Hand On The Rock Playlist

some pessimistic rantings about the sorry state of the planet with help from some of the original Star Trek gang...all the clips taken from the episode City on the Edge of Forever...great episode about time travel..very well written, profound,funny and sad.....  DeForest Kelly as a delirious Dr McCoy delivers a masterclass in overacting...

You!! What Planet Is This?

Captain Kirk can't preserve our federation
You better beam him up Scotty
Politicos, polluters and corporate power players
All flash and fake and shoddy
Paranoia, planet-panic
My fear, it multiplies
Like McCoy trippin’ out on Cordrazine
A raging question plagues my mind

You! What Planet Is This?
Phasers set to stun
World come undone
One step from the abyss 
You! What Planet Is This?
From greed to gun
Real-life science fiction fun

Mr. Spock can't wave off, our project in illogic
Better beam him up Scotty
Frustrated with the intellect of all us human players 
As we destroy Earth’s mind and body
Patriotic ploys gone frantic
Terra firma fools collide
The air impure, thoughts incorrect 
Edith Keeler must die

You!  What planet is this?
Take a leap through time
Try to save mankind
From the march to the precipice
You! What Planet Is this?
Silly Star Trek song
Hope I got the ending wrong

Run Run DeForest
Run Run Doctor Run
Run through the cities 
With the maniacs and moneyed ones
Run Run Children
Run Run Children Run
You better Run
Run

You! What Planet is this?
Third from the sun
You know, the violent one
Exploding in our midst
You! What Planet is this?
Watch the lights go out
As we twist and shout








You!!!  What Planet is this?

more existential dread about the state of the world 
I need to turn off the news
I used  this fantastic sci movie from 1957 to explain things metaphorically....
wrote it this morning very quickly..it just came together

The Incredible Shrinking Man 

I once was big as them                            
Living life on a whim                                 
Then a strange thing happened              
It could happen to you                             
Take a look at the shape I’m in                 

You placed me in a doll house
Put a lock upon the door
Your miniature man 
Now on parade
Have you ever seen my kind before?

I'm down here                                       
But they don't see me                          
Guess I'll have to take a stand                   
Getting smaller                                     
As the days they run away from me      
Your incredible shrinking man               
My body, no longer at my command         

Now there's danger everywhere 
I'm prey to everything
The cat, the spider, your prejudice 
Wish I could grow some wings

Too small for the circus now
Can't trust the human show
Gonna crawl right through the window screen
Say goodbye to all I know

I'm down here
Where they can't touch me
You'll never understand
What it's like 
To live this life of fear and fright
A little guy, in a strangers’ land
The incredible shrinking man 

Break

I'm down here
Where they can't hear me
It’s not like I had this planned
Gonna take my  tiny life
Gotta try to make it right
Build a little toy town with these tiny hands
Please remember me
Your Incredible Shrinking Man 




The Incredible Shrinking Man

a little song about heartache written over 40 years ago

Hard To Tell

A bottle full of memories 
And a battle with the booze
I wish I could remember 
All those things we had but had to lose

I wish you would remember 
But perhaps you just won't tell
It hurts to see you as a stranger
But I guess it's just as well

You burned all my letters
All those words, you had to lose
We were so young to be lovers
Never thought your lips could bring bad news

I couldn't find the reasons 
And you wouldn't find the time
We were both alone together
Although I guess that we did try

And as I write this down, I see you turn away
Colder than an open door on a winter's day
Like an angel enshrined 
You could take me anytime
Oh baby was it so hard to tell?
Baby was it so hard to tell?
Baby was it so hard to tell that I loved you?




Hard To Tell

this song is a tribute to Mercedes McCambridge, a mighty fine actress ( 1949 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress All The King's Men) who in 1973 played the voice of the Demon in William Friedkin's The Exorcist...
She prepared for her vocal performances by chainsmoking, drinking whiskey and eating raw eggs. She had herself strapped to a chair while speaking her lines...
Talk about suffering for your art
Back in the day the movie caused hysteria with many audience members fainting and running out of the theatre. ..1973 was a different time for sure.....
i present the usual mishmash with a couple clips from the movie and an interview with a scared movie goer at the break
Thanks for the nightmares, Ms. McCambridge 

Mercedes McCambridge

Mercedes McCambridge, she’s talking to me  
The devil incarnate, filthy vocabulary               
I learned some new words 
When I was a kid 
Back in 73     

Mercedes McCambridge, she was needing  the work
From Academy winner to world's biggest sinner,
made the crowd go berserk
They dubbed out Miss Blair, put her in there,
In that bedroom, she lurks

The power of Christ compels you             
It compels me to sing                                   
About demons, about another time            
When the Exorcist was a thing                  
Strapped to a chair, living on cigarettes    
Raw eggs and malt whiskey                     
Mercedes moaned her message             
Scared the bejesus out of me                   

Mercedes McCambridge, all dressed in black
She’s still in my closet, under the table
She’s hiding out back
When I go to sleep, she shadow speaks
Her salacious  soundtrack

The power of Christ compels you
It compels me to be
Writing songs about her vicious voice
It's melded to my memory
Her fearsome groans from another time
Words we don't want Mom to know
Mercedes was committed 
No minors were permitted
We trembled, shook and shitted
At her foul-mouthed movie show

Mercedes McCambridge

In 1970 the worm definitely turned for me..  I was too young for the Summer of Love and Woodstock but come Christmas but I had my Spirograph... Wheel inside a wheel , the journey began, my creative powers unleashed... Finally some psychedelia for us kiddos... my plastic so fantastic....
sound clips ...intro clip from the movie Platoon and the  end clip from The Simpsons...  acoustic guitar/ keys/ shaker track recorded from my phone from Loopz  app......                                                                                                                                    the beat goes on....

Spirographic Eye                              

This story brought me back about a half a century                                                          
Kenner took me on a trip to try their kiddie LSD                                                              
Hypnotic trance, we’d turn and spin a groovy design                                                     
How old does one have to be to blow their minds?                                                        
Even Mom and Grandma they were digging this                                                           
Hogging all the paper sister got real pissed                                                                   
My plastic so fantastic                                                                                                    
Super Spirograph                                                                                                          

Back in 67 there was Lucy in the Sky
A black and white TV set was how we kids got by
Those kaleidoscopic colours now, you never want to stop
Friends peering through my window to see just what I got
Living on a rainbow, escape the world once more
Woodstock in my kitchen, San Francisco on my door
My plastic so fantastic
Super Spirograph

AAHH feel the symmetry                                                                                             
Perfect geometry                                                                                                         
I wanna kiss the sky                                                                                                    
On my Christmas vacation                                                                                 
I got me this art fascination                                                                                                   
Got me a spirographic eye                                                                                                   

You can keep my Lite-Brite I’m not playing underground
I'll be on another planet, though I will not leave this town
Salvador and Pablo they soon will know my name
Or maybe not, no never mind, life still won't be the same
Wheel inside a wheel it spins, precision never lies
The truth is on the paper it’s so pleasing to the eye
My plastic so fantastic
Super spirograph

AAHH feel the symmetry
Such perfect geometry
I wanna kiss the sky
AAHH those Mandala flowers
My psychedelic powers
Got me a spirographic eye

Spiromania, Spiromania,  you'll go full circle, inside your brainiya…..             
Spiromania, Spiromania, tune in, turn on, it entertains ya…..……..

Spirographic Eye

Foreigner's Double Vision .. 2nd Album..What was I thinking?.... Got me banned for life from Towers Department Store in St. Catharines way back in 1978.
Luckily I mended my ways but I carry this burden around and generally avoid listening to Classic Rock Radio as I am triggered by this song and that other one ... Hot-blooded ...check it n see...
Apologies to Mick Jones and Lou Gramm for stealing their music and rewriting their song to sing my truth....
opening clips from The Myth of Shoplifting film 1964
end clip from the movie High Fidelity

Shoplifting (The Double Vision  Foreigner Cassette Tape)

Feeling down and dirty, no financial means
So I shoved that cassette tape down my crisp blue jeans
Slinking down the aisle, bulge between my thighs
The abandoned eighth commandment
I was such a foolish child

Yes I stole from Towers
Foreigner's Double Vision
No surprise
They threatened me with prison
Ooooh, the floor walker grabbed a hold of me
Hot-blooded, tone-deaf to apology
My one-way ticket to delinquency 

Just a grubby little juvie back in ‘78
Big brother disappointed in my musical taste 
He said, “ You could have stolen Zevon, maybe Marley or some PiL
Now you're banned for life from Towers for that boring AM swill 

I kleptified, for that Double Vision
My Mom mortified at my bad decision 
Oooh, the police want to take a drive with me
Backseat of shame, the neighbors’ eyes on me
That Double Vision shopping lesson got the best of me
They arrested me 

Oooh Double Vision
A Foreigner filch
That brought me such derision 
Oooh Double Vision
Grounded and hounded
Parental supervision 
Oooh full frontal implant
The struggle to smuggle
Cassette tape covertly in pants
Oooh that cardinal sin
Shoplifting and grifting
My Fruit of the Loom I slipped it in

Shoplifting (The Foreigner Double Vision  Cassette Tape)

Yes, it's all about the ride, so forget about the finish line
Spoken words mainly from Bob Dishy and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman(in his scene stealing performance as former bagpiping childstar Sandy Lyle) from the 2004 movie Along Came Polly...Let It Rain!

If  you feel the need to bust out and solo,   Mr. Hoffman will gladly demonstrate how to find that freedom to rock out
take a look

https://youtu.be/Z5sH9Gpa4PM?si=d99f_6wXgcx9h1aI

Lyrics

Yesterday's gone                                              
But this race keeps dragging on                       
The rules they believe
Not the same for you and me 
Hard to play fair                                             
Hard not to cheat                                          
Hard just to stand on your own two feet         
No need to deceive                                        
Just walk on by                                                             
Forget about the finish line                           
Forget about that finish line                               

A prodigal son
I'm tasting moonbeams on my tongue 
Your greatest mistake 
Let's celebrate and cut the cake
Face to the wall
I turn and say cheese
Time to confess this misery 
No need to grieve
Let's dance on by
And forget about the finish line
Let's forget about that finish line

One foot in front of the other                               
Lunge, leap, somersault, and roll              
Always falling down in your bread and your butter             
Take a chance and lose yourself                        
It's not the end you need to encounter              
This life in cruise control                                     

Hard to play fair
Hard not to cheat
Hard just to stand on your own two feet 
No need to grieve
Just dance on by
Forget about that finish line 
Forget about that finish line
Forget about the finish line



Forget About The Finish Line

Some more planetary observations and musings with the help of the Original Star Trek episode The Return of the Archons.
                                                     
When I was a kid
I struggled and I hid
Preteen horde, tuned out, ignored
Those moments on their grid

My obsessions turned confession
All conform and compromise 
The follows and suggestions
Accept and actualize 

And now it feels the same
They are checking, counting names
The ones who don't fit in 
Expose, extort and grin

Neighbour against neighbour
Grandpa's gun up on the roof
Galaxy of gangsters
Grade school bullies after you

Aaahh you're not of the Body
You be shabby, sick and shoddy
They say, “Desist, Deplane and Deport”
Aaahh you're not of the Body
We like the golden, gloss and gaudy
Not you…You will be absorbed

When I was a lad
I was labeled brash and bad
Schoolyard brawls, slurs etched on walls
Their ugly ironclad

And now it feels the same
Angst and anger, bringing blame
Time to pick a side, patriotic pride
A dangerous children's game

Aaahh you're not of the Body 
We want the hero and the haughty 
To fight, fight, fight… go to war
Aaahh you're not of the Body 
Let's keep the nice but not the naughty 
And you…you will be absorbed 

                      The medium's the message
                      The message is clear
                      Red hour, purging power
                      The Festival Fear
                      School day selections
                     Still in front of me
                     Reddits and Podcasts
                      Theaters of hate
                      Forecasting of futures 
                       The marches to great
                       A planet fantastic 
                      Sponge job soliloquy 

Aaahh you're not of the Body 
The fratty feel and glitterati 
Behind the prayers and shares, lies the sword
Aaahh you're not of the Body 
Wish I could get beamed up now by Scotty
Before they say, “ You will be absorbed"

             


You Will Be Absorbed

Repost page for Ultrasonic Pest Repellent.  This is where I will repost tracks and make playlists.

Hand On The Rock Playlist

UPR Reposts