Empty chair
My main aim with this album was to do something different from the previous two albums - 'Uprising' and 'Music for Roaches' - which were both commentaries on a violent world.
I didn't know what would be different about it until recently, that in large part it is a religious/spiritual album, or at least my most religious/spiritual album - and you are welcome to mutter under your breath, "Sanctimonious git!"
And then I listened to 'Music for Roaces' and found that this album isn't so much of a departure after all. What would I know?
I didn't know what would be different about it until recently, that in large part it is a religious/spiritual album, or at least my most religious/spiritual album - and you are welcome to mutter under your breath, "Sanctimonious git!"
And then I listened to 'Music for Roaces' and found that this album isn't so much of a departure after all. What would I know?
01 Absolution
The whole Catholic concept of absolution isn't really my thing. Yes, we all do stupid things at times, and sometimes bad ones, but, despite the Jesuit doctrine of "sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission," I think it is better to focus on doing the right thing rather than deliberately doing what we know is wrong, and then ask for forgiveness.
Apparently, not just my opinion.
How many times can we say, "I'm sorry. I fucked up. I'll do better next time. And, yes, these are real tears of repentance"?
Apparently, not just my opinion.
How many times can we say, "I'm sorry. I fucked up. I'll do better next time. And, yes, these are real tears of repentance"?
02 empty chair
We all know people who are empty chairs - all show and no substance. This is the theme of the album cover - a showy Les Paul sitting on a sub-structure you can barely see, the chair itself.
We get too dazzled by the surface charm and pay too little attention to what really works.
We get too dazzled by the surface charm and pay too little attention to what really works.
03 many a ride
'Many a ride' is the story of someone who is misled by the Devil into doing appalling things because they are fun, only for the Devil to abandon him when he is called to account.
The style of this song harks back to the two previous albums - exactly what I was trying to avoid - but usually there is always one song that hangs onto the past and a couple the anticipate the style of the next album.
The style of this song harks back to the two previous albums - exactly what I was trying to avoid - but usually there is always one song that hangs onto the past and a couple the anticipate the style of the next album.
04 nothing more to say, nothing more to do, Oh my!
In the Catholic faith, despairing is a sin, but some days, especially as an artist, you have to ask yourself where everything is going, fearing that the answer is nowhere.
05 in this last look
The melancholy and self-indulgence of nostalgia.
06 cross me, cross you
The fantasy and threat of revenge - in some faiths a no-no, and in others a go-to.
07 said christ at the greasy spoon
If Christ were on earth today, a greasy spoon cafe is probably where He would hang out, at least some of the time.
This song envisages Him imparting his wisdom to whichever patrons of the greasy spoon will listen to Him - especially along the themes of the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain - against the background of the quack-quack of general idle chatter, this time impersonated by a muted trumpet.
"The Sermon on the Plain?" you ask. Yes, this is the one where Christ really took the gloves off against rich and powerful people as being vainglorious, self-indulgent, and obsessed by acquiring wealth and power. Didn't play well with the rich and powerful upon whom the prestige of the Church relied, so it was sort of disappeared as a key moment in Christ's teaching. Yep, it failed the focus group.
This song envisages Him imparting his wisdom to whichever patrons of the greasy spoon will listen to Him - especially along the themes of the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain - against the background of the quack-quack of general idle chatter, this time impersonated by a muted trumpet.
"The Sermon on the Plain?" you ask. Yes, this is the one where Christ really took the gloves off against rich and powerful people as being vainglorious, self-indulgent, and obsessed by acquiring wealth and power. Didn't play well with the rich and powerful upon whom the prestige of the Church relied, so it was sort of disappeared as a key moment in Christ's teaching. Yep, it failed the focus group.
08 are you the caterpillar killer?
This is the epic tale of man against caterpillar.
I don't know much about fire caterpillars, but apparently they sting like ... yeah, that word.
So, a musician called Jim I came across, was making love to his girlfriend in a rundown shack on a hillside in rural Mexico. The girlfriend was of the "she's the only one I've got" variety, and the shack was much the same, but it was all something to do on a hot Mexican afternoon before Jim was due to play in a local bar later that evening.
Then, sometime into their lovemaking, a fire caterpillar landed right between the girl's breasts, prompting her to leap up from the bed and flee the shack, demanding that Jim get rid of every last caterpillar before she would even consider returning.
So, Jim set to with a machete and cleaved in two all the fire caterpillars he could find. His girlfriend then returned, reluctantly, to the sound of a church bell echoing across the valley.
But just after they had got back to doing what they had been doing before, they were interrupted by another fire caterpillar dropping from the ceiling onto the floor.
Jim was so incensed by this that he threw himself off the girl and hurled himself at the caterpillar, cutting it in half. Unfortunately, he did so with such momentum that he was unable to stop himself from falling through the open window of the shack into a ravine below, causing him sufficient injury that he could not play his guitar for the next six weeks.
So, here is that little tale set to music ...
I don't know much about fire caterpillars, but apparently they sting like ... yeah, that word.
So, a musician called Jim I came across, was making love to his girlfriend in a rundown shack on a hillside in rural Mexico. The girlfriend was of the "she's the only one I've got" variety, and the shack was much the same, but it was all something to do on a hot Mexican afternoon before Jim was due to play in a local bar later that evening.
Then, sometime into their lovemaking, a fire caterpillar landed right between the girl's breasts, prompting her to leap up from the bed and flee the shack, demanding that Jim get rid of every last caterpillar before she would even consider returning.
So, Jim set to with a machete and cleaved in two all the fire caterpillars he could find. His girlfriend then returned, reluctantly, to the sound of a church bell echoing across the valley.
But just after they had got back to doing what they had been doing before, they were interrupted by another fire caterpillar dropping from the ceiling onto the floor.
Jim was so incensed by this that he threw himself off the girl and hurled himself at the caterpillar, cutting it in half. Unfortunately, he did so with such momentum that he was unable to stop himself from falling through the open window of the shack into a ravine below, causing him sufficient injury that he could not play his guitar for the next six weeks.
So, here is that little tale set to music ...
09 Woo the girl, get the mother
It's not just what your partner is like - it's the family members they bring with them ...
Except, that is not what this song is about.
Except, that is not what this song is about.
10 to us poor debtors
Based on a poem I wrote once about how all of life is debt. Don't we know it!
Most of us don't get born sitting on a bank account, so we are in debt from the start. And then we earn a little, and incur large expenses over and over again. Then we get a bit ahead and loosen up before the next big bill bites us.
And this roller-coaster is what happens to relatively rich people - it is so much more relentless for everyone else.
Most of us don't get born sitting on a bank account, so we are in debt from the start. And then we earn a little, and incur large expenses over and over again. Then we get a bit ahead and loosen up before the next big bill bites us.
And this roller-coaster is what happens to relatively rich people - it is so much more relentless for everyone else.
11 take your time
Always good advice, if you ask me. Except that when people say, "Take your time," they are reminding you of the time you are taking, so they just want you to hurry up.
Really taking your time is a truly difficult lesson to learn.
Really taking your time is a truly difficult lesson to learn.
12 monogamy isn't monotony
A reaction to Bill Maher, probably. Marriage can be daily a new adventure, but it is seldom that way. Maybe the odds are with you, Bill.
And they are. If you believe in the Bell Curve, 15% of marriages are going to be blissful and, at the other end, 15% will be from hell. Which means that 85% of marriages won't live up to fairytale happiness ever after. They will contain, at the very least, considerable disappointments.
True conjugal bliss does exist, and we can always shoot for it, but, as I will be claiming in my next album, 'Mountain Wise,' success is always against the odds. We have to be smart, but, above all, we have to be lucky, incredibly lucky.
And they are. If you believe in the Bell Curve, 15% of marriages are going to be blissful and, at the other end, 15% will be from hell. Which means that 85% of marriages won't live up to fairytale happiness ever after. They will contain, at the very least, considerable disappointments.
True conjugal bliss does exist, and we can always shoot for it, but, as I will be claiming in my next album, 'Mountain Wise,' success is always against the odds. We have to be smart, but, above all, we have to be lucky, incredibly lucky.
13 Fuzzy-Wuzzy
From the poem by Rudyard Kipling:
Fuzzy-Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy-Wuzzy had no hair
(I guess, I think, I know for sure)
He wasn't very fuzzy, wuz he?
Fuzzy-Wuzzy had no hair
(I guess, I think, I know for sure)
He wasn't very fuzzy, wuz he?
Yes, I am very aware of the complications of this song. Rudyard Kipling was a Victorian Brit and just a little bit racist. "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" was, at the time, a put-down name for an African. I am guessing that this poem was really just about a well-worn teddy bear, beloved by the children who played with it to the point of baldness (like the Velveteen Rabbit), but the Victorians viewed Africans as children with a natural place in the children's playroom (viz. Black Sambo).
Yes, considering Africans to be children was intended to be profoundly belittling and condescending, but as Jesus said, unless you see the world through the eyes of a child, you will never attain the kingdom of heaven. I suppose 'good' Protestant Brits missed that bit, as they undoubtedly missed the lessons of 'The Sermon on the Plain' (see above). As it turns out, the Black cultural values of honesty, integrity, fun and forgiveness might be somewhat disastrous in this world, but just right for the rest of eternity.
And yes, I added a line to the Rudyard Kipling poem, the line in (brackets). I just needed an extra line for the tune.
Yes, considering Africans to be children was intended to be profoundly belittling and condescending, but as Jesus said, unless you see the world through the eyes of a child, you will never attain the kingdom of heaven. I suppose 'good' Protestant Brits missed that bit, as they undoubtedly missed the lessons of 'The Sermon on the Plain' (see above). As it turns out, the Black cultural values of honesty, integrity, fun and forgiveness might be somewhat disastrous in this world, but just right for the rest of eternity.
And yes, I added a line to the Rudyard Kipling poem, the line in (brackets). I just needed an extra line for the tune.
Instruments used during the recording of ‘Empty Chair’
Balalaika - unbranded
BG Guitars Viper
Epiphone Les Paul Custom Shop Special
ESP Ouija (Kirk Hammett signature)
Fender Stratocaster (Mexican-built)
Gretsch Streamliner
Ibanez Gio
Ibanez RG
H. Jimenez Quinto acoustic/electric
Rogue mandolin
Savannah acoustic
Washburn Lyon
Bass:
Sterling SUB
Keyboards:
Yamaha P-115
Medeli SP4200
BG Guitars Viper
Epiphone Les Paul Custom Shop Special
ESP Ouija (Kirk Hammett signature)
Fender Stratocaster (Mexican-built)
Gretsch Streamliner
Ibanez Gio
Ibanez RG
H. Jimenez Quinto acoustic/electric
Rogue mandolin
Savannah acoustic
Washburn Lyon
Bass:
Sterling SUB
Keyboards:
Yamaha P-115
Medeli SP4200