The great american road trip
These tracks are all instrumental pieces as presented here, although they have also had lyrics written for them to explain fully what the songs are all about (to the extent that song lyrics are ever that transparent in their meaning). Someday these songs may also feature vocals, but for the moment we felt that they worked better without them.
Perhaps think of these fifteen musings as ‘themes from an imaginary movie.’
All lyrics for songs appearing on ‘The Great American Road Trip’ are available here, so feel free to sing along to them, if you can work out where the lyrics fit (they do, but sometimes you have to sing real fast or, conversely, real s-l-o-o-o-w).
Anyway, while these fifteen songs do not include vocals, they do have definite themes (I think I may have already made that point already):
Perhaps think of these fifteen musings as ‘themes from an imaginary movie.’
All lyrics for songs appearing on ‘The Great American Road Trip’ are available here, so feel free to sing along to them, if you can work out where the lyrics fit (they do, but sometimes you have to sing real fast or, conversely, real s-l-o-o-o-w).
Anyway, while these fifteen songs do not include vocals, they do have definite themes (I think I may have already made that point already):
01 You came to save me
They say an angel came down from heaven
And that angel was you
That you came to save a miserable sinner
And I was the most miserable you knew
And that angel was you
That you came to save a miserable sinner
And I was the most miserable you knew
One of the classic tropes of Country & Western songs is of the wild-living and freedom-loving guy who hooks up with an angel of a girl (angels, traditionally, being exclusively male – yeah, this album is already showing off its dodgy liberal predilections, and it is only the first track), who leads him toward the way, the truth and the light. The truck is parked out front and motherhood is around the corner.
The hero of this tale happily goes along with this premise when he meets the girl he reckons is for him, but having got himself a regular job, done several big weekend shopping trips the local mall, and dutifully laid tables for workday dinners, he realizes that this isn’t really the guy she fell in love with.
The hero of this tale happily goes along with this premise when he meets the girl he reckons is for him, but having got himself a regular job, done several big weekend shopping trips the local mall, and dutifully laid tables for workday dinners, he realizes that this isn’t really the guy she fell in love with.
You have the most perfect of bodies
You have the most perfect of minds
But I have to keep on sinning
To keep you for the rest of time
You have the most perfect of minds
But I have to keep on sinning
To keep you for the rest of time
02 WAwa wa-HOO!
I've found a girl
She likes me fine
I am hers
And she is mine
And we sure love
To bump and grind
She likes me fine
I am hers
And she is mine
And we sure love
To bump and grind
‘Wawa Wa-hoo!’ is about the adrenaline rush of falling in lust with someone new, and of doing over and over again what two people do in that situation.
I don’t think I need explain anything more …
I don’t think I need explain anything more …
03 beautiful la (for laura zovich)
With what dread did you see us coming?
What dreams were silenced when we came?
What savage gods did we find you worshipping?
What did we promise in His name?
Did you know what to do?
Did you welcome us to your land?
The shoreline can be cruel
It can strip you to the raw
In fact or metaphor
What dreams were silenced when we came?
What savage gods did we find you worshipping?
What did we promise in His name?
Did you know what to do?
Did you welcome us to your land?
The shoreline can be cruel
It can strip you to the raw
In fact or metaphor
‘Beautiful LA’ is partly about one culture in America replacing another – specifically here referring to the Amerindian culture that existed before the Spanish invaded Alta California, ultimately to be replaced by the modern LA culture.
There were approximately 300,000 Costacoan Native American Indians living in California when the Spanish arrived in the 1770s, and only 30,000 left one hundred years later (a 90% genocide). The Costacoan Indians were peaceful souls who venerated the spirits of the animals they killed for food and ate roasted bugs for snacks (you can still find roasted locusts as a menu item in some New Mexico restaurants).
The Spanish army and Franciscan Friars came on horseback like gods, with large herds of cattle and equally large flocks of sheep, so they were clearly the winners in gastronomic potential. The trick was that if you were a Costacoan Indian, you had to convert to Christianity to get the food, at which point you became a slave working for one of the twenty-one missions, or a runaway who would be whipped to the point of death on capture, have a foot cut off, that sort of thing
So, a very spiritual culture was replaced by a culture of slavery, Christian in theory but most un-Christian in practice, which has been a bit of a specialty of white Americans. That culture in turn has been replaced by one worshipping sun, beauty and the hope of everlasting life without any intervening dying bit.
And if that aspect isn't dark enough, there is another dark side - the fate of beautiful people within that so-called beautiful life. This song was not written about Laura Zovich, but it could have been and is now dedicated to her. Laura was involved in the USC (University of Southern California) football scandal in 1990 because she had a boyfriend who repeatedly beat her up and then finally kidnapped her and threw her off a cliff: see story.
I have always thought that it is much harder to be beautiful than an uggo like me. I know who my friends are. If you are beautiful and sexy, yes, you have been offered the doors to the Kingdom in one sense, but the road to that kingdom often turns out to be the road to Hell.
There were approximately 300,000 Costacoan Native American Indians living in California when the Spanish arrived in the 1770s, and only 30,000 left one hundred years later (a 90% genocide). The Costacoan Indians were peaceful souls who venerated the spirits of the animals they killed for food and ate roasted bugs for snacks (you can still find roasted locusts as a menu item in some New Mexico restaurants).
The Spanish army and Franciscan Friars came on horseback like gods, with large herds of cattle and equally large flocks of sheep, so they were clearly the winners in gastronomic potential. The trick was that if you were a Costacoan Indian, you had to convert to Christianity to get the food, at which point you became a slave working for one of the twenty-one missions, or a runaway who would be whipped to the point of death on capture, have a foot cut off, that sort of thing
So, a very spiritual culture was replaced by a culture of slavery, Christian in theory but most un-Christian in practice, which has been a bit of a specialty of white Americans. That culture in turn has been replaced by one worshipping sun, beauty and the hope of everlasting life without any intervening dying bit.
And if that aspect isn't dark enough, there is another dark side - the fate of beautiful people within that so-called beautiful life. This song was not written about Laura Zovich, but it could have been and is now dedicated to her. Laura was involved in the USC (University of Southern California) football scandal in 1990 because she had a boyfriend who repeatedly beat her up and then finally kidnapped her and threw her off a cliff: see story.
I have always thought that it is much harder to be beautiful than an uggo like me. I know who my friends are. If you are beautiful and sexy, yes, you have been offered the doors to the Kingdom in one sense, but the road to that kingdom often turns out to be the road to Hell.
It must be so hard to be so beautiful
Who doesn’t want their share of you?
One-night stands, those fair-weather friends
It must be like standing in a sea of blue
Not knowing what to do
Not knowing where to land
The shoreline can be cruel
It can strip you to the raw
In fact or metaphor
Who doesn’t want their share of you?
One-night stands, those fair-weather friends
It must be like standing in a sea of blue
Not knowing what to do
Not knowing where to land
The shoreline can be cruel
It can strip you to the raw
In fact or metaphor
04 copperhead
You’re a copperhead, all hot-loving down below
The kind of temptation I ache to get to know
Cross your path and I know you’ll try to strike me down
So that you’ll be dancing with Dixie while I am underground
You are always available but not to one of my kind
Playing it bad as best as you have a mind
All eyes are drawn to your cow-hide and your spurs
And that small piece of cloth where they assume eternity lies
The kind of temptation I ache to get to know
Cross your path and I know you’ll try to strike me down
So that you’ll be dancing with Dixie while I am underground
You are always available but not to one of my kind
Playing it bad as best as you have a mind
All eyes are drawn to your cow-hide and your spurs
And that small piece of cloth where they assume eternity lies
Back to Deep South themes, this time the wild femme fatale who mixes with the most exciting men in town and otherwise conjures up all kinds of condemning Bible references from those who want her but don’t stand a chance of getting her, old maids etc.
However, this no-hoper has a plan, and it may turn out more slasher pic than romance movie.
However, this no-hoper has a plan, and it may turn out more slasher pic than romance movie.
If you can dance with the devil, you can dance with me
05 dust on my shoes
Like the sun all around me
I love the open road
Casual conversations with the strangers I meet
Trying to forget that I'm growing old
I love the open road
Casual conversations with the strangers I meet
Trying to forget that I'm growing old
This is the founding road trip song for this CD, the story of a man who has spent all his life since his teens on the road, living in many different places across America off short-term jobs.
The pluses for him have been getting to know his country as few others have, constant changes of scenery, avoiding all the squabbles of people who have lived together for far too long, and the pleasure of casual acquaintance with strangers.
But he also feels he has missed out on some aspects of a settled life, such as the support and companionship of friends and family, as he approaches his later years.
The pluses for him have been getting to know his country as few others have, constant changes of scenery, avoiding all the squabbles of people who have lived together for far too long, and the pleasure of casual acquaintance with strangers.
But he also feels he has missed out on some aspects of a settled life, such as the support and companionship of friends and family, as he approaches his later years.
06 someone else's life
I know what it’s like
To live your life
To wrestle with your demons
To fall in love with your wife
To live your life
To wrestle with your demons
To fall in love with your wife
Some people’s life stories become even more compelling to us than our own. Some of these are real and some are fictional, but we wonder what it would be like to have been them or could have met them.
This song is devoted to the singer-songwriter Ian Hunter, who has narrated his life story through over three hundred songs and whose career I have been following passionately nearly all of my life. He is also, like me, a Brit who lives mostly in America.
‘Beautiful LA’ (above) was written in response to a number of songs Ian has composed about the lives of Native American Indians, such as ‘Ta Shunka Witco (Crazy Horse),’ ‘All American Alien Boy,’ and ‘River of Tears.’
This song is devoted to the singer-songwriter Ian Hunter, who has narrated his life story through over three hundred songs and whose career I have been following passionately nearly all of my life. He is also, like me, a Brit who lives mostly in America.
‘Beautiful LA’ (above) was written in response to a number of songs Ian has composed about the lives of Native American Indians, such as ‘Ta Shunka Witco (Crazy Horse),’ ‘All American Alien Boy,’ and ‘River of Tears.’
07 night garden
Here I am in our night garden
The rabbits playing under the moon
Music rippling through the air
Lending such earthly pleasures a tune
The rabbits playing under the moon
Music rippling through the air
Lending such earthly pleasures a tune
Where we once lived in New Mexico, if you were in our yard at night you often heard one of the many local acoustic guitar players strumming or picking away in a nearby bar, so this song is about the pleasure of sitting out on a warm desert evening amid the flowers and the lights of the garden, with a glass of wine in your hand, and listening to pretty tunes floating across the air toward you.
08 If that’s what it takes (I ain’t taking it)
They say it takes a lot
To live a life
It takes a lot
To keep a wife
It takes a lot
To earn a wage
It takes a lot
To reach old age
To live a life
It takes a lot
To keep a wife
It takes a lot
To earn a wage
It takes a lot
To reach old age
Life is a series of hurdles, in response to which some keep hurdling and others don’t.
Either way, sometimes it all gets a bit exhausting, probably even for superheroes but especially for us normal-type guys.
Either way, sometimes it all gets a bit exhausting, probably even for superheroes but especially for us normal-type guys.
09 Can I do things with your daughter?
“Hello, Sir, how are you?
Nice to meet you, really cool
Is Nia around anywhere?
Is Nia around anywhere?”
“I don’t know you
I’ve never heard of you
She’s never mentioned you
And you say she’s cool
What do you mean by ‘cool’?
What do you mean by ‘cool’?”
Nice to meet you, really cool
Is Nia around anywhere?
Is Nia around anywhere?”
“I don’t know you
I’ve never heard of you
She’s never mentioned you
And you say she’s cool
What do you mean by ‘cool’?
What do you mean by ‘cool’?”
The strained, even confrontational, first-time meeting between a teenaged boy and his new girlfriend’s father is a staple of movie comedy, and may once even have happened. Both have sex on their mind, knowing that is the power that will finally win the daughter’s independence from her (possibly over-protective) parent.
In this story, the boy starts out all humble and ingratiating, but once the deed has been done and the girl won over, he no longer cares what her father thinks or says about anything. How to descend from omnipotent being to an asterisk in history in one date (and vice-versa).
In this story, the boy starts out all humble and ingratiating, but once the deed has been done and the girl won over, he no longer cares what her father thinks or says about anything. How to descend from omnipotent being to an asterisk in history in one date (and vice-versa).
10 zombie time
Here we are in topsy-turvy land
Where what used to be great has been turned around
Where the living dead are after my head
To eat my brain and replace it with lead
Get me out of this squirming mess
I’ll live under a rock to avoid the duress
Reckon it’s a place where I can live in peace
Away from those idiots we seem to have released
Where what used to be great has been turned around
Where the living dead are after my head
To eat my brain and replace it with lead
Get me out of this squirming mess
I’ll live under a rock to avoid the duress
Reckon it’s a place where I can live in peace
Away from those idiots we seem to have released
In probably every country in the world, the population is equally divided between conservatives and liberals, with perhaps the remaining twenty percent undecided.
There has always been something of a war between these two factions – sometimes literally a war – but over recent times in the West attitudes have hardened to the point where many people openly will not even countenance a member of the opposite faction as a friend or a partner as they mutter ‘Satanic’ under their breath.
Is this healthy? I would say yes. It may be the most important decision we have to make on this earth, so it is as well to decide what side we are on now.
There has always been something of a war between these two factions – sometimes literally a war – but over recent times in the West attitudes have hardened to the point where many people openly will not even countenance a member of the opposite faction as a friend or a partner as they mutter ‘Satanic’ under their breath.
Is this healthy? I would say yes. It may be the most important decision we have to make on this earth, so it is as well to decide what side we are on now.
11 ghost
When I saw you standing in that line
It took me back to ancient times
It felt like I was seeing a ghost
The sort of ghost that hurts the most
It took me back to ancient times
It felt like I was seeing a ghost
The sort of ghost that hurts the most
The ghost in question is a past relationship (yep, ‘Zombie Time’ doesn’t have real zombies and ‘Ghost’ has no real ghosts).
The narrator has long put to one side the fact that a previous partner still exists in the world as she doesn’t still exist in his. Then, by chance, he catches sight of her and she becomes relevant to him again, much to his discomfort, as she brings the pleasures and the pains, the triumphs and the regrets of the past with her.
The narrator has long put to one side the fact that a previous partner still exists in the world as she doesn’t still exist in his. Then, by chance, he catches sight of her and she becomes relevant to him again, much to his discomfort, as she brings the pleasures and the pains, the triumphs and the regrets of the past with her.
12 song for all lovers
Every moment I spend beside you
Every thought we share together
Every smile that flies between us
Makes me realize how kind the world is
Every time we dream the future
Every touch against our skin
Every scent of jasmine or roses
Makes me yours and makes you mine
Every thought we share together
Every smile that flies between us
Makes me realize how kind the world is
Every time we dream the future
Every touch against our skin
Every scent of jasmine or roses
Makes me yours and makes you mine
Just that, really, but I have one lover particularly in mind (see next song).
13 kathleen
Oh, Kathleen,
As you lie here by my side
Eyes so warm
Hair so wild
Nothing can change
This love of mine
All my love
All my life
Together
Forever
For all time.
As you lie here by my side
Eyes so warm
Hair so wild
Nothing can change
This love of mine
All my love
All my life
Together
Forever
For all time.
14. Rock, San Francisco
From the hippy Haight revolution
From the Castro call for gay pride
To the Universal Rights of the plaza
This is where we call home
From the Castro call for gay pride
To the Universal Rights of the plaza
This is where we call home
It’s a tough one to write about San Francisco, as San Franciscans – such as myself – are as bordering on fanatical as liberals tend to get about the place and its values.
Still, I don’t want to make my fellow liberals from other cities sick with my enthusiasm for San Francisco, so I have focused on the rock anthem refrain ‘Rock, San Francisco,’ which makes San Francisco sound more like New York, LA, Seattle, the Twin Cities or Chicago, or somewhere – at least in the chorus section.
Still, I don’t want to make my fellow liberals from other cities sick with my enthusiasm for San Francisco, so I have focused on the rock anthem refrain ‘Rock, San Francisco,’ which makes San Francisco sound more like New York, LA, Seattle, the Twin Cities or Chicago, or somewhere – at least in the chorus section.
15. Crossing the border
I came across the border
Suitcase in my hand
I came to this country
To do the best I can
Now I realize
I’m more slave than I’m a man
But I will make my home
In this land of Uncle Sam
Suitcase in my hand
I came to this country
To do the best I can
Now I realize
I’m more slave than I’m a man
But I will make my home
In this land of Uncle Sam
Latinos have gravitated to the US in large numbers, often to escape the violence of countries that the US has interfered in for far too long.
Their presence in the US is resented by Europeans, most of whom hardly ever see a Latino, as if the ancestors of the Latinos hadn’t pre-dated the Europeans in the Americas by about 25,000 years (barring the occasional Viking called Eric).
In any other sphere, committing armed robbery is a crime, but apparently not if you are a bunch of Europeans seizing land from non-Europeans.
Their presence in the US is resented by Europeans, most of whom hardly ever see a Latino, as if the ancestors of the Latinos hadn’t pre-dated the Europeans in the Americas by about 25,000 years (barring the occasional Viking called Eric).
In any other sphere, committing armed robbery is a crime, but apparently not if you are a bunch of Europeans seizing land from non-Europeans.
Instruments used during the recording of ‘The Great American Road Trip’
Guitars:
Epiphone Les Paul Custom Shop Special
Epiphone Dot Studio
Fender Stratocaster (Mexican-built)
Gretsch Streamliner
Ibanez Gio
Savannah acoustic
Bass:
Sterling SUB
Keyboards:
Yamaha P-115
Epiphone Les Paul Custom Shop Special
Epiphone Dot Studio
Fender Stratocaster (Mexican-built)
Gretsch Streamliner
Ibanez Gio
Savannah acoustic
Bass:
Sterling SUB
Keyboards:
Yamaha P-115