When I was 20 years old, I was driving home from a concert one night and got pulled over even though I wasn't speeding or breaking the law in any way. For years, I thought of it as a funny story, but this year I changed my perspective on what the situation meant.

Bopp Road

PUNK BOY 

C                Am                                 Em 
I always wanted to be the lead singer in a punk band. 
C                Am                                 G
I always wanted to scream out lyrics of my own. 
C                Am                                        Em
I always wanted to leap across the stage with my mates and
C                                   Am                     G
Hear the crowd go wild as I sneer into the microphone. 

C                 Am                            Em  
I always wanted to write the next great song about anarchy. 
C                 Am                             G
I always wanted to fight the fascists in my head. 
C                 Am                              Em 
I always wanted a bite of that restless, pulsing energy
C                                       Am                G                    NC 
To propel me to great heights and convince me I’m not dead! 

Chorus:
C                                                 G                 F                                                      Am                      G
Punk boy. Oh, I wanna be a punk boy. Leather jacket, safety pins, and songs that end before 2 minutes. 
C                                                  G                F                               G7                   C         F  Em        C       F  Em 
Punk boy. I still wanna be a punk boy. Gimme a start and let me finish now! 

C                           Am                          Em
But it turns out all I’ve got is this guitar that’s acoustic.
C                            Am                       G
And it turns out that I’m not age 22 anymore. 
C                            Am                              Em 
Still I’m ready to take my shot, and I think this song here proves it. 
C                             Am                 G                NC 
I just need to remember what    [pause] punk is for! 

Chorus:
C                                                 G                 F                                                      Am                      G
Punk boy. Oh, I wanna be a punk boy. Leather jacket, safety pins, and songs that end before 2 minutes. 
C                                                 G                 F                                                                        Am             G
Punk boy. Oh, I wanna be a punk boy. Spiked up hair and ripped up clothes and everybody in the mosh pit. 
C                                                  G                F                               G7                   
Punk boy. I still wanna be a punk boy. Gimme a start and let me finish
F                                  G7                            C
Gimme a start and watch me finish now!

Punk Boy

What do you say when the girl you are crushing on tells you that she can't date you because you got the Pfizer vaccine and she only dates people who got Moderna? 

Could this be the pop punk anthem of 2021?

Pfizer Guy

Written for FAWM 2022
Copyright, Dave Escoffery 

Differing Opinions

Verse 1
If someone dares to have a different opinion,
Especially on the Internet,
The hatred and the anger that erupts in response
Would make you think that an opinion is a threat.
You could even go so far as to forget
That we are all connected, all one.
That goes for every creature underneath the sun.

Chorus
Allow, why can't you allow
Differing opinions to exist?
Think of all the chances that you've missed
When you get pissed
And you resist.
Now I must insist that you desist. 

Verse 2
If someone doesn't like our favorite music,
If someone supports a different team,
If someone dares to watch a different channel
Or read the wrong paper it would seem
We are all so each to deem
That someone has to be our enemy
Even though he is no different from me
(When you get right down to it). 

Chorus

Bridge
So much of our society
Is about digging a chasm between you and me.
I may not be an engineer,
But I can build a bridge from here to there. 
SO much of our society
Is about raising a wall between you and me.
I may not be a carpenter,
But I can open a window, I can build a door
Connecting you and me, the way it's meant to be.

Differing Opinions

For FAWM 2022

This one is my homage to the band Luna. I wanted swirling guitars and a spaced-out sound. There's more I can do in the production, but since FAWM is a timed event, I'm posting what I have so far.

FIre

For FAWM 2022 
Based on prompt 23: Be dirty, be messy, be gross

Messy Stuff

For FAWM 2022
Copyright 2022, Dave Escoffery

Roller Rink

Homage to Woody and the Guitars he played

Woody Guthrie's Guitars

One night I woke up from a dream with a strange sentence in my head. "There's a secret lake on a windowsill in Croatia." Where it came from, I have no idea, but I immediately knew it was the start to a great song. So I made myself wake up enough to get my phone and write it down. When I went to write the rest of the song, I was inspired by Regina Spektor's quirky, surreal songwriting style (think "Grand Hotel" if you know that one). There's probably a bit of Robyn Hitchcock in there, too. So if you enjoy surreal worlds, check out the Secret Lake!

Secret Lake

An unconventional love song to those who keep us thriving

Languish

Music by the Funkin' Soulnuts, produced and recorded by Dave Haynie. This song was written by Don Covay, and made famous by Aretha Franklin. Released as a single in 1967, it spent four weeks as #2 on the R&B charts, and hit #3 on the Pop charts in 1968. It won the Grammy for best Female Vocal Performance that year, and later a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. The Soul Nuts version is unique in that it's actually a "chain" in performance, as the singers trade off leads. 

The Funkin' Soul Nuts are a 10-piece band playing in the Princeton, NJ area. In May of 2012, I brought my 16-track "mobile studio" out to their practice space, and made this recording, "live in the studio" style. Recorded on a Tascam US-1800 using Reaper, mixed on Vegas. 

Chain of Fools

Dave Haynie

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