Tastiera

Turning the Answer

Any decent album should have a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is hardly a decent album, but that's neither here nor there. (okay, then where the hell is it?) This was the last song I wrote on Hear Bead Rag Guns, but I accidentally burned it into the first spot in the order. In retrospect, I wish I'd done more with the guitar lick in the verses, but nobody's paying me enough to actually change chords in real time. If you give me twenty bucks I might go back and change it.

today i'm turning the answer

to life, the universe, and everything

such a big confidence enhancer

i don't even notice that i can't sing

fyi to everyone on the distribution

something wicked good this way comes

it's gonna be the biggest revolution

since sliced bread, facebook, twitter and opposable thumbs

forty-two years old

more as it unfolds

welcome to the show

sit back, watch me go

forty-three will be a decent year

i'll literally be in my prime

but i'll be trying to recapture the here and now

everywhere until the end of time

forty two years old

more as it unfolds

welcome to the show

sit back, watch me go

In Our Own Image

This song monopolized my time, really. It was the first one I started working on back in early 2009, and it was nearly the last one completed two years later. One of the things you learn as a songwriter is that you really only get the ball rolling - the song takes over before long, and then you just follow it wherever it goes. That's as true of the lyrics as it is of the music. Originally, I intended this song to be a questioning of faith. In the end it decided it would rather question my own apparent inability to have any faith. My initial reaction to that was that the tail was wagging the dog. Now I know I'm just the tail.

i'll never be the president

because i'm not a man of faith

give me seven deadly sins

and i'll find an eighth

so so it goes for all my kind

with hearts that stay beneath our minds

forever lost in i don't know

if god made me he made me so

can somebody explain to me why our gods behave like us

fueled by jealousy, anger and mistrust

hey i want eternity, i don't want dust to dust

should i bow to fantasy like the grass beneath a gust

godless as a war cry

alone would not alarm me

but you equate it with enlistment

in the devil's army

if the world i see is all a lie

and faith demands we close our eyes

then our eyes are bad examples of intelligent design

and divinity is more than i can divine

can somebody explain to me why our gods behave like us

fueled by jealousy, anger and mistrust

hey i want eternity just as much as you

so give some sign to me, and i might believe it's true

till then i've only an image

WTF

This song, of course, is a tribute to the Western Tree Frog.

the other day, i'm on the way to where i'm goin’

i'm always going the opposite the wind is blowin’

and then somebody went out of their way

for no other reason than to get in my way

so while i'm fumin’ about my victimless crime

i start resumin’ with exactly that much less time

and then i do it to somebody else

never occurs to me to wonder what the hell

my brain stem speaks and i obey

i gotta wonder if i really have a say

what the

i get mad thinkin’ about what i don’t got

i get sad thinkin’ about losin’ what i got

i should be glad that i’m even alive

i’m sure i’ll get it in the minute i die

the reptile speaks and i obey

it’s a lifelong struggle to pretend i have a say

what the

i don’t get it, why i think i have to be right

or why i only see it happening in hindsight

seems like a critically big design flaw

the whole thing rubs my gray matter raw

ego speaks and i obey

and ego convinces me that everything’s ok

what the

Drink

This was originally going to be the middle chapter of a trilogy of songs called "Eat", "Drink", and "Be Merry". Unfortunately, after sixty-seven separate attempts, I concluded that it is impossible to write a song called "Be Merry" that doesn't sound ridiculously stupid. Of course, that didn't stop me on "Drink". I am a walking contradiction, yet strangely unbothered by it.

the farther down the road i walk

the louder the ticking of the clock

the louder all the shepherds talk

the more they all sound just like the flock

the deeper the conversations go

the deeper the frustrations grow

writing our names into the snow

drenching the people we love and know

before we combust

can’t we all just

have a drink

thinking aloud, it all begins

about when we leave our skins

will we all pay for our sins

or will the one with the most toys win

is right wrong; is left right

or are we simply not too bright

or do we simply like to fight

we’re not gonna figure it out tonight

it’s all been over-discussed

can’t we all just

have a drink

there’s no one left to trust

can’t we all just

have a drink

Sanctuary

This song started as a loop I pounded out while sitting by the pool bar in Puerto Vallarta. So if the verses make you want to drink a Bloody Mary, now you know why. Me personally, it's just that everything makes me want to drink a Bloody Mary. Except for drinking Bloody Mary's - that makes me want to do a shot of Tequila. Which in turn makes me want to extend loops into feature-length songs. So now you know the basic process. Kind of kills the romance, doesn't it?

did the rain find you today

out here, it’s still cold and gray

i’m searching for the star

that leads to where you are

sanctuary

it took all of my years

to understand my fears

but i still don’t understand

the magic you command

and i don’t care

sanctuary

Another World

The first, and most likely the last, song I've ever addressed to a Tea Party candidate. I can only throw so much effort in that particular direction.

is the irony lost on you, girl

when you say that you are me

but if i were to proclaim the reverse

how wounded you would be

you know everything, but only in your mind

and i know just as much, the same

but i’ve discovered thoughts that challenge what i know

are more compelling than this game

of another world, can you conceive

where you are just another face

and the rest of us believe what we believe

can you imagine such a place

well i have spent most of my life being wrong

i see no reason to change it now

sometimes it’s hard to be just another me

but i’ll survive it all somehow

of another world, can you conceive

where you are just another face

and the rest of us believe what we believe

can you imagine such a place

63 Seconds of Zen

You'd really be amazed how much you can learn about the human condition by playing the goalie position in any of the applicable sports. The single most difficult thing to do is to clear your mind of distractions, including thinking about the game itself. When you finally stumble into "the zone", you never know how you got there, and you just try to enjoy it for as long as you can, because it will come to an end, and it will do so in spectacular fashion. What I just wrote would have been the lyrics to this song, had it been a song with lyrics. Thank goodness it is not.

Gladbrook

My grandma on my late father's side had a remarkable life. She lived in Iowa the entire time, and rarely traveled except to see family in Colorado or Oklahoma. Yet she had a strength that I can only hope was passed down to me in some measure. She outlived both of her children (and both died quite young), yet she continued to be a rock in her community, all the way until mere months before she passed. She was taking care of the "old people" in town well into her nineties. I will always cherish the memory of driving her around the Iowa countryside in 2007, on what was basically an impromptu visit. I don't have many regrets remaining in my life, but not making that trip would probably have become my biggest one. The way this song came together nearly shook my lack of faith. After months of hand-wringing over how to get it started, it went from fiddling around on the keys to 95% done in one session. Another case of the song itself dictating the terms to its author.

goodbye grandmother

as they lay you down to rest

we all lean on each other

dressed in our sunday best

and i cannot help thinking

of a couple years ago

sitting around and drinking

watching your fave game shows

it all went by in the blink of an eye

but i thank those days for lifting the haze

we hit the road to see the matchstick man

gladbrook's claim to fame for all to see

but as we drove across your native land

you became what gladbrook meant to me

as the gray hairs multiply

so do moments like this

a loved one says goodbye

receives life’s final kiss

and i am left to wonder

why i didn’t take the time

to hear more of their thunder

or see more of their prime

it all goes by in the blink of an eye

and while we’re earthbound, we can never turn around

we hit the road to see the matchstick man

gladbrook's claim to fame for all to see

but as we drove across her native land

she became what gladbrook meant to me

fare thee well matchstick man

i’m really glad i got to see

but i trust you’ll understand

what gladbrook really means to me

now

Go

This has to have been one of the most agonizing songs I have ever dealt with. The basic chord progressions came together back in early 2009, not long after Decades was completed. And originally I came up with some lyrics and vocals that seemed to go with it fairly well. It was first called "Pinching Your Head", the idea being you look at someone in the distance and you squish their head with your fingers. But the more I listened to it, the more it grated on me. I subsequently went through numerous iterations on it, even deleting it altogether at one point. It didn't get its final topic and melodies until the final couple of months. At that point, I could at least tolerate it. Eventually I came to hate the entire album, of course, so it was all for naught.

go somewhere, do something, now

anywhere, anything, now

i don't pretend to know that much

don't claim to have the magic touch

but one thing i can say

we spend too much time in our heads

building up a sense of dread

never living in today

where what when

go somewhere, do something, now

anywhere, anything, now

it sounds too easy to be true

easy to say but not to do

but that's your lying mind

erase all thoughts of your destination

come crashing out of your imagination

stop the search and see just what you find

where what when

go somewhere, do something, now

anywhere, anything, now

Bubbles

The songs on this album frequently touch on fear of death and the unknown. This one was going to be the lead-in to all that, and I had it pegged that way for a good couple of years, all the way up until just before the album was completed. Then "Turning the Answer" came along, and it was too silly to be anything other than the lead-in. But "Bubbles" had to be a framing song, and so I put it at the end. The final bubble pop makes for a fitting conclusion to the whole affair anyway.

see them floating ever higher

always in the line of fire

half a chance to see tomorrow

half a dance and then the sorrow

well they call it life

this thing standing on the edge of a knife

it's nearly over one thousand times a day

it only needs one chance to fly away

see them floating ever higher

no awareness, all desire

half a chance to see tomorrow

half a dance and then the sorrow

the deeper i swim in your eyes

the more i wish we'd never die

the only way to stay a little bit sane

is to lose ourselves in all that remains

oh life and love

baby keep me thinking of

life and love

let me keep dreaming of

life and love

and immortality

i feel i’m floating ever higher

time is such a wicked liar

half a chance to see tomorrow

half a dance and then the sorrow

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Turning the Answer

In Our Own Image

WTF

Drink

Sanctuary

Another World

63 Seconds of Zen

Gladbrook

Go

Bubbles