Two Things Are True

Song a week 2025 #18 - 

Just using 5 notes of the pentatonic scale, this is just a sketch of a few melodies. 

Solado Sketch

Song a week 2025 #19

Prompt: Benefit of the doubt

You'll Get the Benefit of the Doubt

Song a week 2025 #21 

Story by Neal Foard - The Rhino's Echo 
(The soldier's nickname was "Rhino")

Song-a-week 2025

DharmikaMusic