very engaging musically, lyrically, vocally

great storytelling lyrics..lovely arrangement

very nice track and beautiful with the two voices

Another gentle song with beautiful lyrics. Bravo!!

I really like your voice it's very unique, and love the song as well

Great storytelling song wonderful performance 🌹

Great songwriting and delicate, nuanced arrangement.

Andrew's BIAB songwriter favs

Almost Forgot Her Name

Lyrics: R.W. Davis
Lead vocals: D.A. Hughes
Graphic: Macrovector on Freepik.com

Gone

Lazy Daze

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?


                   I'll Be Your Fool


    In  quiet corners of my mind
   I look for truth I'm yet to find
   That day when  you walked away
    You left behind an  empty gray

    With every year, the questions grow
    Answers fade like melting snow
    In love and life, I'm lost again
     The more I seek, the less I win

     And, as time ..... flows
    What I don't know ...shows
    I'd be a fool  don't you know what I dream
    It's your name ...I call
    It's a  game .....we play
    I'm a  fool after fool evermore

   Windows in the evening light                                         
   Reflections of my youth                            
  Thought I knew my path in life                          
   But these footsteps lead to the truth

    Over time I start to see
   The truth hiding underneath
   People come but they will go
   Marking time untill they know

    And, as time ..... flows
    What I don't know ...shows
    I'd be a fool  don't you know what I dream
    It's your name ...I call
    It's a  game .....we play
    I'm a  fool after fool evermore

    The more I live     The less I know
    I'll be your fool      be your fool
    Now and for ever
    Now and for evermore

I'll Be Your Fool

The earth shatters
and drags you down
Nowhere an escape
is to be found
Memories fade and jumble
Crossroads crack and crumble

I am here
if you’re asking
I am here
I am now
Walk away or turn around
But you must know
I am here

Your shame burns through
and scars your mind
All the good things
get left behind
Memories fade and jumble
Crossroads crack and crumble

I am here
if you’re asking
I am here
I am now
Walk away or turn around
But you must know
I am here

I might not be the rainbow
At the end of the storm
But I could be the sunlight
That keeps you warm

I Am Here

I feel the days falling away
I know that you feel the same
All the years now on display
In between some light and shade

Midnight starlight
Music on the square
We used to be there
Running in the shadows
Rapping with the poets beats
We used to walk these streets

The echo of those days remain
In the corners where we used to play
Time slips through like rain
But we still find our way

Midnight starlight
Music on the square
We used to be there
Running in the shadows
Rapping with the poets beats
We used to walk these streets

Whispers of a brighter dawn
In the places where we once belonged

Midnight starlight
Music on the square
We used to be there
Running in the shadows
Rapping with the poets beats
We used to walk these streets

Streets

The Jersey streets are alive tonight
And the bridge is flooded with rain
The city’s coming through the windshield
And the wind howls like a train 

Headlights bounce off the gutters
And the girls on the boulevard
A siren closes the distance
And cuts off all the cars

The Red Bank rain hits me
Like a hammer from the sky
But the radio pulls me close 
Lays me out for another night 

The streets lay down so quietly
Like a promise left for dead
And the station’s fading fast
As the hours tick ahead

The screen door’s blowing open
And the headlights disappear
The DJ says the songs are coming
Like some turntable Paul Revere

The Red Bank rain hits me
Like a hammer from the sky
But the radio pulls me close
Lays me out for another night

Yeah, the Red Bank rain hits me
Like a hammer from the sky
But the radio pulls me close
Lays me out for another night

Red Bank In The Rain (with Joliz)

K-The Book of Veles

written by jeff gardiner

There's a Wrinkle  in the Moment 
the Muse is missing in the War Zone
Beauty has a different definition
in the loaming of the elder days

My Alcoholic friend came busting through the treeline
stone cold sober, when the quarter moon was rising
and the surf was crashing
crying like a child

Said he saw the future in a puddle in his driveway
after eating mushrooms from Hawaii-

That's when i started laughing
That's when i started crying
trying and deciding to give it all away-
beginning with Cessation
embracing the rejected
replacing the infected with absolutely nothing but Compassion-

Forgiveness out of order
being highly overrated
since the bad behaviors
are in the very natures of the perpetrators

Recalibration,  however is an option
in the aftermath's Duration
and the possiblity of Passion 
still lingers in the fingers on the fretboards
and the singers sing songs they've written
while smitten with emotion of the joyful
and broken hearted lovers and covers
and collections of recollections of Moments--

Wrinkle in the Moment ( from the Half-Life collection on Bandcamp)

"John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf Junior at Roswell, New Mexico, the son of an air force pilot. As such, he led a peripatetic life from an early age, but would say later that for him, moving to Colorado was like coming home. He and his first wife Annie - the love of his life - bought some land at Starwood in Aspen
The Denver's moved to Starwood at Christmas 1970, at which time the area had been developed only minimally. They built a five bedroom eco-friendly house and a guest house on the 7.6 acre plot. This mushy, sentimental composition is John Denver's coming home song.
After his tragic death in a plane crash in October 1997, fans wanted to convert the Starwood property into a museum, but it was put on the market and sold for $3.68 million. "                   Songfacts

Mastered Track: Distrokid Mixea
Image: Sergey Guk 

Starwood in Aspen-John Denver (Cover)

Have the number of a good friend on my phone though he’s no longer here still tempted to ring.  https://youtu.be/Emt8UtM0vsI

Jesus would not agree
But I don’t share his pedigree
I believe
When your gone 
You’re gone

Hades just takes the piss
No-one rows you across The Styx
I believe
When you’re gone
You’re gone

 I keep your number on my phone
Hoping that you prove me wrong  
But when I ring it no-one’s home
You’re gone
Gone
Gone

Jesus would not agree
But I don’t share his pedigree
I believe
When your gone 
You’re gone
I believe
When your gone 
You’re gone
I believe
When your gone 
You’re gone

The Atheist

The Atheist  (feat. Jonathan Beckenstein)

Composed by Michele Ansani (2025).
Saxophone and female vocals (reworked) are courtesy by Daze of Nostalgia and Cinematic Vocals.
Cover picture: René Magritte, The Art of Conversation (1963).

Posted on SoundCloud:  2025 June 1.

Talking about our lifetime

drunk octopus wants to fight you

I had the privilege to have a few brief encounters over the years with the great poet, educator and activist Nikki Giovanni. She passed away last December. If interested there are many videos on YouTube about her. 

“Mothers” passage sung by Joliz going into the break, Copyright © 1972 by Nikki Giovanni.

I saw Nikki Giovanni outside the A train
She was reading a book by Baldwin and whispering the quotes
She had that Harlem quiet
The kind that makes you feel loud, even if you haven’t said a word all day
She looked up at me once
Like she already knew the next ten things I would say
And of course none of that mattered

She wrote poems like switchblades
And carved song verses on subway tiles
With truth tucked in the chorus
Love poems for the revolution and letters to the dead
All written in lipstick and ink
Some folks talk about hope
She talked about survival
Anyone knows there's a difference

“I see the moon
The moon sees me
God bless the moon
And god bless me”

I asked her once, I said Nikki, do you still believe in change
She half smiled and said, “Man, I believe in kids, I believe in rage,
I believe in writing it down so they don’t forget our names.”
“You either speak up or get buried under someone else's story.”
Then she walked into that bookstore on 125th like it was a church 
In a way I guess it was a church

I ran into her much later at a reading downtown
Tiny room, bad mic, nobody listening but the ghosts
She read a line about her grandmother’s hands
The room went quiet like it finally remembered what hands are for
The words, not angry, not loud, but like a bullet that only hits the guilty
Truth is a loaded pistol

But Nikki
She’s in the cracks
She’s in the ink smudge
The subway echo
The line you wake up hearing but don’t remember writing
Nikki
She’s still walking this city
Just quiet enough to make the truth sound loud

Nikki (with Joliz)

Maybe I'll Dream Of You Tonight

I've been a guitarist since the age of 15 and writing songs since then, albeit more prolifically since 2000. I prefer strong melodies and to borrow chords to move outside of the diatonic. Usually, the song mix contains my vocals, guitars and sometimes bass, with drums, keys and other instruments auto-generated. The tracks uploaded in my Soundcloud are attempts to 'illustrate' the idea and sound I imagined when writing the songs. At best, the quality of recordings are demo quality. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

Music lover & singer-songwriter. Many thanks for taking the time to listen.

Unless noted, all songs Copyright © Robert S. Dean.

Red Bank In The Rain (with Joliz)

Robert S. Dean

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