I've got to watch my breath
You've got to watch your breath

Don’t forget the meeting (it’s no good)
Susan made a plan (it’s the wrong camera)
Sailboats and cameras
What am I going to wear?
Tryin' to be mindful

Oh yeah I’m mindful
Breathe in breathe out
Mindful

Mine didn’t go as well (it’s the clutch)
Take the Mazda in (it’s the clutch)
I wonder if i got it
You should have done MacBeth

Om
Oooooooooooooooooooh no I’m not mindful
I'm not mindful

I’m not mindful
bring the bell!
grab a cushion!
breathe in!


©2021 OrangeBetsyMusic

Stand Clear The Closing Doors

Inside a morning
Eventually I left
Talk, Instigator!
Give us the time
And then
We’ll come around the bend
Smiling at the world

Trav'ling in the forest
Suddenly a house
Talk, Instigator!
I’d be a fool to stay 
When the door isn’t closed and there’s no better way
Round up the wood
This was life
A dreamer's life

Used to be dead
Just like you
But I don’t talk much about it
Now we've stepped through
Into this house
And we’re taking off
Like the Instigator said...

We’re taking off!

Inside an evening
Suddenly the moon
Talk, instigator!
Give it some time but soon
Before the moon hits you
Sons of the world!

Five and six and seven
Then eventually an eight
So talk, Instigator!
Give us the talk and then
We can fly up above all the clouds in the sky
Suns in the world!
This was life
Another life

Used to be dead
Just like you
But I don’t talk much about it
Now we've stepped through
Into this house
And we’re taking off
Like the Instigator said

They're taking off!

We're Taking Off

sitting here
what do you see?

i dont nothin 
from punchin the walls

staring at the walls

im staring the walls
staring at the climate
i got lots of things to stare at
someone is tryin to play a
trick on me
ay i got tricked

Postcard from the Room

What about Suzie?
What about Suzie?
Does anybody think of her?
A dog on a hot beach
Reaching for heaven
Waiting for it to occur

A day in the rain
Or a day in the sunshine
Doesn’t calculate for love
But somewhere inside there’s a packet of cards and they’re all the 4 of clubs

Fancy men inside
Parking it outside 
Wave to Suzy 
And herself

But honesty begs her 
And Suzie relents to
The things that they’ll never understand

A cube in a circle
Patterns of scorn 
Obeying only while you look

A dog on a hot beach
Reaching for heaven
She’s just inside the cube

Looking down back down the road
There’s a prophet who told
There’s a fortune for those who fold

We’ve got troubles and we cannot hide
But that’s the point

What about Suzie?
What about Suzie?
Does anybody think of her? No!
A dog on a hot beach
Reaching for heaven
Waiting for it to occur When?
Fancy men inside
Parking it outside 
Wave to Suzie
And her Self
A dog on a hot beach
Reaching for heaven
Isn’t she a song?

Dog on a Hot Beach

When the sun rises over city buildings 
Bathes the city in a different kinda light 
Yeah everyone knew but  what did we do?

News is easy going  when you’re in a vacuum 
Getting what you paid for or maybe someone else 
And joke 
And now 
 We’re laughing at you
Who’s laughing?

It’s so sweet to know
You got you in mind
And I got me

I’m strolling down the avenue 
Easy and sublime 
Same ole indications every time 
This time 
Maybe this time.....


.....deep in your heart
 Surrender 
Just open the door (And you will find) 
And you will see

That not every inspiration  floating round your head 
Gives you a new lease on life 
Some’ll leave you dead  and full (There’s no preventing the lies)
Of sad
Regret

Everything’s a fake 
That is what they said 
That is what they chanted  as they buried their dead
Will we walk today 
Or will we talk today?

It's so sweet to know
We can try and try again
Will we ever believe?

This time 
Maybe next time? 
Maybe sometime?

This Time Maybe Next Time

A Wave Came In

Did you see them goin down out
Into to the room?
Did you tell them that
It doesn’t matter and there’s no _____

I have come too far
To fear
But here I stop awhile and rest

In the meadow
Oh august sweet
But the children asked me why
You just began
To cry
I just don't know why!

Who am I
To tell you
What to do?

Did you tell them
As they
Slipped on by?

I have stumbled thru the forest
I have never stopped to rest till the meadow, 'cuz that's where I met you!
And it's where the children play
Right in the spot where you fell
That day

I just don't know why

Who am I to tell you

That you’re out to sea
A ship going down
The atomic age arrived
With the sun in your eyes and
The truth remains untold till now
Where in the world can we go ?

The Atomic Age Arrived

A flash of lightning thru the back of his head 
Inspiration not a feeling a dread
 Let’s step back
No one wants to say more
All the rows of brothers dead on the shore 
Now if you’re willing

And the feeling starts
The theater’s dark 
And the beam of light making its mark 
it coulda been quite a movie

And there’s a field 
A million flowers 
Sun-warmed from above 
But here
There is no way out

Stepping back
 I wondered 
Can we survive?
You know we're full of holes
And our time has come
Decide
 

We’re driving in a car down the coast 
To see the play she loves the most 
Were on a sailboat 
She’s shooting super 8 in the sea
 I shot that boy he landed on me 
There's no prayers that bring him back

And all the souls
Are they arriving
 At their home above? 
Because here 
There is no way out for us

But stepping back
 I wondered 
Can we survive?
You know we're full of holes
And our time has come
Decide
U won’t fall 
U will fall

You said ‘cynical me’?
 I say cynical you

Stepping back 
I wondered 
Where is time?
Can we survive?

Stepping Back (A Soldier'sTale)

Nothing can take me away from believing
 Nothing left to choose 
The song's been sung 
Laced with love
 All from the mouth of a dove

The best is yet to come then I run  and
I jump in the sun 
Who said that I said it’s not too late
 Never too late

We won’t get a mention 
For tearing down half the place

We're taking perceptions from uncertain words 
Words we spoke too soon
And it's all downhill
OK but still
 There’s a long long way to go

But you and me 
We’re learning to see 
What they all seem to know
 Rome wasn’t burnt in a day

Don't you see our inventions?
Oh but God do we need a break?
All my life I waited for you

Rome In A Day

you changed your mind
it’s not over yet

its all over now
if you see the way
then go
but I know 
like u know 
you’ll change your mind

you change your mind
you know you'll change your mind

it’s deceiving
you and me
how we live

its so like you to say
you’ll change

So Like You

Inspired by the poem "He Died at Dawn" by Garcia Lorca which ends:

"Four moons in the night
and one lonely tree.
On the point of a pin
my love spins."
_______________________________________________________________________


The great expanse
The final dance
I found the time
But she was gone

Fish go round and round
Jumping in the pond
Nature doesn't mind us or respond

And when we cry for mercy She laughs
We're falling off the point of a pin

So grant me time (grant these things)
To learn the finer things 
(to know in life)
I grab surprises
To drive me on

Joy and pleasures mount in drains
You and me and all the right ways
Round and round we go

Please
Please
Please...wait

© 2009 OrangeBetsyMusic

Orange Betsy

Wait Please

A 20th Century-type version of Happy Birthday with me multitracking string parts

Happy Birthday (2012)

We ran from place to place
Dressed up for occasions 
Was it she who said
Some be dead
Some be fed
And the monsters hedge their bets
A bum deal in red lace
Close the case with lead
Breathing dust
Saving face
to try so 
hard
when there was no other
way forward
we never got up off the floor

...and after your flight
Your promise
A stillborn
Red and gold unite
Some be dead
Some be fed
It's just ahead
 
Some be fed

© 2016 OrangeBetsyMusic

Some be Dead Some be Fed

I love this tune by Swankyxvz so I put some violins over the recording.

Check her out and follow her project at https://soundcloud.com/user-574764134

"Falling" by Swankyxvz With Violins by OrangeBetsy

We couldn't make it work, and the day came when she flew away.
Love lost and a relationship at its end? 
A personal discovery and a spiritual realization?

Violins and electric bass playing natural harmonics. 
_______________________________________________________________________

Something lost and found
In the space between the pages
The man believed his luck ran out
Hope surrendered fast
She said she’s going places
And I looked
But I never found
Looking out the door
Looking in the mirror
A stranger who keeps my soul bound

© 2007 Orange Betsy Music

Departure Gate

Morning light breaks like glass 
Into a thousand pieces
Let it  the sunlight
It made you long ago

City froze like those photos
Speaking thru their silence        
Freedom is cold and 
Trust makes you fly

Stepping out
Flying out
To see her and to play
She was the only love
Where will she find another?

This madness found me
Yeah
Made its mark
From a distant memory
Something lost and found

Don’t grieve long
Love 
Find a love where it is
Where it lives
I’m telling you it is
If you’re looking

When you walk by
Please do not
Cry because of them
Let in the sunshine
It watches you from far away

Think of all the people
Who surrendered to the ages
Down at the river
The sunlight 
Her face entranced 
 
Stepping out
Running back
To see her and to play
She was the only love
How will she find her way?

Epilogue

Something lost and found
In the space between the pages
The man believed his luck ran out
Hope surrendered fast
She said she’s going places
And I looked
But I never found
Looking out the door
Looking in the mirror
A stranger who keeps my soul bound

As you walk By - Departure Gate (Demo)

It’s an emergency!
Its an emergency!
It’s an emergency!
Its an emergency!


Let’s go swim 
Tsunami’s comin' in and it’s the perfect time!

Its gonna hit the coast!
Its gonna make you toast !
Its goin' emergency!
It's a big emergency!

Let’s go swim 
Tsunami’s comin' in and it’s the perfect time!

You really oughta..shut your mouth!
But you really oughta…shut your mouth!

You running up the hill?
You oughta take a pill!
Let's hear your sheeple speech!
We’ll be here on the beach!

Tsunami Warning

New wave guy who's horrible at pool. ________________________________________________________________________

I hope it's cool if I just hang around
Down underground with you
I left my stuff on Northern blvd
Here’s my card
You call me
 
I played the joints down in the L.I.C.
Or what it used to be
I played with such an unbelievable skill
Runnin' down the hill
 
And I swaggered up
To the breaking action
Fiction
Cuz I suck at pool
 
They all concluded I'm phenomenal
Truly phenomenally bad
They won't be snickerin' when I take up golf
Rockin' all my plaid
 
As I swaggered up  
To the fuckin' table
Able
Yet
I suck at pool

(2015)

Swagger up to the Breaking Action

I live in a drop
Of rosewater on your cheek

So I have to go
When you cry from time to time

I fell on the moss
And helped the plants grow up

I dream of you
Do you dream of me, 
We would watch the sun grow high?

When we watched it all alive?

You live in a drop
Of rosewater on my cheek

If only you and I
Shared the same tears

We could dance in the summertime
We could laugh at the passing time
We would put it all aside
We would put it all aside
But instead we bled in the summer time

__________________________________

© 2020 OrangeBetsyMusic

Rose Water

Midnight and waiting for a guest
Maybe he came in from the west
We just heard silence through the trees

And the wind

This crowd could cover up their crime
Some left unswayed before their time
And found their ends
Covered in dust

In the wind

Through the mist of life times in the past 
                                                            How can you live in the past
                                        With all your dreams?

They built the castles from the stones
Bent backs and coffins for their bones
There’s really no time
To plant a seed
So they wait

Until
The hero’s lead
Into the world of eternal time

Please oh please

There’s two wishes inside of a mind
Kill one the other you can find
Bearable enough
A knock at the door

He’s here
I guess it’s time

Midnight And Waiting For A Guest

The fields have been around
A long time they’ve been around
A thousand years pass like a flash
And still they’re here

The things we call old
A long time we’ve been told
May as well have happened just now
But we are here

Looked over and noticed 
You were there sewing
Stay!

Measured any way 
I’ll take the shortest day
And give it to you all alone
It’s time for May

It’s all that I have said 
Where my head was lead
Digging up fossils at night
The furthest time

Looked over and noticed 
You were still there sewing
Stay!

I’ll think of a reason just to stay with you forever
Stay with me forever!

Stay!

You Were Sewing

Noticed this line in a book while at Purchase in 1995. One of my first tunes, found after all these years on an old cassette. I added synth and marimba.
_______________________________________________________________________

"The important thing is the obvious thing that nobody is saying"
  And I'd rather get it over with
  Jump the bridge
  Rather than be with you

Bukowski Jumped The Bridge (1995)

i told her that i want to stay
and sow the seeds of love
i told her and all the things i'd seen
and those things all took time
and when i returned
i'd be a better man

she smiled and with a twist of the wrist
she smacked me in the face
an amoeba could've beaten you at chess
and you can't keep up the pace
and when you left
i found a girl who's a better man

In this forgotten world
I can't sell or tell an angel
And it's the same for me and you
So good all the time
Like the time when you left me in the cold

c'mon use your mind
isn't it true?
isn't it true??

flying over cities made of bones and teeth and hair
crowding back the forward push of promises laid bare
backing into cars in parking lots and using swears

In this forgotten world
I can't sell or tell an angel
And it's the same for me and you
So good all the time
Like the time you ran me over with the car

It was a thousand times
a thousand times around
i went for the Maui Wowi
when i went for the Maui Wowi

I like Maui Wowi Wowi and it's not my fuckin' ticket!


OrangeBetsyMusic 2012

Everybody Maui Wowi

June has vanished off the port side                  
The ocean forward pulls us forward 
Still as the night descends
The boat bends and slowly fills
  
Gazing into the deep
Knowing that I’ll never leave my post
But should we be surprised
Tomorrow finding what matters most?

We asked you for another world
Where all the people come round
To join the chorus of sound
Because they hold their heads up high
And dance in the sky
They dance in the sky

Spraying foam and confessions
Any guesses on the course we’ve sailed?
If we end up wrecked
Will someone else continue where we failed?
And though we asked you...

We asked you for another world
Where all the people come round
To join in the chorus of sound
Because they hold their heads up high
And dance in the sky
They dance in the sky
We’ll dance in the sky

December at Sea

Sittin’ round on a rainy day
Rain falls down on rooftops 'cross the field

Carve a name in a willow tree
Some would laugh
Some would cry
If it happened to them sometime

Walking backwards in a trance
Grieving in advance
That’s no way to live

See the wind kill a willow tree
Birds fly past 
I never even said my goodbyes

The room was full the TV was on
Laughing scenes suppressing screams
And the silence that everyone heard

Walking backwards in a trance
Grieving in advance
That’s no way to live
But it’s so simple
You know it is

Pushing back on the thought of quitting here and now
Making my home in the ground
There’s no other person holding back the curtains now
Gotta stop running away (just open the door)

I reached the door
So open the door
There’s so much more

©2009 OrangeBetsyMusic

I Reached A Door

Outside 
Way outside
A bird
A lake
A great divide
Ann Street
Way downtown
I heard
The bird
A great divide
   but you got to trust
I can't
   you got to climb
I'm not gonna make it
   you got to climb
I can't
   you got to try
This cannot be
   you got to try
I can't
   you got to climb
I'm not gonna make it
   you got to try
I can't 
   you got to try
This is the end-
                           -
                             -
                                -
   i loved her more than life
I can't
   i got to try
I'm not gonna make it
   i got to try 
I can't
   i got to try
This cannot be
   i got to try
I can't
I'm not gonna make it
   i loved you so
I can't 
   i love you so
This is the end
   i loved
This is the end

Outside A Lake

In memory of violinist Jennifer Spiwak (1974-2001)

I dream of your dream
Inside a drop
Of rose water on your cheek

Rise with the sun
Rise with the sun
I dream, I dream

Right now, if only for yourself
I believe you will

Nowhere near the sea
On sacred ground
Spread across the tundra
Marching to the vision in our heads

Didn’t you see the North Star shining brightly?
Can’t stop till the goddess calls

"Did you see behind the raging star? 
I will give to you and you will find your heart
So you can bend your eyes
Did you think about the dreams 
The nightmares you had? 
With the sage old lady dancing looking sad 
What she said to you
     'All the light inside is out and outside  is nil 
      It’s a beautiful appearance now and for all! 
      So now you lift your eyes! 
      There is no other way outside!'"


Cold down to the bone
But we’re pressing on
Something warns inside us
Thirteen hundred miles across the E∂

Stay awake until
The frozen river feels our feet
Just think, son, of the goddess
Think, son, of the goddess
No stop till the goddess calls

The Goddess Calls

Can you see through me?
Everything’s going the right way
So
That’s near?
So that’s far?
Everything’s going the right way

Please, oh please
Going along 
We're going along with it
Please, oh please
There isn’t really enough time
Please oh please
We've got to make it alone

Everything’s going the right way
Everything’s going the right way
She’s…everything’s going the right way

Please, oh please
Get it in before you get out
Please, oh please
There really isn’t enough time
Please, oh please
We've got to make it alone!

I can see the sun
Please…

© 2014 OrangeBetsyMusic

Get In Get Out

Espresso and Gingerbread

I thought you was boring
You thought I was boring?
That's what you get
Dating online

I fucked it up
You learned your lesson 
She was kinda dumb

No
I fucked it up
She couldn’t see the real me anyway
I'm not the same unless I'm winning

Politics

You know I’m missing Columbo
"Oh ma’am, just one more thing..."
That's what you get
Dating online

I fucked it up
She’s at her best when you are fast asleep
Tweeting on the phone
I fucked it up
I found a girl on the computer
Why couldn’t I just keep it at that??

reference at end to "Truckhead" by the one and only Jason Martin/Brown Cuts Neighbors
Chegidout at https://soundcloud.com/jason-martin/truckhead

© 2021 OrangeBetsyMusic

Computer Girl

Cover I did some time back of King Crimson tune. GarageBand extravaganza!


The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun.
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun.
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the crimson king.

The keeper of the city keys
Puts shutters on the dreams.
I wait outside the pilgrim's door
With insufficient schemes.
The black queen chants the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king.

I chase the wind of a prism ship
To taste the sweet and sour.
The pattern juggler lifts his hand;

On soft grey mornings widows cry,
The wise men share a joke.
I run to grasp divining signs
To satisfy the hoax.
The yellow jester does not play
But gently pulls the strings
And smiles as the puppets dance
In the court of the crimson king.

(bass instead of flutes [haha])

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