The Good Mule - December 14, 2012

Couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Rod Matheson who has embarked on a film-blog project called  Everyday Music - 1000 Musicians, 1000 Songs, 1000 Days. Rod was going to be in Victoria filming musical acts for his blog and thanks to Nick Lyons acting as a matchmaker, I was fortunate to be one of the people included.  I got together with Rachelle Reath and Marek Tyler and we laid down this version of The Good Mule.  This song falls squarely into the group of songs I have written which I have labelled Middle Age Laments, or alternatively, Mope Pop.  A year and a half ago we recorded a really nice version of it with the superfun/superimpractical 7-piece band The Euphorians and I am happy with the way it has translated into the 3-piece.  Thanks Rod, Nick, Rachelle, and Marek.

click here to hear: THE GOOD MULE - THE EUPHORIANS

The Good Mule

The crazy adventure

was less adventure, more ordeal

was less crazy than it was senseless

mundane and uneventful

I could scratch a grain of truth

from the hard scrabble of the day

it's my nature to perservere

I'm a good mule

And suddenly

I was one degree fatter

suddenly

I was one degree sadder

suddenly

I was closer to the dirt

suddenly

I was travelling beneath the earth

and suddenly

I was flying in the sky

where the birds in heaven could hear my sad cries

The road to ordinary

is one paved with pavement

no medals are awarded

for getting out of bed

and nobody clapped

when I flapped my tongue

And suddenly

I was silent and slobbery

a victim

of incremental robbery

suddenly 

my tongue fell out on the ground

and suddenly there was no more sound

Booze Party - December 4, 2012

Actually recorded this a week and a half ago, but haven't got around to putting it up.  Booze Party was a song I first heard through my friend and obsessive music and film collector Gary Field.  It was on a compilation of obscure rockabilly and rhythm'n'blues called Sin Alley and was performed by a combo called Three Jokers and An Ace.  I vowed to learn the song and learn it I did, performing a trashy take on it for a couple of years during my solo accordion period, before recording a pretty fucked up version of it with Mansmell for the album Hurtin' Dance Party.  It was a staple of our live set for many years, half the fun being the chaotic and discordant free noise and screaming at the end of the song.  I don't have a link to it at the moment, but I'll see what I can do....in the meantime, how about a little listen to Three Jokers and An Ace?

 

So after doing a crazed, balls-out version of Booze Party for years, I started to have this hankering to do what in my mind I started to call "The Legion Mix"....you know, a take on this psycho-billy song that you could slip into the middle of your cover band's set when you're playing at the church fundraiser or whatever.  So here's me with Booze Party 2012, The Legion Mix. There's some wicked mic distortion in the middle of the song, but this was the best take.

Crazed Ballz Out Version

click here: BOOZE PARTY - MANSMELL

And here's a totally different kind of Booze Party

Night Life - Willie Nelson - November 9, 2012

When I was in my period of heavy C&W music acquisition, there was one low budget cassette compilation I bought that ended up leaving a lasting impression on me.  It is deeply buried in a box somewhere so I can't show it to you, but it had utilitarian packaging - green type on a white background, no pics - and an odd mix of songs of uneven quality and relevance.  A few of those songs turned out to be pretty important to me.  I was familiar with the song Sittin' And Thinkin' from the Elvis Costello album Almost Blue, but here I was introduced to the sublime original version by Charlie Rich, there was Jerry Lee Lewis' What Made Milwaukee Famous (Made A Loser Out Of Me), and the subject of this blog, Willie Nelson performing his song Night Life.  Beyond that, everything else must have been pretty forgettable because...well....I don`t remember it.  Man, I loved Night Life, and a few years later when I heard Ray Price`s version I was blown away by it too.

Always wanted to learn it, but being a Willie Nelson composition, this isn`t a straight ahead 3 chord country song.  It`s packed with coloured chords and interesting modulations. That means if you try and find it on the internet there's a lot of  versions, some of them sounding righter than others.  Found a version I liked, worked on it for a while, didn't seem to sit quite right, so I  turned to accordion / guitar / musical saw hero Aaron Watson for guidance.  We watched a version of Willie performing it (see below) smunched that together with what I was already doing, shook it, gave it a twist, and well.....here's my interpretation  of the classic Night Life.  Thanks Willie, Ray, and Aaron.

Night Life - Willie Nelson

When the evening sun goes down

you will find me out hanging 'round

The night life

ain't no good life

But it's my life

Many people just like me

dreaming of old used-to-be

The night life

ain't no good life

But it's my life

Listen to the blues they're playin'

Listen what the blues are sayin'

Mine is just another scene

from the world of broken dreams

The night life

ain't no good life

But it's my life

Here is a really stellar version of a young Willie Nelson perfoming Night Life  at The Opry

And here's Ray Price doing the version most people are familiar with.  This video includes the spoken intro from the original album the song came out on.

On Top Of Old Smokey - October 27, 2012

If you're like me, the On Top Of Old Smokey you grew up with was a goofy bastardized campfire song.  Maybe in the back of my mind I knew there was a real song, maybe saw it in the track listing on a Burl Ives album or something, maybe the plaintive folk melody was lodged in my consciousness like a fish hook....but what I knew was this:

On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese

I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed

It rolled off the table and onto the floor

then my poor meatball rolled out of the door

It rolled through the garden and under a bush

then my poor meatball was covered with mush

Early next summer that very same bush

was covered in meatballs, meatballs and mush

Yah I know.....pretty profound shit.  Hilarious. A real side-splitter.  A few years ago I received as a gift from my wife and daughter some previously unreleased Hank Williams radio recordings - The Mother`s Best Sessions.  More about the Mother`s Best story later.  There is a complete 15 CD box set of this material, while the release I have is 3 CD`s that distills the seventy-two 15 minute shows into an excellent overview.  There are the hits, sometimes just written or recently recorded, unexpected covers like Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain and Cherokee Boogie, a whole load of gospel with lots of harmonies from The Drifting Cowboys, and a version of On Top of Old Smokey that was a revelation to me.  I never knew what a heartbreaking lament it was - but I guess Hank did. Check it out

In the intro, Hank refers to a it being one of the "top pop tunes in the nation."  This is likely a reference to the version by The Weavers, an abysmal piece of shit I couldn't bring myself to post here even in the interests of history.

A couple of weeks ago I stayed up too late drinking beer, playing piano and singing with Jeanne Tolmie, and On Top Of Old Smokey was one of the songs we played.  It got me all fired up about the song (again) and Saturday afternoon, Rachelle Reath and Jeanne came over and we worked out a version of it....here it is.  

The lyrics we sang are Hank's version (which differs to many versions in the second verse) with a few of our own extras and twists.

On Top Of Old Smokey - Traditional

On top of Old Smokey

all covered with snow

I lost my true lover

from courtin' too slow

On top of Old Smokey

I went there to weep

for a false-hearted lover

is worse than a thief

A thief he will rob you

and take what you've saved

But a false-hearted lover

will lay you in the grave

The grave will decay you 

and turn you to dust

The price you will always pay

when you misplace your trust

They'll hug you and kiss you

and tell you more lies 

than crossties on a railroad

or stars in the sky

On top of Old Smokey

Old Smokey so high

where the birds up in heaven

can hear my sad cries

On top of Old Smokey

all covered with snow

I lost my true lover

from courtin' too slow

Mothers Best Sessions

The Mother's Best shows were broadcast live between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m. on WSM out of Nashville, Tennessee and Hank was paid $100 a week for recording the shows that usually consisted of one country song, one instrumental and a gospel song to close the show. During the 15 minute show Hank and the announcer Louie Buck would pitch the flour in between Hank's songs and Hank even wrote a theme song for the show.

"I love to have that gal around
Her biscuits are so nice and brown
Her pies and cakes beat all the rest
Cause she makes them all with Mother's Best"

Back in those days if a radio show wasn't actually live, it was recorded live onto a 16 inch acetate and that's what the Mother's Best sessions are.  Hank and the Drifting Cowboys had a grueling touring schedule.  All the travel was by car and adding to the grind was the obligation of Opry regulars to return to Nashville most weekends, no matter where they were, to perform. The transcriptions gave WSM and its listeners a daily dose of the Lovesick Blues Boy, just as though he was there right in studio.  These recordings have a compelling immediacy and show off the relaxed musicianship and professionalism of a seasoned touring band and their dynamic leader.

At some point in history, WSM was purging its vaults and the Mother's Best acetates were destined to be dumped.  WSM employee and huge Hank fan Les Leverett recognized their value and saved them from oblivion.  What followed was years of legal battles between the estate of Hank Williams in the persons of Jett Williams and Hank Jr and "other parties"...yeah, I can't seem to find out on the internet exactly who.  While Leverett had given the acetates to Jett Williams (who had gone through a long legal battle to prove she was Hank's daughter)  a copy had also gone to someone else, possibly Drifting Cowboys bass player Hilious Butrum.  

Whatever the murky details are, the end result is an amazing musical document.  A relaxed Hank, joking  and talking, a band on top of its game, a group of musicians delving into their extensive catalogue.  A real piece of country music history.  After researching this blog, I'm feeling like I'm going to have to get the 15 CD set, if only to hear Hank's venereal disease PSA.  "Stars In Her Eyes" is a 14 minute soap opera than Hank sings and recites, interspersed with running remarks from woman who portrays an unfaithful wife who contracts syphilis. 

New July - New Song - October 21, 2012

A Song A Week is a song a week in name only.  I had been feeling bad/guilty about my lack of activity on the blog, but I have got over it.  I started the blog to give myself a kick in the pants, to ensure that I was engaged and active with music.  What it boils down to is I have been busy playing and practicing music - The Golden Country Band, old folks shows, working on my original material - along with getting through the busiest period of the painting season with my company, Kingfisher Painting Services.  I've had ample opportunity to record a song for the blog, but it just has seemed less pressing and important.  

What has instigated this blog post is a new song I've been working on.  It started to come together Friday night after Golden Country rehearsal and I pounded it out on the piano over the next couple of days and came up with this.....that was last weekend.  I did numerous takes of the song for the blog but I wasn't happy with the melody and dramatic and narrative arc of the song, so I kept working on it over the last week.  Here's me performing the song  in its current form

******Stardate January 13, 2016: this song has gone through numerous melody, time signature, feel, and key changes.....and it still ain't quite there.  

New July 

I laid my arms by the side of the road

they were tired said they needed a rest

I laid down my heart and laid down my head

after listening to them confess

My torso, my legs and me

drinklessly persevered

weaving, weaving

no matter which way we steered

I've decided I'm gonna start smoking

please, light me on fire

I'll burn hot and bright through the soft dark night

a funeral pyre of human desire

At dusk, bats' acrobatics

the geometry of geese in flight

these are the charms I use

to defend against the night

Summer rain inert upon abstract blocks of hospital

where three thousand lie damaged and decaying

A crouching woman howls, a man snarls and lick his balls

in paper slippers I shuffle through the halls

And I got nothing to protect me

from things that fall from the sky

but I ain't worried

I ain't worried

I heard it's gonna be a new July

And I got nothing to protect me

from things that fall from the sky

but I ain't worried

I ain't worried

I heard it's gonna be a new July

Going Away Party - What Week Is This!

Goin" Away Party

I've been busy. Here's a great song penned by Cindy Walker.  Thanks to Brad Johnson, Calvin Dick, Eric Gallipo,  and Rachelle Reath.

And here's an excellent reading by Marshall 

Chapman 

The Comeback Trail #2 - Bus Depot Blue

What!?!  Another blogpost!?!  COMEBACK TRAIL, YO.  Here's a song I recorded on my cd Hurtin' Dance Party (2002).  After the fractious demise of The Dogbreath Brothers, I played solo for a couple of years and the initial concept was that this would be a solo album.  However I excitedly invited all kinds of people to play on it, the result being some very fresh live off the floor recordings as we learned and recorded the songs on the fly.  The sessions also acted as the genesis of two distinct combos:  the heavy-hitting and unpredictable Mansmell  and the dreamy and atmoshperic Whelps. 

But I digress here...Bus Depot Blue is a simple narrative C&W song that would have been part of the Mansmell repertoire, but we never performed it live too much because it's kind of quiet and sensitive and Mansmell was anything but.  People wanted the rock, they wanted to see Calvin Dick lose his shit on a set of drums.  The studio version features the Wurlitzer Sideman, a mechanical drum machine circa 1950's.  Playing lapsteel is Tolan McNeil.  Pretty sure we did 3 takes, not sure which one we used.  I remember Tolan not being totally stoked about his part, but I think his snakey intuitive playing makes the song.  Not only did we rarely play the song back when it was current, I never play it now.  Ever.  So it was kind of strange I sat down to play and it popped out.  Here's the version I just recorded and below it is a link to the album version.

Bus Depot Blue, studio recording.

Bus Depot Blue - David P. Smith

Snot-nosed kids with Grandma, knapsacks and sweethearts
seats adjoined row on row all vinyl and chrome
Ghostly figures on the screens of coin-operated TV's
like flickering memories of a time we used to know
This big and modern bus depot is the end of the road
You're riding Greyhound to Saskatoon
you might as well be flying to the moon

And I'm sick with hurt and I'm confused
I'm sick of arguing till dawn
I'm sick with booze and missing you
and you've barely been gone
My heart is in my mouth it might fall out on the floor
and I can still see you walking out that automatic door

Yodel

A hundred mile high prairie sky towers sullen and grey
The night glides in on silent wings sucks the light out of the day
Clouds fall to the ground, rain is all around
you're headed east, I'm headed west, I guess that you know best
Travelling down this highway, my heart filled with regret
a note to myself - remember to forget

Remember to forget the joy that we had
remember to remember the crap that made me sad
there's nothing on the radio 'cept preachers and white noise
but it's better than listening to the echoes of your voice

Yodel

The Comeback Trail: She Thinks I Still Care - George Jones Cover - August 20, 2012

Followers of this blog, if such a thing exists, may have noted the absence of postings over the past few weeks.  Been sucking wind.  Blowing chunks, some might say.  You'll find no litany of excuses here....you wanna know the dreary details?  Drop me a line, give me a call, we'll go for a drink.  I'll fill your glass - and your ear.  I'm attempting a comeback.  My tailor's sewing me a bejeweled lycra jumpsuit with a padded junk pouch.  Keep watching the blog and you might get a peak of that.

In the meantime, here's a George Jones song.  George Jones is such an emotive and absolutely unique vocalist that taking on one of his standards is somewhat foolhardy.  Well call me a fool, and a hardy one at that.  I love this song and have sung it for years.  When I was first getting into C&W I bought this cassette at a drugstore in Three Hills, Alberta.

I had heard of George Jones but didn't know much about him.  There were some Hank Williams songs on the collection I knew, I think maybe a Buck Owens cover too, some other titles I recognized - so I bought it.  I was just out there making exploratory purchases to discover and learn about country.  No one I knew was into the shit.  I've got piles of George Jones now, but for quite a while this was the only George I had.

She Thinks I Still Care was written by songsmith Dickey Lee, who also wrote the oft recorded Patches as well as many other hit songs.  It has been recorded an estimated 1,000 times by different artists including Elvis Presley.  Here's my version of the song.

She Thinks I Still Care - Dickey Lee

Just because I ask a friend about her
Just because I spoke her name somewhere
Just because I rang her number by mistake today
She thinks I still care

Just because I haunt the same old places
Where the mem'ry of her lingers ev'rywhere
Just because I'm not the happy guy I used to be
She thinks I still care

But if she's happy thinkin' I still need her
Then let that silly notion bring her cheer
But how could she ever be so foolish
Oh where would she get such an idea

Just because I ask a friend about her
And just because I spoke her name somewhere
Just because I saw her then went all to pieces
She thinks I still care
She thinks I still care

Here's a couple of George Jones versions, one by Elvis.....and more.  Enjoy!

Young George:  gotta love the guy doing harmonies popping in and out of frame to sing his lines

Classic George live on the Johnny Cash show

Elvis:  this is pretty good.

Beck

Random:  George McGovern

Just one more...The Grand Tour

New Blues #3 - Funeral Blues - Songwriter workshop intro song - July 22, 2012

The blog, staggering through the summer - staggering fo' sho' - A Song A Week in name only.  Maybe I'll pile multiple songs into weeks later in the year to make up for the summer doldrums.

So next week I'm heading up to Barkerville to participate as an invited artist in a week long songwriting workshop facilitated by Dave Bidini and his band.  Following that I'll be performing at the Arts Wells Festival.

 I must admit to a certain level of trepidation about this workshop, not that I know what to expect really, but being in a group/classroom situation and having to come up with songs definitely takes me out of my comfort zone. I don't know what "comfort zone" means, or is, or if I have ever been there, but I won't be there next week. I kind of spew songs out as they come to me, as I filter the world and my experiences and emotions through the cerebral song grinder.

Last week, I recieved this email

Your instructor, Dave Bidini, would like me to pass on a message, regarding your Song Writing Course. He would like you to come up with a short, one-minute song. This song will tell the class who you are, and will be played at the first session. Yes, you have homework already!

I exited the comfort zone, put my head down like a good little boy and wrote a song.  It's a minor blues middle age lament about funerals and storms.  

New Blues #2 (Funeral Blues)

I emote with icons

stumbling down the passage of time

two thin dimes on my feet silver dollars on my sockets

draped in a cool white sheet

I could see the storm a-rising as I rolled on 'round the bend

thinking 'bout the funerals I've been planning to attend

in my cum-stained pants and my curly hair shirt

with my sack of blood and my bottle of dirt

my wagon of woe, my world of hurt

when lightning struck the cruise ship

it shattered like a pomegranate

and I clung to two hearts

that keep me anchored on this planet

oh woh woh woh woh woh

oh woh woh woh woh woh

oh woh woh woh woh woh 

woh

****Star Date:  January 12, 2016:

So a couple of things happened since I posted this blog and now.  Over the past coupla years rehearsing and recording,  I mixed up the order I composed my "New Blues" series.  This song, Funeral Blues, in reality #3 became New Blues #2.  And I wrote some more lyrics.  And it got recorded with a band.  I'll post a version of it soon!    

Horseleg Swastikas - Silver Jews Cover - July 8, 2012

I had been staying at my friend Dave Gowans' place, we were milling around before I departed to catch the ferry, and he put on the Silver Jews  album Bright Flight.  I was struck by the vision and imagery of David Berman's writing and his startlingly original wordplay and became an instant convert. I've been a serious fan since, accumulating the entire discography and covering a couple of songs....this one, and from the album American Water, the song Random Rules which we recorded  and released on my CD Mantennae.  The sweet girl vox featuring Rachelle Reath and Megan Boddy, plus percussive touches, were added later by DJ Hairwolf at The Palace Of The Golden Dragon.  

CLICK HERE to listen to our version of RANDOM RULES recorded by Scott Bennett live in the living room at Walnut 

Street. 

Here my version of the song

Horseleg Swastikas - David Berman

Drunk on a couch in Nashville

in a duplex near the reservoir

every single thought is like a punch in the face

I'm like a rabbit freezing on a star

On the wrong side of Sunday morning

shattered in a terrible light

working for a bankrupt circus 

on the wrong side of Saturday night

And I wanna be like water if I can

'Cause water doesn't give a damn

water doesn't give a damn

Chased by a floating hatchet

you can't just shoot your way out and go

I could tell you things about this wallpaper

that you never ever wanna know

There's an altar in the valley

for thing in themselves as they are

and the triumph of the obstacle

and horseleg swastikas

And I wanna take a ride on the back of a sunbird

up into the highest number

up into the highest number

And I wanna be like water if I can

'Cause water doesn't give a damn

water doesn't give a damn

If you haven't heard the original, check it out!

Your Window - Great Aunt Ida cover - June 25, 2012

So it looks like A Song A Week  might need to be renamed to A Song Whenever I Get To It.  I have my reasons/ excuses....

1. The Company - Kingfisher Painting Services, it's our busiest time of year.  When I started the blog it was our slowest part of the year.

2. The Dog - Dinah, the blue-eyed she-devil.  This dog walking business eats up your free time!

3.  Euro 2012 - a Man must have his footy.

Ida Nilsen was a force on the Vancouver music scene for many years before relocating to Toronto.  One of those musically intelligent multi-instrumentalists who is capable of bringing something unique and critical to every project she gets involved with.  I knew her best through The Sugar Refinery, that magical venue of lore, where one of my fondest memories involved me clumsily  banging out a boozy Blue Christmas on the notoriously out of tune piano, Ida behind me, whisky-soaked clouds emanating from the bell of her drunken trumpet, while a rare heavy and silent snow fell on Vancouver.

Your Window, the opening track from her most recent Great Aunt Ida album Nuclearize Me,  is insanely catchy, infused with an internalized melancholy, and is lyrically clever.  "I see trouble looking through your window" she sings at the end of the first stanza, while the last verse ends with "I think of all the things I saw through your window."  Hmmmmm...what does it all mean?  Send Ida a message and find out. And while you're at it check out the Great Aunt Ida album I originally got obsessed with How They Fly - Great Aunt Ida

Okay, here's my version of the song

Here's a live version of Ida doing it

Your Window by Ida

Find her on Facebook

Your Window - Ida Nilsen

Lover where's your smile

I haven't seen it in a while

what's made you so blue

I see trouble looking through

your window

Lover I'm not scared

I have got myself prepared

I've been watching you so long

I know every break-up song

I am listening

Did you say your heart's gone

do you think that it will come back

I'll take you to the airport

put you on a fast track

Then I'll go walk around

rain is different in this town

falls on faces I won't meet

crossing every major street

I can think of

Did you say your heart's gone

do you think that it might be here

have you looked in all the places

you've been to for the last year

Then I'll go walk around

fill the emptiness with sound

watch the streetlamps turning on

think of all the things I saw 

through your window

The Blog Faltered - To The Ghosts - June 13, 2012

The blog faltered.  I failed to adhere to the construct. There was no song last week.  It was a busy week, but the real problem was my wife was away and all order, routine, and structure crumbled.  Subsisting on all meat pizzas, salt & pepper squid, and salisbury steaks; unclothed, unshaved, guzzling red wine by the box, subscribed to the 24 hour Charlie Sheen channel, marathon phone sex with a Moldavian heiress, filth, squalor, freestyle farting.  I meant to do the blog one night, but instead drank a bottle of wine and played sad songs for 3 hours.  There were two rehearsals during the week for the show we had with Cloudsplitter and  I recorded this song at the end of one of them....I had the potential to do the blog last week but never did!

Our friend Clifford Doerksen died an untimely and tragic death in December 2010 and flying home from the memorial service in February 2011 I composed this song, in its entirety, in my head.  When I got home I typed it up and promptly forgot about it for 6 months, until I stumbled on it again and started working on it.  Realizing the melodies I was coming up with referenced The Carpenters' Top Of The World, I checked out those chord progressions and messed around with them. I believe this is the kind of secret songwriting shit I'm not supposed to reveal.

Amongst many other things, Clifford was a brilliant, hilarious, and ruthless writer and reviewer. Here's an article remembering him that also contains many links to his writing:  

click here: CLIFFORD

And here it is, To The Ghosts, to Clifford....

with Rachelle Reath - violin and backup vox,
Emily Goodenough - viola
Marek Tyler - drums 

To The Ghosts

His heart lay panting on the floor

his mind just walked out the back door

into the winter's night

to fight the good fight

if he could still distinguish wrong from right

Did someone step on a crack and break his back

did someone say give up, turn back

The stolen years

will not be restored by our tears

and our memories will fade from grey to black

Whether we say yay or nay

the night is followed by the day

To the departed and their ghosts

we raise one too many toasts

then stumble numbly on our way

Seahorses - Improvised Soundtrack with Eric Gallipo - May 28, 2012

Last week Eric Gallipo and I performed a live soundtrack to Jean Painleve`s film Seahorses as part of The Olio Cooperative`s Sound and Vision night.  Sound and Vision is an evening of silent film shorts with live soundtracks performed by local Victoria musicians and artists.
I had become fascinated with the films of Painleve after seeing an excerpt at the surrealist show that was mounted at The Vancouver Art Gallery; having participated in past editions of  Sound and Vision I vowed to do one of them.  Little did I know at that time that Yo Le Tengo has scored at least eight of Painleve`s most popular  films!

I have always done this project solo, but on this occasion I invited Eric Gallipo to join me. Eric is an attentive, empathetic improviser and one of the most eclectic, original, and talented musicians I know.  Whether it`s the harsh noise of CSTL, the classic bebop stylings of the Eric Gallipo Ensemble, or whatever the fuck you ask him to do in whatever situation, he brings a fresh creative perspective, humour (sometimes twisted), and musical chops to spare.

A few nights after the show, we set up with my crappy laptop webcam filming a DVD on the TV That`s what you call postmodern image degeneration, don`t you know.   We did one take and here it is

If you are interested in Jean Painleve, I would suggest racing down to Pic A Flic (located in scenic Cook Street Village) and renting the 3 DVD Science Is Fiction compilation of his work issued by Criterion.  Sadly, Criterion has had a lot the Jean Painleve stuff taken off youtube, including most of the Yo Le Tengo tracked films

Check out some noise!

Skeleton - May 23, 2012

Though I wrote this song about a year ago,  it still feels a little fresh and new, maybe because I haven't performed it live a zillion times. This version of it is recorded with Rachelle Reath on violin, Emily Goodenough on cello, and Marek Tyler on the drums. We have been rehearsing for our first show in this configuration June 9 at The Fort St. Cafe with Vancouver band Cloudsplitter.  Emily just learned the song tonight, so kudos to Emily I say.  Anyone got a name for this sweet combo? Bring it on - let the blog comments rain down.

Here we are playing the song

Skeleton - David P. Smith

The skeleton in my closet he knows how to party

down by the river amongst the debris

There we discuss alien conspiracies

trailer park lesbians, UFC

How it feels to see your reflection in a glass of whiskey

Whiskey rivers swum like public pool lengths

dreamlessly sinking in quicksand beds

Unresolved nights became resolute dawns

the angry sparrows twittered as the sun grew strong

Days begun orange, then turned to blue

with periods of brown forecast for the afternoon

Fat robins feast on freshly turned worms

starlings flit and swoop like sci-fi insect swarms

A little brown bird lies still on the street

near the passenger door to the left of my feet

Maybe, maybe, maybe he's asleep

The skeleton in my closet likes to go out on the town

likes to paint it red, he really likes to get down

Sometimes he gets so down I find him crawling around

And I say

if you piss in the carburetor, the car will stall

if you piss on the temple floor, the walls will fall

you can piss your pants, buddy it's your call

You can do what you want, I'll pick you up when you fall

The digital satellite unit casts a hideous shadow on our house

while I recline on the sofa in the costume of a louse

While on the TV, weeping women flee

the good doctor eats a live chimpanzee

and the air is alive with fleas' disease

The skeleton in my closet pulls me aside

he says 

brother got a minute, I need to confide

you see, my dreams all cower like scared cats in the rain

and I don't mind feeling numb, it means I don't feel pain

but it scares me being numb, in case I don't feel again

It was a sad good-bye to the jugglers and clowns

went working for the man in a jackhammer town

Now I have a daughter and I have a wife

and this is the foundation on which I build my life

The skeleton in my closet says he's feeling tired

says it's hard to care, says he feels uninspired

And I say

put your pants on one leg at a time

open the curtains and let the sun shine

every minute in the world a hundred ten people are dying

Sing a song, stop crying

Sing a song, stop crying

you 

Positively 4th Street - The Inevitable Dylan Cover - May 15, 2012

Here's the inevitable Bob Dylan cover.  Going to high school in rural Alberta there may have been some people listening to Dylan, but it was no one I knew.  The soundtrack to drunken teen-age parties was comprised of Led Zeppelin 4, Nazareth's Greatest Hits, Frampton Comes Alive, Styx - The Grand Illusion......well you get the drift.  My first exposure to Dylan was when I left home and went to university.  I promptly became obsessed, borrowed a copy of the first Greatest Hits record and playing it incessantly.  I have a memory, I'm not sure I would classify as fond or not, of leaning inebriated out my dorm window screaming the chorus of Like A Rolling Stone at befuddled passers-bys.  No one can match the almost joyful exuberance of Dylan's self-righteous venom.  And one of the most venomous is Positively 4th Street.  My version has some tempo and melody variations to the original....here it is:

Positively 4th Street - Bob Dylan

You got a lotta nerve

To say you are my friend

When I was down

You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve

To say you got a helping hand to lend

You just want to be on

The side that’s winning

You say I let you down

You know it’s not like that

If you’re so hurt

Why then don’t you show it

You say you lost your faith

But that’s not where it’s at

You had no faith to lose

And you know it

I know the reason

That you talk behind my back

I used to be among the crowd

You’re in with

Do you take me for such a fool

To think I’d make contact

With the one who tries to hide

What he don’t know to begin with

You see me on the street

You always act surprised

You say, “How are you?” “Good luck”

But you don’t mean it

When you know as well as me

You’d rather see me paralyzed

Why don’t you just come out once

And scream it

No, I do not feel that good

When I see the heartbreaks you embrace

If I was a master thief

Perhaps I’d rob them

And now I know you’re dissatisfied

With your position and your place

Don’t you understand

It’s not my problem

I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

And just for that one moment

I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

You’d know what a drag it is

To see you

There's a lot of not that awesome covers of this song out there.  Dylan's versions are so idiosyncratic and definitive, it can be hard to pull off.  I liked this one by Jerry Garcia with Merl Saunders.