On a Monday morning...

play the embedded version above or go to YouTube to see the
HI FI / HI REZ VIDEO

You know the old saw about the mechanic driving the smoke-belching, beat up, barely running car... As a database guy in real life, you'd think I'd be more on top of my own IT...

But until recently I'd been using a highly informal matrix of data queries, guesswork, and eyeballing to figure out which of my ~150 songs was most due for a new, improved version -- or at least a shot at one -- here in AYoS.

But I finally broke down and used some of the handy dandy aggregate query functions that Bill Gates kindly hammered into my local DB manager, Access, and set up a kind of one-stop for quickly spotting songs that had only been done once or twice and/or which had never had a version score high in my idiosyncratic personal rating system (which is currently hidden from your sight, thank you very much).

Without Warning Blues [video]
HI FI / HI REZ VIDEO [YouTube]


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Even though this song, "Without Warning Blues" goes back at least a few decades, a reasonable performance had so far escaped me. This one just barely clears my rather low bar

lyrics
Without Warning Blues [video]

(C)2008, TK Major

Someday, baby, this will all be washed away...

Sometimes you just see how it's all going to go down. You look and look and no matter how you look, you see the same end coming.

But not everyone sees it. And when it comes, it hits them hard.

Maybe it's the sad wisdom born of years of life, death and change, as they say in the comics, but at a certain zoom level, the pain and the pleasure and the sorrow and the joy start developing some kind of symmetry. Not, perhaps, the nice, even, balanced kind... but an inner symmetry that is at once reassuring and sobering.

Someday Baby
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previous versions
Friday, October 07, 2005
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Sunday, March 02, 2008

I'm thinking, of course, of that moment in the narrative of life when a wised up adult tells his or her young and heartbroken lover, You'll be better off without me, doll. It's a big world out there. You're gonna find some guy who really loves you -- not a guy like me, always out for number one, looking for the next adventure, the next good time. You're going to find someone who deserves a fine girl like you...

The funny thing is, after a while, you see it happening. You see one of the perfectly good girls you threw away out on the street with her new number one and they look so happy. A few years later you see them out shopping with the kids, the happy family. At a certain point, you look twice and, if you try real hard, it can almost look good for a few moments.

But that's their destiny.


previous versions
Friday, October 07, 2005
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Sunday, March 02, 2008

lyrics
Someday Baby

someday, baby
you'll be looking down on me
but don't you ever think I don't know
what you're bound to see
it's just destiny
it's just got to be
that's my prophecy

someday, baby
when you've got this
whole thing straight
after you contemplate
maybe meditate
you'll see that it was fate
it had to be this way
besides
it's all too late

someday, baby
you'll be laughing in the sun
I can see you with your Only One
and I know that it just has to be
it's prophecy
it is destiny

someday, baby
this will all be washed away
that's what the old men say
but it'll be okay
a million years from today
it'll end our pain

someday, baby
youll be laughing in the sun
I can see you with your Only One
and you know it just has to be
it is prophecy
it's destiny

7/27/98
(C)2008, TK Major

A Thousand Lies (Bridge to Nowhere)

NEW SONG ALERT!

The best liars don't really need a reason.

They're glib. They're creative. They enjoy lying.

They're not sociopaths... clinically speaking. They have feelings, stirrings of empathy; they indulge in sentimentalism and symbolic emotionalism... in fact, it's the language they speak... all too fluently, at times.

A Thousand Lies (Bridge to Nowhere)

listen or download [soundclick]
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Special YouTube Version -- A tribute to Warhol's epic, "Empire"

The delight they take in their lies helps sustain them. It invigorates them. In a very real way, their lies give meaning to their lives.

Because they lie from the inside, out.

In a way, the skein of interlocking lies that lace their lives, is their lives.

They lie to themseslves even though they are perfectly aware they're lying. Their lies are simultaneously excuses and self-entertainments, creative endeavors that provide endless hours of diversion and delight.

And... sometimes... they become politicians.

lyrics
A Thousand Lies (Bridge to Nowhere)

I've got a thousand lies
I can't wait to tell you
I've got a bridge to nowhere
I know I could sell you
I've got a real nice dream
as phony as hell
you know it's all a
part of the game

I know the rules
I'm making them up
anything that works
just to stay on top
I don't care who
else takes the drop
'cause it's all a
part of the game

tell a lie often enough
people forget
where the truth leaves off
but sometimes that truth
can be pretty rough
besides it's all a part of the game

I've got a reason
for all that I do
life's got a meaning
I'll explain it to you
it's all about me
it's not about you and
it's all a part of the game

2008-09-19
(C)2008, TK Major

Dog years and lunar days...

NEW SONG ALERT!

A song a day... that was the concept.

Yep.

A song a day for a year, newly recorded, with a little write-up.

They started out being terrestrial, regular old 24 hour days.

But at this point, we're pretty much talking about lunar days...

listen:
Rainy Day on Temple Ave
[soundclick]


AYoS radio [broadband]
A Year of Songs Radio does not include Soundclick songs

However, there are more than a year of songs up here now -- or at least different versions... 400 of them, covering 144 songs and 28 instrumentals. Give or take. Some tracks are no longer available. (Yes, even I have some shame.)

Anyhow, here's a new song.

I know, I'm supposed to write something about it. It's been up on Soundclick for over a week and I still haven't thought up anything. So, what the heck...

It's about some loser.

lyrics
Rainy Day on Temple Ave

I saw her again
and she was smiling in the sun
but I remember when
she was down and she was almost done

she had herself a man and
he was doing her so wrong
she said I'll
give you what I can
but I'm not sure that I'm that strong

And I said Baby, that's OK
I know I should not stay
I wouldn't want your tomorrows
to be as sad as our today

There was a time
when I counted the two of us as one
there was a dream
I thought all my darkness was all gone

Some things have to be and
some things can never last for long
and some times you just see
to try to hang on is just (so damn) wrong

And I said Baby, that's OK...

One drink buys the next
until you're staring at the stars
wondering what went wrong
and wondering where the hell you are

That was
ten thousand miles ago
but I guess I haven't come all that far
I'm still wandering through these streets
I'm still lost among those stars

And I said Baby, that's OK...

2008-09-06
(C)2008, TK Major

"He wrote some good little songs..."

Gotchya.

No... not dead yet.

Although regular readers may be forgiven for expecting that the next writing filling this space after some weeks of my absence might well be a tearful eulogy from a grieving friend or loved one who'd somehow managed to crack my passwords.

But... nah.

I'm still breathing and walking around.

In fact, while I was otherwise occupied I did something I hadn't done in nearly three decades: I let someone else record me in their studio. I was, as they say, dumb talent.

Forget About the Moon

Soundclick stream or download

previous versions
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Friday, August 31, 2007

And it was fun.

My buddy, Reggie Ashley, himself a working musician, has a nice little studio, nothing crazy, but, with a recording booth large enough for drums, I felt pretty special... certainly a far cry from the corner of my living room I've dedicated to recording. (Of course, before I moved down here to the beach, I had my own, somewhat more elaborate recording space; but it still wasn't quite as slick as Reggie's nicely appointed little studio.)

Reg has some nice mics and some good gear but the real difference between a session working under him and doing my own recording was discipline.

As long time readers may suspect, discipline is something I've long eschewed in my own creative efforts. That's for pros, eh?

But when in Rome... and Reggie is clearly a pro, so I tried to go with the flow. And, by and large, I think it worked out.

The best part of this, though, I think, is the very cool triangle and tambourine thing Reggie came up with that underlies the song. He got this little afro-beat thing going on the triangle, and just a tap on the tambo to end the triangle phrase. It's pretty cool... He also did a tasty little mandolin part, a Nashville-tuned guitar part in the refrains, and supplied a bass drum punctuating the whole business.

All I had to do was play a little guitar, do a little singing, and sit in the booth and look pretty.

Soundclick stream or download

previous versions
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Friday, August 31, 2007

lyrics
Forget About the Moon

(C)2008, TK Major