This song flows like the intro to a great American novel...

Good vocals, good guitar, good song and lyrics…..🌍☮︎👍🐞🍀2024

you are consistently interesting , writing outside the box , and fitting snuggly into our ears , cheers bro 🎶🎧💥

Oh, man. that's deep. i love a busted up blues.

Nice faith-healing vibe.  Fire and brimstone here!

Fantastic storytelling reaching its climax (unless there is a 3rd Act). Magnificent instrumentation throughout and great characterisation with your unique delivery. Thanks for sharing

Blues songs about drinking, death, God and the Devil

The Curse Of A Good Looking Ghost

Song recipe: Borrow chords from the CCR Songbook that my Dad gave me for my 12th birthday, play some distorted Elmore James guitar licks, shout some vocals, become a human beatbox, add black magic, press record.

Lyrics:
When John met the Devil
The Devil was in a hole
And the Devil said to John:
Give me your hand and I will give you riches like you've never known
Just give me your hand John
I'll give you riches like you've never known
I'll give you a brand new (to you)
Gently used mobile home
Oh, John don't worry about the bad
Cause the bad sleep well
Every single night
I'll leave you lots of whisky and bones
With meat...
Meat on them bones!
You can have all the love that you want
From these bathing beauties
in this Devil factory
It's like a bad restaurant
That's not very good
But you can have all you want
Understood?
One man's good luck charm
Is another man's burden
One man's suicide tree
Is just another man's shade
John, I can give you guile
Vanquish demons
I can keep you in style
Indulge your Id ego
I'll help you keep it under control
Hey John, Let me out of this hole
Get me out of this hole
Give me your hand John!
Your hand John
Lift me up and out of the hole

John Meets The Devil (Act 1)

The slow death of a hard drinking ladies man
Lyrics:
After all these years of drinking in this place
They still haven't change the carpet
On that plywood stage
If you want to know about my fall from grace
Just read the roadmap
And the lines on my face
 I'm a post-modern
Existential
Drunk
I use to love the ladies until the sun came up
Not reading books!
Being handsome  is so much harder than it looks

(Chorus)Oh, I don't mean to boast
Your drinking with a good looking ghost
Out looking better than most
The curse of a good looking ghost

The ladies they say Shade:
"When you hit 30, that hard living going to catch up with you"
All that drinking
The pills and the thrills
So I gave up on the sauce
But it  made me so angry
Like devil meeting his new boss
(Chorus)

Satin sheets
You know that I've been down many of the wrong streets
I'm full of medicine
And my bullshit
The ladies seems
So reticent
Hospital wishes
Horoscope kisses
Avoiding the Mr
Of the Mrs
The curse of a good looking ghost
Who knew being handsome is harder than it looks?

Curse Of A Good Looking Ghost

*Please note that the unfortunate soul portrayed here is completely fictional and is a depiction of nobody in particular.  More accurately a hybrid of individuals encountered or observed.
Enjoy:)

All rights reserved august 12, 2023

Tequila
He takes a sip and lets it gnaw
On dreams that never will take form
He's slippin' away

Morning light
The new day ends another night
Of nothing but another fight
That takes him away

He never knows the plans he should make
Or chances that his heart wants to take
He's heard it all before 
But not anymore
It's slippn' away

No reply
His efforts never get him by
So baby don't you even try
He's slippn' away

Sweet Charlotte
He gives it everything he's got
Then orders them another shot
She turns him away

He never knows the plans he should make
Or chances that his heart wants to take
He's heard it all before 
But not anymore
It's driftin’ away

Albatross 
It's like a train you can't get off
He's sees the stop but not the cost
Of slippin’ away

Slippin' Away

Peace

This little keyboard melody was done hover an improvisation with some bowls I recorded few months ago. I like the textures they provide.  Since then, I got my own bowls and I started to play with.

Berceuse

Morphometry

Bandcamp

Ambiplasma

Ambiguous

Sequel to Act 1. 
The Devil never fulfills his part of the contract.

Lyrics:
(Old timey religion opener)
Hey John!
Well you need to wake up
You've been drinking top shelf corn liquor
With some prayer and some luck
It's time that you paid up
I'm the slumlord for your soul
I made some promises I could not deliver
Your love letters 
Return to sender
And that thing dangling between your legs
I never made it any bigger

Oh, the Devils mischief will never leave you alone
For those in the know
The Devil likes to sing falsetto
The Devil sings falsetto

That Devil mischief it won't leave you alone (3X)
You a need a thousand souls
To pay me what you owe

Those bathing beauties
With painted on faces
They're now eating mayonnaise right from the jar
If you need me I'll be drinking
Chivas Regal in the car!
I'm the monkey on your back
And if you get into a Devil contract
It's a pact!
That Devil mischief it won't leave you alone
(Fire breathing solo)

That Devil mischief it won't leave you alone (3X)
You need a thousand souls
To pay me what you owe

John Meets The Devil (Act 2)

RIPPLES

A sentimental country-ish ballad with a big sad finish.
Dedicated to anyone suffering from memory loss. Thanks for listening.
Lyrics:
I can still remember
Felicia in December
Outside in the cold
Smoking Swisher Sweet Cigarettes
But she would always forget
If you're gonna inhale that shit
You know she always got sick
She'd chewed down the tip

It's like I told you on the phone
My mind is not all my own
All my memories are dissolving
Our nights in Arroyo Park
Out feeling that spark
That Datsun that would never start
My bad Cure haircut (disaster!)
My heart was beating faster
A sketch of a love scene
Painted behind
A gothic old master

I was selfish with my time
And now I seem to lead my life
Conducting orchestras in my mind
Oh, I don't know how this sounds
But sometimes I listen to the ground
To hear and feel the rumblings
I think that you're coming around

All my memories are dissolving
Soon, I'll have no memories of this world
I'll have no memories of this world
So let's go out tonight
And shoot out the lights!
Let's break our hearts tonight
I'll have no memories of this world

I wanted to drop you this line
To thank you for the time
And thank you for being in my life
Thank you for being my life

Let's Break Our Hearts Tonight

3 Miles.

A song about a narcissist who is oblivious to those around him.
Lyrics:
Punctured with your needles and tubes
Inside your hotel room
Life is like a cyst
Or an open wound
Waiting to exhume
I've never been emotionally deep
I think that's why I'm still alive

We met over drinks
And our shared emotional baggage
Minor characters
We'd lost the plot
At first thought
It's all the damage that I brought
Sitting next to you
Clearing my head
Outside your abstract sick bed

I always seem to get my way
You know that's the way this boy was raised
I've learned everything from American movies
The way that I talk
The way that it rots
The way I walk
With feelings twice removed
Inside your hospital room
Abstract sick bed

(Abstract) Sick Bed

Blues about the fall from grace of a former drinking partner.
Lyrics:
Well, well, well,(cough) well, well
So here you are
Your back in the bar
Well, well, well, well
You've been living the life of an eccentric
You've been out there in the realm
Like way out there man
Like gone, like real gone
You'd been living it up downtown
But uptown, you've lost your shine
Hanging around the Garden of Babylon
It's where you left your keys, your heart and your mind
Well, well, well, well
It's the bottom rung of the ladder blues

What did I see?
Out of my peripheral vision
My friend?
They always say:
You always come back to where you begin
You've been living uptown
But downtown, that's right
The money, the money , the money, the money
She never treats you right
C'mon!
Well, well, well, well
The bottom rung of the ladder blues
I hit the bottom rung of the ladder blues

Well, Well, Well, Well (Bottom Rung Blues)

Everything In Love

Total Abandon

📀

David Z. a.k.a. @BlackMarketBrains and I previously collaborated on one other track that I have posted to my page (After the Bomb), and a handful of tracks that he has posted to his page (3 different remixes of a work in progress from me called Metallic, and a response to my open collab, Social Fabric)...

I'm happy to share this new one that I developed based on an open collab of his called Doc Avalanche Goes BeatBeatBeat! https://soundcloud.com/blackmarketbrains/doc-avalanche-goes-beatbeatbeat-open-collab

I love the original title but chose to simplify it a little bit. 

Hopefully more to come from the two of us!

Avalanche of Beats - w/ Black Market Brains

Art Expressed in Music – Dali's Eccentricity, Feat. Belial Pelegrim
March 2024
Duration: 3:30
Listen to the Playlist: soundcloud.com/bruce-klepper-1/sets/art-expressed-in-music-i
Painting:  The Persistence of Memory
Bruce Klepper: music composition with melting clocks (“soft watches”) and sound effects
Belial Pelegrim: sound design
Listen to Belial's brilliant electronic music: https://soundcloud.com/belial-pelegrim
John-Marc Ventimiglia: tool to create the melting clocks (“soft watches”), gliss and panning tools, Dali sound clips Visit: https://soundcloud.com/john-marc-ventimiglia
Salvador Dalí (May 11, 1904 - January 23, 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work. Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, Dalí received his formal education in fine arts in Madrid. Influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance masters from a young age he became increasingly attracted to Cubism and avant-garde movements. He moved closer to Surrealism in the late 1920s and joined the Surrealist group in 1929, soon becoming one of its leading exponents. His best-known work, “The Persistence of Memory” was completed in August 1931, and is one of the most famous Surrealist paintings.  “The Persistence of Memory” epitomizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his thinking at the time. As one art historian wrote: "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order". This interpretation suggests that Dalí was incorporating an understanding of the world introduced by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.  In August 1929, Dalí met his lifelong muse and future wife Gala, who was a Russian immigrant ten years his senior.  Dalí and Gala lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940 where he achieved commercial success. He returned to Spain in 1948 where he developed his "nuclear mysticism" style, based on his interest in classicism, mysticism, and recent scientific developments. Dalí's artistic repertoire included painting, graphic arts, film, sculpture, design and photography, at times in collaboration with other artists. He also wrote fiction, poetry, autobiography, essays and criticism. Major themes in his work include dreams, the subconscious, sexuality, religion, science and his closest personal relationships. His eccentric and ostentatious public behavior often drew more attention than his artwork. In 1968, Dalí bought a castle in Púbol for Gala, and from 1971 she would retreat there for weeks at a time, Dalí having agreed not to visit without her written permission. His fears of abandonment and estrangement from his longtime artistic muse, Gala, contributed to depression and failing health. In 1980, at the age of 76, Dalí's health deteriorated sharply and he was treated for depression, drug addiction, and Parkinson-like symptoms, including a severe tremor in his right arm. Dali was obsessed with death. Feeling that any every moment he needed to be alive. At the end of his life, he is quoted as saying he was eccentric because he needed to show that he was alive as versus his brother who died very young and his family always referred to him as his brother. On the morning of January 23, 1989, Dalí died of cardiac arrest at the age of 84. He is buried in the crypt below the stage of his Theatre- Museum in Figueres. 
For strings, flute, trumpet, trombone, virtual instruments, sound effects and percussion.

Art Expressed In Music - Dali's Eccentricity, Feat. Belial Pelegrim

I try to write with rich lyrical details and self-deprecating humor about the human condition. Plus, that unique Shade Structure sound!  It sounds best with headphones. Thanks for any comments, reposts or likes.

Discography: Available under Album tag on my Soundcloud main page. Free Downloads/ Always Free
* The Curse Of A Good Looking Ghost (2024)
* Low Profile (2024)
* Smilers (EP 2023)
•Short Songs For Tall Minds"  (2022)
•Friends, They're Gonna Get Your Story Wrong (2021)
•A Suburban Dadaist With Some Store Bought Beats (2021)
•All Feel and No Technique (2020)
•This Is How I Spend My Nights (2019)
•California Songs (2018-2019)
All sounds contained within are home-made/DIY recordings. Most songs are short stories, as I am influenced by Musicians & Writers like Raymond Carver, Warren Zevon, Mountain Goats, Tom Waits, Mark Eitzel,  Randy Newman, Destroyer, Steely Dan, Captain Beefheart, Loudon Wainwright III, Leonard Cohen & The National. Most songs have the lyrics on the song page. Thank you for listening!

John Meets The Devil (Act 2)

Shade Structure

Recent comments

markjbennett

markjbennett

Paul Haas

Hiber-Nation

Related tracks