from my 2010 CD "This Is Rock and Roll". Available from Amazon.

I've Heard That Song Before (2010)

from the CD "If You Didn't Like The Last One You Won't Like This One Either". Available on Amazon.

Frack and Frell (2012)

from the CD "If You Didn't Like The Last One You Won't Like This One Either". Available on Amazon. 

Opie's Getting Ominous (2012)

from the CD "Tin Dreams and Broken Hearts, Vol. 2". Available on Amazon.

I Think I Killed It (2014)

Beluga Wake

Oh, Brother
Words and Music by Rich La Bonté (BMI)
Copyright © 2016 Rich La Bonté. All Rights Reserved.

FEVER BLISTERS
SCRATCH THE HOT SANDS
FLOWING DOWN THE STAIRS

TIME STOPS
AND THE CLOCKS WAVER
SECONDS STAMMER BY

AND WE FEAR
LIKE OUR ANCIENT BROTHERS
AND WE FREEZE IN ETERNAL WAIL

AND WE CRY
AND THE DOGS ARE BARKING
BUT THERE ARE NO DOGS
THERE ARE NO DOGS HERE.

OH, BROTHER. BETTER PAY ATTENTION. BETTER LISTEN TO THIS GUY.

IN THE SHADE
OF OUR SWEET OASIS
WE SIP OUR NATURAL HERB TEA

WE LEFT THE CAMELS
BY A STRANGE OLD SHRINE
TO SOME LONG DEAD DEITY

OOH, OOH
AROUND THE FIRE
WE REST AND TELL OUR TALES

AND THE PHANTOM HOUNDS
WE HEAR THEM HOWLING
BUT THERE ARE NO DOGS
BUT THERE ARE NO DOGS HERE.

Oh, Brother!

Rebellious Youth

The Rising Magoo

You Better Not Cry - Music and Lyrics by Rich La Bonté. Copyright © 2017 Rich La Bonté (BMI). All Rights Reserved.

(No you better not)
Cry for sympathy, for victims of the might
Cry for all of those denied their basic right.

(No you better not)
Cry for ignorance, for leaving some behind.
Cry for diligence and of a single mind.

No you better not
Cry.

(No you better not)
Cry for philistines, for liars and for frauds
Cry for politicians and their loyal dogs.

No you better not
Cry.

No you better not
Cry.

(No you better not)
Cry for all that die in battle
Fought for what was fair
Cry for suffering emphysemics
Cannot breathe our air
Cry for displaced, misplaced persons
Starving and ignored
Cry for military peacocks
Marching into war

(No you better not)
Cry for alabaster fields of waving grain
Cry for burning absolution in the rain.

You Better Not Cry

Rich La Bonté (1946) is an American musician, writer, editor. He was lead singer of the upstate New York band the huns (1965-66). Jargon Records released a huns retrospective CD in 2017.

In the early 1970s, Rich played bass and sang in the original cast productions of the musical Godspell in New York and Los Angeles. He appears as a bass player and vocal performer on the Grammy Award-winning Godspell Original Cast Album and the Columbia Pictures Godspell Motion Picture Soundtrack Album. Both records went Gold. He was involved with the recent 21st Century crowd-funded Broadway revival of Godspell.

In Los Angeles, Rich created fLAtDiSk SoftWorks (1977) as a freeware company. fLAtDiSk was the home of fLAtDiSk Fanzine, a Xeroxed music rag from 1976-1983 and fLAtDiSk Records (1980 – 1981), a vinyl subsidiary of Dave Gibson's Moxie Record Company. FlipSide Fanzine tagged him with the FLAtRich handle around this time.

With then-partner Shari Famous, Rich released the red vinyl single “New Wave” b/w “Same” in 1979 for R. Stevie Moore on CMI Records.

fLAtDiSk Records had several obscure 20th Century releases, the most notable being the “Kim Fowley Jr.: Son of Frankenstein” LP (1981), which La Bonté co-wrote and co-produced with legendary record producer Kim Fowley for Moxie. The record spawned the college radio hit “Invasion of the Polaroid People”, first introduced on KROQ by Rodney Bingenheimer. The LP was re-released in Europe by Lolita Records on vinyl and later on a 1995 Marilyn Records CD as “Bad News from the Underworld”.

Rich also released his underground seminal electronic music classic “Mayan Canals” on Moxie Records in 1981. Mayan Canals was rereleased on vinyl in 2017 by Dark Entries Records.

In 2009, Rich contributed musically to R. Stevie Moore & Company's “Coo Coo Rockin' Time” CD, most notably on the single "In Hawaii They Talk With Their Hands". The CD is also part of a 4-CD David Fair (Half-Japanese) “Coo Coo Rockin' Time” box set from Thick Syrup Records.

Rich released “This Is Rock and Roll” in 2010, “Closet Frequencies and other electronic stuff that sounds good to me” in 2011, “If You Didn't Like The Last One You Won't Like This One Either” in 2012 - (According to listeners on ReverbNation, "Weird stuff all over the map. Sometimes Beatles on LSD, sometimes powerpop" and "...a great experience and something new with every tune... all of it a must have.") “Tin Dreams and Broken Hearts Vol. 2” was released in 2014. Scruffy the Flea said: "DEFINITELY music for the LIVING! Bright, thoughtful, full of pulsing and life and butterscotch. Wonderful!"

Recent albums Way Out (2016), Dune Crossing REDUX (2018), Moondust & Particulates (2019) and 2021's Utterly Free Curios from The fLAtDiSk Catalogue (a Free Download) are all available in multiple formants at https://flatrich.bandcamp.com/

Rich offers recent free MP3 singles as downloads on his Absolutely Free Music site - http://richlabonte.net/eps/

Rich La Bonte ~ FLAtRich

Popular tracks