A concept album, written 2014-2018.

Artist Influences: Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Conor Oberst, Metallica, Slash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arctic Monkeys, Ed Sheeran, Joni Mitchell, Dire Straits

Music Influences: The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, American Pie, Stairway to Heaven, November Rain, Desolation Row, I See Fire, Both Sides Now, Hotel California, Fade to Black

Album art: (with slight edits) Anders, Bill. "Earthrise." 1968. NASA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise

PDF of Lyrics: https://www.scribd.com/document/376215800/Pale-Blue-Dot-lyrics

Listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwfARti58K55VbCdGVAxMuJfaUBdEceOo 

* * *

Pale Blue Dot

(Album in progress) My second album: a folky mix of the softer songs, most about a special someone or two.

Artist influences: Don McLean, Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Chris Smither, Joni Mitchell, Dido, Damien Jurado, George Strait, Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Cigarettes After Sex, Seafret, Bright Eyes, Ed Sheeran, Hozier, Adele, James Bay, Jeff Buckley

Album art: original photo

Listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwfARti58K57aO-xrCXiSqxfOs-YjzKt7

Lyrics: https://www.scribd.com/document/391030751/SECOND-THOUGHTS-album-lyrics

Second Thoughts

“SONG OF THE SIREN”
lyrics, guitar, MIDI-keyboard
and -cello by Shmuel Pernicone 

Too much ache to remember, but too afraid too forget
I hold the past like an ember, a pretty hell fit to sketch
You say, for Christ’s sake, let go, why hold on just to burn?
‘Cause it’s the last bottled message from where I cannot return

The past’s a harlot retired, advert’ing gifts she won’t give
every unreachable moment, we lie that we can relive
But time’s a stream I can’t tread, a glass to darkly conceal
some sharp but tantalized taste of that which used to be real

Time’s not a hall, but a prison, with a panopticon view
Containing consciousness rusted, hue by particular hue 
A day can feel like a lifetime, or a life less than a breath
If younger years felt much longer, how many felt have I left?

Maybe we’re middle-aged twenty-somethings, with more behind than ahead
Who surf a redolent old riptide of becoming and dread
But we never learned to swim, so don’t look down lest we fall
Of course we all one day drown, so does it matter at all?

My inner calendar warps, like twisted fabrics of space
Look to and fro, fear the height, a broken heart starts to race
As I fall farther and faster, my eyes distend at the blur
Memory after memory, a cheap projector that whirs

I catch a whiff of old perfume, or hear a song on TV
And like a time machine triggered, I’m back where I used to be
It’s either warm but long gone, or cold as ice to the touch 
Either way, when it hits me, I feel it too fuckin’ much

I wonder am I alone, do others feel only fond
while swapping stories like roses, from tended gardens long gone
For all I feel is the thorn, a thousand cuts to the heart
I beat my brain, beg for mercy, all while it tears me apart 

Here’s hoping everyone’s a liar, that they’re all frauds with a grin
who tailor profiles of pretense, and hide their hurt like a sin
Though I can’t tell through the masks, I have to think that they blush
at every fading old footprint, in this precious dance that we rush 

The present may be a gift, but nostalgia’s a curse
A haunted house full of ghosts, you dare to do their damned worst
Built in a melancholy forest of rootless trees, to the test
Losing friends and homes but hoping someday I’ll find my rest

I got this nightmare recurring, most every night when I sleep
I’m back in high school, feelin’ stage fright every word that I speak
I’m never good enough for them, who in the hell “they” may be
Obsessive care for those trophies they give or take casually

I finally learned all the rules to that game, but arrived
to find the court dark and empty, a dumb wounded look in my eyes
Seems all the people I once knew are now gone, gone for good
It’s not fair, scrapping riddles that finally I’ve understood

Moving states, schools, and jobs, deleted numbers and apps
Say, “Keep in touch,” like a prayer before you shoot snake-eyed craps
Feel like a kid sick and stuck on some old ride at the fair
A carousel round a star that dying gods can’t repair

But wear your scars like tattoos, accidental but proud
The shade of some silly story you dare not utter aloud
And if they ask, tell a lie, or the truth — either way,
what’s the difference? They won’t listen to a word that you say

This world is ugly and cruel, a highwayman with no code
ready to ambush poor travelers down any fork in the road
But damn, it’s beautiful too, and even now and then kind
like a gaslighting lover you can’t get off of your mind

Too tormented to live, but far too stubborn to die
as some unstoppable force meets the glare of my eye
But maybe I’m just a fool, burnt by the sunset at night
Yeah, maybe life would be simpler if I were deader inside

* * *

Image (edited) of footprints on the beach (free use) taken from Tho-Ge on Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/photos/beach-footprints-sand-sea-ebb-4996526/

Song of the Siren

“TWICE HAPPY BIRTHDAY”
lyrics, guitar, MIDI-bass, -piano, -cello, 
-violin, and mixing by Shmuel Pernicone		

For the 900,000 (and counting)

[Sanjay Gupta, 27 March 2020:] “Alright, I’m gonna show you how to wash your hands. Most people know how to do this, but always worth remembering… Now make sure you really interlace your fingers like this. And then also turn your hands over. Don’t forget the backs of your hands. People often forget that… Sing the ‘Happy Birthday’ song twice to yourself, and that usually will do it.” https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/03/27/how-to-wash-hands-gupta-vpx.cnn

* * *

For full lyrics, see: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QsqQ7B3gK11pfol8U-2M3mhHGj7KDDJE/view?usp=sharing

Thumbnail composed from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8876238/mediaviewer/rm1964997376/ and https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211031/COVID-19-patients-eyes-and-tears-can-be-infected-with-SARS-CoV-2.aspx

Twice Happy Birthday

"SHIRLEY” lyrics and tab
by Shmuel Pernicone

Oh, Shirley, dear, what’s goin’ on
inside that wizened head
You crazy girl, you never knew
what’s better left unsaid

Through darkened glass, you look
and shake your head at passersby
You’re forty-two but seventeen
near as naïve as I 

All shackled down with signs galore 
Like Christian’s burden, but so much more 
You wave and shout, your eyes deep blue but burning…

September skies above the streets
a different point of view
But neighbors there and fresh blue air
they never interest you

You’re too involved with other lives
From the novels that you read
No, that author never suited me
though Silence Dogood would be pleased 

You shrug your shoulders and deny 
your deepest lover, I wonder why 
You say, “Lou and I haven’t been much since the incident”

Please details, Shirley, what’d you do
Could you not resist his horns?
Oh if God would hunt the scarlet seed
you should hide your son firstborn

Still you thank good God for every sin
that he throws upon this world
I’d imagine that he’s blushing now
at his callow little girl

“That is not what I meant at all,
No, that is not it all…” 

When his shepherd Matt begged on his knees 
I would think that you’d feel some unease 
But the deepest thoughts you spin are thoughtless slogans

You hate your home and those who paid
With banknotes painted red
In one ear out the other,
all the words that they have said

Oh you won’t say "fuck" or "shit"
to save your sorry little soul
But you don’t hesitate to jeer and curse
at dead heroes being mourned 

What a mystery girl you are to me, 
With your topsy-turvy priorities 
Can’t blame you though, it’s just the home you grew up in…

You sing the songs of fools that drown
your tiny stubborn mind
You patronize and quote your Dad
so stuck in olden times

Don’t you realize, Shirley, that the icemen
with ski caps think as well
That they are right, yeah, no one else,
all the rest can go to hell 

And damn, you two are so assured 
That all must open to your word, 
Gonna burn the house down over next year’s rent… (guitar solo)

No, you’re not evil, just confused 
Your straw-man head leaves me bemused 
Those passed recall you only as a hollow girl…

Your girls were always close behind
like dolls that you’d arranged
But I hear that they have left you now
Funny how some people change

You love your “facts” but never think
to check them twice for flaws
And life’s gray realm is much too bright 
it would burn your blue eyes raw 

And I hear that you’ve been spending time 
to hurt my friends, now you’ve crossed a line 
Your fire ‘n brimstone love is gonna kill me…

You love to live the opera
all the drama you adore
Life is short and love is heavy
So you imagine all these chores

You’re too busy for a coffee
Or a kiss with any warmth
But all I feel for you is pity
As you sail into the storm

“No, honey, no,” your sweet reply 
“A woman knows, don’t ask me why” 
If you ask me what’d Jesus do, he’d leave you…

Maybe you should crack a book for once
and drop the doublethink
Funny how so many lifeboats
can weigh down a ship to sink

But que sera and c'est la vie
‘Tis a shame that you must live
Such a shallow cold existence
where hate is all that you can give

Now it’s December, you’re still there 
with signs held to the whistling air 
Bundled up against the cold like tired daisies

* * *

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Phelps-Roper#/media/File:Shirley_Roper-Phelps.jpg

Shirley

“TALKING PAWN SHOP BLUES”
chords and lyrics by Shmuel Pernicone

The village fools and shepherds blind
Parade with pitchforks ten and nine
With sparking torches and flashing eyes,
They thirst for glass and sweet demise
Here’s their next victim…

It’s midnight as the moon looks down
The icy glow fades to a frown
The mob below so uninspired
They hold with those who favor fire
make love, then war

“Don’t tarry now,” the leader calls
“Come kindle all the crumbling walls
Don’t bother to go asking why
This pointless place deserves to die”
Oh, no one will notice…

He turns his faceless head and peers
Through rippling windows twinkling tears
And sees a craggy face inside
It was the owner prepared to die
He knows what’s coming…

This old man stuffs his pipe with gumption
And breathes the smoke of cold assumption
He cocks a brow, looks through the mist,
Says, “So old friend, it’s come to this?”
His voice so steady…

The faceless leader so confused
replies, “I don’t believe in you
You have no name, no past or depth,
You’re just a relic like all the rest”
He’s so indifferent…

No one comes here anymore
to see the knacks that fill this store
They won’t miss it when it’s turned to ash
Each piece of memory worth little cash
Apathy’s so easy…

There’s a snow white gown from a day of doubt
Decks of cards all tossed about
52 pick up from many a life
A rusty ring from a cheated wife
It’s just gold-plated…

An Afghan rug stained deep with blood
A Go-Green pin all caked with mud
A teacup filled with sour wine
Lampshades too betrayed to shine
They’re so embarrassed…

An African vest moth-eaten to shreds
The coffin sheets from mansion beds
A feather duster choked with dirt
Snub .38 that doesn’t work
But it used to kill…

Chessboard pieces too scared to mix
With king and queen too refined to kiss
A hundred bottles of ink grown dry
And books each labeled “How To Die”
With spines a-cracked…

Guitars with throats so warped and rusted
Lipsticks pawned by a heart so lusted
Holiday bells like a rag too wrung
Grandfather clock whose time is done
Its hands so weary…

Candles that smell like memories past
Spices and pills that’ll slow you down fast
Pipes that coughed and begged for life
Zippos that flickered and swallowed their light
But all light’s reflected…

All the hollow men surround this pyre
“What fools,” the owner thinks, so tired,
“They see a body as just the skin
like a story that ends on the word it begins”
They’re the ones who are shallow…

Still the owner sighs and puffs his pipe
He steals a breath and smells the night
Through licking tongues of flame, he sees
the faceless leader’s features freeze
Realization dawning…

Old man’s last words, “Just let it go
And understand what you don’t know
But here’s the secret you should hear
Now listen close, the end is near…
You’re me… and I’m you.”

* * *

Battle sounds of Kurdish forces fighting ISIS taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2J8-dC64dg
Image: Escher, M. C. Hand with Reflecting Sphere. 1935.

Talking Pawn Shop Blues

“FROM ICE TO FIRE” 
lyrics and acoustic guitar by Shmuel Pernicone
electric guitar by Yehuda Sommer

“O believers, what is wrong with you that when you are told to go forth for Allah do you cling heavily to the earth? Are you satisfied with this life rather than the Hereafter? But what is the enjoyment of this world compared to the Hereafter, except very little.” — Quran 9:38, recited by ISIS Commander Abu Usama al-Maghribi in propaganda film Flames of War

Come you killers of peace
You with hearts turned to ice
who murder for a vision
with this world as its price

You bask in the glow
of bloody waves on the shore
Crucify all the voices
who dare question your war

You tear at their throats
bleed the bodies you judge
over buildings you cast them
into graves that they’ve dug

The only love that you feel
Is a romance with death
You’re its mistress, its servant,
Even if you are next

You lock up your mind
With a faith that you raped
You believe you’ve the right
to determine our fates

Since every life needs a purpose
And so few will suffice
Far too many choose cheaply
and tread short cuts through ice

You have God on your side?
So do many who kill
Whether he’s real or imagined
This is no heaven’s will

For you insist that his world
shows no color or warmth
Cold and hard like a forest
of charred stumps coughing smoke

To the east there’s a rain
Brewing fast, gonna fall,
And till then, we all sit
Doing nothing at all

“Let ‘em fight, it’ll pass,
Not our battle,” they say
But I won’t live in a world
That lets the devil have his way

Don’t know why we’re surprised
This was bound to occur
When we’re hell-bent to follow
each infallible word,

Revelations unnumbered,
Faithful hands red with blood,
Every heavenly vision,
a conscience clean as the mud

No, enough is enough
All this madness must go
This here world will not take
All this evil anymore

Remain and expand?
You can die, you can rot
You can take all the darkness
Of your flag and your thought

You can drag it to hell
Where I hope that you burn
with the demons you followed,
And you never return

* * *

Image: https://abcnews.go.com/International/isis-video-purports-show-execution-christian-men-libya/story?id=28986187

From Ice To Fire

“CIGARETTES IN THE RAIN”
guitar and lyrics by Shmuel Pernicone

Streetlight ghosts, in the flesh
No one else seems to count every breath
Chilly air, scattered rain
Smoky eyes, flickering light, fingers stained

[CHORUS:]
Cigarettes in the rain
Spit their sparks, as they wax and wane
Some burn long, some are gone 
with a watery whisper

Lonely eyes turn and see
passing preachers that judge you for free
Hazy halos of dirty light
But the shadows seem brighter tonight

[CHORUS:]
Cigarettes in the rain
Spit their sparks, as they wax and wane
Some burn long, some are gone 
with a watery whisper

[BRIDGE:]
We all burn for a moment, then fade into ash
Leave nothing but crumpled stumps thrown in the trash
Graffiti will fade and these streetlights will melt
But fire don’t fly away to burn somewhere else

(GUITAR SOLO)

Broken hearts seize the day
Kill your mind, save your soul, so they say
Pack it tight, smoke it fast
Before you know, future’s here, present’s past

[FINAL CHORUS:]
Cigarettes in the rain
Spit their sparks, as they wax and wane
Some burn long, some are gone 
with a watery whisper

We're all like cigarettes in the rain
Another slow way to fly down colliding lanes
Take a breath, watch what’s left 
burn white and black

* * *

Image: "cigarette at night" by mrTrashDesign at DeviantArt https://www.deviantart.com/mrtrashdesign/art/cigarette-at-night-300746336

Cigarettes In the Rain

“MISSED THE BOAT” 
lyrics and guitar
by Shmuel Pernicone

Are you bluffing, girl, are you playing with my heart again this time?
Or is this twist for real? Have you really changed your mind?
Why does it have to happen now I’m finally letting go of you
Picking up the pieces like I’m supposed to do

My heart was on my sleeve, yours for the taking if you felt
the same as I, but with a sigh you turned me away
Now you’ve come around, after all this time, say you think you finally feel
Something real now… oh whatcha trying to say?

[CHORUS:]
If you love me, dammit, say it
If you feel the same, don’t lie
Let’s not cry the tears that I’ve already cried
But if, my friend, you’ve truly come around, I’m afraid I have to go
Because you missed that boat, it left us long ago

Damn near poetic, star-crossed ships passed in the night
Oh don’t cry, you keep that chin up, one day this will turn out right
And there’s someone out there for you, but it ain’t me you’re looking for
I let the doves fly from my heart, oh we can’t share them anymore

[CHORUS:]
So if you love me, dammit, say it
If you feel the same, don’t lie
Let’s not cry the tears that I’ve already cried
And if, my friend, you’ve truly come around, I’m afraid I have to go
Because you missed that boat, it left us long ago

“Oh, baby,” you cry, “I feel it now, Don’t tell me you lost the spark”
But it’s too hard, girl, to hold a splintered heart
I hold you close this one last time, and say it’ll be alright
even though we know I really shouldn’t lie

[FINAL CHORUS:]
So you love me, now you’ve said it
And for once, you didn’t lie
And we’re crying tears that I’ve already cried
But, my friend, now that you’ve come around, I’m afraid I have to go
Because we missed that boat, it left us long ago

* * *

Image: original photo.

Missed the Boat

“COME HITHER”  
guitar and lyrics by Shmuel Pernicone
drums by A.A.Ron

	Come hither
	Come hither

Sore patches tingle the soles of my feet
Barroom orders pass between tender and me
“Dolcemente, please,” I say, too rusty to hear
Then feel hot breath tickle the drums of my ear

Sipping at the blood-red glass of wine,
hear a fair fox stir, says, “I’ll make you mine”
Scarlet like an ember burned for a while
With a Marlboro perched like a fuse in your smile

	Come hither
	Come hither, oh

Your painted claws gently touch my face
And I smell the perfume of rainy days
as your eyes seize mine like a pendulum chain
and I free-fall into the pit of your pain

You’re oh so sure of the schemes you spin
Square one, then two, yeah, you always win
But this time, there’s a knot in your Newton’s cradle
See the twist at the end of your Jesus fable

	But come hither
	Come hither, oh

I take the tangle of sheets, and tie it into a rope
Hanging out of the window to the traffic below
Where I’ll jump if I hear tomorrow’s echoing cries
My escape from this lair, sirens singing demise

But if I face a fate like the heroes of old
Then you should know I’ve a secret needs to be told
You may lay your snares and play games with fire
But God help me, you're sinking with me into this gyre

So come hither
Come hither, oh

* * *

Image: Draper, Herbert James. Ulysses and the Sirens. 1909. Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull.

Come Hither

“GLASS BOMB SHELTER”
guitar, piano, and lyrics
by Shmuel Pernicone

My love, you’re glowing like an angel
Softly lit by christmas candles
Underground is where we live now
while up above the ghosts claim the cities

MREs, a taste of memory
Steam a-swirling against the concrete
Twisted rings of painted steel
Lock us in like discarded toys

A few good men played the dice
a bed of poison mushrooms sowed
Smiling fire and poison skies
Surface scorched by magic missiles

First the club, then the blade,
Hammered bronze, then tempered steel,
Feathered arrows, powdered shells,
We fools seem born to kill and die

Like Philippe Petit ’74
walk the wire for today
Fragile cobwebs, promised lies
poised to break in the name of God

How could our fathers truly think that
such a plan could end in light
Only grandma knows a life
beyond the snow globes, the sunlit days

[sound bite:]
“All of a sudden, the density of the air is no longer the same… Manhattan no longer spreads its infinity… The murmur of the city dissolves into a squall whose chill and power I no longer feel.” — Philippe Petit, TED Talk “The Journey Across the High Wire”

(piano solo)

12:01 now, just past midnight
the ash whispers through a silent sky
Horizons fade like a falling curtain
Signifying nothing, our hour is done

And on that I give my word
Extinction mutually assured

My love, you’re glowing like an angel
Softly lit by christmas candles
Underground is where we live now
while up above the ghosts claim the cities

(guitar solo)

* * *

sound effects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLWjkGpzBug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIijFSN35x8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G9mNBUymP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edtNpwVP6p8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjkNNDuAb9A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3zZVQPaKKQ
https://freesound.org/people/johnnythesalesman/sounds/423291/
Image: http://www.lovethispic.com/image/48479/broken-glass

Glass Bomb Shelter

"GENESIS"
backing guitar by Yehuda Sommer
lead guitar and mixing by Shmuel Pernicone

[Philippe Petit:] “My first step was… terrifying.”

[Christopher Hitchens:] “You're not gonna know it.”

[T. S. Eliot:] “ ‘Do I dare disturb the universe?’ ”

 [Christopher Hitchens:] “So there’s nothing to be frightened of.”

 [Philippe Petit:] “I no longer feel.”

[T. S. Eliot:] “ ‘And in short I was afraid.’ ” 

[Christopher Hitchens:] “You’re not gonna know it.”

 [Marlon Brando:] “I want reliable people, people who aren’t gonna get carried away…”

[Donald Trump quoting Al Wilson’s song “The Snake”:] “Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin / “You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.”

[Little Muslim girl, so asked by a teacher, says of the Jews:] “They are apes and pigs.”

[White supremacist Christopher Cantwell, tells VICE reporter Elle Reeve:] “I think a lot more people are gonna die before we’re done here, frankly. Why? Because people die every day, right?”

[Donald Trump, in a campaign interview with Fox and Friends:] “You have to take out their families… you have to take out their families… you have to take out their families.”

[Audio of Mohamed Ata on American Airlines Fight 11:] “Everything will be okay… Nobody move, please… Don’t try to make any stupid moves.”

[Rabbi Yaakov Yosef quotes Jeremiah 10:25:] “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the nations that do not call on your name…”

[Rabbi Yisrael Ariel:] “…if so, we will allow you to live. If not, you will kill all their males, by the sword…”

[Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in his first public speech:] “So if you see me in the right, then help me. And if you see me in the wrong, advise me and put me right.”

[Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach reciting the book of Lamentations:] “…they have strewn dust on their heads And girded themselves with sackcloth…”

[Takhbir, Choir in Florence, and Shlomo Carlebach’s recitation of Lamentations 2:10:] “…[the elders of Fair Zion] have strewn dust on their heads And girded themselves with sackcloth…”

[Piano in Morse code from right and left speakers:]
.-  .-..  .-..   …  .--.  .  .-  -.-   
..-.  .  .--   .-..  ..  …  -  .  -.

[Recording of an ape shrieking, taken from the Voyager Golden Record sent into space in 1970, with sounds selected by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake.]

 [Christopher Hitchens:] “People are frightened— People are frightened— People are frightened—”

* * *

Image: color negative, rotated 90 degrees clockwise and shadowed with a slight gradient, of Michelangelo. The Creation of Adam. c. 1512.

Genesis

“FOREVER SOMETIMES”
by Shmuel Pernicone

Smiling eyes on jaded faces
holding hands without a word
Midnight calls and drunken kisses
I’ll stay forever, so you assured

But love me once, shame on you
Love me twice, shame on me
Why bother fallin' one more time for you, baby
when I’d be fallin’ for a fantasy

[CHORUS:]

‘Cause you only want forever sometimes
When forever feels alright
And while you’re makin' up your mind, takin' your sweetest time
All my dreams seem to fade out of sight

You stole my heart, scars and all
What was I thinkin’ when you promised you were feelin’ something real
I guess all love is insane, like a dance in the rain
But I’m freezin' now that you’re leavin' me again

[CHORUS:]

‘Cause you only want forever sometimes
when forever feels alright
Throw your love around like dice, break your word once or twice
But you’ll still call me up again tomorrow night

[BRIDGE:]

‘Cause it’s all about you, if you want me or not
You’ll give a heart fucking whiplash before you spare a second thought
I’m always there when you need me, but now I’m not so sure why
I give you someone to lean on, but all you give me are lies

Smeared lipstick, borrowed shirts, your favorite songs in the car
Keep all the memories and the promises and every phony fresh start
All I want is somebody who’ll laugh with me at life
Not a liar ever after, who doesn’t know what she'd like

* * *

drum track: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s89d8i2AHs
photo of the Perseid meteor shower in Boston: www.boston.com/weather/weather-w…shower-this-month

Shmuel Pernicone's Album

Forever Sometimes

"DOVES IN THE AIR"
guitar, piano, and lyrics 
by Shmuel Pernicone

(Remember me?)

It started with a message
Then flew on so fast and free
I was trying to get to know you
And if I was lucky, you’d know me

Lucky — what a funny word
Girl, you know just what I mean
I keep the promises I make
And go through with what it seems

You didn’t know this music, did you
When you told yourself not I
But now, all I ask of you
is please just look up at the sky

	(Every time, everywhere, there were doves in the air)

“The closest hearts are never meant to
be together, don’t you see?
First impressions on your scars now
stay from yesterday, from me"

I shake my head and I smile
as my dreams fall from my eyes
And I speak in smokey whispers
asking you to keep your lies

If you flirt with fire
as you know, we both get burned
Truth sneers down like a schemer
Taunts and asks me what I’ve learned

	(Every time, everywhere, there were doves in the air)

I scowl into Fate’s starry eyes
and ask myself, “What can I do?”
Conscience cradles broken pieces
and whimpers, “She’s not meant for you"

My soul unravels like a carpet
Stepped over one too many times
But my heart is tough as leather
As I vent through strings and rhymes

For now, I’d grow, improve
become the man I want to be
Standing quiet in the corner
Hoping you would notice me

	(Every time, everywhere, there were doves in the air)

The one comfort that I felt
someday you might change your mind
And for now, I would move on
See what would come with time

We all know how stories end
but we all think that ours is new
It all seems special… we still hope
that someone sees the good we do

But I’m caught inside this fog
Pipe dreams blur with candid fear
Past and present blend with future
But there’s something always here

	(Every time, everywhere, there were doves in the air)

Part of me simply hates you
The other loves the friend you are
With each day comes different doubts
Have I really come that far?

Tomorrow greets me with a smile
Mystery glows with torch in hand
As it waves me on into the night
I know not still where I stand

If at dawn, you came and said to me
“I think I’ve changed my mind"
I ask myself, what would I do
Did my music box unwind?

You won’t ever feel the same
Nothing’s changed, and nothing will
I’ve held on to dying hopes
But time won’t heal what can’t be healed

I don’t know how, I don’t know what
I’m too tired and confused
But if I gaze up at the stars
I see that you

	were always here, always there, will always be doves in the air

in the skies of my eyes
the horizons in my soul
once so warm, now so cold
Can't thaw into something new

I still love you

* * *
(Wrote this old thing back in high school. One of my first songs actually. Damn. Time flies.)
Stock image: https://myelitedetail.us/clipart/white-dove-clipart-beautiful-cross_356509.html

Doves In the Air

“SNOWFLAKE FACTORY”
by Shmuel Pernicone

One Decembery evening, in bed but not sleeping
Another blizzard descends from the sky
and through my window of glass, like a spectacle scratched
I watch and wonder why the galaxies cry

But with a scarf knit by you, and cup o’ cocoa for two
snuggled warm by the panes flecked with snow
I look about hazy clouds, and wish tomorrow was now
When you could be here and you’d show me


	[CHORUS:]

	How the angels they secretly dim down the stars
	And the mischievous cherubs they craft
	Tiny fractals like needles aglow with their light
	Heaven dust, over cities to waft

	Oh I wish you were here, so you’d cast me your spell
	And we’d share all the magical sights
	only you can suggest, with your sweet eyes to see
	Snowflake factory, you’d show me tonight


‘Neath the curtain we’d peer, at celestial gears
As they silently crank out the flakes
And the spheres sing along, to the factory’s song
while the milky way sparkles awake 

Some may curse at the night, frozen flurries of white
They never see the blue side of the moon 
where those elves on the wing, lift their voices and sing
Two by two, sowing stars all too soon

You could share it with me, if you’d come back and see
How I miss you on nights such as this
When the storm gathers gray, till it looks here to stay
You’d turn tears into gems and say, listen…


	[CHORUS:]

	To the angels who secretly dim down the stars
	And the mischievous cherubs who craft
	Tiny fractals like needles aglow with their light
	Heaven dust, over cities to waft

	Oh I wish you were here, so you’d cast me your spell
	And we’d share all the magical sights
	only you can suggest, with your sweet eyes to see
	Snowflake factory, you’d show me tonight


Even fairies that flutter, or magic mirrors that mutter
Imagined mermaids that comb through the deep
Can appear so alive, but with you by my side
As you’d spin tales to warm me to sleep… tales of


	[FINAL CHORUS:]

	The angels who secretly dim down the stars
	And the mischievous cherubs who craft
	Tiny fractals like needles aglow with their light
	Heaven dust, over cities to waft

	Oh I wish you were here, so you’d cast me your spell
	And we’d share all the magical sights
	only you can suggest, with your sweet eyes to see
	Snowflake factory, you’d show me tonight

	Oh, I wish you’d come home soon tonight

* * *

Stock image: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/real+snowflake

Snowflake Factory

“ANOTHER SUNDAY” 
guitar, keyboard, and lyrics
by Shmuel Pernicone

Image: Tais. “Reticent.” 4 May 2016. HitRecord.org. tinyurl.com/yby3abl2

Made a deal with the devil, can’t remember what for
Why’d the void and I argue, the day I stormed out the door
Do I dare  to exist, do I care to explain?
Do I find any reason to beseech or complain? 

Smell the booze on my breath, wonder what’s on my mind
Private crimes of compassion, a little lead on a dime
Silver spoons I don’t want, golden rings I can’t reach
Lot of rough but no diamond, too little practice to preach

We may be thicker than jokers or thinner than thieves
But you’ve an ear you can spare, and I’ve a flame to relieve
Vicious circles like sickles about to rip me in two
But you’ve a little light for me, and I’ve a little light for you

	Just a spark
	can break the deafening dark

Circadian somersaults, blue and brown burn and blur
Autumn mistaken for summer halts, colder winds start to stir
Pot o’ joe before noon, a dozen pink after five
Naming stars at the lighthouse to pretend I’m alive

While you’re locked in your room, crying up and below
Countin’ up all the pornos where the actress says no
I go for Jack and cut coke, sip and sniff till I spin
People-watch puppets smiling, but without not within

Strumming axes for change where the third rails depart
Trade a Jackson or Tubman for an eighth from a narc
Pennies plink out of key, wearing brains to the bone
I look where no one looks back, till I forget I’m alone

	In a crowd
	but I will not cry aloud

Long sleeves in July cover peppermint stripes
Tortured minds misdirected by a silvery bite
Some distractions are sweeter, like the dimebags I’d score
but that sugar and cinnamon’s never sweet as before

Got a buzz from my phone like the bees in my head
“Get your ass to a clinic,” run the letters in red
Pick a cup, drop your drawers, take a leak to the line
420 clocked in at zero, so for now I’ll be fine

Build a fire from sticks, or a castle from stone
We favor rags over riches, but as they say, when in Rome
Selling treasured distractions, buying deathly delights
Juggling pressures and pleasures, to fill our half-measured nights

	And dire days’
	blood, sweat, and tears wiped away

Locking kryptonite eyes, biting rose petal lips
Her dream was ivy and Gucci, now she dances and strips
Rolling eyes on her body like an hourglass shell
Making ends meet beginnings, on a stairway to hell

Acidic fingers down gullets feeding toilets galore
Gain a few dozen pounds, lose a few dozen more
Cornered hairlines retreat while Novembers advance
Time grooves to a loop till it’s trapped in a trance

Saw the love of my life with the sun on her face
disbelief in her eyes, dreams of satin and lace
Choking up, as am I, but a lifetime away
while a bended-knee stranger stands to sweep her away

	So I lie
	and fake a smile goodbye

[…]

Feel a change in the air, tiny twisters of leaves
Shades of Halloween fall like confetti from trees
Come the Ides of December, a silly secret may slip
once the tumbrel and hearse take their tedious trip

But while incarnadine cheeks steal a smoke in the sleet
Be still, drumming heart, forget your baffled old beat
For there’s good news and bad, a little Bach for the blues
Just like Chesterton said, one and one’s more than two

I got your back till I die, whether this week or next
Sharing shoulders to cry on rugged roads that we tread
As we bear through the storm, just to dance in the rain
Wake up in time for the sunset, see the day down the drain

[FINAL VERSE:]

Another Sunday survived, another week yet endured
One at a time adds up quick, though I can’t say for sure
Rhythms come and they go, in these relative times
Yeah, the song faded out, but we’ll fight for a rhyme

 Dearest friend
 No, this isn’t the end

* * *

(Read full lyrics at https://www.scribd.com/document/391030751/SECOND-THOUGHTS-album-lyrics. SoundCloud won't fit the rest.)

Another Sunday

"AU VIDE OU VIE"
guitar, bass, percussion, and mixing by Shmuel Pernicone

* * *

Image: original photo, lightly edited, of mountains in Eilat, taken 19 November 2014

Au vide ou vie

"RUNNIN' IN THE RAIN"
guitar, lyrics, MIDI-bass, -drums, 
-keyboard, and -cello by Shmuel Pernicone

My world’s spinning like a record, you’re the A-side I’m the B
How can I sing along without you, when I wrote the song in your key
They say the heart finds a way, when even broken like mine
They say that time numbs the memory, I say that true loves never lie

So now I’m standing here, baby, with coffee for two
Head full of chocolates and roses sure to wither on cue
They say it’s time I let go, but I’m lost out at sea
Only beacon’s your lighthouse that calls out to me

	[CHORUS:]
	I’m black-out drunk on clichés, I know I’m easy to mock
	But I’m a Valentine junkie who can’t afford second thoughts
	So my sick heart-shaped shell seems to shut up my brain 
	And I find my faltered feet runnin’, run-runnin’ in the rain

Yeah my life is the same, except that I’m not alive
And the music’s still playing, but the melody died
Livin’ minutes by the hour, makin’ nights out of days
My damned dreams turned to nightmares, but I’m in too deep to awake

	[CHORUS:]
	I’m black-out drunk on clichés, I know I’m easy to mock
	But I’m a Valentine junkie who can’t afford second thoughts
	So my sick heart-shaped shell seems to shut up my brain 
	And I find my faltered feet runnin’, run-runnin’ in the rain

[BRIDGE:]
I know a man shouldn’t care, and God knows that I’ve tried
To make it, move on without you, hide the tears in my eyes
When that fails, I fall silent, I  turn my heart into stone
Then something silly reminds me, and I fuckin’ break like a bone

So now I’m runnin’ in the rain, right to you (But you’re gone)
Yeah, I’m a-runnin’ like I got something to prove (Right or wrong)
Or am I runnin’ in the rain from myself (There’s no one else after you)
Round and round some pathetic and poetical cell

What if I fell too young, too hard, too far (For too long)
Shot for the moon, and when I missed, forgot to land among the stars
But now it feels far too late to return (Past the point of no return) 
So I’ll keep runnin’ in the rain till it burns

* * *

Image: edited composite of Daria Usanova's "Man Running on Empty Road" (free use) and Josh Hild's "raining in the city" (free use) on Pexels.com (https://tinyurl.com/y5gnx32k and https://tinyurl.com/yxwalpnm).

Runnin' In the Rain

"HALF MOON EYES"
by Shmuel Pernicone

Image: blue-hued crop of Leonardo da Vinci's Isleworth Mona Lisa, 1503-1516, currently stored in Switzerland.

Half Moon Eyes

"ONE ROOM, ONE NIGHT, SMOKING PLEASE"
saxophone, MIDI-drums*, -bass, -keyboard, 
mixing, and lyrics by Shmuel Pernicone

Thursday blues are the smoothest
like a lazy kiss in the dark
or the dancing tender horizon
of an aching heart pressed to heart

“Dry and red, what’s your cheapest?”
You giggle while I’m on the phone
Yeah, they know what music we’re makin'
But we don’t give a damn anymore

[PRE-CHORUS:] 

Now hang a tie on the door
sneak a hunk of coal in a stocking
Drop all of our cares to the floor
why the hell are we even still talking

	[CHORUS:]

	All we need is one room, one night, smoking please
	Do not disturb, don’t break the spell until the moon takes her leave
	This world’s a mad mad game, and a body loses its mind
	Let’s let it go, farewell for a while, burn a little bit of sweet sweet time

Undress our demons disguised, yeah make ‘em blush red as sin
Look an angel dead in the eyes, through smoldering walls thick and thin
Let the choir cry like none’ll hear but the two of us splitting this sea
Got a half a miracle mind, some silent secrets to free

	[CHORUS:]
	
	So give us one room, one night, smoking please
	Do not disturb, don’t break the spell until the moon takes her leave
	This world’s a mad mad game, and a body loses its mind
	Let’s let it go, farewell for a while, burn a little bit of sweet sweet time

Spilled Merlot, burnt tobacco, let’s make a mess into art
Two conspired lovely liars’ spark inspired to a fire, sweet denial for a while to start
We’ll break the rules like a daydream, the night is young as are we
You are not mine, I am not yours, and we’re fuckin’ fine as can be

	[CHORUS:]
	
	With only one room, one night, smoking please
	Do not disturb, don’t break the spell until the moon takes her leave
	This world’s a mad mad game, and a body loses its mind
	Let’s let it go, farewell for a while, burn a little bit of sweet sweet time

Carpe noctem et vinum, turnin’ on so turn off the light
We all push up daisies one day, but we’re coming up roses tonight
When a life’s run down in the weeds, there can seem a thorn every stem
But it don’t dissuade us, hell, it makes us feel the more heavenly when

	[CHORUS:]
	
	We escape to one room, one night, smoking please
	Do not disturb, don’t break the spell until the moon takes her leave
	This world’s a mad mad game, and a body loses its mind
	Let's let it go, farewell for a while, burn a little bit of sweet sweet time

[SAXOPHONE SOLO]

Now sunlight stirs all the stars away like transient thoughts
The thrill is through, now for a cigarillo on a pillow with a pile of cards
If only day could delay, then a night could comfort for good
But a dream don’t stay after dawn, even if we wish that it would

Yeah, who don’t wish that it would?
I sure do wish that you would

* * *

Image: "Lighted Cigarette Stick and White Smoke Wallpaper” (free use) taken from Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/cigar-cigarette-smoke-macro-70088/ + lipstick + slight watercolor filter on LunaPic.com + stars and moon background (free use) taken from Sanaan Mazhar on Pexels at https://www.pexels.com/photo/skyline-photography-of-buildings-3052361/.

Zippo and sizzling sound effects (free use) taken from FreeSound.org at https://freesound.org/people/squareal/sounds/237407/ and https://freesound.org/people/thedogryan420/sounds/146064/.

[* NOTE: Though I arranged the main drum loop for the verses and end of each chorus (using OnlineSequencer and GarageBand MIDI instruments), the chorus itself is also layered in with a GarageBand drum loop.]

One Room, One Night, Smoking Please

“STARDUST TO STARDUST, pt. 1”
guitar, MIDI-bass, -cello, -violin, -harp
-music box, and lyrics by Shmuel Pernicone

Awake, friend, awake
Starry eyes twinkle wide
Feel my galaxy fingerprints
pluck a rib from your side

The epic furnaces flare
a blind smith sets to forge
by some poetical chance
something less, something more

Now arise, mind, arise
And like a mirror, reflect
Broken light from a whole 
that for now you’ll forget

Dance across time and space
through the black and the light
Countless eyes half enlightened
Crescent moons in the night

Most every limb remains numb
but they are yours all the same
to subjugate or surrender
to navigate and to name

But take care not to fall
too far deep in this dream
Lest you forget who you are
Lose the tapestry’s string

Before eternity’s gaze
disappears every wall
’Tis that it is that it is
You are One, that is all

* * *

Stardust to Stardust (pt. 1)

An electric guitar cover of Lindsey Stirling's dubstep violin piece "Crystallize," first released as a single from her eponymous debut album in 2012. Download my guitar tabs for free at https://www.scribd.com/document/433053124/CRYSTALLIZE-cover-electric-guitar-tabs. See backing track (not mine) at https://youtu.be/EXaOdiozxkw. Watch my YouTube video of this cover at https://youtu.be/Ojy3v8Oa3pw. Listen to the original song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjpOzsQ9YI.

Ice cave image (free use) taken from Jeanette Fox on Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/ice-ice-castle-ice-cave-snow-1712880/). Snowflake image (free use) taken from geralt on PixaBay (https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ice-crystal-crystal-snowflake-1065155/).

Crystallize (Lindsey Stirling guitar cover)

Deliver Us (Prince of Egypt OST electric guitar cover)

Singer-songwriter, poet, author. I love nature, art, and coffee. I hate apathy, injustice, and bullshit. Get busy living or get busy dying.

Shmu

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