Across The Top

The sacred chant ‘Salve Regina’ is a beautiful thing and to paraphrase Stewart Copeland and Caroline Shaw ‘...transcends religion itself’. This is one of a few rearrangements/improvisations I’ve tried. The harmony etc. is still there but the tele leads the way.

Salve Regina

As the old Soviet joke goes, “In the Soviet Union, we know what the future holds. It’s the past that’s always changing.”      (lyrics below, after the song description)                                             
                                                     ****************
In this small, quaint college town, the town-gown relationship, for most of the 150 plus years since the college’s founding, had been productive.  The town benefited economically,  & students appreciated the town's charm, history & heritage.   Often on sunny days, classes of students would visit the park at the downtown square, brought by their history professors to learn not only of the town's history, but also about eleven young local men lost in America's Civil War, memorialized by the modest statue of a lone soldier, who had stood like a sentry at the the park's entrance since 1905.

But times change, don't they...
                                                   ********************

More Americans died in the American Civil War than in any other war in our country's history, including each of the World Wars.  In my song, the word "Daughters" references the Daughters Of The Confederacy, a women's civic group formed in the 1890's by daughters (and wives & nieces) of men lost in that war.  The attached picture is the inscription on the base of a statue of a uniformed soldier, standing in a park in Dallas, Georgia, a small town 30 miles northwest of Atlanta.
                                                            



Lyrics....
My name is McKenzie, and Jenkins and Embry,
And eight other names you still hear in these parts,
For over a century, I stood quiet at the entry,
On East Main into Lafayette Park,
A plaque was engraved, told why I was placed,
On those gardened grounds,
In this Small American Town.

Commissioned in 1905,
By the Daughters for fathers who died,
I was erected to honor eleven so bold,
Not a single one knowing he’d never grow old,
On these boys account I’d forever stand proud,
Stand sturdy & stout,
In this Small American Town.

The kids from the college on Heritage Hill,
Would hold class in the park’s warm sunshine,
They learned of this cruel war we waged with ourselves,
How 600,000 had died,
And of eleven from here just about their age,
Small farmers & blacksmiths & craftsmen by trade,
None fought for cotton, not one owned a slave,
And they learned why the Daughters placed me on that mound,
To keep those boys’ memories around,
In this Small American Town.

But enlightened new students don’t meet in that space,
Through new glasses old wars just don’t look the same,
Now scholars say men who went off to that war,
Fought not out of duty, but hate,
I feared I’d be forgotten by Heritage Hill,
Yesterday’s soldiers, obscure battlefields,
But alas, rearranged history determined my fate,
                          **************
Wise men have long warned of changing the past,
Of purges & vengeance & iconoclasts,
Then one fateful night there was smoke rolling down from the Hill,

Quickly surrounded by torches of fire,
Cursing & spitting & rage in the air,
Rope round my shoulders, a cheer by the crowd,
I came crashing down to the ground….
                         **************
An uneasy quiet in the town since that day,
Hushed conversations about how things have changed,
But up on the Hill it’s all smiles & goodwill,
For it’s the 2nd weekend in May,
Ceremonial speeches, awards all around,
Uncles & aunts & parents in town,
To watch the sweet children who torched & burned me to the ground,
Be awarded their caps & their gowns,
In this Small American Town.

Small American Town

Ireland Dance Party

Recorded Live, a song about life and Death which go hand in Hand. 
Written and recorded by: Johnny Mc Farlane

It’s like honey from the bees it’s like cold ice cream 
It’s the most beautiful thing that you have ever seen 
Its like misty morning rain, its like a rainbows end 
Its the love in your heart for your best friend 

Its like ice cold beer on a warm summers day 
It’s the wind in your hair it’s the cold sea spray 
Its like waking in the morning  from a good night rest 
When your little boy tells you, “ Daddy you’re the best “

Its like when heaven and earth meet , when all the stars collide 
When your not alone and everyone’s on your side 
Its like coffee in the morning  or that 1st cigarette 
Its a powerful feeling that you never will forget 

It’s the morning sun on a bright sunny day 
Its like watching your kids as they skip and dance and play 
It’s the 1st flowers of Spring as they peak through the snow 
It’s the morning tide as it begins to Ebb and Flow 

And as the birds fly high soaring in the sky 
I hear the angels calling my name from way up on high 
Like the leaves in Autumn falling from the trees 
We all have to leave this place we are but a breeze 

And all we have are memories or experiences we have had 
The beautiful, the ulgy, the happy and the sad 
All weave an everlasting tapestry our legacy to recall 
And so with these last words my friends I say goodbye to all. 

It’s like honey from the bees it’s like cold ice cream 
You are the most beautiful thing that i have ever seen

Life- Acoustic Guitar version

MY SONG "SPATIOSA" WAS IN THE 3RD PLACE IN THE ASSEMBLY SUMMER 2022 LISTENING MUSIC COMPETITION

SPATIOSA (LATIN) large or magnificent in scale

The biggest digital culture and gaming festival in Finland, Assembly Summer 2022 is celebrating its 30th anniversary 

ASSEMBLY Summer 2022 gathered over 18,000 visitors in four days

DATE: RELEASED 5 AUGUST 2022
PLACE: HELSINKI, FINLAND
____________
The song has an end that is a bit drastic since i had to adjust it the evening before the competition deadline while mastering it.
** Listening Music is considered to be music that is not suited to the dance music competition. Entry must be no longer than 3 minutes 30 seconds
_____________
(C)2022 Juha Soderqvist

SPATIOSA

Victor Villamor.....Low Whistle
Guitarra y producción.......Javier Piñeira

Voyage Through Cassiopea

I’ve traveled the seas and I’ve wandered the lands
I’ve sprinkled the seeds grown into these grass
Encircled by peaks I’m unable to pass
I feel like a stone being crushed into sand

You can run all you want you can cower and hide
Fall asleep with a gun and wake up with a knife
The Devil has come to ruin our plans 
These are the deeds of a desperate man
You can dig all you want I’ve got nothing to hide
No blood on my hands no guilt in my mind
My body is old but I give what I can
These are the deeds of a desperate man

I came to a town where nobody smiled 
And tilted my hat to a woman and child
I offered support but the people were shy
Their soil ablaze and the desert is dry

You can run all you want you can cower and hide
Cloak your skin from the sun fornicate with the night
The Devil has come to ruin our plans 
These are the deeds of a desperate man
You can dig all you want I’ve got nothing to hide
Overcome by the heat and it messed with my mind
My shoulders are frail but I do what I can
These are the deeds of a desperate man

You can run all you want you can cower and hide
Fall asleep with a gun and wake up with a knife
The Devil has come to ruin our plans 
These are the deeds of a desperate man
You can dig all you want I’ve got nothing to hide
No blood on my hands no guilt in my mind
My body is old but I give what I can
These are the deeds of  a desperate man

Desperate Man

AND (these are the things)

And Gentle Rain,
Morning Dew,
Cardamum, Cloves and Cinnamon too.
Sugar and Spice
Soft Touch skin Soft touch Kiss...

These are things 
We are made of
Yes, these are a few of our favorite things:

Winning epiphany, Orgasmic Rush
Crisp Promising Morning
Empty Highway 
A Good Strong Cup
Steaming and Beaming and Moaning and Groaning
And Kitties 
And Snails 
And Whales
And puppy dog Jails
And Bones 
And Clones
And Clowns in Towns
And Cruising Around
Sails Full And Away with Feet of Clay
And Play And Play 
And Play

Lavendar Lullaby
Goose Down
Fillet Mignon Beefsteak!
Beefsteak!
Banana Slug & lady Bug

And these are the Things Little We are Made of 
Yes, These are a few of our Favorite Things:

And Bridges
Towers, Flower Power, Mod 
Psychedelic
Frog Meat
Woo Hoo Hoo

Tailwind And Power,
The Man of the Hour
Sugar And Flour,
And Justice, 
Revenge
& Getting Even
Even Steven
Steve McQueen And Bullets And Guns
And We're #1... NO!
I'm #1. 
And Shit loads of fun.
And a Bun in the Oven And Cloves in the Stew,
Tornado, Tomato
Lolly Wally
A Seat on the Lu.

Infanticide, Genicide,
Suicide
Fratricide, Dolimide, Dolomites,
Anthracites, Atrocity
Monstrosity, Velocity Outer Space
and Inner Space too
Big Gulp Slurpee
Star Wars
Lavendar Lullaby

And These are the things little we are made of 
Yes, These are a few of our favorite things

Sweet Summer Smell of Fresh Mown Grass
Less than $3 for a gallon of Gas
Oh Young Agile Bonnie Lass
Yearning for Yesterday
And this Crisis to Pass
Pass Pass 
Free Game Pass
Free Range Chicken 
Oh Bonnie Lass

Intransigent Dilligent Artificially Intelligent 
Jacked On In

Recapitulation, Sonic Humiliation
Rejuvenation, Alienation, Indigenous Vegetation

Prostitutes with their daddies a floggin
And Lumber Jack Loggin
And Ohhh the Ice Cream Truck,
The Candy Man, Apple Pie and Uncle Sam,
The M.O.B, The Klan, Alan Greenspan,
Flash In the Pan and You're the Man!

Laser Beams And Jim Beam
And Mount Gay, Everest, K2, B2 Bomber,
Coughing And Laughing
And Flirting and Crashing And Hashing And Smashing
All Records
Obliteration of the Foe And Bambi
And Patronizing The Pacified, Calcified Clueless, Majestic Toothless,
Emissions Control,
Andy Warhol, Frank Lloyd Wright And All the Holy Sites
Of Spiritual Substitutes For Drug Imbued Prostitutes

And These Are the Things Little We Are Made Of
Yes, These Are a Few 
of Our Favorite Things

And These Are the Things Little We Are Made of
Yes
These Are a Few 
Of our Favorite
Things

AND (these are the things)

The search for a more peaceful existence away from the commotion, corrupt or not, of society.

Let Me Go

Santi Caballero, Gabi Martínez y Sergio Párraga

Across The Top

JONSSON

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