In 2005, I rocked. Download. Lyrics.

In 2006 I went acoustic. Download. Lyrics.

In 2007 I was still acoustic but I rocked a little with a little help from my friend. Download. Lyrics.

First finished product using GarageBand and I am not disappointed. Wrote the whole thing in the last couple of weeks. Soft vocal, acoustic guitar, bass played almost like a drum, rockabilly chugging guitar and some atmospheric GarageBand keyboards played on keypad. Straddles the line between folk and rockabilly with some drumless reggae backbeat at the bottom. Words are what’s left after the firecracker smell fades away on July 5th.

Download it at Area1234. Lyrics are here.

In the days of blood and courage
As history wrote her next page
The farmers spoke a kingdom over ale
They drew the borders and dug in
Against a king and parliaments whim
And old glory flew over it all

Lofty ideals forever fly
But the real world costs a real price
And there’s no telling how tall
The whiskey farmers soon found out
What the slaves knew all about
And old glory flew above it all

The truths that were self evident
The inalienable rights of all men
Didn’t stop the wars over what was a man
Coats of blue trails of tears
Internment camps ethnic fears
And old glory flew above all them

Someday under a summer sky
The emperor is crowned on the fourth of July
A man born to govern for all
He knows what’ s best for all our good
Speaks through Twitter and
Facebook
And old glory lines the palace halls

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

• Mr. Joyless
• That Was My Song
• The Child Is Crying
• Baby’s Eyes
• In The Presence Of My Love
• Not My Enemy

My 2004 expansion of the Astrid EP. Same four tracks as before plus two more. Still that electric guitar-driven pop rock with the touches of Caribbean and dance and jazz and grunge, even in the two new songs which start edging back towards punk. Digital booklet included. Download here. Background info here.

Wasted time not coming back
So many tangents to the track
Til
God used a woman

And I don’t regret a single tear
Wouldn’t take back a single year
Cause
God used a woman

On me
To keep me
Guided by
Her love

By her love
And His love
And they don’t die

I felt called to do so much by God
But I never really did my job
So
He used a woman

I beat my chest and I cried
But it was nothing more than lies
So
God used a woman

Everyone thinks I talk too much
I open my mouth and I get shushed
My taste for waste still gets in touch
For me to learn there’s almost too much
So
God uses a woman

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Not Noble The Struggle

Tears they fell on seventh grade
Perfect storm did not abate
Age and time ate at my home
What I deserved left me alone
Not many pieces left to retrieve
Nor many people I could deceive
So I lied from myself
Every casual moment life and death

The neatest times of my life
How I regretted letting them die
But I deserved to have my way
It was there in everything I’d say
Little deals and I kept the rights
Little phone calls to the lights
Little castles made of bytes
Little faces you get it right

So I set out across a land
Took a woman in my hand
She tried to smile as best she could
As she dragged the dead wood
Sometimes the way I’d train my eyes
Left precious things out of sight
Mr Hyde was in the glass
Getting ready to kick ass

When my race is run
It wasn’t a noble one
Not a warrior
Not righteous
If this is firing
Of clay

I have to take it
How I was faithless
Not straight up
Not righteous
A bully

John Riggins on the floor
Sans that Super Bowl
John Lennon at the Troubadour
Sans the drugs and alcohol

And so I sit between my walls
Erected by the beck and call
Of those that put me on
And let me know what must be done
And get away with what I can
And still be a worried man
Day by day count regrets
Don’t know what I’d do different if I did it again

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

1. Scooby Doo (Theme)
2. Mr. Joyless
3. I’m Living My Lie
4. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
5. LBpunk4Xmas
6. The Child Is Crying
7. If You Could Read My Mind
8. Great
9. Michael Iceberg

2005 CD-R with nine live songs from my earlier open mic sets, in which I am still trying to get over my case of St. Vitus Dance. This was a not-for-sale promo item that I think I made one or two copies of back then before moving on to my next phase. Includes three bizarro cover tunes. Download here, background info here.

1. Sing It Out (lo-fi garage punk)
2. I Can Testify (lo-fi garage punk)
3. Le Miserable (lo-fi garage folk)
4. I’ll Never Know (lo-fi garage punk)

My first attempt at getting my songs out, from 1982. My first-ever post here was my retelling of the story of its making. I added a digital booklet to the four song files, although the scan quality of the front and back covers was abysmal. I’ll rescan them sometime. Meantime, go here.

I got my kids a new computer which means I can now sneak in and do some primitive editing and add tolerable amounts of some of my boring pre-song patter onto these vids. I’m really happy with this guitar sound for the harder-edged older punky stuff when I play it unaccompanied. It’s kind of a rootsy, clattering, chug-a-lugging Bo Diddley-ish bashing of the strings in drop-D tuning with some overdrive and delay and tremolo. The song itself is a vintage Lead moldy oldie based on a cliche that hadn’t been so overused back in ’85 when I wrote it. This is also the first of two musics that accompanied these lyrics. This version from Return Fire is garage punk. We rerecorded it a la speedcore punk-ay two years later. 21 years later, on July 19, 2009, this vid was filmed at the International Church of South Florida by Jon Doozan.

Actually the first time I tried out a Coldplay song at church. It’s a bit of a train wreck due to my not knowing the words to the tune as intimately as I do now and guitar crapped out in mid chorus for a few seconds. Tried to make up for it by yelling. Hey, I’d only been listening to the band for a couple of weeks at that time. Filmed by Juan Pablo Camargo on May 31, 2009.