Related tracks: Old Habits Die Hard W/ Janne Hennie

peace...........thanks for listening



a mother said to her child
take your time while you're still young
and when they tell you that you're not from here
you say i was born under this sun

cos it saddens me
and brings a tear to my eye when i see what we've become
when you tell me it's not my land i say
i was born under this sun

the motherland told us once
no matter where you're from
you're welcome at my gates
we're all born under one sun

we run the human race
yet we're the only ones
who can change our wicked ways
 we're all born under one sun

a mother said to her child one day
walk tall and never run
cos you'll need every once of strength you got
when you're born under this sun

YeahNah

As each November approaches I try to make my own little Remembrance-time tribute.  Seems more relevant as each year passes...

Following the huffing and puffing empire lunacy in the summer of 1914, the next four years would see 40 million casualties, half of them deaths and of those, half were civilian.  

40 million.

40 million tales of poignancy, pain, grief and human tragedy, through times that can often seem littered with coincidence, symmetries …. bookends and mirrors.

In the Military Cemetery of St Symphorien near Mons rests John Parr.  At only five foot three inches and several years under age he (amazingly) managed to enlist in 1912 - hoping to see the world, and get the advertised “two square meals” a day.  He was the first British Army casualty, killed in the battle of Mons aged just 17, his body left behind, fate unknown until much later in the conflict;  the army unable to answer his mother’s letters of enquiry about her “silent” son.

By pure coincidence, John lies just a few yards from the last British soldier to die in the great war.  George Ellison served for four long years including at the same first battle of Mons as John, and most of the famously grinding, attritional infantry battles of the conflict.  His working life bookended by military service, George had first enlisted in 1902, leaving the army in 1912, just as John joined, he became a coal miner, re-enlisting at the outbreak of war to dig mud not coal and fight from trenches he helped excavate.  George was killed just 90 minutes before the armistice took effect at 11:00 on the 11th day of the 11th month.  The futility of the conflict was cruelly illustrated by the fact that George’s war had started and ended at exactly the same place, Mons in Belgium.  They had literally gone nowhere.

As a postscript to progress since "the war to end all wars" the human race is currently reckoned to be engaged in 7 major wars, 15 significant ongoing conflicts and 21 “minor” conflicts (the latter defined as up to "only” 1000 deaths per year).  By way of another macabre bookend, the longest of these has been going on, unbelievably, since the year .... 1918.

As always, this simple ballad is offered as a live one mic one take effort - please excuse the fluffs and gaffes.
_______________________

Bookends and Mirrors

Sun turned cold ‘cross every sky in the summer of ‘14
The Good Lord shook his head, and he placed it in his hands
Braided declarations flying, whose like was never seen
Lunatics in feathers stockpiled lead, bagged their sand.
Slapstick Mephistopheles, unleashing of his flame
Spiral minds lobotomised in the waltz of the insane
Simple lives unknowing of the mud that would become
A mirror in the resting place of two Holy Mother’s sons.

Signed the line, five years young, fingers crossed behind his back
Chance to see the world, grab a future, two square meals.
At 17, John’s angels sung, first to fall in dawn’s attack
Abandoned and forgotten, deaf to all his ma’s appeals.
Never knew the miner, his bookend pal to be
Fighting down the line, many battles that he’d see
Full four years in trenches, George’s hell lived through them all
Cruelty was smiling wide at England’s last to fall.

In service time they travelled nowhere, nothing to achieve
Embracing 40 million weeping mothers left to grieve
The crime of puffing chest bravado beggared to believe
Hall of mirrors seeping others’ blood of the innocent naive.

Now John and George lie facing each to seek their mirrored peace
Raise my eyes and brim a tear for the lessons never learned
Pray God, don’t ever let them know man’s insanity but increased
The war to end all wars a mere sequel oft’ returned 
By comedies of leathered fools stuck on infinite repeat
Bemedalled and bejewelled, they prosecute their moral defeat
But here, on sallow turf twixt heroes, broken mirror in my broken hand
Met by my own broken eyes, I still fail to understand.
_________
Photo by Michael Yuan on Unsplash

Bookends and Mirrors

All rights reserved, (c) & (p) 2023.
Taken from the upcoming full length album, by Shock the Algorithm (PTBR mid-2024)
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/R6xz2BumOPs
------------------------------------
lyrics:
Another day goes by
another war inside my head

another trace of fear
but i never won't give in

Another night passed by
another midnight washed my sins

but i will face the day
no i never won't look grim


You said go and face your demons
don't let another day get wasted!

Death is the enemy, Death is the enemy oHhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh
Death is the enemy, Death is the enemy oHhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh
Death is the enemy, Death is the enemy oHhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh


Another year goes by
another book of memories 

and time doesn't wait
doesn't wait for no one

and don't you look away
you have to stand on your own feet

no matter what will come
you have to get your shit together


fight the good fight
fight the good fight

Rock and Roll Kills

Death is the enemy

Original by The Rolling Stones 2004
Vocals : Janne Hennie

Old Habits Die Hard W/ Janne Hennie

It's mostly wonderful, getting older. 

2023 Janine Levinson
Mixed and mastered by Russ @russell-sinfield, who brings songs to life
#ChaosCookhouse

I Thought I Knew        

The world is upside down                   
The secrets that I never knew
On my bedroom ceiling
 
The world is inside out 
Seams are on the outside
It’s a real confusing feeling
        
A mushroom is a mushroom    
That is something everybody knows
But what if when you woke up very early in the morning 
Your mushroom was a toadstool     
Your bluebird was a pointed rock?
A dog bite was a diamond 
And your cancer was a smile?
 
Oh yeah, I knew it all            
But suddenly I’m learning 
After sixty years of knowing

I never knew that much          
It’s a real peculiar feeling
And I don’t know where it’s  going      
    
A matchbox is a matchbox
That is something everybody knows 
But what if then you stayed up very late into the evening and 
Your matchbox was a carpet flying you right through the ceiling?
A trail of fire behind you as you wish the world goodbye?

I thought I knew 
I thought I knew

What if they were untrue                   
The stories I’ve been telling that had sounded so appealing?
 And every word was false
A blanket made of fiction
It’s a real confusing feeling

A mushroom is a mushroom
That is something everybody knows
But what if when you woke up very early in the morning 
Your mushroom was tomorrow    
Your fingers were a pigeon
Your secrets were a fairy tale and everyone was gone?

What if a different song was playing all along?

I thought I knew 
I thought I knew

I Thought I Knew - Mixed and Mastered by Russ

An electronic instrumental composed using the generic synthesisers and sequencers in Garage Band and Logic. No real instruments were used on this one.

© 2023 Dairv Dubbleyew

Chasing the Dream

This is the self title track from the upcoming debut album of Shock The Algorithm my friends (tbr mid-2024)!
 Enjoy...ROCK AND ROLL KILLS!
 (p) & (c) 2023, STA.
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/OKGfQuK63Ng
---------------------------------
 lyrics:
So you had enough today?
I thought u'll visit us one day
Was waiting for another sunray
to hear you once again prevail

I thought you'd live forever
i dreamed our bonds would never sever
at least you did one more last endeavour
and that's why i would admire you forever

You lived your life and that was fine
it was super cool and you were on the first line
you didn't pretend , you neved showed off
you didn't have tattoos or fake persona blastoff

You lived your life, till your 49
and afterwards your soul forevermore shine
your face is now on t-shirts, your name on NY street
and that's why i sing and say....ROcknRoll kills anywayyyy

You toured nonstop for 22 years
thank god there was music and brushed away your fears
you got bullied so many times
and then you wrote the world's top class rhymes

For them you were the underdog, the freak 
for us a legend and not the weak
you gave us hope, the music & soul 
You were so true and not a fake persona blastoff

(p) & (c) 2023/2024. Taken from the debut album (to be released mid-2024, under the tittle "Rock and Roll Kills").
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/Ls4kYAwMN2w
lyrics (Parental Advisory):
------------------------------
You're so strage to me

you got offended so fast
you're not built to last
you're made of sugar, butter and shit

You think it's only you
you cry like a bitch
your job it's only to abuse

whatever i say is wrong
your life is like a crappy song
no reason to talk to you anymore!

You're So Strange To Me

Taken from our upcoming debut album "Rock and Roll Kills" (mid-2024).
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/kWZJiztgoXU (like & subscribe:))
---------------------------
lyrics:
And then i ask my self, is there a way out, could i be heard loud?
And then i ask my self, could it be?

And then i turn my head, up in the sky and wondering why?
could i turn back time or live it again?

Chances are thrown away, anothers have won not gone astray
but that's a blessing not a curse so thank you!

You think is over...over now, just shake your head and face now
face the truth and all the greatness around

Don't need nothing else, i got everything that completes me
all the rest is just a dusty grain of sand

(p) & (c),all rights reserved, STA 2024.

Dusty Grain of Sand

Taken from the upcoming debut full length album (planned to be released mid-2024 - "Rock and Roll Kills").
(p) & (c), 2024.
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVDW2mi4i0g
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Explicit lyrics:
Felt like almost dead, would you carry me home, would you lay me down?
Felt like shit again, would you bring my pills? do you know how it feels?

i don't know where to go...is this the end? i don't know!
From the tip of my head...till my toes, is this hell and heaven's above?

is there a free ride or a lottary prize? to win to lose on an XL size?
crappy or not, time will show...all i know is heaven's above!

I don't wanna buy a lotta food
i don't wanna get rid the booze
i don't wanna buy an SUV
i don't wanna get fatold and get peed

i don't wanna watch the news
i don't wanna get dirty with tools
i don't wanna smell your farts
i don't wanna mess around with you fatfucks!

Heaven's above?

Heavy Punk Rock 'n' Roll band turns into Synthwave nowadays! Brand NEW album "Ultraviolet Cosmos" available NOW!
https://shockthealgorithm.bandcamp.com/album/ultraviolet-cosmos