Adventures in Songwriting – “Something Special”

So, yesterday I was contemplating the act / art of songwriting, and why I’ve have such a hard time in my 35 years of jotting lyrics down of finishing and crafting those things into songs. I love learning and performing cover songs. It’s, to my mind, the only wat to learn to play an instrument, in my case the acoustic guitar, which I’ve been banging away on for about 4 years now.

As I wrote yesterday, I am establishing a new rule — For every two cover songs I learn to play, I MUST sit down and write or finish one of my originals. Next year, I’m going to sit down and record my solo album, and I kind of need to get those song finished and arranged.

Again, I’ve been writing lyrics and songs since I was 13, off and on for the last 35 years. Why haven’t I worked on my originals more???

I used to use my complete lack of skills on the guitar as a reason why I haven’t worked on the originals. OK. Can’t use that excuse any more. I’m not the best guitar player in the world, but, after about four years of guitaring, I’m at least competent enough where I can show others what I’m trying to do musically.

This is hard for me to admit, but I think I still don’t have much confidence in the material itself. The few originals I have presented to the world have gotten a warm welcome, but that hasn’t seemed to have motivated me to really start working toward getting my own material done and presentation ready.

With that in mind, I did sit down and finish the song “Something Special”….

My former bandmate Rick Calhoun may have a copy of the lyrics to that one laying around somewhere from my days with Acoustic Highway. I tried to bring it in, but I just never pressed the band to actually play it. It has an “ocean / stranded on a deserted island” theme, and starts out:

“””There I was alone, stranded on a seashore
Carried on a lifeboat of confusion
Bought a ticket on a sinking ship called fantasy
what i though was love turned out to be illusion

And the world opened up and saw her standing there…”

The song has one of my favorite cheesy lyrics I’ve written.

“””Now they say a love like our can move a mountain
Falling stars will land upon our curtains
And even if the world would end tomorrow
A love like ours will last and that’s for certain”””

The song was written when I was 28 or so, when I was working at the UA cinema in Horton Plaza in San Diego. I was not in love, and tht emotion was still a mystery to me, but Iimagined this is what love could be like if I were at that moment. The birth of the song was one of the rare instances where both the lyrics and the tune came together in one sitting. But it was never finished though because there was one single line in the bridge that was missing…

Yes… It was waiting on ONE SINGLE LINE!

One day a few years ago, I was looking through my lyrics, and I came across this one. I sat there and stared at it for the longest time. I slowly become more and more annoyed over the years that this song was THAT CLOSE to being done.

I had had enough. I grabbed a pen and just scribbled some fluffy nonsense in just to say I was done. Then I put it away. I didn’t think anything of it because it was a filler line. I didn’t think much of it.

Several months later, When me and Jim Rust formed Taylor Martin together, I was looking though my lyrics yet again to see if I could find something suitable to bring in. I stumbled upon the lyric.

Only then did I realize that the “filler” lyric was actually PERFECT for the song! The last line is the “filler” in the bridge:

“””And the world opened up
And I saw you standing there
Th seas that kept me lonely now send wave of love crashing on my shore”””

So, yes. I did get this one spiffed up. It will be performed this week. The guitaring seem a little weak on it, but that may be because it’s more of a bass-centric song.

Here’s the whole thing:

There I was alone, stranded on a seashore
carried on a lifeboat of confusion
Bought a ticket on a sinking ship called fantasy
What i thought was love turned out to be illusion

Then the world opened up and I saw her standing there

and in her sweet sweet voice
She said that falling in love
Was like waiting at the gates of heaven

Going through with you would really mean something special
The gates of heaven open for a love that is essential

1st solo

And the world opened up
And I saw you standing there
Th seas that kept me lonely now send wave of love crashing on my shore

Now they say a love like our can move a mountain
Falling stars will land upon our curtains
And even if the world would end tomorrow
A love like ours will last and that’s for certain

Going through with you would really mean something special
The gates of heaven open for a love that is essential
Going through with you would really mean something special
The gates of heaven open for a love that is essential
So lean back in my arms and we can make it happen
Lean back in my arm… I can make you happy…

Spam Of The Day

I get things…. I’m not sure if this bit of spam is trying to get me to look as sex stuff… Or by boots… Though for some, that can be the same thing, if you’re into that kind of thing.

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Here is the other bit of spam received today. Much more boring.

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Best… Car Ad…… EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not my car… But MAN! If I had the money,  I’d buy it just because of the ad!

(here’s the original Craiglisting)

——————————————————————————————————————————————————-

HOLY SHIT THIS FUCKING CAR
LOOK AT THIS FUCKING CAR
IT’S A 1997 SUBARU LEGACY OUTBACK
BITCHES LOVE 1997 SUBARU LEGACY OUTBACKS (SOURCE: THE BITCHES)

WHAT YOU THINK 2 WHEEL DRIVE IS ENOUGH FOR YOUR COMMUTE?
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU’RE COMMUTING THROUGH AN APOCALYPTIC ZOMBIE HORDE
YOU CAN’T AFFORD A KEY LOSS OF TRACTION WHEN THE FLESH EATERS ARE BANGING ON YOUR REINFORCED GLASS WINDOWS
GOOD THING THIS SUBARU IS 4 FUCKING WHEEL DRIVE

 

THIS CAR ROCKS AN AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
SO IT’S FOR YOU CLASSY FUCKERS TOO BUSY BANGING THE PROM QUEEN TO WORRY ABOUT WORKING THE CLUTCH

OH AND NEWSFLASH FUCKERS
IT’S WINTER
THIS IS MICHIGAN, HOMES, IT GETS COLD
NOBODY’S GOING TO WANT TO MAKE OUT IN A FUCKING NEON WITH BUSTED HEAT

LUCKILY THIS SUBARU HAS HEATED GODDAMNED SEATS SO WHILE YOU’RE FRENCH KISSING KATE UPTON (kate upton loves subarus) YOU’LL KEEP BOTH OF YOUR FINE ASSES TOASTY
THOR DIDN’T SLAY THE FROST GIANTS OF JOTUNHEIMR FOR YOU TO BE COLD ON THE WAY TO WORK
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BUT LIKE, THOR HAD GOATS NOT HORSES
BUT YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DEBATE THE MERITS OF YOUR FAVORITE BEAST OF BURDEN WHILE BLASTING YOUR FAVORITE JAMZ OUT OF THESE UPGRADED SPEAKERS (kate upton loves upgraded speakers)

AND OH YEAH
THIS BEAST HAS CRUISE CONTROL
TRULY, YOU ARE MASTER OF YOUR OWN DOMAIN

THIS MOTHERFUCKER HAS DONE 180,000 MILES AND IS STILL GOING STRONG
I HEAR IF YOU BREAK 200,000 YOU GET TO ENTER YOUR INITIALS IN THE HIGH SCORE SCREEN
SURE IT GOT SOME DAMAGE WHEN I WAS TOKYO DRIFTING WITH VIN DIESEL, BUT THE DAMAGE IS 100% SUPERFICIAL. THE CAR WORKS SO FUCKING GOOD BECAUSE I SPENT A DRAGON’S HOARD WORTH OF GOLD TO REPLACE THE PARTS
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Setting The Record Straight… At Least Some Of It!

Late last night, when i got home from my awesome gig with my band Laurel Canyon, I was amp’d up as usual after a good gig, and roamed the intertubes for a bit.  I came across this Huff-Po bit concerning every liberals favorite punching bag, Sarah Palin:

Palin Crossed Border For Canadian Health Care

I bit, and shared it on my page, with the simple caption of “Oh My”.

Though I didn’t specifically criticize Palin or claim to know the details behind this story, I still posted the piece as a newsworthy item. A very good friend who is a conservative cried foul…. And yep, he was right to protest, though maybe not for the reasons he stated. He said:

I just found the article she was between 1 & 5 years old and this was in the 60’s the nearest Dr was in Canada and this at the time was the second least populated state next to So Dakota, this was not a very researched blog.

Here is the whole Huff-Po article:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care — admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada’s single-payer system.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

The irony, one guesses, is that Palin now views Canada’s health care system as revolting: with its government-run administration and ‘death-panel’-like rationing. Clearly, however, she and her family once found it more alluring than, at the very least, the coverage available in rural Alaska. Up to the age of six, Palin lived in a remote town near the closest Canadian city, Whitehorse.

Officials at several hospitals in that area declined to give out information on patient visits.

Sounds pretty damming…. Until you, you know, actually DO just the littlest bit of, you know, journalism. As my friend stated, Sarah was indeed quite young when this happened: in fact, the Palin family in question is actually the Heath family, her parents, and took place in the late 60’s and early 70’s, when little Sarah Louise Heath was around six or so. She was a kid, and her parents took her and the family apparently because the medical facility in Yukon was closer than the next facility in the Untied States.

Sounds reasonable to me.

She was a kid. It’s not like she had any say in the matter of where to go to get medical treatment..

And here’s the more damming part… This is old news. Not only was it covered in a 2010 Politico article, but the reason why it became a newsworthy tidbit then is because Palin herself wrote about it in her 2010 book Going Rogue.

This Huff-Po piece is completely devoid of any journalistic effort or merit. Yes… It’s fun to make fun of FOX News when they screw up… But the Huffington Post, which often does quite a bit of that piling on, isn’t any better. The Huffington Post, at the end of the day, is a political rag. They are as much a liberal mouthpiece, willing to feed those with Palin-Derangement-Syndrome as FOX is eager to do the same for those with the Obama obsession. Sometimes both do good work. But often, their political leanings take precedent over better judgment, accuracy, and quality control.

NOTE: There are some who are saying the Canadian system was not single payer during the period in question, that it only became “socialist” in the 1980’s. Though the entire system came under singular control of the Canadian Fed in 84, the entire country’s health care was, in fact, under state or regional control during the late 60’s – Details are here. But, again…. Sarah Heath was a kid.

And on that note, I wrote this:

The Palin family in question is actually the Heath family, her parents, and took place in the late 60’s and early 70’s, when little Sarah Louise Heath was around six or so. She was a kid, and her parents took her and the family apparently because the medical facility in Yukon was closer than the next facility in the Untied States.

She absolutely deserves a pass because it was her parents who did this action.

But this should give Conservatives a point to ponder. If Sarah Palin doesn’t deserve to be punished because of the actions of her parents, why do children who were brought to this country illegally by their parents, with no say of their own, have to suffer undue hardships, perhaps even get deported even though this is the only country they know, because of our out-dated big government draconian immigration rules and regulations, much were written to placate the xenophobic fears of the lawmakers of the day.

Lets get this fixed and install a more humane set of immigration rules that doesn’t leave out the human factor in the immigration equation.

New Song… Whiskey Dick Blues!

Inspired by a facebook conversation between my friends and wonderful musicians Mike Whitten and Pieter Moredyk. Yeah, it’s a blues thing, and yeah… It’s kind of naughty!

“””Couldn’t get it up this morning
To keep my woman satisfied
Couldn’t get it up this morning
To keep my woman satisfied
That juice last night it zapped me
Laid low my fleshy pride

My girl well she’s a beauty
But the whiskey’s done weighed me down
My girl well she’s a beauty
But the whiskey’s done weighed me down
Now my junction it won’t function
And take my girlfriend for a ride.

Now my girl she’s gone and left me
Found a rigid young thing
Now my girl she’s gone and left me
Found some rigid young thing
And now I do remember
The reason why I gotta drink

So here’s to my friend Whiskey
You know she’ll never let me down
So here’s to my girl Whiskey
You know she’ll never let me down
Cause unless I run out of money
I know she’ll always be around!”””