10 Greatest Album Covers (Part 3)

Continued from last post

7) Let's Get It On- Marvin Gaye
A red hat's worth a thousand words. The song "Let's Get It On" might be the greatest record ever made.
People talk about "What's Going On", the album he recorded before this one, but "Let's Get It On" is in another league. Here's the difference in the end; one's got Marvin trying too hard and one's got Marvin smiling.


8)The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan- Bob Dylan New York City was good to him. Before he went electric here's the streets that took him in. Between his girlfriend and the snow, the Volkwagon left of him, here's the last of what it is that goes when a little kid gets big.


Continued next post

Quotes 3/31

"There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn"- Albert Camus




"20th century go to sleep"- Michael Stipe

New Mp3- Ashley

Here's the fourth mp3 off Under Different Stars, the album I've been putting online. This ones called Ashley. You can click on the title to download it.

Zak





Ashley





Ashley

Maybe they see one more time but I see forever. It feels just like, baby if you get high, baby with you I fly.

And I had come where the streams had all run dry, One more plate of meat on the pile. You may feel it's nothing, but I'm feeling something.

Ashley you're so clean, I didn't know that perfume and soap were how God would come back. Given up hoping, I didn't know that perfume and soap were how God would come back home.

Run to the sea and you'll find deserts of nothing. Rusting tires. In the cities that died I've been closing my eyes.

For every one more day and one more mile it's one less dream heard on the dial. Between the stations of nothing, baby I'm hearing something.

Ashley you're so clean, I didn't know that perfume and soap were how God would come back. Given up hoping, I didn't know that perfume and soap were how God would come back home.

I've walked baby where the wasted are piled. You can search the trash baby I'm as lost as you'll find.

Baby I cheat and I lie. I leave them with nothing. All they'll find that I'm leaving behind, they'll wash out their whole lives.

All the saved rise up in single file. The ones you love leave you with style. And they're calling something but I can't hear nothing.

Ashley you're so clean, I didn't know that perfume and soap were how God would come back. Given up hoping, I didn't know that perfume and soap was how God would come back home.

10 Greatest Album Covers (Part 2)

Continued from last post

5) Never Say Die- Black Sabbath
The title goes with the cover. "Never Say Die" and the bombs are coming. This was their last album with Ozzy, and the original band's last gasp before the end. Creatively they're dried up, and it's easily the worst album the original Sabbath ever did. So the title's ironic, the band's dead creatively and those guys on the cover have seconds to live. The important thing is to keep a sense of humor; and if your music's petered out let your cover end it big.


6) Killer- Alice Cooper

A great album is a dangerous animal. Cleopatra took a snake and made it bite into her breast; and she died just like a queen in every gasping, dying breath. She was a big Alice Cooper fan too, especially his early 70's records, and this cover gave her the idea to do it. Alice Cooper goes way back.

Continued Next Post

Quotes 3/30

"Poet, the one authentic man, die saved, but not starved if you can"- Verlaine



"Uh, how do call your lover boy?"- The New York Dolls

New Mp3- Gina

Here's the third mp3 off of Under Different stars, the album I've been recording to put online. This songs called Gina, the lyrics are at the bottom. You can click on the title to download it.

Zak



Gina






Gina

You can stay and look all night baby, like a shore where looks a beach, on an ocean that can never tell how cold it's heart can be.

"I wish you well" signed the parts you'll never reach.
And what's to tell, they bury you in the words you never speak.

Gina what's the deal, I get lost, hard and stuck. I go cold I shut up.
I can't tell you how I feel.

And if you've followed it from the start baby, right here is where it leads. My heart will rust, a prison cell, and I've thrown away the key.

I've tried to be more than what you see. But try what you will you can't change what you've grown your self to be.

Gina what's the deal, I get lost, hard and stuck. I go cold I shut up.
I can't tell you how I feel.

And hey, the finger that's pointing straight at me says "fare thee well, your hopes, your heart, your faith, your joy, your dreams"

Take my hand, let go of my heart, that war has been lost indeed. Place your bets and pay for cards, and I'll pay for the cards I keep.

It's not you, it's me. A boy stood on a beach. And found a shell to hold his pearl and hide and always keep.

Gina what's the deal, I get lost, hard and stuck. I go cold I shut up.
I can't tell you how I feel.

10 Greatest Album Covers (Part 1)

Here they are, the 10 greatest album covers ever.


1)The Last Gunfighter Ballad- Johnny Cash - This album was never released on cd, it was only ever put out on vinyl. And that's how I have it, in a big thick square on my wall. The best of them aim right at you, and keep on shooting as you fall.


2)Time Fades Away- Neil Young Another album never released on cd and one of Neil Young's all time greatest ever. From the stage in the 70's, here's what it looked like. This cover always reminds me of the movie Almost Famous. My favorite era; and the last flower of the sixties tossed on stage before the lights go out.

3) Who's Next- The Who They find the monolith that could make them gods, unzip their pants, and make them men. The album itself's a little over rated, (although Baba O'Reilly is a great song), and if I've listened to it a lot it's partly from how great the cover is.


4)The Howlin' Wolf Album- Howlin' Wolf Released in 1969, he apparently didn't like this album because it sounded too psychedelic. He was 59 years old and his best years behind him, and Marshall Chess of Chess records was trying to "modernize" his sound. So there's fuzz and wah wah peddles where there used to be just blues, and Wolf didn't like it and told a Rolling Stone reporter that the album's sound was "dog shit"; and if you're Marshall Chess what do you do? If the music's missing bite give him your throat, let him bite you. The album didn't sell, and he was right, it's not that great; but if Marshall Chess is going to fuck up your sound let him make the cover too.

Continued Next Post

Quotes 3/29

"The good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket"- William Wordsworth




"If man is 5, if man is 5...then the devil is 6, then the devil is 6, then the devil is 6...and God is 7, and God is 7"- Black Francis

Quotes 3/28

"Leave it to virtue, fortune, wine, and woman's breast"- Samuel Johnson




"Welcome to the spirit of 1956, patient in the bushes next to '57. The highway is your girlfriend as you go by quick. Suburban speed, suburban trees, and it smells like heaven"- Jonathan Richman

Quotes 3/27

"Sweet youths we sadly part it seems, though warmly fond we vow it. Enduring faith was in our dreams; the gods will not allow it"- Goethe



"Loose lips sink ships they say, but isn't it always that way?"- The Ramones

10 Greatest Rock Documentaries (Part 5)

Continued from last post


8) The Devil And Daniel Johnston- I'd never heard of Daniel Johnston before watching this movie and I don't listen to him that much now after having seen it. He’s a singer and a songwriter who gained a little fame and a cult following in the mid 80's and early 90's in the Austin, Texas music scene. He recorded his songs by himself in his house, usually only with just a piano and a tape recorder. Then he became mentally ill, got worse and worse, and is now in his 40’s living with his parents, overweight, and extremely medicated. And there's tons of video and tape of the whole thing because Daniel documented it all. As a kid his mother yelling at him to get a real job, in college the girl he fell in love with and who he wrote all his songs for, and finally the beginnings to the depths of the end of the madness he comes to and into which he falls. I've truly never seen a documentary with better footage than this one. You don't have to like his music to like this movie; at its core it's about where art comes from and what it costs you. Sometimes the great ones end up in their 40's, sedated, forgotten, still living at home.





9) The Beatles Anthology- 11 hours of the Beatles. 11 fucking hours. A lot of precious time. Is it worth it? Hero worship is a dangerous thing; either you hurt the things you love or you start to feel that they have been loved way too much and way too long. So criticize them, seek their flaws out, don't give in, and meet them head on. But don't avoid them; life's too short.




10) If I Should Fall From Grace With God- The Shane MacGowan Story Shane MacGowan was the lead singer of one of the greatest bands ever, The Pogues. They were from Ireland and played a mix of traditional sounding Irish music and punk rock. In 1991 Shane was thrown out of the band for not showing up for tour dates and for a drinking and drug taking that had gotten out of hand. The geniuses that kill themselves and all their screaming fans. A talent worth its weight in gold, all it took to ruin it, and rotted teeth from out a skull where Irish eyes are smiling.

Quotes 3/26

"We have lingered in the chambers of the sea, by sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown, till human voices wake us, and we drown"- T.S. Eliot



"Everybody's got a hunger, a hunger they can't resist. There's so much that you want, you deserve much more than this"- Springsteen

10 Greatest Rock Documentaries (Part 4)

Continued from last post


5) The Filth and the Fury- The Sex Pistols were kids and now they're all men. Except for Sid Vicious who died of a drug overdose. At one point in the movie Johnny Rotten breaks down and crys thinking about him. The best revolutions may stand forever; the ones who have fought them will vanish and die. The fate of great revolutionaries and punk's founding fire.






6) Nirvana- Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!- Kurt is skinny and frail. A delicate, likable hero. He's eulogized now beyond belief, but like many overhyped bands theres a beautiful core that they built the hype on. And their core is a gentle heart; Kurt's gentle heart, in love with rock and roll. And though bitter and smart, he's just a kid; fragile and young. He who that shotgun picked up wouldn't have hurt a living soul.





7)Chuck Berry- Hail Hail Rock n' Roll- A genuine genius, one of the best writers to ever have picked up a pen. A beautiful voice, and a better guitar player there's never been. You don't have to put down Elvis to raise up Chuck; Elvis was great though he never wrote a line, and Chuck was great and wrote almost all of them. It's rare you find a movie that can do honor to a talent this big; but thanks to great directing, Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen, Bo Diddley and Little Richard, that's what this movie is. Between clips of Chuck and others talking about him, the movie is ostensibly about Keith Richards getting together a concert in Chuck's honor, rehearsing it, and then finally its performance. The concert isn't that good but that's really not the main focus; Chuck Berry is. A difficult, extremely charming, loose canon who's a genius; with his cards and his thoughts kept in tight close to him. He who went to the top of the mountain was named Moses, he who came back with a guitar was a brown eyed handsome man.





Continued next post

Quotes 3/25

"But eating and drinking until thou dost nod,
Thou break'st all thy girdles, and break'st forth a god"- Ben Jonson





"Got myself arrested, wound me up in jail. Richmond 'bout to blow up, communication failed."- John Fogerty

10 Greatest Rock Documentaries (Part 3)

Continued from last post

4)Jerry Lee Lewis- The Story of Rock and Roll- This movie isn't a great documentary, or even particularly well done, but it deserves a spot on the list just for the footage in it of Jerry Lee Lewis. His 1957 performance on the Steve Allen show is the full rearing up of a snake that was pressed, unknown and unimagined, to America's side. A venomous, wild, Killer's heart, on NBC, on Sunday night. Richard Nixon is vice president and another landslide won by Ike. But things here are not what they seem. There's a 13 year old cousin lurking in a South East Asian jungle side. And things are ready to burn; they were right, He comes back not with water, but great balls of fire. In the dark, words to haunt an American dream, to Ike whispered low, "No more dreams, I'm alive".




continued next post

Quotes 3/24

"As to what life can be worth when the honor, the honor is gone par example I can offer an opinion. I know about it. It is worth nothing nothing nothing"- William S. Burroughs




"I give you everything I have trying to hold onto your high class love"- Percy Sledge

New Mp3- Jaimie

Here's the second track off an album I've been recording. There's ten songs on it, I already put one song up, and I'm going to put them all up here as I finish them. This one's called Jaimie, the album's gonna be called Under Different Stars. Press the play button below to listen to it and click the song title to download it.




Jaimie




Jaimie

You've broken all my bones. My strongest bones.
You've stopped them from staying hard, from staying strong.

I know all the places where you can take me. Cause I've seen them when you're changing.
The signs all point to leaving the way I came this evening. And your rooms just your little kingdom. And it's allright to be there but don't think it matters.

Jaimie, you don't have to cover up your eyes. Every time I try to make a left turn.
Jaimie, we tried to do it your way and we'll find, every city burns.

You're special. You've got it all, you've got it all.
So let them. Let them fall, let it fall.

In a painted ceiling, writ above the kneeling, is "every good comes with better feeling"
All the signs you're reading, that are to the Mona leading. are just breadcrumbs you're fucking feeding. And it's allright to be here but don't think it matters.

Jaimie, you don't have to cover up your eyes. Every time I try to make a left turn.
Jaimie, we tried to do it your way and we'll find, every city burns.


Jaimie, you don't have to cover up your eyes. Every time I try to make a left turn.
Jaimie, we tried to do it your way and we will find every city burns.

10 Greatest Rock Documentaries (Part 2)

Continued from last post

2) Gimme Shelter- There's an air of something's wrong here. This movie's mainly about The Rolling Stones and a free concert put on in 1969 at a place called Altamont. It was supposed to be the west coast version of Woodstock, with bands like The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, Santana and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young performing. And because this was supposed to be a counter cultural event they didn't get police to do security but used the Hell's Angels instead. And so what happens is we get footage of what looks like a descent into hell. A crowd that's restless and not right, moving in closer to the stage, met with pool cues and knives, there's no band here that's safe. Marty Balin, from the Jefferson Airplane, beaten unconsious by a Hell's Angel during the middle of their set, Mick Jagger punched in the face by a female fan seconds after arriving, and Jerry Garcia, wiser than the rest, sensing something wrong at Altamont and taking the Dead away. But the Stones aren't wise, they're set to headline it tonight. And isn't that what you wanted? You said sympathy for who? From the stage, Mick, look upon it. Tonight all your dreams come true.




3)Gospel According To Al Green- The last of the great ones. The line that descended from Sam Cooke and Ray Charles, to Jackie Wilson and James Brown, to Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, ends at last in Al Green. A great songwriter, an amazing talent, an incredible stage presence and an incredible voice. When people describe his music as "seductive" or "sexy" they're classing him in with singers like Luther Vandross, Boyz 2 Men, and any other "R & B" singer who's ever released a souless and overproduced piece of crap Justin Timberlake thinks is supposed to be good. And Justin, you're already going to rot eternally in hell, stop using the term "baby making music" or you'll only make it worse. Al Green is a singer with the fire of God bristling inside him; with all hell, revelations, flames, prayers, for his tunings; and each hit that he made a calling out to be blessed. This movie is about his career and why it was that he switched to singing only religious songs in around 1978. Who wrote the Gospels were who felt too human; there's acres of churches in "Love and Happiness".





Continued next post

Quotes and Lyrics 3/23

"...the light of inspiration shining in his countenance, and bearing in his arms the tables of the law, graven in the language of the outlaw"- John F. Taylor, quoted by James Joyce



"Did you call his name out as he held you down"- Elvis Costello

New Mp3- Cynthia

Here's the first track off an album I've been recording to put online. There's ten songs on it and I'm going to put them all up here as I finish them. This one's called Cynthia, the album's called Under Different Stars. Press the play button below to listen to it and click the song title to download it. Also the lyrics are at the bottom.

Zak




Cynthia



Cynthia

You're a person who always seems to know exactly what to do.
Can't you see how I feel about you. The only girl for me is you.

I'll wait all night for you baby. If you need to think what to do.
My faith is heavy and loaded. For someone as smart as you.

Where's your head at Cynthia. I've been waiting for it so long.
Where's your head at Cynthia. I've been waiting for it, praying for it.

I could never forget about you. There's no forgetting when you know.
Some people spit out the big pitts but if you plant them they will grow.

I give you my love shining like a red light on us tonight.
If you're not comfortable praying, I'll just give you God's advice.

Where's your head at Cynthia. I've been waiting for it so long.
Where's your head at Cynthia. I've been waiting for it, praying for it.

I've been loving you for such a long time now. But if you're afraid of me not sticking around, if the sun goes down on me, I know it will go down on you, And it will set on both our heads. My nights are big and blue without you.

When you see things from the bottom to the top I hope you'll understand.
You're the bright star that I want to show to my beach and my sand.

Heaven can sneak through your window and lay right down on top of you.
But if you want something more babe, at some point it's up to you.

Where's your head at Cynthia. I've been waiting for it so long.
Where's your head at Cynthia. I've been waiting for it, praying for it.

Quotes and Lyrics 3/22

"Alas, young man! Your days can ne'er be long. In flower of age you perish for a song"- Alexander Pope




"I spit on your grave and I grab my Charles Dickens"- Method Man

10 Greatest Rock Documentaries (Part 1)

I just saw this trailer for a movie called "Anvil! The Story of Anvil". It's about a metal band from the 80's who had videos on MTV back then and toured with some big bands but was never really that successful. I had never heard of them before but man does this movie look good. Here's the clip I saw and then the 10 Greatest Rock Documentaries list.





1) No Direction Home- Scorsese's my favorite director ever but I usually hate his music movies. In addition to "No Direction Home" he directed an episode of a seven part documentary on the blues, that recent "Shine a Light" concert movie of the Rolling Stones, and most famously The Band's "The Last Waltz". The first two of these I thought were really boring, and I have never understood the appeal of "The Last Waltz". The Band made some great records but they weren't the fucking Beatles. That movie seems to be saying that the Band's final performance was marking the end of an era. By November of 1976 what era was ending? Whichever one it was, during the shitty Joni Mitchell song I couldn't wait for it to end.

But in 2005, with "No Direction Home", Scorsese also made the greatest rock documentary ever. It covers Bob Dylan from his start in Minnesota up through to his famous motorcycle accident in 1966 at the height of his fame. The title comes from a lyric in Bob's "Like a Rolling Stones", and also serves as a commentary on a dishevelled, skinny, strung out looking Dylan in the movies final scenes, talking to a reporter, rocking back and forth, and muttering with bleary eyes, "I just want to go home...I just want to go home..." This comes right before the film's absolute final scene, the famous 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert where they called Bob "Judas". The whole movie is 4 hours long and it's on two dvds. The first half is good but can be a little dull at parts. The second half however is two hours that I'll never get tired of watching.






Continued next post

Quotes and Lyrics 3/21

"It was roses, roses all the way, with myrtle mixed in my path like mad"- Browning



"Well I've led an evil life, so they say, but I'll out run the devil on judgement day. Move hot-rod, move man, move hot-rod, move man"- Gene Vincent

10 Greatest Irish Songs (Part 4)

Continued from last post


8)The Auld Triangle- This song takes place in the same prison Kevin Barry was executed in. It's martyr's, martyr's everywhere; and Dublin walls to hold them in. Mountjoy Prison, on the banks of the royal canal, had what was known as a "Triangle Gallows". This was where the prisoners were executed, and so that "jingle-jangle" in the song is the sound of the Irish dying. And Brendan Behan, the writer of the song and a great Irish playwright, had heard the sound himself when he had done his time in Mountjoy; Helpless and alone, where what just haunts us now was true.





"A hungry feeling
Came oer me stealing
And the mice were squeeling
In my prison cell
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the royal canal

Oh! to start the morning
The warden bawling
Get up out of bed, you! and clean out your cell!
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the royal canal

Oh! the screw was peeping
And the loike was sleeping
As he lay weeping
For his girl sal
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the royal canal

On a fine spring evening
The loike lay dreaming
And the sea-gulls were wheeling
High above the wall
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the royal canal

Oh! the wind was sighing
And the day was dying
As the loike lay crying
In his prison cell
And that auld triangle went jingle-bloody-jangle
All along the banks of the royal canal

In the womens prison
There are seventy women
And I wish it was with them
That I did dwell
Then that auld triangle could go jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the royal canal"



9)The Irish Rover-- Glorying in the mighty wreck. A song about a ship that sinks, and all the joy it brings. Where nihilism and destruction can never cease the endless cheer; "If we're to drown then raise your glasses, a toast to us who're drowning here!!"




"On the fourth of July eighteen hundred and six
We set sail from the sweet cove of Cork
We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks
For the grand city hall in New York
'Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore-and-aft
And oh, how the wild winds drove her.
She'd got several blasts, she'd twenty-seven masts
And we called her the Irish Rover.

We had one million bales of the best Sligo rags
We had two million barrels of stones
We had three million sides of old blind horses hides,
We had four million barrels of bones.
We had five million hogs, we had six million dogs,
Seven million barrels of porter.
We had eight million bails of old nanny goats' tails,
In the hold of the Irish Rover.

There was awl Mickey Coote who played hard on his flute
When the ladies lined up for his set
He was tootin' with skill for each sparkling quadrille
Though the dancers were fluther'd and bet
With his sparse witty talk he was cock of the walk
As he rolled the dames under and over
They all knew at a glance when he took up his stance
And he sailed in the Irish Rover

There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee,
There was Hogan from County Tyrone
There was Jimmy McGurk who was scarred stiff of work
And a man from Westmeath called Malone
There was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule
And fighting Bill Tracey from Dover
And your man Mick McCann from the banks of the Bann
Was the skipper of the Irish Rover

We had sailed seven years when the measles broke out
And the ship lost it's way in a fog.
And that whale of the crew was reduced down to two,
Just meself and the captain's old dog.
Then the ship struck a rock, oh Lord what a shock
The bulkhead was turned right over
Turned nine times around, and the poor dog was drowned
I'm the last of the Irish Rover"



10)Fairytale of New York-- The greatest Christmas song ever written. Shane MacGowan, drunken, failed, having lost forever all the bets that he'd placed; all the money gone. And the ones we take with us when we fall down together, and their dreams that are crushed so our dreams can live on. In the Milky Way stars, in the tiniest speck, before Earth was deserted and all of us gone, was a dot of forgiveness, a tiny endeavour; and two hearts full of dreams to build galaxies on.





"It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you"

10 Greatest Irish Songs (Part 3)

Continued from last post

6)Kevin Barry- No English speaking country has as many great rebellion songs as Ireland. This is a famous one; a great song, a melody to crown a martyr with.




"In Mount Joy jail one Monday morning
High upon the gallows tree
Kevin Barry gave his young life
For the 'cause of liberty
Just a lad of eighteen summers
Yet no true man can deny
As he walked to death that morning
He proudly held his head up high

Another martyr for old Erin
Another murder for the crown
The British laws may crush the Irish
But cannot keep their spirits down

Just before he faced the hangman
In his dreary prison cell
The British soldiers tortured Barry
Just because he would not tell
The name of all his brave companions
And other things they wished to know
Turn informer or we'll kill you
Kevin Barry answered no

Another martyr for old Erin
Another murder for the crown
Whose cruel laws may crush the Irish
But cannot keep their spirits down"



7) The Croppy Boy- Croppy Boy was a derogatory word for Irish rebels. They used to wear their hair "cropped short", which was a style taken from, and associated with, the anti-aristocratic forces in the French revolution. And they say Jesus wore his hair like that when he came back to Earth. And they say Pilate was Lord Cornwall and that Judas was his cousin. And that the times he's come back Irish can be numbered in the dozens.




"It was early, early in the spring
The birds did whistle and sweetly sing
Changing their notes from tree to tree
And the song they sang was Old Ireland free.
It was early early in the night,
The yeoman cavalry gave me a fright
The yeoman cavalry was my downfall
And I was taken by Lord Cornwall.

'Twas in the guard-house where I was laid,
And in a parlour where I was tried
My sentence passed and my courage low
When to Dungannon I was forced to go.

As I was passing my father's door
My brother William stood at the door
My aged father stood at the door
And my tender mother her hair she tore.

As I was going up Wexford Street
My own first cousin I chanced to meet;
My own first cousin did me betray
And for one bare guinea swore my life away.

As I was walking up Wexford Hill
Who could blame me to cry my fill?
I looked behind, and I looked before
But my aged mother I shall see no more.

And as I mounted the platform high
My aged father was standing by;
My aged father did me deny
And the name he gave me was the Croppy Boy.

It was in Dungannon this young man died
And in Dungannon his body lies.
And you good people that do pass by
Oh shed a tear for the Croppy Boy."

Continued next post

Quotes and Lyrics 3/20

"That the theater should not lord it over the arts. That the actor should not seduce those who are authentic. That music should not become an art of lying."- Nietzsche



"Steal your face right off your head"- The Grateful Dead

10 Greatest Irish Songs (Part 2)

Continued from last post

3)The Wild Rover- The best version is by The Dubliners. This song has one of the greatest choruses ever. I've never heard people singing it in a bar, but I'm sure people have, and more people should.





"I've been a wild rover for many a year
And I spent all my money on whiskey and beer,
And now I'm returning with gold in great store
And I never will play the wild rover no more.

chorus: And it's no, nay, never,
No nay never no more,
Will I play the wild rover
No never no more.

I went to an ale-house I used to frequent
And I told the landlady my money was spent.
I asked her for credit, she answered me "nay
Such a custom as yours I could have any day."

chorus

I took from my pocket ten sovereigns bright
And the landlady's eyes opened wide with delight.
She said "I have whiskey and wines of the best
And the words that I spoke sure were only in jest."

chorus

I'll go home to my parents, confess what I've done
And I'll ask them to pardon their prodigal son.
And if they caress (forgive) me as ofttimes before
Sure I never will play the wild rover no more."



4)Eamonn An Chniuic- This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, it's all sung in Gaelic though, and I just looked up what it actually means for the first time. It's a complicated story but it has to do with an Irish man who was dispossesed of his land by the British and became an outlaw. I'll put up the lyrics but this song is so pretty that you don't really even need them. I remember driving to my grandfathers funeral and listening to a Clancy Brothers version of this song and feeling like it was the most perfect thing ever written. And my grandfather wasn't even Irish. (My other one was though)




"Oh dark is the evening and silent the hour
Oh who is that minstrel by yon shady tower?
Whose harp is so tenderly touching with skill
Oh who could it be but young Ned of the Hill?
And he sings, "Lady love, will you come with me now?
Come and live merrily under the bough.
I'll pillow your head where the light fairies tread
If you will but wed with young Ned of the Hill.

Young Ned of the Hill has no castle or hall,
No bowmen or spearmen to come at his call.
But one little archer of exquisite skill
Has loosed a bright shaft for young Ned of the Hill.
It is hard to escape to this young lady's bower
For high is the castle and guarded the tower.
But where there's a will there's always a way
And young Eileen is gone with young Ned of the Hill"


5)Whiskey In The Jar- This song was covered by both Metallica and Thin Lizzy, the band that sang that song "The Boys Are Back In Town". Thin Lizzy's frontman was actually an Irish guy named Phil Lynott, who's mother was Irish and who's father was African. They actually had a big hit with it in 1973. This song, like "The Wild Rover", has a really catchy and great melody. It also has amazing lyrics. It's about a guy who robs a "Captain Farrell" and then brings the money back to his girlfriend. However his girlfriend is actually secretly involved with Captain Farrell herself, and she betrays the narator of the song who is then arrested and taken prisoner. Here's the Thin Lizzy version. Phil Lynott had a great voice. Died in 1986 at age 36 from a liver and kidney infection. There's a statue of him in Dublin now.





"As I was going over the far famed Kerry mountains
I met with captain Farrell and his money he was counting.
I first produced my pistol, and then produced my rapier.
Said stand and deliver, for I am a bold deceiver,

musha ring dumma do damma da
whack for the daddy 'ol
whack for the daddy 'ol
there's whiskey in the jar

I counted out his money, and it made a pretty penny.
I put it in my pocket and I took it home to Jenny.
She said and she swore, that she never would deceive me,
but the devil take the women, for they never can be easy

I went into my chamber, all for to take a slumber,
I dreamt of gold and jewels and for sure it was no wonder.
But Jenny took my charges and she filled them up with water,
Then sent for captain Farrel to be ready for the slaughter.

It was early in the morning, as I rose up for travel,
The guards were all around me and likewise captain Farrel.
I first produced my pistol, for she stole away my rapier,
But I couldn't shoot the water so a prisoner I was taken.

If anyone can aid me, it's my brother in the army,
If I can find his station down in Cork or in Killarney.
And if he'll come and save me, we'll go roving near Kilkenny,
And I swear he'll treat me better than me darling sportling Jenny

Now some men take delight in the drinking and the roving,
But others take delight in the gambling and the smoking.
But I take delight in the juice of the barley,
And courting pretty fair maids in the morning bright and early"


Continued next post

10 Greatest Irish Songs (Part 1)

It's two days late, but here you go, for St.Patrick's Day.


1) "Danny Boy"- This is an obvious one, and although it was written by an Englishman he must have had an Irish soul. The Irish goodbye, the "our souls are love and an everlasting farewell". (Yeats) Pulled between the ones we love and the world we live in, the best we've got to give is love and our goodbyes. And Danny's leaving too, and someone who loves him lets him know,

"If you come back and all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me,

And I shall hear, tho' soft ye tread above me
And all my dreams will richer, sweeter be
And you'll bend down, and tell me that you love me,
and I will rest in peace until you come to me"

In a lifetime of goodbyes here's the best goodbye forever. My favorite version is by Johnny Cash, off his American IV album, the last album he finished before he died. When he sings the "But if you come and all the flowers are dying, and I am dead, as dead I well may be" line means it. Listen to that version to hear him say goodbye. Here's another version by him and Jimmie Rodgers, and also the lyrics.

"Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,
From glen to glen and down the mountain side;
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling;
It's you, it's you must go, and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow;
I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow;
Danny boy, Oh Danny boy, I love you so.

But if you come and all the flowers are dying,
If I am dead, as dead I well may be.
You'll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I will know, 'though soft ye tread around me,
And then my grave shall richer sweeter be,
Then you'll bend down and tell me that you love me,
And I shall rest in peace until you come to me."

2) "Finnegan's Wake"- A street ballad on the resurection. But not of Christ, of Finnegan. It's about a guy who dies, has a funeral where a fight breaks out among the mourners, has liqour splashed on him in the course of it, and then wakes up, saying "Hurling whiskey round like blazes...Thunder and Jesus, did you think I was dead?" Symbolic of a lot, maybe symbolic of everything, it's a song James Joyce based a whole 600 page book on. The eternal affirmation of the human spirit, "Wasn't it the truth I tell ya? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake". The Dubliners do a really good version of it, and so do the Clancy Brothers. Here's a live Clancy Brothers version and the lyrics.

"Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street, a gentle Irishman mighty odd
He had a brogue both rich and sweet, an' to rise in the world he carried a hod
You see he'd a sort of a tipplers way but the love for the liquor poor Tim was born
To help him on his way each day, he'd a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim got rather full, his head felt heavy which made him shake
Fell from a ladder and he broke his skull, and they carried him home his corpse to wake
Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet, and laid him out upon the bed
A bottle of whiskey at his feet and a barrel of porter at his head

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

His friends assembled at the wake, and Mrs Finnegan called for lunch
First she brought in tay and cake, then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry, "Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see,
Tim avourneen, why did you die?", "Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Then Maggie O'Connor took up the job, "Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob and left her sprawling on the floor
Then the war did soon engage, t'was woman to woman and man to man
Shillelagh law was all the rage and a row and a ruction soon began

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Mickey Maloney ducked his head when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
It missed, and falling on the bed, the liquor scattered over Tim
Bedad he revives, see how he rises, Timothy rising from the bed
Saying "Whittle your whiskey around like blazes, t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?"

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake"

Continued next post

Quotes and Lyrics 3/19

"Weeping again the king my fathers wreck"- Shakespeare




"I was lying in a burned out basement with the full moon in my eyes"- Neil Young

Acoustic "The Ones That Got Away"

10 Greatest Lyrics Ever (Part 6)

Continued from last post

10) It's hard to pick the last lines to put on this list. I know I'm forgetting some, and to keep the list down to 10 I'm having to leave off a lot of my favorite lines. The only method I used to narrow it down at the end was right now I feel like writing about this one.


"Every gimmick hungry yob, digging gold from rock 'n roll,
Grabs the mike to tell us he'll die before he's sold,
But I believe in this and it's been tested by research,
He who fucks nuns, will later join the church."- Joe Strummer, "Death or Glory"

What raises The Clash from Ok to great are Joe Strummer's lyrics. His voice might be a close second, and a bunch of their records have a great sound to them, but in the end those things are secondary. The Clash are one of the very few bands where the song can be bad but still get you to listen because the lyrics are good. A lot of good bands can get away with mediocre or bad lyrics if the music playing underneath is good. But The Clash stand out as the direct opposite. Joe Strummer had an ability to come across like good rappers do, alive and in the cut, not composing for posterity, forget books and poetry, the cops are at the fucking door.


At their best there's an urgency and immediacy that is absent in ninety of percent of rock music. So when a band is able to hit you like that it's a) something special and b) liable to make you feel like they truly are "The Only Band That Matters". Of course they're not, but to make you think that, even for a moment, is a hell of an acomplishment.

Sometimes you have to listen hard though, Joe has a mumbly sounding voice and I wouldn't know half of what it is he's saying if I didn't find his lyrics online. I remember when I read what the actual words to "Janie Jones" were, a song I had never liked before, and was stunned to find out how great a song it was. That's happened a lot of times with them, a lot of their melodies are annoying to me, like "Spanish Bombs", and a lot of their songs sound like they were barely written, like "Garageland". "Garageland" has great lyrics though (besides the "We're a garageband. We come from garageland" part in thr chorus), and one of the worst songs off their first album, "Cheat", starts with one of the best opening lines ever. ("I get violent, when I'm fucked up. I get silent, when I'm drugged up" I don't mean that ironically either, listen to it if you haven't heard it.)

"Death or Glory" is off "London Calling", their third album and the one that everyone calls their masterpiece. I like their first two better, but "London Calling" does have some great songs on it and "Death or Glory's" one of them. It's a band that hasn't sold out looking out at all the bands that have. Joe finds them all, walks up to them, and leans in close against their ears. "Here's how we stayed stayed strong my friends, long since when you'd left and gone. Listen closely..."

Quotes and Lyrics 3/18

"Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart"- Yeats




"In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man"- Led Zeppelin

Acoustic "I'm Your Man"

10 Greatest Lyrics Ever (Part 5)

Continued from last post

9) "Saw you stretched out in room ten-o-nine
With a smile on your face
And a tear right in your eye
Couldnt seem to get a line on you
My sweet honey love...

When you're drunk in the alley baby
With your clothes all torn
And your late night friends
Leave you in the cold grey dawn
Just seemed too many flies on you
I just cant brush them off

Angels beating all their wings in time
With smiles on their faces
And a gleam right in their eyes
Thought I heard one sigh for you..."- Mick Jagger, "Shine a Light"


Mick Jagger has written some of the best lyrics of all time, "Please allow me to introduce myself", "I saw her today at the reception", "You're obsolete my baby" and "She said she liked the way I held the microphone" among them. I read once that "Shine a Light" was Mick's song to Keith, a "goodbye, I love you" to a friend he'd given up on saving. Whether that's true or not, I always think about the song like that. In 1971 when it was recorded Keith seemed on the verge of overdosing, and his time left on the Earth not long. The fact that Keith is still alive doesn't make Mick's goodbye any less powerful. "Shine a Light" is the second to last song on an album where all the best songs are goodbyes. "Exile on Mainstreet", released in 1971, was the last great album the Rolling Stones ever made, and the last great one that they ever will make. After this was something changed; though made up of the same parts, somewhere along the way they had left something behind. Like your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn. An album of angel's sighs. "Rocks Off", the first song on the album, is the most honest song a band's ever written about losing touch and burning out. Going through the motions comes next, and "Goat's Head Soup", billions more dollars, a million more tours...Roger Waters wrote a whole album about it, but Mick condensed the whole thing into 4 and a half minutes on "Rocks Off". Here's the full lyrics to "Rocks Off",

"I hear you talking when I'm on the street,
Your mouth don't move but I can hear you speak.
What's the matter with the boy?
He don't come around no more,
Is he checking out for sure?
Is he gonna close the door on me?"

"I'm always hearing voices on the street,
I want to shout, but I can hardly speak.
I was making love last night
To a dancer friend of mine.
I can't seem to stay in step,
'Cause she comes ev'ry time that she pirouettes on me."

And I only get my rocks off while I'm dreaming,
I only get my rocks off while I'm sleeping.

I'm zipping through the days at lightning speed.
Plug in, flush out and fire the fuckin' feed.
Heading for the overload,
Splattered on the dirty road,
Kick me like you've kicked before,
I can't even feel the pain no more.

Feel so hypnotized, can't describe the scene.
Its all mesmerized all that inside me.
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me.
Chasing shadows moonlight mystery.
Headed for the overload,
Splattered on the dirty road,
Kick me like you've kicked before,
I can't even feel the pain no more."

So there you are, seconds before the crash, what it looked like from the seat. When he still cared that it didn't hurt, when people could still wonder if a door was really closing. Are they checking out for sure. Every great band goes; not every great band says goodbye. Those are pearls that were his eyes, of his bones is coral made, nothing living left to fade. Have you seen your mother baby? 1971, standing in the shadows, Mick on the stage, Keith strung out. Backstage they're all packed and ready for their next stop on tour. A moment before the last song Mick stops, seeming to be a little disconcerted. He looks over at Keith, swaying, eyes glazed, half shut. Then he looks out at the crowd. Some seconds pass, he looks down, regains his composure, and starts the song. "She would never say where she came from...Yesterday don't matter if it's gone..." Behind him, Nicky Hopkins, tinkling on the piano, tries to cue Keith in that the chorus is coming. "No one knows, she comes and go..." It comes and Keith nails it. Nicky sighs. There are angels in the crowd. "Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday..."



Continued next post

The Last Beat- Acoustic

10 Greatest Lyrics Ever (Part 4)

Continued from last post

7) "One fine morning she put on a New York station and she couldn't believe what she heard at all. She started dancing to that fine-fine music, you know her life was saved by rock 'n' roll", Lou Reed,"Rock and Roll"- Rock and roll ain't noise pollution, and here Lou pins down why. The same feeling that makes us bow down to God makes us raise the volume up when it's already playing loud. Repent, repent, the kingdom of God is that band. What else could saving be, here on Earth but change at hand, with no heaven for us coming, a New York street to a promised land.





8) "Things they do look awful cold. Hope I die before I get old", Pete Townshend, "My Generation"- This one has been written and talked about so many times that I hesitate to put it on the list. What can you do though, Pete caught a leviathan with his line, to squirm upon our shores until the Earth is dead and we're all gone. I'll love this line forever, and it'll get me high forever, or at least untill I'm old and my hopes been traded on. You're not a hypocrite for getting old Pete, if this line has haunted you, which I doubt it has, just keep in mind he was just a kid who wrote it. Hey hey, my my.




Continued next post

"Shots" Acoustic

10 Greatest Lyrics Ever (Part 3)

Continued from last post

5) "Well it’s 1969, Ok. All across the USA, it’s another year for me and you, another year with nothing to do”- Iggy Pop, “1969”- In addition to righteous indignation, punk rock has its roots in a feeling that life’s not fun enough. We’re young and can’t do nothing; it’s the Summertime Blues that keep coming, all through winter, spring and fall. Since we stay young for just a moment, to make it useful is to make it loud. And if we don’t make you proud at least we’ll know that we’re still living. Here’s the link from punk to Elvis. Alone and driving a truck is too damn bleak for my young heart.






6) “Well we busted out of class, we had to get away from those fools. We learned more from a three minute record baby then we ever learned in school”- Bruce Springsteen, “No Surrender”- School’s out forever, if you want it. Homework really was a fucking waste of time. You were right, Zak at 16. Driving down the highway playing “Born to Run” was better in this tiny little life then all my time in study hall. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep”. You’ll fail big, you won’t get far, a degree will open doors, that without it will be barred. But that’s cause life’s not fair, not for value there at all. Be young while you’re still young, fight against them till you fail, and if you give up when you’re young, even then still play this song.




Continued next post

Acoustic "Under Your Possession"

This song's off my album As Rome Burned, you can go to zaksmithlive.com to download it for free. Like all youtube videos, if your computer supports it, press the HQ button at the bottom of the youtube video screen and it will sound and look a lot better.

10 Greatest Lyrics Ever (Part 2)

Continued from last post

3) "God save the queen. WE MEAN IT MAN"- The Sex Pistols, "God Save the Queen"-
Storming the bastille while Steve Jones plays the chords. The vengeance of God has rained down on London. Cutting through the shit, past the palace guards, right up to her wrinkled throat, "WE MEAN IT MAN". Rock and roll isn't just sex anymore, it's the spirit you ignored come raging from the shadows, in the language of the outlaw with God's killers on their side. The smile of the innocent, tonight we take back what you stole, in the heart of dear old London, a royal answer for your crimes.




4) "She asked me why the singers name was Alice, I said listen baby you really wouldn't understand"- Alice Cooper, "Be My Lover" Criminaly underrated, Alice Cooper's early records are fucking awesome. He had a great scratchy voice, and two awesome fucking guitar players. Some people don't get it, and Alice says don't waste your time explaining. You're in a "long haired rock and roll band", if that doesn't make enough sense then making sense is cheesy.




Continued next post

10 Greatest Lyrics Ever (Part 1)

1) "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die"- Johnny Cash, "Folsom Prison Blues"- This is no country for old men. Look at the blood all over his shoes. It's a blood soaked floor in Reno where he feels the most at home. Sing about God all you want Johnny, you already showed us he don't exist. "The Man in Black", "Johnny and June", forget them all because they don't matter...The heart of Johnny Cash is in a pitiless, smiling face, full of pills, in a dying West. Eternal cruelty, eternaly smiling. A smooth, graceful, "bring all your guns to town Bill, at least that'll get us high". Here's "country" for you boys. Don't let it get too familiar, there's nowhere else to go. Oh captain, my captain.




2) "Well she was just seventeen, and you know what I mean"- Paul McCartney, "I Saw Her Standing There"- A throwaway line that can stand forever. Paul worked a God damn frenzy into this one. You're forgiven for all those Wings songs, and that sweater you used to wear with a heart on it.



Before he was always cute and never mean, here was Paul groping in the dark and telling what he'd found. To be young in Liverpool was to be young in Jersey. I'm in love with rock and roll too Paul, God bless groping, you know what I mean.

Continued next post

U2 And Their New Album (Part 4)

Whether this is a compliment or not, "No Line On the Horizon" is one of those albums that I feel like I should listen to a lot before giving an opinion on. But here's my opinion anyway, and if I'm wrong correct me. On hearing it a couple times my thoughts are 1) Rolling Stone was out of its mind to give it 5 stars, 2)Bono's voice sounds great 3)none of the songs are memorable. (Except the single "Put On Your Boots", which a lot of people didn't seem to like). I think it's great though, it's a real weird song, which makes it stand out next to the other middle of the road, unremarkable songs on the album.(The verse is a direct rip off of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" though) Actually, the verses in a lot of the songs are cool, and it's the choruses that disapoint. For example, look at the title song "No Line On The Horizon". The verse here sounds great, and Bono sings it right up from his fucking heart, but the chorus melody is something a 5th grader could have come up with. "No line on the Hu-ri--uh-zun, no line". If it would have taken you another 5 years to come up with a catchier chorus you should have stayed in the studio. Out of 5 stars it deserves 3 on my first couple listens. If I realize I was wrong after listening 50 more times I'll write about it. I didn't like "Astral Weeks" at first either, maybe this, also, is the greatest record ever made.

U2 And Their New Album (Part 3)

Continued from two posts ago

Why is it that U2 so frequently fall short of their potential? It’s because they have a limited ability as songwriters. They can rarely come up with memorable hooks, and therefore they often settle for mediocre or unfinished sounding ones. Rock music doesn’t have to have great lyrics, and so the fact that Bono’s not a great lyricist is not a fatal flaw. He can occasionally rise to the occasion, but what’s more important is that he can write lyrics that fit in with the music behind him. “With or Without You” is a great song, and a testament to that is the fact that it has mediocre lyrics, but who cares. Sometimes you find a song that just feels good and you give yourself away. Bono’s lyrics remind me a little bit of Oasis’ lyrics, in that most of the time their job is to just go with the flow and fit the mood. (The difference is you can actually hear Noel Gallagher not giving a shit in the crap he writes. I mean that in the best possible sense though, Oasis used to be a great fucking rock and roll band, and when they said they were they had the coke lines to back it up).

A lot of lyricists are like this. Their job is, more or less, simply not to get in the way of the mood and the feeling. Bono is usually this kind of lyricist. He’s got no “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” type lines, to stick in your gut until judgment day. Instead his job is “just don’t stumble”, because the message is already written in the chords and the guitar. But sometimes he does stumble, like in the God awful lyrics to “Grace” and “New York” off my favorite U2 album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”. I’m thinking of him like a boxer, or like Bob Dylan described him in his book “Chronicles Vol. 1”, a guy who was fated to be an Irish cop but beat the odds and became a rock star. (I’m paraphrasing Dylan) He’s a working class guy with kindness in his heart, trying to stay on his feet no matter how hard the punches come or how unevenly he’s matched. And when he’s up against music that’s calling out from the depths of our home sometimes the best you can aim for is to last the full fifteen rounds. Unevenly matched, out of his weight class, he wins by staying on his fucking feet. And on a good night, with an Irish glint and a smile that tells that he’s been to God’s furnace and come back with the fire, he can dash off a right hook that can take you by surprise. This is “I’m only hanging on to watch you go down, my love” in “So Cruel”, “Well it’s too late, tonight, to drag the past out in to the light” in “One” and “If I crawl, if I come crawling home, will you be there?” in “In a Little While”. There are others too, and also “Pride (In the name of Love)”, which is the only Martin Luther King tribute that is actually worthy of the man. (“In a Little While” is my favorite U2 song. Joey Ramone was supposedly listening to it as he died next to his mother in his hospital room. That’s probably the most beautiful and sad summation of what U2’s music, at their best, sounds like.)

Despite the brilliant exceptions, the rule for U2 is that if the music’s not good then the lyrics sure aren’t going to carry you through. And here’s their Achilles heel, and a conclusion barely worth writing. So I’m barely going to write it. They write unfocused hooks. All of us are in the gutter, U2 are looking at the stars. And give us a good hook and let us see them too. Or we’re in the gutter, and we’re also bored.
Tomorrow I’ll review their new album.

Continued next post.