Graduation's Here; We Don't Have Jobs!!!!

NOJOBS01

The students are in a freak-out because it's graduation day, but they don't have jobs waiting for them. (See below if you're unfamiliar with this project.) It's that sad irony that a lot o' graduates face these days, in which graduation's supposed to be this happy day, but, instead, it's more like approaching a cliff and falling into mid-air because there're no jobs to go to. Like, you have no net to catch you - yer just free falling into the abyss of joblessness. In lieu of being all celebrate-y about graduation, the girl and her friend go and get hammered to deal with their bummed-out-ness.

Here's last week's song if you play it backwards:

Weird no jobs

The lyrics are:

I’m feeling dumb, going in circles, slower than turtles

The day has come, dig in the dirt, though no jobs are fertile

Graduation’s here: we don’t have jobs

Fuck we feel dumb; There is no job to come, that is a problem

Luck steals our crumb; we’re here to rob from; there is no job, um

Graduation’s here: we don’t have jobs

We don’t have jobs; we don’t have jobs; we don’t have jobs; we don’t have jobs

We’re feeling dumb and we’re in distress

The day has come and our new address

On the street of defeat it is where we meet

Drag our feet through the peat, we have to retreat

Hey there is one idear

We can go out and get some beer

It is now clear, we’ll have no fear

Our minds are blind but we find they can steer

Graduation’s here: we don’t have jobs

We don’t have jobs; we don’t have jobs; we don’t have jobs; we don’t have jobs

One day, I started writing a song about a fucked up school. Then, a few days later, that lawsuit came out, involving those pervy professors in the Dartmouth Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. I was all, oh, my stars!!! That’s where I got my Ph.D.! Then I finished writing the song about a week later. I thought it was just a song about how the school system fucks up kids, but after I finished writing and recording it, I realized parts of it were about my experiences in that poopy psych department (the unconscious mind works in mysterious ways). In any event, I decided to write an album about a fucked up school in order to process my experiences of having been in that department and how the culture there impacted me. This album ain’t necessarily about Dartmouth, per se. It’s more of a weird, inner exploration where I’m, like, having a fucked up dialogue with my unconscious about my experiences at Dartmouth. Jung used to call that kind of stuff “active imagination.” So far, this album follows the story of a girl, whose guardian angels try to protect her, but often can't find her. The angels at some point decide that they have to protect the girl from those nasty teachers and start to plot against them. But then they realize they don’t want to actually harm the teachers, so they, instead, make the teachers’ brains into nature brains ™, which are basically brains that hear communications coming from nature spirits. The angels do this because they think it’ll give those teachers more empathy, and will, in turn, be nice to the students.  After the teachers receive those nature brains, they go crazy because a mountain starts speaking to them, and the numinosity of that experience is too much for them to handle. As graduation approaches, the girl and her friend get more and more nervous about not having jobs afterwards, so they turn to beer to help them cope with their anxiety.

Backwards Song With No Jobs In It

BANOJ0BS
The people in this backwards song have the blues. They're also singing loud about bein' sad campers, in a general sense.

They're Putting Me To Sleep

They're putting me to sleep

I'm reposting this song, cuz now I have a backwards version and a backwards-turned-around version I can play for you guys. Yesiree.

In any event, if you haven't read last week's post, this is a song from the point of a view of an old dog being put to sleep because of being in failing health. The rap part has a bunch of stuff about spirits coming to get the doggy when s/he dies, so I included that in the picture. I mean, the dudes coming to get the dog are angels, and that might be a different thing than spirits, in general. But, then again, if I was dying, I'd be on board with those particular angels coming to get me because they're really nice. They're the same angels as the ones in the school album.

I've heard lots of stories about people dying and seeing the spirits of people who've already passed coming to get them. I think that happens for dogs and cats, too.

BACSLEEP

Here's the backwards version of the song.

Weird they're putting me to sleep mix 2

Here's the backwards version of it, turned around. I tweaked the timing of the vocals, relative to the timing of the rhythm track, just a teeny tiny bit, to make things match up.

The lyrics are:

I am an old dog, and I think I’m dying

And my mind’s a fog, cannot find my kite string

They took me to the vet for one final visit

Now the sun has set, will I fly up to it?

They’re putting me to sleep; what will it be like on the other side of things?

Pray my soul to keep; fuck it is the time; fly me up on Heaven’s wings

Everyone got sad, and I see them crying

But my health is bad, and it’s time for dying

I am an old dog – hope I go to Heaven

Fly me from this fog, with a voice eleven

They’re putting me to sleep; what will it be like on the other side of things?

Pray my soul to keep; fuck it is the time; fly me up on Heaven’s wings

Is it fading away? My life is getting done

In the shade of the day, I cry to the setting sun

I’m a dog with a shot that makes me fly away

From this fog, it’s a lot; it takes my pain away

Do I hear the spirits that are knocking at my door?

They are really nice to come and get me, oh Dear Lord

They have come to get me, I remember how it was

The last time I was set free and we got on Heaven’s Bus

I Need Somebody To Calm Me Down

I need somebody to calm me down mix 3

In this song, the girl starts to feel panicky about graduation approaching and there not being any jobs or anything waiting for her afterwards.  (See below, if you're unfamiliar with this project.) She thinks to herself that she needs some way to calm down - she turns to beer to provide that relief.

See, the reason for this is: After the teachers go crazy and are off her back, the girl and her friend feel all free and relaxed. They feel so free that they end up partying and drinking lots of alcohol. Then, cuz the girl is so used to drinking already, alcohol becomes the thing she uses to cope with her anxiety about the upcoming graduation.

The rapping-part is the guardian angels going, oh fuck, what do we do? It's like they feel responsible because the girl relaxing (and, in turn partying and drinking so much), is due to their intervening and making the teachers nuts.

Here's last week's song, if you play it backwards:

Weird i need somebody to calm me down

The lyrics are:

Maybe I’ll sink down into the drink/ where my spirit’s flying high singing in a purple sky

What is this seed that we have sown/ thought that we would all be free but our minds are getting blown

I feel like I need somebody to calm me down

Heaven’s above, sent on a dove

we were protecting the girl out of love

What have we done, the girl looks like she’s stunned,

she is drinking and thinking that she will have fun

Oh fuck, oh, God; oh, shit, oh dear

We suck a lot, no, it is clear

What do we do? We feel like poo

Stuck in the goo, Fuck, it is true

Now that she finally has time to relax, wow she

Feels like she’s fine but unkind is the tax

We are the sots, tying the knots / but they said that there’s a cost, we’ll be dead, forever lost

Married to drink, the ferry will sink / we are robots in the sauce, see the pope shot us, he’s the boss

I feel like I need somebody to calm me down

One day, I started writing a song about a fucked up school. Then, a few days later, that lawsuit came out, involving those pervy professors in the Dartmouth Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. I was all, oh, my stars!!! That’s where I got my Ph.D.! Then I finished writing the song about a week later. I thought it was just a song about how the school system fucks up kids, but after I finished writing and recording it, I realized parts of it were about my experiences in that poopy psych department (the unconscious mind works in mysterious ways). In any event, I decided to write an album about a fucked up school in order to process my experiences of having been in that department and how the culture there impacted me. This album ain’t necessarily about Dartmouth, per se. It’s more of a weird, inner exploration where I’m, like, having a fucked up dialogue with my unconscious about my experiences at Dartmouth. Jung used to call that kind of stuff “active imagination.” So far, this album follows the story of a girl, whose guardian angels try to protect her, but often can't find her. The angels at some point decide that they have to protect the girl from those nasty teachers and start to plot against them. But then they realize they don’t want to actually harm the teachers, so they, instead, make the teachers’ brains into nature brains ™, which are basically brains that hear communications coming from nature spirits. The angels do this because they think it’ll give those teachers more empathy, and will, in turn, be nice to the students.  After the teachers receive those nature brains, they go crazy because a mountain starts speaking to them, and the numinosity of that experience is too much for them to handle.

They're Putting Me To Sleep

They're putting me to sleep

 I'm deviating from the school album for just one  post cuz I recorded this song on Saturday; and I didn't want to wait to post it. See, there're enough songs on the school album to last till May, and my initial plan was to put new songs on this blog after the school album was all done. But I got impulsive and decided to put this one on. I'll record and post the backwards version later - not sure when, but I'll get it done soonish.

This song's from the point of view of a dog being put to sleep. The picture, above, is from 2018, and I figured it was a good one to use cuz it has a crying dog in it. The bear's just there for good measure. It never hurts to have a bear in your picture.

With these icky health issues I'm running up against, I've been thinking about death a lot. I mean, what I have ain't life threatening, but running up against really bad health stuff does make you think about death a lot. It's like, you realize that your body is mortal and will crap out eventually; even though we all know that fact, technically speaking, sometimes it takes a decline in health to face that reality all-the-way. Death becomes front and center instead of a thing off in the distance. As a result, most of my recent songs have been about death.

When this song came to me in a dream, I thought, wow, this has potential. As such, I thought it would be better to make it about something specific instead of death, in general, because the latter would be boring. I mean, songs about general topics can be boring cuz they don't tell as much of a story as stuff that's more specific. Or at least, when I write songs, that tends to happen. Maybe other people have better luck with general stuff, though, so I shouldn't knock it. If people write songs about general stuff, and they come out good, that's great. But in this case, I wanted this song to tell a specific story, so the idear of the end of a dog's life came to me.

Man alive, though. The voice of the dog really came through when I was figuring out those lyrics. It was like magic, that dog speaking to me.

The lyrics are:

I am an old dog, and I think I’m dying

And my mind’s a fog, cannot find my kite string

(They) took me to the vet for one final visit

Now the sun has set, will I fly up to it?

(They’re) putting me to sleep; what will it be like on the other side of things?

Pray my soul to keep; fuck it is the time; fly me up on Heaven’s wings

Everyone got sad, and I see them crying

But my health is bad, and it’s time for dying

I am an old dog – hope I go to Heaven

Fly me from this fog, with a voice eleven

(They’re) putting me to sleep; what will it be like on the other side of things?

Pray my soul to keep; fuck it is the time; fly me up on Heaven’s wings

Is it fading away? My life is getting done

In the shade of the day, I cry (to the) setting sun

I’m a dog with a shot that makes me fly away

From this fog, it’s a lot; it takes my pain away

Do I hear the spirits that are knocking at my door?

They are really nice to come and get me, oh Dear Lord

They have come to get me, I remember how it was

The last time I was set free and we got on Heaven’s Bus

The "voice eleven" part is a reference thingy - it refers to that scene in Spinal Tap, where the dude's amp goes up to 11. And the "In the shade of the day, I cry to the setting sun" part is a reference to Linkin Park's "Shadow of the Day."

Backwards Song About Calmness Or Lack Thereof

BACKCALM

This here backwards song sounds happy and sad at the same time.

I also have an impression of something 80's-ish sounding. Like, maybe it sounds like a song at the end of an 80's movie that everybody watched in the 80's because it was a big hit movie, so everybody knows the song because of it being at the end of the movie. Except this song ain't in English all-the-way.

That's what it evokes for me, in addition to it being happy and sad at the same time.