All Because of You

Yesterday's toys
you throw them all away
you dont even stop to watch
their paper hearts in the flames...


This is one of those songs that will probably never get done 'right' unless someone else does it. I probably ought to change the key I typically play it in (I wrote it in E major but typically do everything a half step flat, going so far as to keep my main acoustic guitar downtuned that much)... but I really like the way that big open E major (ok, Eb, but you guitarists will know what I mean) sounds. I can cap up but I need to go down, I think, and... ah... now we're talking about how making sausage works, huh?) Anyhow, this was the best I could do with this song today. I'm sorry, Virginia, it's a big nasty world and I'm only human.

[Strike that... I just replaced the recording referenced above and in the links below with a version I recorded Wednesday. Both recordings have problems. I juggled the competing sets of self-revulsions and went with the one I don't hate right now. Or the one I do, however that works. What can I say? It's tomorrow already... Have I said, Hey, that's what the AYoS project's all about, lately? Ah well. I knew there'd be days like... uh, yesterday.]

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All Because of You

He should have E~ g#m g#m
seen it coming
but he never dreamed
he'd ever have to watch her leave
She laughed all the way to Austin
And she cried the rest of the
way to New Orleans

Baby Doll, it's all because of you g#m ~ f#m
You always sew destruction
No matter what ya say you're trying to do
Now always get
whatever it is
you want
and as long as I've known you
You always want
what you ain't got

I have known you
such a long long time
and you know I wouldn't say
it if it wasn't true
You don't have a heart I know
but I'm recently convinced there's no soul
inside of you

Yesterday's toys you
throw them all away
you dont even watch
to see their paper hearts in the flames
Like a goddess before
the gods learned how to feel
In your universe your world is the
only one that's real

bridge: c#m ~ g#m ~
(look here baby)
Baby I got the map on you
Every lie you tell
I can drill right through
Baby Doll the fall is coming soon
and when it falls
it's all gonna be on you

He shoulda E~ g#m g#m
seen it coming
but he never dreamed
he'd have to watch her leave

A Bird Hung in the Sky

I wrote the first two verses of this dark little slice of apocalyptica back in the early or mid 70's and then added another 2 verses -- only one of which survived -- in 1986.

My initial vision had been general collapse of civilization (as we know it, heh)... but by 1986 I was bitterly convinced that we were squandering any last chances we might have to not plunge the world into an irreversible spiral into gashouse global warming.

(Oh well... it's like watching a high speed accident on a rainy day... you yell as the oblivious drivers hurtle toward each other, their windows up, their minds filled with details that are going to seem very, very insignificant in about a second and a half. I hate that sound. Where was I? Oh, yeah... the end of the world. As we know it.)

Anyhow, as we artistic types know all too well (or oughta), sincerity and good intentions typically make bad art. As a friendly warning against good intentions, I have included the usually excised last verse here -- just so you can see how bad things could get if I wasn't looking out for y'all.

Now, mind you, by the time I got to the last verse, I was laughing myself off my chair -- I knew I would never use it. But I view songwriting like I view other excretory processes -- you don't stop just 'cause you don't like what's coming out.

That's what editing is for and, if you brave those usually excised last two verses, you'll see why, for this writer, at any rate, editing can be -- you know -- real important.

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A Bird Hung in the Sky

A bird hung in the sky
dipped and whirled and then it spun
A bird hung in the sky
dipped and whirled and then it spun
It flew between the clouds
and dove right into the sun

I stood upon a hill
looked up into the sky
I stood upon a hill
looked up into the sky
The sky turned black
as the sun burnt into my eyes

Don't the city sure look strange
cars scattered all around
The city sure looks strange
cars scattered all around
Don't the people look funny
lying there dead on the ground

[excised verse]
Six years underground
Six years of living hell
Six years underground
ever since the ionosphere dispelled
Our old friend Mr. Sun
turned out to be the Fiery King of Hell

(C) 1975,1986,2005, TK Major

What Promises Mean Today

Now this is an oldie. I believe it was written in 1974.

I was in love at the time (we only kissed, I swear) with this 'third generation witch' from Iceland. I don't know if she had preternormal powers -- but I will say that she had the most electric vibes of anyone I think I've ever been around. Kissing her was like what I imagine it must be like to grab a Van de Graf generator... you almost expected to see little lightning flashes snaking across your intertwined bodies.

Anyhow, she was a singer and guitar player with a lovely voice and a nice finger picking style and I was a woefully undisciplined beginning musician desperate to escape the "poetry scene." She and her roommate, another folksinger, were the first people to compliment me on my songwriting in a believable way. (My old friends were just amazed that I finally sort of learned to tune a guitar... it was a long time coming.)

The first song they really warmed up to, In the Course of Events, is yet to come in the AYoS lineup (not that there's any rhyme, reason, or more than a 2 minute plan in the AYoS process) but I wrote this one soon after and, while they were a bit less enthusiastic about Promises, they felt it built on what I'd accomplished with Course of Events.

Anyhow...

One more thing, we're going to try something new and put the chords up along with the lyrics. (Actually, it's the lazy way out, since they were already there.) I'd like to encourage anyone so inclined to feel free to cover my songs, so maybe I should make it a little easier. That said... when I do my songs, I seldom get the chords the same way twice... so they should more properly be considered a general guide rather than a detailed, accurate roadmap.


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I Know What Promises Mean Today

G D C C
I know what promises mean today
G F C C
I don't care I believe in you anyway
D F
Don't care what anyone says
C Em
I'll believe in you unitil I'm dead
G
At the rate things are going
F C
That cuold be any day
G F C
I don't care I believe in you anyway


You say you're my lover
my sister my brother my friend
I'm surprised you don't claim be
my mother my father
and the priest they said they'll send
at the end

Am Em
And I still don't care what anyone says
Am Em
I'll be loving you 'til Im put in my grave
G F
but at the rate things are going
C C
that could be any day
G F C C
I don't care I believe in you, anyway

Rachel, Tell Me No

Yet another girl-name song from 1996's Barista Cycle, a project that marked what was pretty much my last real stab at playing and recording rock music. The concept, at the outset, was to write an album's worth of songs using the names of the then-current (distaff) staff of my favorite coffeehouse as a jumping off point.

The style was to have been (to quote my then-self) a "mutant hybrid cross between the Sex Pistols and the Beach Boys." But... surprise, surprise, I found I was neither Brian Wilson nor Johnny Rotten and certainly not someone who could blend, as I had initially visualized, the catchy gutter punk of the Pistols with the lush harmonies of classic Beach Boys.

Below, you'll find the current AYoS reading of the song, recorded last night, the '96 Barista Cycle version, and (at Soundclick.com, using their funky Flash-based player) an electronic version from 2000 with a rolling, downtempo /bigbeat rhythmic frame and rapped lyrics. (It's the latter from which we stole the cool green neon title image that leads this post.)


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electronic version [soundclick.com] 2000
rock version [download 2mb] 1996, from The Barista Cycle


Rachel Tell Me No

If you ever think I'm gonna fall if my
self-control ever starts to go
If I ever reach out to you
Rachel tell Me No

If I ever look far away
If I ever start to bare my soul
If I ever look deep in your eyes
Rachel Tell Me No

Rachel tell me No
Rachel make me go
Rachel tell me Rachel tell me
Rachel Tell me no


All this time you could have been mine
with the secrets that I know
For once I'm trying to do what's right so
Rachel Tell Me No

Rachel baby you're so young
you don't see it but I'm so old
Everything you dream I've already done so
Rachel tell me no

Rachel tell me no
Rachel make me go
I'm no good I want it understood
Rachel tell me no

Rachel tell me no
Rachel make me go
Rachel tell me Rachel tell me
Rachel tell me no

Angel in the Bottle

Different angel. Same bottle.

This is pretty much the first publicly released recording of this song that I can think of, off hand. Though I've played it in public a few times, I never could quite get the right feel any time I tried to cut it. But, hey, that's precisesly what the AYoS project is all about... cutting through the crap and getting this stuff recorded, even if the performances are, shall we say, often compromised.

The song itself is sort of a distillation of some of my common themes. [Buh doom tshhh!] I wrote it back in my drinking days, although, interestingly, at a time when I was steering a very moderate drinking course. But that moderate drinking went so well, I found myself wanting to do it more and more often... until I was drinking -- quite moderately, mind you -- 12 beers a day, day in and day out. (Okay, somedays it was 11 and some days it was probably more like 15.)

(A note on the picture: whisky wasn't really my thing -- though I certainly drank my share -- but a picture of a 12 pack of Bud up there wouldn't have looked all that dramatic, now, would it?)


Angel in the Bottle

There's an angel
in the bottle
but the devil's still alive
inside of me

I'm sitting
here in limbo
got my whole life
in back of me

Baby I thought
I'd be the one to save you
but I never dreamed
I couldn't even save myself


Well there's one thing
that by now is plain
through these forty years
of life death and change

There's something broken
down inside of me
deep down inside you see
I've got this pain

Baby I thought
I'd be the one to save you
but I never dreamed
I couldn't even save myself

There's an angel
in the bottle
but the devil's still alive
inside of me


(C)1990,2005, TK Major

There's Always Trouble

There's always trouble
in a fool's paradise
There's always trouble
but the fool don't realize
Trouble comes knocking
just when trouble wants
trouble knock down your front door
and take everything you got
There's always trouble
in a fool's paradise...

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THERE'S ALWAYS TROUBLE (In a Fool's Paradise)

9/7/90

There's always trouble
in a fool's paradise
There's always trouble
but the fool don't realize

Trouble comes knocking
just when trouble wants
trouble knock down your front door
and take everything you got

There's always trouble
but the fool don't realize
there's always trouble
in a fool's paradise


There's always suffering,
plenty to go around
but give it to some other guy,
on some other side of town

I don't know my neighbors,
but they seem nice enough
and if the Insane Crips come and blow them away makes
it hard to maintain my bluff

There's always trouble...


Trouble stay out of my backyard
I can pretend it don't exist
sure enough I feel real bad
for that poor fool the trouble hits

but it really aint none of my affair
I fold the paper away
cause I sure enough know I don't wanta read bout
the trouble headed thisa way

There's always trouble...

Theres always turmoil
in the heart of Babylon
but you go where the gold is
and the rest just tag along

theres always losers
in the race to stay alive
theres always casualties
but sometimes the strong survive

There's always trouble...

Angel's Vacation

he came down to earth near Phoenix
in the middle of the summertime
he walked to the first bar he saw
and ordered whiskey, beer, and wine

(or was that Tucson... he could never remember)


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ANGEL'S VACATION

He tried to do what was right
but it always turned out wrong
the heavenly host was not impressed
and he had to blow out of town

he came down to earth near Phoenix
in the middle of the summertime
he walked to the first bar he saw
and ordered whiskey, beer, and wine

An angel came down from heaven
hoping to get away
he stewed in the hotel bar all night
and baked by the pool all day

He pushed the desk clerk to a breakdown
and drove the other guests away
he punched out the hotel detective
and ran off with the pretty dark eyed maid

They laid out on the lam for 40 days and nights
and on the 41st they had to rest
the pretty dark eyed maid was all worn out
and the angel was scared to death

he knew they'd have no trouble tracking him down
angels have this certain glow
and when they said it was time to leave
brother, then it's time to go

An angel came down from heaven
hoping to get away
he stewed in the hotel bar all night
and baked by the pool all day

(C)1990,2005, TK Major

[related song: Goin' Home ]

(This one's for Don.)