Category Archives: commentary

Looking for Trouble [rough project demo]

Looking for Trouble

It was a stormy afternoon on the rain spattered patio of a rundown little motel north of Ensenada in 1981. The ocean raged against the rocks just beyond the edge of the unpainted concrete patio.

I’d pulled a plain wooden chair out of the room onto the slab and I sat there, a six pack of Bohemia or maybe Negra Modelo in a sack next to the chair and a bottle of Sauza Extra next to it.

Sea spray mixed with rain coated me and my guitar — a $20 special I’d picked up on an earlier trip — but how often do you get to write songs with the ocean crashing literally at your feet and the sky roiling like a time lapse movie. I wrote three songs that afternoon. Two of them were pretty good, as my songs go. I had just broken up with a girl I’d gone with for nearly 3 years, so I had a lot of songrwiting energy, I guess.

Anyhow, though I wrote it a quarter century ago, there’s never really been a proper recording. I decided to do something about that, but these things are never a direct path from point a to point b for me. This rough demo is sort of a snapshot along the way. What do I like in it? The snare brush. I think that’s pretty cool. That’s about the only thing I’d come close to keeping, at this point.

previous AYoS version [folk]

LOOKING FOR TROUBLE

Some people say
Love is a game
but I’m telling you now that I wasn’t playing
when I fell in love with you

Here I go again
Looking for reasons where there aren’t any reasons
Here I go again
looking for trouble… I’m already in trouble

That day in my car
don’t say you don’t know
You held me so close
begging me to let go
I told myself you were just confused

Here I go again . . .

You always said
that it was fate
I’m telling you now
that I was framed
when I fell in love with you

Here I go again . . .

A dog barks
the wind howls through the night
I whisper your name and
stare in the fire
I can’ keep myself from calling out to you

Here I go again
Looking for reasons where there aren’t any reasons
Here I go again
looking for trouble… I’m already in trouble

(C)1981, TK Major

Share

Ain’t no place so low you can’t get there if you crawl… (Kingdom of Fools 3)

Ain't no place so low

Kingdom of Fools was one of the first songs I posted last September at the beginning of A Year of Songs. I posted a new version not quite two weeks ago. It was a rush job. In more ways than one. The tempo was, shall we say, aggressive.

My dissatisfaction with it must have been playing tricks with my subconscious since I apparently suppressed the memory of that quite recent version and, after a less than thorough search for previous versions that missed the February 18 version, I rerecorded it, thinking, somehow I hadn’t done it since September.

And, I’m happy to say that this version is quite different, much more considered. I think my favorite is still the first, but you may find that the additional guitar in this brings something new to the song. Or you may find it an annoying distraction. Heh.

second AYoS version (18 Feb 2006)
first AYoS version (25 Sept 2005)

In the Kingdom of Fools

Aint no such thing
as too high to fall
aint no place so low
you cant get there
if you crawl

Aint no bro’
so close you can’t play him down
’cause in the kingdom of Fools
only one can wear the crown

Ain’t no truth so pure
you can’t turn it to a lie
ain’t no love so deep
you can’t drain it ’til it’s dry

Ain’t no flower so pretty
you cant crush it to the ground
in the Kingdom of Fools
only one can wear the crown

Aint no lie
that can ever make you see the truth
and your life til now
just so much living proof

Ain’t no one but you
can keep you from where you’re bound
‘Cause in the Kingdom of Fools
Only one can wear the crown

(C)2005, TK Major
2005 Jan 29

Share

He stopped loving her today (Thelma Lou)

NPR.org, February 25, 2006 · LOS ANGELES (AP) — Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, has died. He was 81.

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs The Andy Griffith Show and another Knotts hit, Three’s Company.

NPR.org

(Here’s my post on “Barney & Thelma Lou” from last November 27, including my song about their romance, Thelma Lou.)

Here’s a version of the song I recorded just this morning:

Share

Ain’t no such thing as too high to fall… [Kingdom of Fools v.2]

Ain't no such thing as too high to fall...

There can only be one winner. It’s a zero zum game.

The competition is fierce.

Unexpected hardships are faced by all.

Most will lose everything and be forgotten.

Warriors will fall. Brave champions will lie in defeat.

Some will face infamy and shame.

But only one will emerge victorious.

In the Kingdom of Fools… only one can wear the crown.

previous AYoS version

In the Kingdom of Fools

Ain’t no such thing
as too high to fall
aint no place so low
you cant get there
if you crawl

Aint no bro’
so close you can’t play him down
’cause in the kingdom of Fools
only one can wear the crown

Ain’t no truth so pure
you can’t turn it to a lie
ain’t no love so deep
you can’t drain it ’til it’s dry

Ain’t no flower so pretty
you cant crush it to the ground
in the Kingdom of Fools
only one can wear the crown

Aint no lie
that can ever make you see the truth
and your life til now
just so much living proof

Ain’t no one but you
can keep you from where you’re bound
‘Cause in the Kingdom of Fools
Only one can wear the crown

(C)2005, TK Major
2005 Jan 29

Share