A compilation of Mark Baughman's Working Theory's best work

Truth be Told

Brothers In Blues

This character is the Redbaggers' leader, Captain America. He is the foil for the Gardner. 

Our friend Henry is in the hospital and both sides are starting to come together to support him. Perfect timing for a media type to show up and try to take control.

Captain America
Copyright 2015 Mark Baughman

When I was a young boy
I turned on my TV
Caught the fire and brimstone
And thought it could be me
So I heard my calling
And now I'm calling out to you
Well it may not be religion
But it will have to do

I witnessed to the people
Who lived below my room
We sat up late and chanted
A patriotic tune
Now I'm streaming from a bunker
Sharing wisdom through the waves
If you're living through your leaders
That can make you slaves

Well you can call me "captain," 
Call me "reverend," call me "sir"
If you ask me where we're going
I'll tell you all where we were
Yes you can call me "captain"
I will lead you, God knows where
And if you think that you want trouble
Well I got a cross for you to bear

I will keep you warm while I wrap you in this flag
I will turn the volume up in case things start to drag
You don't need distractions from the things you got to do
I'll just push some buttons and I know you'll follow through

Well you can call me "captain," 
Call me "reverend," call me "sir"
If you ask me where we're going
I'll tell you all where we were
Yes you can call me "captain"
I will lead you, God knows where
And if you think that you want trouble
Well I got a cross for you to bear

Captain America (Mike Brien voc)

Ozark Angel

Copyright 2014 Mark Baughman

Runnin' out of gas
In the Oklahoma hills
I was bleary and tired
I was fresh out of pills
Rolled into a parking lot
A quarter to four
I only just got here
I can't take any more
But the morning mist rose through the Ozark tress
I could hear music playing
A stranger walked up and offered me keys
Now, what was he saying?

I fell in with a crowd
And that's where I met the Angel
I sang for her
And she prayed for me
Her body it was willing
But her spirit wasn't able
To break the promises
That set her free
Now walking down the road in the early morn'
I could hear music playing
Hurt, dejected, and newly born
Now, what was she saying?
She told me a story,
An epochal poem
Where villains fought heroes
Headed for home

Driving down the road when my time was done
Was liberated
Over the bridge, into the sun
I was elated

I finally found my Penny
When I settled back east
She put down her books
And her tapestries
But living out here,
It's like a movable feast
And we don't know what's real
An what's fantasy
But walkin' down the road 'neath the Ozark moon
You can hear music playing
If I ever get back it couldn't be too soon
I can hear Angel saying

"Your life is a story, we all play a part
Keep winners and losers both close to your heart."

Ozark Angel

Henry is in a coma in the hospital. This is his farewell.

Time to Go
copyright 2015 Mark Baughman

In my room
All the people looking down
They don't know that I can see them
They don't know that I can hear
They don't know how it feels
Never felt this kind of peace before
You brought to me
Are you here for me?
Is it time to go?

All my life
This moment seemed so far away
Now it's come on me so fast
Now my future is my past
Now I don't regret a thing
Nothing I have to answer for
Will you take my hand?
I come aboard
We drift away

Time To Go (Joy Richman Voc)

White's the New Black
Copyright 2015 Mark Baughman

30 days and I'm out of my head
Needed some help, I was sent here instead
Feeling numb, but I can't say why
Must be something in the water that keeps me dry
Nurses smile and divert their eyes
What do they hear when somebody cries?
What do they say when I turn my back?

30 nights sleeping in my sweat
Who will break first? It's a running bet
Streamline the treatments, Fill out the forms
Take back the blankets in case they get warm
We just exist as a check on the chart
Words on a list, a face with no heart
Everything's inside out, and white's the new black

Greasing the wheels of the healing machine
Culling the files so the record is clean
Looking for answers where none have been seen
Caught in the gears of the healing machine

I've got a stammer, you got Turret's
She got conditions they haven't named yet
He's hearing noises from over the wall
Patrick acts out like he can't hear at all
A cure is a process, just files to be filled
We're all just vouchers, accounts to be billed
Just fodder for forms, and white's the new black

White's the New Black

This is the story of Patrick, an autistic teenager who has just met his new therapist, our protagonist Amy.

Breach in the Wall
copyright 2016 Mark Baughman

(Amy:)
Will you talk to me?
I want to sing to you
Then it all goes wrong
Oh, the wall is strong
Tall and long

(Patrick:)
Oh I was a hostage 
From the day I was born
The rescue they sent
Got caught in a storm
And they all ran away
Instead of my name
They call me a case
Instead of an answer
They long for the chase
It's a game they play

They give me a door
Then lock me back in
My moment is over
Before it begins
And again I fail
I'm not a puzzle
For strangers to play
Not an adventure
You do in a day
Not a wandering trail

There's a breach in the wall
And our hands nearly touch
You could work faster 
Just put down that crutch
And take my hand
Your wounds were directions
That brought you to me
Your trauma a lens that
Allows you to see
What they can't
Take your stand





Breach In the Wall

Out on a Wire

Copyright 2016 Mark Baughman

Standing alone on the edge of the ocean
In every direction a new world unknown
From back of my mind I hear something calling
Well untether all the ties
Let's head for clearer skies

Laying the burden down of all of life's failures
Putting those memories aside for a little while
Dark-hearted actors, they play their parts without effort
If they go or if they stay
They just hurt me anyway

Growing up, I never could imagine
Getting so close to my hopes and my dreams
Now day after day I say things but nobody listens
They all think they know me
But I'm not what I seem

Oh, out on a wire with no one to catch me
Feeling like this might be my last chance
No savior, no love, no circle of friends to cheer me
Wouldn't understand it anyway
And if they did they wouldn't say

Thinking it over
As if I could start again
As if I could have a choice
Of where and how and when
Summing it up
It's just too much before my time
It's like the race just started
And I just passed the finish line

If I could just sail to the far side of this ocean
Wade boldly ashore, start a world all shiny and new
Would sailing alone have made such a big difference?
Would it have mattered if I failed?
Then why bother setting sail?
What you want, you have to pay
Wouldn't have it any other way
Any other way

Out On A Wire (Joy Richman voc)

Army of One
Copyright 2016 Mark Baughman

I'm a soldier in an army of one
With my conscience my shield and my book is my gun
I joined as a child
It's all that I've known
I've fought for the chance
To kneel at His throne
I'm a soldier in an army of one

I'm a soldier awaiting command
But I always get slapped
When I reach out my hand
What part is free will?
What part of it's fate?
What part of it's love?
What's love without hate?
I'm waiting to know where to stand

I lived in a marriage of one
Where I brought to the world
Two girls and a son
I taught and we played
As I pushed back the tears
And I said to myself
Those were not wasted years
I just did what I thought He'd have done

I'm all turned around, my mind is a fog
I fumble the right words to say
Studying the verses and lines in between
Do I lead or do I obey?

I want to know an army of two
I want to know someone 
Who will help me get through
But how will he know me?
How will I know him?
Divine intervention
Do I save him from sin?
I just want to know someone that's true

The years in this desert, the sun bearing down
The mirage plays tricks with my eyes
All of the reasons I fought all these years
For truth - or was it all lies?

Striking me down again and again
But somehow I keep coming back
I'm punch drunk and tired and I can't hear the call
Do I retreat or do I attack?

It's comfort I feel with every sharp blow
There's no part of me that's not bruised
I pray the reward will be more than a medal
I'm weary from being so used

Army Of One

Survivor Instinct
Copyright 2017 Mark Baughman

I just got some news
I don't know what to do 
With the things that they tell me
They make a big pile
I'm supposed to just take it
I'm supposed to lay back
Buy the stuff that they sell me
And then throw back a big smile
But it wears me down
Some days now I can't tell
Should I let myself go
Or pull back and wait? Pull back and wait
'Til something, somebody
I can hear or I'm deaf to
That I know or don't know
Or I might meet at the gate

I'm not afraid
Of the things they're afraid of
I only want to be nearer and nearer

Oh, I just read some news
'Bout the end of the world
I don't care if it's near
I got some things left to do
I got poems and songs
That I gotta get out
Got 'em bottled up in here
And maybe a story or two
I'm a willow in a storm
The wind blows me over
And still I hold up
And the roots keep me right, keep me right
I may have some scars
From some flying debris
But I didn't pull up
And blow off in the night

I'm not afraid
Of the things they're afraid of
I only want to be nearer and nearer

They don't understand
I don't care about
These things they obsess
These things come and go
They think I'm touched
They think I'm not here
They think it's the stress
They think I don't know
They think too much
And they don't use their heads
They don't see the big scene
How it all comes around, comes around, comes around
I let them talk down
I know they would never
Let me off clean
To go where I'm bound

I'm not afraid
Of the things they're afraid of
I only want to be nearer and nearer

Survivor Instinct

Windows and Doors

Copyright Mark Baughman 2017

Windows & Doors

Your True Face
Copyright 2017 Mark Baughman

From the new Rock Opera Release.
The character Patrick is conflicted about his feelings about Amy, who saved him.

All the time alone
I wondered to myself
Did anybody hear a thing I said?
Acting out the simplest things
Living impatiently
Locked up in the prison in my head
From the moment 
You stepped into my world
And did those things you naturally do
I was at home at last
Finally safe, at peace
With faith in someone beautiful and true
I know enough to know what I am
Didn't know what I could be

The sun came out 
Gave warmth to this space
And the chill that I lived with
Left without a trace
I remember the instant
It fell into place
When you opened the door
And showed me your true face

All the ships that sailed
And crashed upon your shores
Was it that they couldn't see your light?
I've been fixed on your beacon
Though it's aimed another way
It may be dim to them, to me it's bright
What I give to you
I know doesn't mean a thing
It's not what you were looking for
I would build you a palace
Of hope and faith and peace
But you'd never let me walk you to the door
Traded one prison for another
But now I can say how I feel

When the sun comes up
And you look around
And you listen for
Some distant sound
It will be me you hear
Singing from this place
Where you opened your heart
And showed me your true face

All the time you spent
Chasing your dreams
Seeming even longer on your own
There's nothing sadder
Than looking all your life
Then finding it, and finding you're alone
I know enough to know who you are
I know who you could be

When the sun is high
And it's beating down
And it's hard to tell
The sky from the ground
I'll be on the horizon
Saving your place
Where we can live peacefully
Out of this race

When the sun goes down
And the night grows cold
And the winds of time
Are testing my hold
I will live in  the moment
It fell into place
When you opened your heart
And showed me your true face

Your True Face

Nothing is Written
Copyright 2017 Mark Baughman

Deep in the night
Wide awake, all alone
Facing the ceiling
And watching the phone
Cut from my life
Since my cover was blown
And I don't really know where to go

Don't know where I'm headed
No compass or map
Pretty sure once I started
I might never get back
I was fooling myself -
I could chose when to tack
The boat left a long time ago

Now walking so close
To the edge of the wall
Losing my balance
And starting to fall
Wondering aloud
If it's worth it at all
Or if it's just time to go

Nothing is written
When nothing is read
Nothing is spoken
When nothing gets said
It might come from the heart
And it goes to your head
It might tear your world to shreds

When I look down the road
And then back where I've been
I swear I made choices
But I can't see when
Thought I was walking
Along with a friend
Thought I was hearing a call

Look at my hands
And hear what I might play
Look at my face
And hear what I might say
You could look in my heart
If you weren't so afraid
Well; I don't blame you at all

Nothing is written
When nothing is read
Nothing is spoken
When nothing gets said
It came from my heart
It went straight to my head
And it tore my world to shreds

Lost in a dreamland
Keeping it real
Live like you're honoring
Some kind of deal
Would it kill you to tell me
What you really feel?

It's ok

Nothing Is Written

Barbed Wire Coat

copyright 2018 Mark Baughman, All rights reserved

There's a dark cloud flashing
Coming up over the hill ahead
And I keep on driving towards it
When I know I should stop instead
You were giving me directions
Now you say I was mislead
You act like you don't know where we were going
You act like it didn't mean a thing

There is someone 'round the corner
Keeping score and taking names
She is weighing my resistance
She is always playing games
She is reading from the forecast
That when it pours, it rains
You act like you don't know what was happening
You wear love like a barbed-wire coat

Every step with you is a new found land
Every time I write you misunderstand
Every time I reach out you just look at my hand
Every time I show way out 
You turn and close the door
Every time we start to climb
You start reaching for the floor
Every time - I beg you come back 
To where it was you were before

There's a dark sea rising
And the tide's up on the Bay
And the raft that you've been living on
Will lift and drift away
It won't be long before the swells
Hit you with their spray
You act like you don't know where you're sailing
Well, this time I think you're right

Every step you take in this careless plan
Every day I'm wondering where you stand
You just keep on falling with nowhere to land
Every time you broke my heart
And then walked away clean
When you didn't like the picture
You'd just make a new scene
And all I really wanted was to
See you yourself again

Oh the time I came to rescue you
And you turned me away
I was good enough to take it
But not good enough to stay
I stayed up all night and listened 
And we cried 'til the next day
Then I laid out all my cards
And you didn't want to play

In the greenest meadow
Grows the softest grass
And the sky's so clear
You could swear it's made of glass
And the storms on the horizon
They just quietly pass
I'd like to think you know the way here
I am patiently waiting for you

Every mark I make
Every place I stand
Every word I say
Every fire I fan
Every stand I take
In this shifting sand
What I forswore
I became
If it makes you feel better
I will take the blame
I just wanted to see you
Where you were again.

Barbed Wire Coat

Energie

Copyright 2018 Mark Baughman

I step off of the ledge
With the wind in my hair
My eyes looking straight in the sun
From zero to flying
A stone through the air
I hope I don’t hit anyone
No I won’t hit anyone
-
Standing atop
I summoned my nerve
I saw my potential alive
I think what I’m getting
Is what I deserve
It comes at the end of the dive

I see the skies igniting
Mountains born out of a fire
-
I’ve been up to the top
I’ve been down to the bottom
And somehow I ended the same
All that I spent on
Nothing that mattered while
Looking for something to blame

Toy in the attic
Left careless behind
Carelessly fell to the ground
Alone in a shell
With parents resigned
Joyful, reacts to the sound
He dances to the sound
-
Looking in darkness
For validation
She lovingly showed me her light
She offered me kindness
Showed me salvation
But I stole away in the night

I saw the fire lighting
I didn’t know it was real
-
I’ve been over the top
I’ve sunk down to the bottom
Prideful and feeling the shame
Energy wasted on
Nothing that mattered
Like I wouldn’t be there again

Pulses and frequencies
Infinite, bound
Echo forever in space
The depth of a feeling
Caught by a sound
Bringing us back to this place
-
I feel the moment exciting
Memories lighting the sky

I’ve been over the edge
I’ve been up to my neck
Always out of my depth
I raced with the sun, looking
Over my shoulder
And never quite catching my breath
-
I jumped to the top
I fell down to the bottom
And always I came out the same
Potential expended
Broken and mended
Then back on the ledge, here again

Energie

Here or There

Thicker Than Blood
Copyright 2018 Mark Baughman
From the New Rock Opera Energie

Some bad characters meet in a room and plot against our hero

Thicker Than Blood

Unrelenting

Copyright 2018 Mark Baughman

Sudden lights 
From out of view
I turn and look
But it went dark too fast
While they distract
I miss a sound
I sense it, I listen
But I know it passed
-
How would I know
If it came to me?
Won’t recognize 
I Describe it so well
I walk its shadow
I hear its laughter
I’m lost and i’m living
Under its spell
-
Is it really here?

All the time
Unrelenting
Single-minded
In pursuit
Follow trails
Never-ending
Relatively
Absolute
All the de-
Finitions clouded
Reconstruct to
Suit the day
Lost, alone
Mind is crowded
Rush ahead
Now break away

Suddenly things
I put in perspective
Are distorted and twisted
And blocking my view
Cocky and careless
Then introspective
The stranger I met
Was Someone I knew
-
Keeping the light
Waiting in vain
Resigned to myself
It will never come
Changing the questions
The answers the same
Counting the parts
That make up the sum
-
Is it really here?

All the years
Anticipating
On the edge
Almost in hand
Edge of ruin
Then salvation
Grasping firmly
Holding sand
All the signs to
Wrong directions
Can’t remember
Where I started
Seconds from a 
Missed connection
To a thing that
Just departed

All the expectations
All the machinations
All the aberrations
Is this really?
Is this really here?

All the 
Love lost
For this
Mission
All those
Hurt by
My am-
-bition
Moment 
Here now
I’m not
Ready
Take my
Hand now
Hold me
Steady
-
I think it’s really here

Unrelenting

Willow

Copyright 2019 Mark Baughman

Took I-40 down to Nashville 
Where I saw the Parthenon
We were dancing in the Bluegrass Inn
That place has come and gone
My memory’s dim on why I thought
Was time for moving on
I was long on motivation
And short on making time
Couldn’t get out of my way
Stand up straight and walk the line

Drove the back road down to Natchez
And a dirt road to a camp
Where we played guitars and sang
‘Till the morning dimmed the lamp
And we slept beneath a willow
Where the ground was cool and damp
And time just seemed suspended
A minute took a day
With space for us to contemplate
How much a word can weigh

And the things you tried to tell me
Were said to avail
By time I teased the lessons out
That tangled in the tale
The signs had lost their meaning
The paint was peeling, pale
Like old decaying buildings
Like tombstones on the trail

Well the dew is hanging heavy
On the willow by the river
I came back to your waters
In hopes I’d be delivered 
I keep on coming back
Just in case you reconsider
The air is sitting thick
And the vines are smelling sweet
Just like the place, when we were kids
Where you and I would meet

And the current’s running fast
‘Neath the river by the willow
Come sit here in the rushes
Take my shoulder for a pillow
We’ll pretend we’re in our house
See the world out through our window
See the breezes take the drifters
Down the river by the willow

Willow

Some Kind of Fool
Copyright 2019 Mark Baughman

How many times are you going to leave me
Without saying goodbye
How long are you going to blame me
For something you should know is a lie?
How long are you just going to sit there
On the other side of the door?
Whispering songs to yourself in the night
And staring a hole in the floor

Well, I just keep hanging around here
And you just send me to school
I must be asking for it babe
I must be some kind of fool

What in the world would I have to carry?
Would it be a stone or a cross?
What would I give? What would I lose?
Either way I know what it costs
As right as righteous conviction
As wrong as someone can be
As bold as helpless, as strong as insecure
Lost between prison and free

I just keep walkin' this side of the street
I keep wearing a hole in my shoe
Must be my fault, ain't it babe?
I must be some kind of fool

If I asked you anything
Would you tell me something
Tell me lies, 'cause it's easy
Tell the truth, but don't tease me
I swear this road is ending here

How many times can I fall down
Before I just stay on my knees?
How many locks do have on that door?
Do you really want to throw away the keys?
How many songs can I give you
'Till the truth starts breaking through?
'Till the measures and scale let you out of that jail
Fill the promise overdue

I keep sitting alone in the dark
And I'm being stubborn as a mule
Well, I deserve what I get, babe
I must be some kind of fool

Some Kind Of Fool

Zambezi

Copyright 2019 Mark Baughman

I see the houses
With all their pretty doors
Their rooms are all empty
What do they have them for?
I meet the people
Lost and alone
Talking to no one
And aching to the bone
My weariness took over
And I finally closed my eyes
I heard a distant symphony
Reflecting off the skies
It was thunderous, majestic
It was singing out in tongues
And underneath a rhythm
That I heard when I was young

They were sending out their thoughts and prayers
Then they scattered like seeds on the wind

When I woke in the morning
In the center of a plain
A cloudburst opened up and it
Washed me with with it's rain
The water off my feet
Cut channels in the ground
Ran to join the others
Desperate to be found
They follow unfamiliar paths
Of choices they don't make
Assuming all the privileges 
Of liberties they take
They didn't see it coming
The river - gentle, slow
The earth broke open, swallowed
To the thunder from below

I sent them all my thoughts and prayers
And like vapor they left on the wind

On the one side of the coin
My friends all tell me
That I'm crazy
Seeing everything 
As part of some 
Complex design
It bugs me that I have this funny feeling
That I'm not alone and
Maybe should be looking harder
Cannot see the signs
I dreamed I saw Jerusalem
It's minarets and churches
And its calls to all the faithful
To come and start again
On the other side I build my house
Above and all around me
It mirrors what I know
It's designed to keep me in

What was the question?
What is it now?

I swam across the river
And crawled up on the bank
Basking and grateful
Not knowing who to thank
I thought of Zambezi
Arrested by the falls
The fate of all the innocents
Who fell over the wall

We sang them all our thoughts and prayers
And like vapor they left on the wind

Zambezi

Does anyone out there still write songs that are interesting, with melodies and lyrics and meaning?  -  Yes!

Mark Baughman is a composer, guitarist, playwright, visual artist and architect (yes, really, an architect). Based in Washington, DC, Mark writes songs that are more than stories - they are movies with vivid characters and real emotions. The songs have carefully crafted lyrics, melodies and song structures. Mark is incredibly versatile and prolific, easily moving from one genre to another to express what's on his mind and in his heart.

Mark has written and produced to stage 3 rock operas - 99, Release and Energie. Each tells a story of complex contemporary adult life. He is presently writing his 4th show, entitled Victoria Falls, and he posts the new songs as they are completed. 

Between the rock operas, Mark has produced 5 other albums - She Dreams of the Ghost, Charmed Life, Victoria Falls, No Prophet Here and Divided by Zero - which further showcase his songwriting dexterity and musicianship. 

Mark's live band is called Working Theory and takes different forms depending on the show  and venue. And he's busy now working on the next thing.