I did my best work at Nashville on that black table while Mama made dinner.
She was still the boss of the house! I can't remember what she was making for dinner, but it was concurrent with this work!And I am sure it was fine!

Debussy Prelude No 1

Rock and Roll. My stepfather said "too much pickin and not enough singing".

14 Flung Louder Bkgd Vocals

The Jam covers Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde' with Sam and Dave's rhythm section.

Kickstand

Kinks-inspired heavy guitar riff. Cheeky, sarcastic lyric. Hendrix inspired guitar out solo.   Brazilian influenced organ/percussion outro. This song has more moods than a girl who's gone off her meds.

Pent-Up Brunette

Afterglow

TURNING BLUE

You lose so many friends to trust funds
You lose so much trust to your best friends
We were so cooling, wetback lovers on the run
But trust wasn’t ever in our schemes


We were so cooling		We were so cold
We were so trusting 		We were turning blue


Now I’m saving up for the pay phone
You’ve found someone new to squander your money and your time
And I know you’ll tell him those same old stories
And he believes them all (for now)
I can imagine several ways you explain me away

But when I get myself a quarter,
He’ll get a call from some lonely place 
Where everyone laughs at your picture
Til they’re turning blue in the face

We were so cooling		We were so cold
We were so trusting		We were turning blue




So I packed all my things in a ten gallon bag
Just like the trash you might as well have said I was
And in the leering sun, it just sticks to my skin -
The look that you gave me as I crawled through your prison door
The look that I’ll never see again.

He’ll get a call from someplace -
It turns him bitter to know
That everyone, despite what they say
Still misses seeing your face.
Seeing your face

02 - Turning Blue

Payback

This started as a rock shuffle riff which I thought at its inception was too 70's cock-rock sounding, but when I jammed on it with drummerJeff (Ryan) and he avoided eighth notes altogether, just playing a straight four with sloshy hi-hat, it totally brought the riff into the present, and I knew it could work. So, inspired by my favorite french round loaf I always get from Whole Foods which boasted a pink sticker saying "FAT FREE" I set out to come up with some lyrics.

"Fat Free" I associated with  stripping down one's day, one's life, etc. ;  somnabulent families clogging your path at Fiesta, crowd  paranoia, and just wanting to be left alone, finally forgotten and left to the glow of the 15" TV and a single bed.

And yes, that IS Lenny Bruce you hear as the Hawker.

Fat Free

Whilst standing in line at the grocery, I noticed on the cover of 'National Enquirer'  that Regis Philbin had a "bitter wife, crippled son" and I couldn't help but compare my life to his.

Me, a struggling salad-days-forever-musician and a millionaire entertainer/personality with some problems. I wondered if I would trade my life for his.

The bridge sports another one of my favorite lyrical games - that of a classic literary quote - this one from F. Scott Fitzgerald;  "Such creatures of inexhaustible hope" , followed by my answer; "You tell yourself it's just a maintenance dose", dragging in the dirt which I imagine lies in all of our lives, whether we are Hollywood royalty or East Dallas musician flotsam.

I did listen to many, many  Kinks songs to get ideas for the bridge. Hard work, I tell ya!

Sad Truth Revealed

I live in East Dallas. Homeless people are a  reality of each and every day. I know several by name.  My old friend Ron English, when he was still primarily a photographer, used to pay homeless people to be his subjects, sometimes painting their faces.

Considering all the ways in which they allowed themselves to be used (even if payed in liquor), I thought about a race between several of these folks whose complete belongings were contained in a shopping cart - and how useless and tragic such race between them would be. 

Nowhere to go, nothing to win.

Of course it turned into a metaphor for good energy thrown after bad as is the case in many relationships.



My prayers go out to Willis (former scholarship player at Texas A & M) and Ann-Marie (Graduate of Univ. ofArkansas Pine Bluff),  my friends who live on the fringe on society.

Shopping Cart Races

The Crackup

A talented actor/artist/boxer/musician/dancer with a beautiful headshot moves to Hollywood with his mother to "make it" in the business. Things don't go well, he falls apart, leaving mother to pick up the pieces.  Who is to blame? Schizophrenia, depression? It just runs in the family. ("Hide the butcher knives!")

Imagine seeing that story played on your ceiling in the black of night when the mind goes unfettered, even if the story is not your own, but someone in your family . . . or is it yours as well?

Poor Me

03 Granada-Albeniz

Art is long. Life is short. Life is short. Art is long. Life is short.

Fury III

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