I Was an Earthquake

EARTHQK2
A few days ago, a possibility came to me: maybe I was an earthquake in a past life. Maybe my weird life issues I'm running into stem from karma from being a big earthquake in a past life. I never thought of that before, and it gave me some food for thought. I wonder if that can me - if people can have been earthquakes in past lives.

That's what this song is about: it oscillates between Timmy and Bobby talking about me being an earthquake in a past life, and me actually being that earthquake in present time. Lotta references are made to the 1906 Earthquake that happened in San Francisco. That particular earthquake is relevant to me cuz I had a whole bunch of family living in San Francisco at the time. Sometimes, I wonder if I have ancestral memories of that earthquake floating around in my head, cuz, y'know, I have a peculiar relationship to earthquakes.

The part of the rap that refers to butter flying up to the ceiling is an actual real-life thing that happened in the 1906 Earthquake. Apparently, when my ancestors went out to their kitchen after the quake happened, the butter they'd kept out on their kitchen table had flown up to the ceiling and stuck there. That's how intense the shaking was - butter actually flew up to the ceiling and got stuck there!

The second part of the song is a re-statement of the theme that came to me in July of 2019, a week after the big earthquake that happened in the LA area. See, after that big old 7 point something temblor (as they call them on the news), a song came to me. It was a song that had a profound impact on me, and I have a strong feeling the my ancestors, who were in the 1906 Earthquake, sent it to me. I felt like, because of that, I had to include that theme in this song.

This song also refers to the fact that, without earthquakes, California wouldn't be all mountain-y and hilly and lake-y. It'd just be this boring old flat plane, if there wasn't all that seismic activity. I wanted to speak to that, y'know, to give earthquakes credit for making California an interesting-looking place, topographically-speaking.

That theme starts out in A minor, but then I add a second guitar after 1 verse to make it into C major, like it is in the original song. But when I was singing, I hadn't added the second guitar, so I was singing it in minor (I mean, it's the exact same melody, either way). It's weird to hear the melody all major sounding even though it was minor when I sung it. It's kind of a weird music cognition experiment or something (my Ph.D. dissertation was in music cognition). Like, I wonder if my singing is sadder because I was singing it in minor than it woulda been if I'd been singing it in major. I wonder if it adds a weird depth or something to it that wouldn't've been there, had I been singing in a major-happy-sounding-key when I did it.

The guitars end up bein' all layered, so you gots A minor to F major on one guitar, and C, G, A minor, F on the other guitar, creating a weird old dissonance-jazz-chord-thingy.

But, in any event, now I know there's a possibility that I was an earthquake in a past life, and I wanted to write a song about it.

The lyrics are:
Timmy and Bobby said they celebrate the first earthquake; it is not the worst fate
Timmy and Bobby state I was once an earthquake, and I made the earth shake; it was my birthday

California is adorned with good topography; it is glorious in its forms, and it's sinking to the sea
I am trouble in the making in the shaking quaking ride; I am the earth, I am the earth, untied

Timmy and Bobby said it was a past life; it was my last life; I danced into the night
After I danced on by, I made Mount Shasta fly; I gave the earth a ride, and afterwards, I died 

California is adorned with good topography; it is glorious in its forms, and it's sinking to the sea
I am trouble in the making in the shaking quaking ride; I am the earth, I am the earth, untied

When it is the start, slowest is the part; it was still dark, in beds they were parked
Mountains and lakes are there all because of me, but I am the part they don't want to see
I make things better, but the butter, it did fly, up to the ceiling; and it made the people cry
I shook existence, but the people did not listen; it is 1906 and now the buildings, they need fixing
I am trouble in the making, it's a ride; I am quaking and I'm shaking and the earth has got untied
I made the butter fly with Lucy in the Sky; it is no lie: the earth, it is high

California is adorned with good topography; it is glorious in its forms, and it's sinking to the sea
I am trouble in the making in the shaking quaking ride; I am the earth, I am the earth, untied

Timmy and Bobby said the thing they have to state: I made the earth shake, I made the earth shake
With some tectonic plates: I was an earthquake, I was an earthquake

I have ears that don't stop ringing; my mind is broken, but I can't stop singing
I'm blind and stupid, but I'm learning: the world is turning, but it won't stop burning

My mind is stupid but it's singing; I don't know why my ears have not stopped ringing
I'm blind and stupid but I'm learning; the world is turning but it won't stop burning

When it is the start, slowest is the part; it was still dark, in beds they were parked
Mountains and lakes are there all because of me, but I am the part they don't want to see
I make things better, but the butter, it did fly, up to the ceiling; and it made the people cry
I shook existence, but the people did not listen; it is 1906 and now the buildings, they need fixing
I am trouble in the making, it's a ride; I am quaking and I'm shaking and the earth has been untied
I made the butter fly with Lucy in the Sky; it is no lie: the earth, it is high

I have ears that don't stop ringing; my mind is broken, but I can't stop singing
I'm blind and stupid, but I'm learning: the world is turning, but it won't stop burning

My mind is stupid and it's singing; I don't know why my ears have not stopped ringing
Maybe I'm stupid, but I'm learning; the world is turning but it won't stop burning


Here's another player thingy in case the original way of posting the songs no longer works on your device. This player thingy works on my computer and my iPad, but not my phone. And the original song player thingy works on my phone, but not on my iPad or computer.