Bring Back the Soul of the World

 

Bring Back the Soul of the World

Yeah, let'see if I can make this explanation not too long winded. In this Year of my Writer's Block, I was tossing around ideas for concept albums, which might potentially get the creative juices flowing. One o' the things I've been aspiring to do for a while is to record songs that sound like a bunch of people in a church, singing church songs so exuberantly that they sound drunk. I think the closest I've come to that sound has been "Over an Hour Away From Home" and "Happy Birthday, Bro" (although I wasn't consciously trying to get the drunk-church sound on those songs - it just sorta happened). Anyway, yesterday morning, I was thinking it might be fun to focus for a while on recording fake drunk-church hymns.

But then I thought to myself, what would the hymns be about? I ain't been to church in many, many years. What're hymns usually about?

Well, there was something deeply disturbing that happened to me the other day. I saw this picture on Facebook of a statue that had been burnt up in the Hiroshima bombing, and something about it freaked the fuck out of me. I realized after thinking about it for a while, that it felt to me like the soul had been burnt out of the statue. The statue now has no soul. That was freaky, because I tend to think of everything as having a soul.

There've been times I've walked through places and felt a creepy emptiness about those places. I've wondered for a while if those're places that don't have souls. (I think of places as having souls). For a while I've hypothesized that these places don't have souls because some atrocity happened in said places, and either the soul of the place died or it flew away.

That led me to my idea of what the fake, made-up hymns could be about. See, I've wondered for a while if music can bring a soul back to life or if music can call a lost soul back to where it belongs. I realized yesterday, hey, that's what my fake hymns can be - they can be songs that cal the lost souls of places back home again, and those songs'll be sung by drunk church people.

Phew, that was a long description.

Anyway, this song ain't as churchy sounding as I'm planning the rest to sound like. I guess you can think of this one as a general introduction. Yay.

The lyrics are:

There are holes where the world has lost her soul
And the emptiness leaves us feeling cold
When you see the no-soul, it will make you sad
Because you now know that something real bad (has happened there)

We want to repair all those holes
Bring back the world's ever loving soul
Can this song bring back the soul of the
World? We don't know, but we hope so

This is my new collection of songs
And I hope to God that it does not sound long
And boring; I'll tell you what it's about
I feel so strong about this, I could shout

When atrocities happen in a certain
Area the soul of that place disappears
You might notice that it feels empty and
Cold, and that is because it don't have a soul

We want to repair all those holes
Bring back the world's ever loving soul
Can this song bring back the soul of the
World? We don't know, but we hope so

I want to write an album about some people in
A church, who want to make the world better by singing
And they sing so exuberantly that they sound drunk
Trying to heal the world with music cuz it's in a funk
See, I've walked around some places that feel empty – I'm aware
That the likelihood is that something really bad happened there
To the indigenous people who were living on the land
And the soul of that land left – it was something she could not stand
See, I believe that music can heal a lot of things
Can it bring back the soul of the world when people sing?
We'll see if the drunken church music people can bring
Back the soul of the world when everyone starts to sing

We want to repair all those holes
Bring back the world's ever loving soul
Can this song bring back the soul of the
World? We don't know, but we hope so

Bring back her soul let's bring the world back her soul

Over an Hour Away From Home

 

Over An Hour Away From Home

I came up with this song on my way back home from a road trip last weekend. My GPS said I was just a little over an hour away from home. I was sad about leavin' the place I'd gone to, while concurrently wanting to be home again.

Here's the little player thingy I always put at the bottom, in case it strikes your fancy more than the one up top there:

We're Having a Music Festival and It Tastes Like Corned Beef

 

Music Festival

 This morning, I was considering having a green day, as in smoking pot and stuff. But I was conflicted cuz I wanted to get stuff done. I'm not as productive as usual when I have a green day. Then I randomly imagined what kind of music I'd come up with if I was stoned. It was this song. I still haven't smoked yet, but maybe I will later. 

Here's the alternative little player thingy, in case you fancy usin' it to play music with:

A Million Years Ago

 A Million Years Ago

This is the next song in the possession album; the girl/me-character is reflecting on how much different her life feels now than it did before the fire god showed up.

The lyrics are:

A million years ago I had a whole different life

I don't know where to go, but I think I'll be alright 

Here's the alternative player-thingy, in case you wanna make use of it:

Backwards Birthday Song Turned Around

 

Backwards birthday song turned frontwords

 I went and turned around the backwards song I recorded yesterday, so it's now a weird version of the birthday song (from 1-20-22). Whoops, I misspelled "frontwards" in the MP3 file title. Oh, well.

Here're the lyrics, so you can see how close I got:

My birthday's coming up; I'm feeling mighty old
Yes it is coming up; if I may be so bold

I'll explain...I guess I really don't mind

And it is a safe bet my birthday's coming soon
And I'll admit my head is older than the moon

And I'll say...I guess I really don't mind

I'll bake a cake, or maybe just get baked
On my birthday and I'll celebrate
The last trip around the sun and some
Bong hits will give me the munchies, um...
Maybe I need to make that cake
Cuz I'll want it after I get baked
I'll smoke pot then commemorate

My new oldness with a birthday cake

My birthday's almost here, yes it will be here soon
And now it's very clear I'm older than the moon

But I'll say...I guess I really don't mind

I don't care if I'm old; and now you have been told
I'll explain

I really don't care
I really don't care
I really don't care

I really don't care

Here's the other little player thingy: 

Backwards Birthday Song

Backwards birthday song

If anybody out there has been following this blog for a while, you might remember those backwards songs I used to do. Here's one I did today! It's the backwards version of the Birthday Song from 1-20-22.

Here's the alternative player thingy, in case you're interested in using it:

Bear With Me

 

Bear With Me

 This a song where I attempted to make fractal-sounding music. 

I Apologize for My Music Sucking

 

I apologize for my music sucking

Yeah, you probably are already aware of it, but I'm going through a big old writer's block. My music over the last couple months has been sucking about as bad as music can suck. So this song is an apology for all the people who come back every week to listen to my tunes and get disappointed by my current selection of sucky suckitude. And I also wanted to let people know I'm aware of my current music's sucky suckitude. 

The lyrics are:

I wanted to issue an apology
I wanted to issue an apology
My music is sucking every single day
I don't want to listen; I don't want to play it
I have an apology for the people who follow me
I want to say I'm sorry
It's a writer's block...a writer's block
Every once in a while, my music sucks
But come back to it, just come back to it
Someday, it'll get good again
In the meantime, I apologize
I apologize

Here's the little player thingy that goes at the bottom:

They Let Her Speak

They Let Her Speak

This is the next song in the possession album. Grandma is commenting on how Timmy, Bobby, and Father O'Malley are good guys to have around cuz they're the kind of guys who let women speak and listen to them, to boot.

The lyrics are:

I'm Grandma; what I want to say to you
When history looks back at us, they'll say it's true (they'll say)

Those boys in the picture – they let her speak

You guys are the kind of boys that let girls talk
And moving forward, you're each other's rocks

Those boys in the picture – they let her speak

Timmy and Bobby and Father O'Malley are great
Mates to have with you when you face the fate that awaits
All of the world when the scary shit hits the fan
They listen to you, and I can say that as your grand-
Mother, I've been around and seen a thing or two and
You have a friendship that is so very grand
I can tell you that you need both girls and boys
When the thunder comes, you will need to make a bigger noise
Than the world that is lost inside of the dark
You guys, put together, will sing as loud as Linkin Park
What the bears told you scared you but it won't be so bad
If you stick together once the world has gotten mad
The kind of boys that let girls speak are who you will want
To be on the same team as you – they bring in the sun

Things are not as scary as they seem
That's because you're all on the same team

Those boys in the picture – they let her speak

Here's the alternative player thingy, just in case you wanna decide to use it:

Home Grown Avocados

 

Home Grown Avocados

 Here's the song where my voice sounds like shit, in parts of it. It's a song that came from a dream. It's about home grown avocados. I realized, wait, this is a song about something green and it's St. Patrick's Day. How festive of me.

The lyrics are:

Growing on the tallest tree
In the yard, I plainly see

Home grown avocados, they are home grown in the yard
Home grown avocados; do not eat them when they're hard

Heaven on Earth has a taste
It puts a smile on my face

Home grown avocados, they are home grown in the yard
Home grown avocados; do not eat them when they're hard

My mama told me how to make some guacamole and I did eat
It and, holy moly, and I'll state it boldly it is a treat
...But sometimes the savory flavors of avocados
That have not been mushed up are the thing that I want with my tacos

Home grown avocados, they are home grown in the yard
Home grown avocados; do not eat them when they're hard

My Voice is All Fucked Up

 

Fucked Up Voice Song

I'll be posting two songs tonight, so stay tuned for the other one.

See, over the past month and a half or so, my voice has been getting progressively more and more fucked up. It got to the point where my throat felt like it was filled with ashes, and I could barely manage a gross, raspy voice. I didn't know what was causing it, until I realized, oh yeah - my voice started getting fucked up around the time I bought these new masks.

See, throughout the pandemic, I've been wearing these Linkin Park masks I got on Amazon. Y'know, just masks with the Linkin Park logo, cuz I like Linkin Park so much. My masks were gettin' old, so I found some new Linkin Park masks on Amazon and got those. They were made of different material than the old ones, but I didn't think much of it.

Then, 2 Saturdays ago I wore one of those new masks for an extended period of time, and my throat ended up fucked-upper than it has ever been in my entire life. I finally put 2 and 2 together and stopped wearing the questionable masks. My voice has been recovering, but very verrrry slowwwwly. I think those masks had some horrible chemical dye in them that fucked me up. Or maybe I was inhaling a bunch of horrid fibers. I'm not sure.

But I got really frustrated recording the other song I'm gonna post tonight because my vocals sound like poop and I couldn't achieve that magicalness that I always aim for with my vocal stylings. So, then I got all frustrated and started wailing on my bass and singing, and oddly, my voice came out sounding better than it has in this month and a half or so. So I quickly laid down a track of me singing not horridly, so I can be a little less depressed about the whole thing.

In short, this is a song where I reclaim a bit o' that magic in my vocal stylin's, as I sing about how my vocal stylin's lost their magic. I mean, this ain't perfect or anything, but it's better than some o' the other stuff I've been doing recently.

We'll Never Know Where The Gorgon Schemes Go

 

We'll Never Know Where The Gorgon Schemes Go - Mix 2

 This is the next song on the possession album and it's a weird one cuz I got the chorus from a dream. The bears tell the me-character, Timmy, Bobby, and Father O'Malley to stick together cuz the world is gonna get fucked up real soon (well, fucked upper than it is right now, I should say). "Gorgon schemes" is sort of a metaphor that the bears use for talking about the fucked upness of the world.

The lyrics are:

We can tell you that you are the kindest people that we know
And remember: Stick together cuz you're in for quite a show

We'll never know where the Gorgon schemes go

You have light inside your souls – it's something that you did not know
And the fire god was attracted to your good, eternal glow

We'll never know where the Gorgon schemes go

We are the bears we'll tell you cuz we care
That we are aware of what we're about to share
The world's getting very dark and very scary
It will get hairy soon, so we will share these
Words with you: Something as scary as a
Lady with snakes in her hair's coming this way
You guys are a combination of
Toughness on top of a gigantic love
And if you guys stick together, whether
Smoking pot or drinking beer, you'll weather
A storm so scary that looking at it
Directly – and we must be emphatic -
Will turn your heart into a frozen stone
But if you're smart, you'll not face it alone
We know that you will make a difference
And the world will be better because of five friends

You've been tested to the limits of human experience
And you'll need that toughness cuz we know that you guys have been sent...
To fight against … the fucked upness
Of this world … of this world

We'll never know where the Gorgon schemes go

Here's the alternative player thingy just in case the one up top is incompatible with your portable electronic device:

Forty Three Dollars for Seven Gallons of Gas

 

43 Dollars for 7 Gallons of Gas

 Here's a song about how gas prices have gotten so high. It's a true story.

The lyrics are:

I guess I need to drive to work
I have duties I should not shirk
I'll stop at this gas station
The receipt sez – oh my gracious -

Forty three dollars for seven gallons of gas
I spent 43 dollars on 7 gallons of gas

We are all now so dependent
On this thing that's so expensive
Gasoline goes down like water
Making this whole world get hotter

Forty three dollars for seven gallons of gas
I spent 43 dollars on 7 gallons of gas

This was at the station with the cheapest gas in this whole town
I guess I am patiently waiting for prices to go down
Before I can take a road trip; it's a thing I don't want to skip
But prices may not ever go down even at the cheapest station in town

Forty three dollars for seven gallons of gas
I spent 43 dollars on 7 gallons of gas

Here's the other player thingy, in case you wanna use it:

Wait, There's Bears There

Wait There's Bears There - Mix 2

 This is the next song in the possession album. Everyone has been so busy focusing on being sad, that they forgot there were a bunch of bears there with them. The bears start to speak to them (probably telepathically).

The lyrics are:

We were focused on how sad we were that we
Forgot about the big bears, who we plainly see
They're standing in front of us, and it looks like they
Want us to listen to something they have to say
We're ready to listen... to all those bears
They have eyes that glisten as they start to share
Something that sounds like it'll be important
I hope it won't make me want to shit my pants

Wait, there's bears there, wait, there's bears there,
And it looks like they have something to say

I'm ready, Freddie, to listen to the Teddies

I'll bet these teddies who sit in all these dens see
Some things that are beyond human perception
So we'll make sure they get a good reception
When they tell us what they have to say to us
And we're curious as to what they will discuss
And we see that Grandma's standing there with them
We see clearly that she wants us to listen
Wait, there's bears there, wait, there's bears there,
And it looks like they have something to say

Wait, there's bears there, wait, there's bears there,
And it looks like they have something to say

Grandma's with some mama bears, and we all stare
We can tell that they all care so they will share
Something that applies to us - we don't know what
One thing, though, that I know is that they're not butts

Wait, there's Grandma

Wait, there's Grandma

Here's the alternative player thingy, just in case it's your cup o' tea:
 

We're Struggling, Losing Our Souls

 

We're Struggling Losing Our Souls

The first chorus-y part of this song came from a dream, and it seemed timely to make this song about the apocalyptic state o' the world as it is, right now. It turns out, there was this study done, where it was found out there are 40% fewer birds than there were 30 years ago. That's some freaky-ass shit. That, and all the bad stuff happening in Europe right now are, collectively, fucked-uppedly freaky-ass shit.

The lyrics are:

It is adversely impacting my psychology 

When I see what's happening to the ecology

Of our tiny planet, and I will shed many tears

When I can not stand it I will go drink many beers

I'm struggling losing my soul
I'm struggling losing my soul

I look out the window and there were no more birds anymore
No this is not a metaphor; birds have disappeared, for you

Information – forty percent
of birds are missing (I) don't know where they went

I used to think the world was fucked up in twenty eleven
Now I know, relatively speaking, things back then were heaven

We're struggling, losing our souls
We're struggling, losing our souls

My friend told me about an article about birds
Over the last 30 years, and it might sounds absurd,
But over forty percent of birds are gone, and I cry
It bent my mind – are we entering end times? Oh, my
If those birds all have gone missing, it don't seem very promising

For our future as a planet; I'm so blue that I can't stand it
Now there's raging wars and we can't afford to have any more things that bring us toward
End times, but I guess we had fun on all our trips around the sun

We're struggling, losing our souls
We're struggling, losing our souls

Here's the other little player thingy, in case the one up top ain't to your liking.