With the advent of our democratically chosen fascist plague looming I'm going to reprise this one which is basically about -- wait a minute I don't do  "it's about's"  --  it's about whatever you think it's about.  I feel it now more than four years ago when I wrote it.

Do you see the same things I do 
in morbid visions of the night
I'll confess I'm in need of some discipline
a circumcision of the mind

a single moment's indecision can mean the difference of a life
wait for the signs of antipathy
I'll be coming right behind

is it time to take our things and go running for the line
there's nothing here that's worthy of the sacrifice
why keep me waiting in the dark
as if you and I were born to all this suffering in our stars

Jacob wrestled in the desert
with an angel who would not give his name
does faith only come to me in my anguish and shame

witness to your own decline
you just lie and tell yourself it's alright

Spotify Link

Why Keep Me Waiting

Bringing back a song I wrote nearly seven years ago. The American soul -- we like to tell lots of good stories about ourselves. Here's one that's not so good -- the account of the Moore's Ford Lynchings, in which a Black WWII veteran and his pregnant wife were murdered. No one was ever convicted of the crimes. How much of this same cruel spirit is still with us now?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_Ford_lynchings

there’s a tree in Georgia that never should have grown
it held the bodies upright they were tied with rope

I will be redeemed I will sing and shout
I will be restored just not now

Mae Murray was  twenty four heavy with a child
when her head had fallen down they cut the baby out

forty legs that walked away forty eyes that saw
twenty souls that never said a word to the Georgia law

1997 fifty years had gone 
someone came to find the place and mark the dead with stones

I Will Be Redeemed

Another tune from a few years ago. I wish it had no resonance with current events but sadly it seems that ignorance, fear, and hate have grown and been given license even more so than when it was originally written.

Apologies to friends who've heard this one already.

is it ever enough to want to feel sublime
is it ever enough when someone else is left behind

dark hearts dark thoughts dark gods
are still alive in the common blood
why do we hold these things inside ourselves
is it ever gonna stop
we are no better than the worst of us
is there something left to learn
would we even know if we found it

does it tear at your heart 
the way we keep each other down
tell me all about freedom
when a bullet puts another child on ground
if just for one moment we could look around
and see every hand held out

dark hearts dark thoughts dark gods
are still alive in the common blood
why do we hold these things inside ourselves
is there nothing to be done
we are no better than the worst of us
is there something left to learn
would we even know if we found it

Common Blood

This song is a bit campy. The core of this thing is pure Isley Brothers' formula from the 70s -- they had these no nonsense, hard slamming funk songs that just went on forever (and you want them to). And there's also a healthy dose of 80s/90s slinky funk guilty pleasures like Grace Jones, Sade, & Seal.

is it finally living this feeling inside
I waited for hours with a slow burning fire
now is not the time to evade in the face of desire

but that's how it goes when you hold the control does it feel right
you're letting it go and I know that you know are you satisfied

the rules of the game are so easily changed
let's be honest about it lonely hearts will stray
I am still willing but your love is failing me every night

oh but that's how it goes when you're running the show  how you feel it
you're letting it go and I know that you know I can't steal it

out in the city new hearts align   
but tonight I am only alive for yours and mine

Control

This song was written eight years ago as the darkness of the first Trump presidency was making itself known. And now once again we have the unthinkable -- this disastrous human being with power at his fingers.  And he's already busy spreading lies, fear, and hate.

Liisa Pentti https://soundcloud.com/liisapentti did guest vocals on this 2019 version, and it's the definitive one -- I love what she did.

Ever Since the Rainbow

ever since the rainbow left the evening sky
waiting and hoping seem such a waste of time
into the air we fly into the seams we dive
as if the dust of a broken down dream
could start the engine fire

the passage of time this endless ennui
rivers and threads between you and me
sleep and dream again and again
an old man's finger tapping on a window pane
we dream and breath we love and grieve
remember that we share the same blood and air

the innocent sunrise the whispering day
dark clouds rising that will pass away
I know that these things that bind you to the common marrow
will rise up in your veins to remind you
remember that we share the same blood and air

Ever Since the Rainbow

lost in the morning light
safe from the madness that binds the night
I'll be the good man enlightened, abated, anodyne

I travel naked with a mind left to the wind
you won't believe that this is all that is needed to begin
caught inside the wasted life you never know that you're bleeding

I hear the voice  of higher mind
all the rusted wires untied
I'll be the good man invited, elated, held in line

I leave a message to myself just to remind
there is no reason to be learning how to be unsatisfied
or be lonely

why does it seem so hard to find
why can't it last forever

I'm watching the birds go by my window
my heart is believing fire
and all will reveal in time

Play on Spotify

Begin

There is so much talent and variety here, and most of the people are pretty cool too. I love being part of this community. Listening to your music and being heard in return is enough.

Still reading? OK I'm gonna muse a bit. It's hard to fully convey how much this forum has meant to me. There are people I've never met that feel very much like old friends -- and in a very real way they are.
If I follow someone I make every effort to listen to and support their efforts. It's certainly not a transactional relationship but I do tend to limit my follows to people who engage in mutual listening and engagement.

But wait, there's more!  I embrace, celebrate, and revere the artistic creations that come from the heart regardless of skill level.  But, forgive me, but, goddammit there's too much production of soulless, empty same old shit music out there. I can't hang with downloaded shutterstock vocals, banal boy/girl BS lyrics, and recreations of the sounds that have already been done to death for years. Still with me? OK better to distill my relationships than engage in faux bonhomie.  And if you get what I mean more power to you.

Jeff Roberts

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