a yawn to greet the morning 
he's set to seize the day
he never looks too far ahead; tomorrow's just a come-what-may
and whatever might be coming
Surely it will give itself away

'cause he's got plenty of time
to put things off and keep them out of sight and out of mind
the urgent and emergent things will still be there to face
when there's no time left to waste
 
they welcome their first angel
into the family fold
and meeting needs from day-to-day becomes the need that takes control
and planning for the future
It always seems to end up being put on hold

see they've got plenty of time
to put things off and keep them out of sight and out of mind
the urgent and emergent things will still be there to face
when there's no time left to waste

it seems like it's been forever
that we’ve read our future in the weather 
but we have yet to come together
to alter course towards something better
and since the future tells our history
and right now decides what that will be
now’s the time for us to see . . .

we are out of time
there's no time left to still be led
by those who think we're blind
when it's time to face the truth that tomorrow is too late
that's when there's no time left to waste

Lyrics: HoboSage
Electric Guitars: Richard Bradley
Even more electrics: Timothy Reid
Bass: Jim Bryan
Drums: David Stahl

Copyright 2021 by Mark Rabuck and HoboSage  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Till There's No Time Left To Waste

adjust to situations
much simpler said than done
curveballs come out of nowhere hidden in the sun
 
and it's all we can do
to try to be prepared
 
to expect the unexpected
has never helped at all
it’s only after one shoe’s down we know the other’s gonna fall
 
and it's all we can do
to try to be prepared
 
because every day’s a day
we may not have a clue
how to find our way through
whatever it is we’re going through
I don’t know what else to say
but you know I’ll always do
anything and everything for you

Lyrics: HoboSage
Copyright 2022 by Mark Rabuck ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Anything And Everything

Composed and recorded in the early aughts, when I got the piano and was learning my way around my home studio ..and was delusional enough to think that maybe I could be a jazz musician. The piano and guitar are real; the rest ..uhmm, not so much.

Study No 1

Thanks to Larry for letting me cover his awesome song.

Do you dream of utopias?
Middle Earth and Narnia?
Do you think that deep down folks are good?
Do you tend to fantasize?
Fly away when you close your eyes?
If a magic door materialized
Would you walk through if you could?

Then come into my Shangri-La
The basement flat where we withdraw
Cuz paradise is where I am with you
This world is no utopia
But you and I got so much love
We can live in a utopia for two

Do you believe in utopias?
And wonder where Atlantis was?
Do you think that deep down folks are kind?
Do you wonder why there’s war?
What we hurt each other for?
Why there’s rich and why there’s poor?
Would you leave this mess behind?

Then welcome to my wonderland
The park bench where you hold my hand
Cuz paradise is where I am with you
This world is no utopia
But you and I got so much love
We'll be living in a utopia for two

Bass: Jim Bryan
Drums: Joao Cabrita

Utopia 4 2 (by Larry Levin)

Every time I think of you I think of all the friends you’ve made
Always moving to the next destination - when you could have stayed
Most of your lives all around the world you've roamed
Now a simple cottage - a few flowers and you’re at home

Nothing lasts forever
Not the deepest longest river
Eventually the well runs dry - the last drops rising high and
Dancing with the wind
The last leaf on the oak tree
Breaks away just to fall free
Riding on the breeze then floating down
Without a sound it dances with the wind

In my dreams you’re both dancing in a room without a floor
There’s no one there to play it but you hear the music playing
just like it was before
But nothing last forever

The childhood heroes you remember, they’re all gone
But that’s what happens when you live a life that’s long
The songs you sang together have their secret harmonies
In perfect time, your feet still glide so majestically

Nothing lasts forever
Not the deepest longest river
Etching out the thinnest line in a touch of time
And dancing with the wind
No matter where you’ve been
It could happen all again
I’m not talking about karma or some universal law
No one’s capable of fathoming the truth or the beauty
of it all

We're all dancing with the wind

Bass: Jim Bryan
Copyright by Mark Rabuck 2023

Dancing With The Wind

Work in Progress..

Balloons and paper airplanes
They can’t fly just anywhere they choose
Today I set another free and it dissolved
Right out of view

So I wonder if you’re out there
On the other side trying to fly them too
Together there’s so much we can offer
Alone, so much to lose

Shadows shift and secrets play
Another flock of code words flies in the way
No matter which side you’re on
Anthems sung by restless throngs
Sometimes sweet but other times oh so wrong

I don’t have much to offer
Just my hopeful thoughts and serpentine dreams
They’re silent forms with my best wishes
From the other side
of an ever widening stream

Balloons and paper airplanes
I’ll send them as long as they can fly
I doubt that any ever make it
But I have to try

Bass(es): Jim Bryan
Copyright 2023 by Mark Rabuck

Balloons And Paper Airplanes

Hope, don't give up the moon
When you give your dreams a chance and let the future dance
Then they will find us soon
So don't give up the moon

Hope, give your love away
Simply give it up so freely you forget yourself
And leave it there to stay

Oh, I think you know
Where you leave it, it will grow
And just a little will come back
So don't lose hope

Hope, let your works unfold
No one else has all the gifts you have
and no good life is measured up by things that you can hold

In a world of rage with people fighting for the stage
Sometimes the loudest are hateful
But don't lose hope

Hope, don't give up the moon
When you give your dreams a chance and let the future dance
Then they will find us soon
So don't give up the moon..


Vocals, Ukulele and U-Bass: Me
Helping out with background vocals: Fran Rabuck
Copyright 2016 by Mark Rabuck

Dont Give Up The Moon

Dad was on vacation - took the family for a ride
We got caught up in the songs we sang and the exits passed us by
Pretty soon the darkness fell and we looked up and saw a clear and moonless sky.

It couldn’t be more beautiful; the stars, they were on fire.
With the tank approaching emptiness, well it came down to the wire
We made our destination and I remember these, the best of times

There’s nothing wrong when you can laugh things off and try another way.
So we sang along on the journey back to Monterey

We are the stuff of battles lost just as much the ones we've won
The constellations of where we’ve been and of all the songs we’ve sung
So when rambling roads and songs don’t take me anywhere, well then I’ll know

There’s something wrong when I can’t find me another way
It would sure feel good if I could make it back to Monterey 

Last night I and Amelia got lost between the strings
Her vapor trails came floating down and wrapped around my wings
In disbelief I went outside and looked up and saw a clear and moonless sky.

And all the stars, they fell around me in disarray
That's why I’m going back to Monterey

I don’t belong here anymore 'cause these aren’t my days or times.
Don’t give me so many choices ‘cause I’ve made up my mind.
Yeah, you’ve all got friendly voices, but I can read the signs
These are the memories I'll save, and hold on to my wings tonight

Let’s sing about adventure with the windows open wide
We’ll sing right through the fog and chill  and let the exits pass us by.


Craig Bunch: drums/percussion
Anton Evans: bass
Nancy Dimock: English horn
Joel Zavala: additional strings
Fran Rabuck: additional vocals
Me: vocals, guitar, piano, MIDI stuff, and some bass
Copyright by Mark Rabuck 2016

Back To Monterey

Every time I look out the window
I see more than a million stars
Born to be forever
Born to travel a million hours
To the promise of space and land
With frozen generations of chosen strands

The forces guarding us saw no need for a wall
Just an endless sea of silence
Absolutely nothing at all
It’s blasphemy, the audacity
This tiny ark we’re pushing into the night
To chase the speed of light

Dawn and dusk, they don’t exist
And we don’t feel the pull of the tether
There’s no such thing as moonlight
And nobody knows about whether
Or not we can make it there
Some say the universe doesn’t really care
...
... Chasing the speed of light

Andrew Blickenderfer: Bass
Copyright 2017 by Mark Rabuck

Chasing The Speed Of Light

A river of oaks glides
Down the hills that follow the contours into a fog line
And as the clouds fill in the sky
Edie asks me to take her to Ashville 

Then high winds, they blow us apart
And lightning strikes and we begin to doubt
Then 'all the things that can' conspire to turn the car around
So we’ll never see the end of the skyline 

If dragons could give us reminders they’d tell us
You’re barely fleeting and you need to be much kinder
And take your place between the weeds and stars and Gods you can’t understand

Then high winds, they blow us apart
Lightning strikes when the words don't count
And 'all the things that can' conspire to turn us all around

Then high winds, they blow us adrift
And  lightning strikes where words don't exist 
And 'all the things that can' conspire to turn us into clowns
So we’ll never see the end of the skyline

all tracks by me

          Copyright 2017 by Mark Rabuck

The End Of The Skyline

One of my first memories; I was just a little boy
With a handful of quarters Poppop sent me to the store
He said, "Buy me some Camels, and with the rest buy a soda
and maybe some penny candy for yourself."

All his life he toiled deep in the mines; yeah, he was poor
Served his country in the war to end all war
It was a hard life with simple needs and simple means
But you know that nothing is ever what it seems

We’re all like drops of rain
We all come down the same
It’s hard to tell from where we came
But we all share this river
We all need, so be a giver
This slice of life is no more than a sliver
If the clouds above aren’t filled with love

The next thing I remember is the head of his motorcade
Open the door for mom and try not to look afraid
There was no one there who could help me understand
The gravity of the life of just one man

Bass: Jim Bryan
Steel Guitar: Mark Murtha
Additional Vocals: Jordan Holsapple

Copyright 2019 by Mark Rabuck ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Drops Of Rain

Burning through a billion years of life forever to be lost
Painting it in black and staining rivers without thinking ‘bout the cost
Feeling we’re invincible whenever we see clear blue skies
But a hurricane’s invisible when you’re sitting in its eye

We're all in this together
We’re fooling ourselves if we think that we know any better.
The world’s on fire, can't you feel the sting
Or hear the cries of those who’ll inherit everything

They set the rules like they're only playing cards - but this isn’t a game
For allegiances to different gods and nations all protected by their sacred names
And conquered every mountain and stripped life from the seas.
Forests that once grew proud are never found ..except on bended knee 

Bass: Jim Bryan
Drums/Percussion: Tony SanFilippo

Copyright 2019 by Mark Rabuck

We're All In This Together

A simple meal, A silent night
A good book to read under a favorite light
I tell myself as long as pages turn I’ll be fine

And take it as a sign.
Let the stars hold their places in the sky 
They make the night the night
And I pretend it never ends
So I can take it as a sign

Is there any redemption?  Well I just can’t say
There's no right direction in a world gone astray
I tell myself as long as I am breathing I’ll be fine

And take it as a sign.
Let the tides dance with the moon and the sun
They’re always moving right on time
So I’ll pretend it never ends
And I can take it as a sign

Copyright 2020 by Mark Rabuck

Take It As A Sign

How many times have you opened a window and felt a different breeze
And told yourself everything is fine, after all it’s just a few degrees
Did you hear disciples ringing bells
See ice cathedrals melting
And then collapsing into a rising sea
And it's happening right now
in the time of you and me

Stuck behind a window in a house painted over by the news
Sleeping in a bed that lies where truth is just a dreamt up point of view
Who do you go to when you ask ..when the answers all wear masks
And just agree to disagree
Hand the Fates their way
There’s no good place to breathe 
In the time of you and me

Goldilocks is going to run away
The house she’s in is not the kind of home where she can stay
There are bears on the door step; I hear the turning key
In this time of you and me

Goldilocks..
The house she's in..
What once felt right is now just wrong, and every child can see
Now's the time for you and me

Drums: Sam Rubin
Bass: Jim Bryan
Guitars: Martin Landolf Lobemeier

Copyright 2020 by Mark Rabuck ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Goldilocks (In The Time Of You And Me)

They were blinded by the sunrise
Temptation found his skin
and recklessly it bit him
She felt alive when he held her hand
And counted all the words
and moments forbidden

Those morning rays were warm
But the heat guaranteed a storm
It followed them back home each day
And more and more things just got in the way

The more that they pretended
The more they couldn’t keep their mounting lies well-defended
Still they did their best each day
To hide the secrets they shared
And keep that world suspended

Until the darkening clouds 
Sown with seeds of guilt and doubt
Rained down on them a truth
They couldn’t bring themselves to say out loud

Didn’t matter how they justified
As far as they could see
There were nothing but cloudy skies

Both of them knew it couldn’t be
And so they vowed under lock and key
to break up     ..surreptitiously

No longer blinded by the sun
And with all the things that bound them finally undone
They cut the last of ties
And said their last goodbyes 
They went their separate ways
Now they count the days and curse the sunrise
every day they curse the sunrise
Feet of clay they curse the sunrise
Hope for a better day but curse the sunrise

Bass: Jim Bryan
Drums: Joao Cabrita

Copyright 2021 by Mark Rabuck (All Rights Reserved)

Curse The Sunrise

A DIY multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter/composer, Mark is hand-crafting a small but ever-so-slowly growing catalog of songs at home. When he gets in over his head, he looks for help from some fabulous musicians he's found ..mostly on-line. None of it's for sale, at least not yet.  Mark produces this stuff mostly to keep himself happy, so if you've stumbled on something you like here ..that makes him extra happy.

M57

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