Original Songs

Coursera Songwriters

Recorded June 17, 2012 at Einstein's Alley Musicians Collective in Princeton, NJ.  My sister Kathy is playing the keyboard! 

The Crime (live)

Recorded February 22, 2013, at Einstein's Alley Musician's Collective in Princeton, NJ. Slightly improved the recording for Soundcloud. 

Going Down Hard (live)

Recorded February 22, 2013, at Einstein's Alley Musician's Collective in Princeton, NJ. This is the first time anyone but my cats heard this song. I screwed up the last verse a bit, but since you don't know the song, you won't notice :-)  Cleaned up some boomy low-end and a few other things for better listening.

HEART OF WINTER
                                  
verse
The day is short, the night is long
No sign of life, the world is wrong
The dread inside is growing strong        
I live here but I don't belong

chorus
Colors gone to grey,  lost in my dismay
Three months locked inside, how can I abide
The icy heart of winter  

verse
Chestnuts blaze upon a pyre
A dirge is caroled by a choir
The ice and snow and cold conspire
Suspending all my soul's desire

chorus
Colors gone to grey, lost in my dismay
Wind claws at my skin, so I'm trapped within
The icy heart of winter  

bridge
I've seen you bundled up so tight
Your eyes reflecting firelight
Your body's heat is like a perfect summer night
Could be this all turns out all right

verse
It's barely twilight at full noon
I'm hunkered down in my cocoon
I dream of May, I long for June
Can springtime ever come too soon?

chorus
Colors gone to grey, lost in my dismay
Fingers going numb, Ever fleeing from
The icy heart of winter  


Heart of Winter (live)

This was a song that came out of my week 2 assignment in Pat Pattison's Songwriting class on Coursera. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time to finish it :-) The assignment was to write an unbalanced verse followed by a balanced chorus. Recorded in a freezing cold garage, first two times I really tried to sing it (I usually like to, well, you know, learn a song and warm up a little, guitar and vocals both, but I wanted to get this attached to the assignment submission). 

So, I friday, there was a medical waste truck blocking my way out of the partking lot at work. That was the inspiration for this. Here are the words:

<blockquote>
Infectious Waist

She caught my eye from 'cross the room
Right there and then I sealed my doom
The trail of broken and disgraced
Suggesting steps should be retraced
But I think I'd risk my life for just one taste

chorus
Infectious waist, atomic hips
A suicide smile with poison lips
Cyanide eyes, and ringlet whips
The venom flows and my heart skips

Stepping blindly through her snare
All my de-fenses unaware
Her perfume burned my eyes like mace
I lost all sense of time and space
But I think I risked my life for just one taste

chorus repeat

That perfect night by sunrise marred
Found me naked, bruised and scarred
The toxins running through my veins
A scent of her that still remains
I nearly gave my life but can't complain
And I know I'd risk it all over again... had an

chorus repeat x2
</blockquote>

Infectious Waist (Demo)

This is a song that came out of my week 3 assignment in Pat Pattison's Songwriting class on Coursera.  I got to record this in my actual music room in my actual house, hurray!  This was just an idea I had floating around during the week, but I made lots of progress on the lyrics Friday, so I had an actual whole Saturday night to work on the music... much better than last week. I changed the chorus around a little from the version I turned in as the assignment; I don't think this verse is as unstable (though I try to sing it that way), but the inner rhyme makes it better anyway. This is also the Soundcloud debut of my new Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III!

Closer, Nearer

I pull you closer, nearer; I see your face
I taste your inner essence, beating my heart's race.
Then you reach closer, nearer, pull right past me
Found the remote control and switched on MTV

One day, maybe, won't someone want me, like I want you
One day, maybe, won't someone want me, like I want you

I'm sitting closer, nearer; you watch the rain.
Feeling you breathing calmly, comfortably maintained.
You pull me closer, nearer, safe from the storm
Layers of flannel PJs trying to keep warm

One day, maybe, won't someone want me, like I want you
One day, maybe, won't someone want me, like I want you

I guess that love arrives, in different ways
One day it's popcorn, the next it's crashing waves
You know I love you, standing by me all these days
But this, bottled passion might explode like a grenade

We're dancing closer, nearer, under the stars
Still too much space between us, mother earth to mars
I lift you closer, nearer, helped you to bed
Locking up my secret longing tight within my head

One day, maybe, won't someone want me, like I want you
One day, maybe, won't someone want me, like I want you
One day, maybe, won't someone want me, like I want you
One day, maybe


Closer, Nearer

Originally done as the Week 5 assignment in Pat Pattison's Songwriting class on Coursera. This was just from a new idea, and I used Pat's Worksheet methods very effectively. I actually finished the words and music before the weekend, so I had time for a little more production work. 

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

verse 1
While driving down a late night road,
I felt a crash, something explode
And by its light, before me loomed,
The undead rising from their tombs
In panic, man, I hit the floor, 
That's when I saw the meteor
And up ahead, the strangest sound,
As dinosaurs transgress the ground

chorus
Zombies roam the countryside, 
Rapters cloned rip, tear, and scythe
Volcano's blown and worlds collide
Chromosomes mutate and thrive
Fleeing home can we survive?
Mankind dethroned, alone, denied
Whoa yeah, it's that time of year, again

verse 2
Flyers boarding jets and bombers, 
'Least those that can dodge the monsters
They launch aloft to interface,
With aliens from outer space
Deep undergound, our hero probes,
A self-aware genetic code
Yet even in this dire case,
Can't science save the human race

chorus
Zombies roam the countryside
Rapters cloned rip, tear, and scythe
Volcano's blown and worlds collide
Chromosomes mutate and thrive
Fleeing home can we survive?
Mankind dethroned, alone, denied
Whoa yeah, it's that time of year, again

bridge
Perhaps I get a little kick
As I stare transfixed
At all the screen depicts
Humanity is eighty-sixed
In nearly every other summer flick

verse 3
At last I feel the end is nigh 
Can't Goldblum give it one more try?
Will they bust through and eat our brains?
While twisters rage across the plains
Can earth withstand tectonic stress?
To win this cosmic game of chess
Will my heart take another thrill? 
And why does popcorn cost ten bills?

chorus
Zombies roam the countryside 
Rapters cloned rip, tear, and scythe
Volcano's blown and worlds collide
Chromosomes mutate and thrive
Fleeing home can we survive?
Mankind dethroned, alone, denied
Whoa yeah, it's that time of year, again
Oh man, it's that time of year, again
Whoa babe, it's that time of year again


It's That Time of Year Again

Dave Haynie