Tag Archives: The Barista Cycle

associated with the 1996 concept album, The Barista Cycle

Sherry

Sherry
Ah, love.

Sorry-backsided, wrong-headed, stupid love.

Maybe you’ve never loved that way. Maybe you have. Me, unlike the guy in this song, I’ve never had a girlfriend (or in his case, wife) steal all my belongings. (One GF kept taking my razors. I pretended not to know. People are funny.)

The song itself was written as part of my 1996 project, The Barista Cycle.

My younger friends should note that a Stingray was the iconic 60’s Sherry model of the Corvette sports car as well as a ‘banana-seated’ Schwinn bicycle, a short profile, chopper-barred bike that held a hegemonic grip on America’s youth in that far-off decade. I sort of wanted to capture the sense of a couple of kids fighting over a Stingray, one of them tugging on the handlebars, the other pulling hard on the ‘chicken bar’ on the back of the long seat.

Sherry

Sherry, you stole my stereo
my dog Bill, my car and my Mac
You can keep the rest of it
but I’m here to tell you
I’m gonna get that Corvette back

Give me back my Stingray
and I’ll let your sister go
She followed me from Austin
but she’ll go home
if I’m the one that tells her so…

All the way through high school
I was the one who was supposed to break your heart
then we settle down
and you get bored and
you tear our world apart

Give me back my Stingray…

I thought that we were happy
that just goes to show you what I know
I thought I changed all the locks
but I missed that one, you and your tweaker friend
took everything I owned

Give me back my Stingray
and I’ll let your sister go
She followed me from Austin
but she’ll go home
if I’m the one that tells her so…

JoZynn, JoZynn

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All is forgiven if you just come back again, JoZynn, JoZynn

Okay.

Unlike the guy in this song, I’ve never had any kids. And, though a few girlfriends have abandoned me pretty good (I have been dropped by the side of the road in a strange town)… no one has ever left me with 3 crying, scared babies.

Well… I did have a bunch of cats, but their mom stuck around. Of course, she was much more trouble than her kittens were. Anyhow, where was I?

Oh yeah. I don’t know where this stuff comes from. Well… in this case, I was starting from my own exotic spelling of a girl’s name, as part of my self-commissioned Barista Cycle Project, the source of a handful of AYoS songs, so far.

The girl whose name inspired this song could not have been less like the “JoZynn” in my song. She was a grad student in something like 17th century British literature, kind of quiet, quite sharp, with a sly and sophisticated sense of humor. As I was recasting the spelling of the name, I searched for something that would grab the essence of the trailer trash bad girlfriend/worse mom anti-heroine of the song… I happened to have seen a tricked out Z28 Camarro, just the kind of thing my JoZynn would zoom off in with her new boyfriend…

Jozynn, Jozynn

JoZynn JoZynn
JoZynn JoZynn
look at the mess that you’re leaving me in
JoZynn JoZynn

JoZynn JoZynn
all is forgiven
come back again

3 little babies down on the floor
2 scared 2 cry
1 thing for sure
Nothing means nothing anymore
except those kids
JoZynn JoZynn

JoZynn JoZynn…

All this time you been away
it’s nothing to me
it’s just be a day
if you just come back again
JoZynn

JoZynn JoZynn…

3 lonely kids
1 angry man
2 hurt 2 cry
for God’s sake woman there’s
a million things
you’ll never understand
JoZynn JoZynn

JoZynn JoZynn
JoZynn JoZynn
look at the mess that you’re leaving me in
JoZynn JoZynn

Rachel, Tell Me No

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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.)

AYoS acoustic version:

rock version, 1996, from The Barista Cycle:

electronica version on Soundclick

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

Too Much Trouble Christine

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2 Much Trouble

much trouble?

Nah…

Like Goldilocks, the singer in this song seems to think he’s got just enough trouble.

This is, of course, for those who’ve been paying attention (you know who you are and your gold star is in the mail), the second version of this song in two days.

I didn’t hate the first version (or I wouldn’t have put it up, hey?), despite a number of flaws, not the least of which were heart arhythmia-producing timing lapses. But I like this ver better. Still, you shouldn’t be surprised if, sometime in the next year or so, yet another version pops up here. (But not tomorrow, I swear.) Don’t ask me why I’ve become infatuated with this tune. It’s as mindless as a JayCees mixer, for sure. Yet, somehow, it’s re-ingratiated itself with me after a decade of neglect.

One thing comes to mind… out of hundreds of songs… this is one of the very few tunes one might actually consider a love song. (As opposed, don’t ya know, to broken heart songs, cryin’ in your beer songs, gonna end it all songs, etc…)

You’re Too Much Trouble, Christine

You’re too much trouble, Christine
You’re too much trouble, Christine
You’re too much trouble, Christine
So Why do I love you, Christine
You’re too much trouble, Christine

Christine on a beach, Christine on a plane
Christine in a cafe with the boulevardiers
Christine on the set Christine in my head
Christine in my heart and tearing up my bed

You’re too much trouble, Christine…

Christine I’m terrified just holding your hand
Christine you twist me like no one else can
Christine you’re crazy but you got a plan
world domination begins with one man

You’re too much trouble, Christine
You’re too much trouble, Christine
You’re too much trouble, Christine
So Why do I love you, Christine
You’re too much trouble, Christine