Today’s Threat Tomorrow’s Promise
it does not change it merely goes on
a rearranging of ancestral con
a fear and hunger to base it upon
i will go on
you will go on
we will go on
adapt the newest and latest contagions
but use vocab from the primitive ages
is it what we are or have that’s upgraded
he will go on
she will go on
they will go on
i will go on
you will go on
we will go on
you may wonder but you can’t question
close your eyes and just smile
murderous blunder becomes salvation
after a little while
it may not be familiar to you now
it may terrify you but
this is how we recycle common sense
this is just what we do
the most devout will sit high on a thrown
a simple mission to know the unknown
give me the truth or just throw me a bone
i will go on
you will go on
we will go on
rewrite the oldest and timeless tradition
to make a way for the next big rendition
is it what we love or fear that’s outdated
he will go on
she will go on
they will go on
i will go on
you will go on
we will go on
18. this is
I’ve always liked the way professional musicians write themselves into the future or cast themselves as timeless entities; love how an artist can lyrically challenge his listener in this way while extending its commercial appeal and relevance.
I wanted to say my own goodbye, and I wanted to say that this music was my last stand, so to speak, and that I’m going to sing my life and perspective here and that’s it. Then I’m done with it. I’m done with it all.
Not so much a death wish as a promise to keep. My work shall set me free.
This was also the last cut I initially had planned to include in the The Shut The Hell Up Sessions collection of songs–the initial group. My first group. “Time to say goodbye to being an absolute newbie,” was the idea, but I would add the following 5 songs because I didn’t know what else to do with them at the time, but I kind of already started sounding like I wanted to do something else and call it something else so it would serve a different purpose for me. I wanted my current life experience to continue to influence my communicative expressions in music, and I got what I wished for in demonic busloads–I’d group my next collection of songs under the “album” title Surviving Home.
Surviving Home.
This Is
i write, i sing, it’s not entertainment
a little of you, a little of me, a little of what remains
it’s mercy, it’s judgement, it’s my self-arraignment
a little obscene, too little to see, and it pains
me to be here at all
i live, i speak, it’s not entertainment
a little to her, a little to him, a little to everyone
i am this, i live this, it’s higher attainment
i needn’t to fear, i need to be clear, it is done
this is my goodbye
i hurt, i hurt you, it’s not entertainment
a little for this, a little for that, a little for what i can
a party, a witness, a breach of containment
it’s what’ll remain of this little stain of human
i breed, i kill, with great sense of portent
a little by give, a little by take, a little by auld lang syne
it’s all of, it’s full of, no more solemn torment
it’s all i can do, it’s all up to you, to make it be yours not mine
this is why i try
this is my goodbye
US charges Chinese in testing scam
US charges Chinese in testing scam http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32921737
:)rickymay
17. revenge for none
I’m sure I wrote this with biological father in mind, since there is a verse about him in this, but it wasn’t only about him. It was about turning the whole thing around on myself and the world. I just wanted to say that I’m not the other guy who’s out there or on the outside of it or crazy. I just wanted to say that I’m not the real problem here, that in fact, I am crazy but there has always been a freedom in crazy for me and in truth that has kept me alive and kicking. I’m not the problem; I’m my own solution. It was a powerfully liberating thing for me to say. Really nothing more to it.
Well, of course there was the idea that I kept thinking about Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and the whole hating school bit. There are obvious and not so obvious nods and references and influences to artists I grew up with all over my music. I do stand on their shoulders–all the greats and one-hit wonders that came before me and shaped me somehow; they didn’t invite me there, I decided to do jump up there myself. The view is better and it was time for me.
what it’s not about is money
I used to think musicians were special, as if they had some capacity or intelligence that was above and beyond anyone else. I don’t believe that anymore; like Dr. Howard Gardner’s famous M.I. research, people are intelligent in different ways and I just spelled “intelligent” incorrectly.
Thank you Spell Check for making me dumber and lazier.
Again, like Dr. Gardner, we must first define intelligence–that definition not including a firm tendency to rely on the automated functions of a machine. Accepting the definition loosely as “adding value or making something,” you can see how that opens the door to a completely different method and system of wealth valuation and value itself. Incorporate that with the ideas of technological development and human evolution and the conversation practically walks on its own. Fun!
Anyway, in my life and travels I’ve realized that music is one of many ways someone can add value or make something. And if someone has a gift or developed intelligence in something, no one is going to be everyone’s everything; anyone’s going to be less-able in something or have some impaired particular skill.
A topic I will likely repeat on this blog is that my music is not entertainment. It is a communication. It is a goodbye. A friend of mine asked me to write lyrics, and another has asked me to “do a live show” in Beijing, both invitations I am flattered to receive but, again, are not in my vein of personal expertise or intelligence.
I don’t see myself as a musician because that implies a skilled professional. I am neither; I am a communicator. That, above all else, is where my talent and intelligence lay. I haven’t the slightest idea how to write for someone, nor do I have the skill-set to perform on stage. To me, writing for someone means speaking for someone, and I just don’t know how I could do that in as personal and intimate way as I do. If the agreement involved monetary compensation, I would probably be dead or dreaming because as of now I am as far away from involving money in this as possible. And the stage show involves a production, a performance, a delivery and giving and energy moving to the audience–all of which require actual musical skills and live performance skills and stage presence. The stage presence is a piece of cake for me, but not the former two.
That doesn’t mean I’m ruling them out completely. It means that right now that is not going to happen. I’m not there right now.
And I am not entertaining. This is not what I’m doing, and writing someone else’s work or performing live would be a form of entertainment, and that’s a problem for me because right now I have absolute control over what I do musically. I am god with this. I can literally do whatever I want to make or not to make the music. I use whatever I want and sing whatever I want and distribute it as I want, when I want. Entertaining people means that my absolute control–my authority–is lost, and lost for money, which to me seems as emotionally hateful and hurtful as anything could possibly be.
As an entertainer, I would immediately be concerned with satisfying others and gathering their feedback and processing that and responding to that feedback. Again, to me at this time, this is bullshit. Hell is others. Think of the idiots I would have to listen and respond to and concern myself with entertaining. How immediately and permanently would I have to become something they want, need and expect rather than remain true to myself and personal communication? And I’m not averse to someone’s criticism either; as of now it doesn’t have to mean anything to me if I don’t want it to. If I were entertaining, I’d have to care about what everyone said about my music and would be obligated to respond. Worse case, I’d even have to apologize for myself, when this music is actually my opportunity to speak without apology. Entertaining would be the antithesis of what this musical effort is to me at this time.
And somewhere in the world there is someone intelligent in the same ways I am and is really feelin’ what I’m saying here.
16. single
Two words: Pan Flute!!
Please don’t be painful; this is a metaphor for life, but you can count the words relating to music and its production if you’d like. 🙂
I love the completely flexible, ambiguous nature of the English language. This makes for interpretation as vast and various as can be found in the human mind. For example, the title “single” implies the lone idealist, as if this romantic perspective of life and the brotherhood of man is one man’s alone and not shared, as would be implied in a title like “album,” “CD,” “chorus” or similar. True to this production’s creator, since I write almost exclusively some form of protest that aspires to reach and/or move the listener, but also shock, awaken and shake him/her a bit. This by simply telling my story–my single.
It’s been about a year since I’ve returned to making music, so I hope you can hear the confidence in my style and presentation; I’m no longer frightened to hear my voice, for starters. From concept to upload, I’ve also cut production time to about 1/15 of what is started at. Just getting better, I suppose, for what that means by my definition alone, thanks.
-rm
*********LYRICS**********
sittin’ down with an old guitar
and an older memory
play a tune like my first new car
hearing everything i’ve got to see
time has played me well enough
it has orchestrated me
i think of all the sounds i live
and i feel the melody
when i’m older than years ago
where i can’t yet see myself
will i cry my lonely self to sleep
when i listen to this song once again
******
standin’ up with a new guitar
and a brand new memory
play a tune like my first new car
singing everything i am to be
words and music are mine alone
on lead guitar’s the man himself
harmony by the friends and fam
rythm is the music man
and we all raise a joyful noise
and we all sing our truth
and we live our single as it spins
on this turntable blue
******
here’s a ballad that’s quick to stare
a reverb that’s old as time
where’s the verse that gets me out of here
what’s the chord to ease my mind
and here’s a number that’s popular
and has echoed through the world
it samples something from everything
of every man woman boy and girl
there are so many number ones
and still more of the lesser known
among the age-long song catalog
always let your music sound
******
do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do
Revenge For None
school
it’s public school
and if you want to survive to get out there alive
you’d best keep
what makes you sleep
well enough to keep you down like the poorly trained clown we become
here
make something stick, find your clique, then you will do well to teach the same
work
you’d better work
and if you want to become what makes us like the sum
of our fears
please hide those tears
this is the way, it’s okay if you only remain in your place
or give face
because if you give a shit, please refrain, and print it on something
some office bling
i cannot play like you
so hate and beat me too
cause whatever i do
they’re laughin’ at ricky
i can’t work like you
hate and ignore me too
cause whatever i do
they’ll be laughin’ at ricky
birth
my life anew
fat, hairy, quiet, I diet on all things that young children do
but without you
(you couldn’t get through)
so you would walk and just chalk it up to a poor choice that you made
but how could i fade
from the mirror of your car as you drove like a star far away
i was nothing to you
but a joke you could do
i remember you too
as you’re laughin’ at ricky
how ironic that you
of all people would do
something without a clue
and be laughin’ at ricky
now?
the music now?
why would you turn your back, jack, on this stack of successes and fame?
am i to blame?
don’t be so silly and cruel, no fool like an old fool, don’t you see
(what) you could be to me?
so just stop this, don’t you miss what you were and the nice things you had
you can’t be glad
I cannot be for you
what is simply untrue
join the ranks of those who
love laughin’ at ricky
i have always been me
not the first time you see
that i’m mine and i’m free
and you’re laughin’ at ricky
i am sorry you don’t
or maybe you just won’t
understand or do nothing
but laugh at ricky
i am this and not there
and i wish you could care
for the soul that i bare
and stop laughin’ at ricky
(don’t you) see nothing’s changed
it has just rearranged
and it’s nothing so strange
to stop laughin’ at ricky
(make me) your catalyst
to be some of your best
wihtout asking the rest
and start laughin’ with ricky
now