Showing posts with label original. Show all posts
Showing posts with label original. Show all posts

Friday, December 16, 2022

Fool . . .

I can be a fool just as well as anybody can
Just a little rope and I'll hang myself like any other man
I'm not so different from the rest
So please don't put me to the test
I don't get my kicks when I hurt you or I make you cry
I can find the courage for anything I want to if I try
I know I have to take the risk
A strange dependency I guess

It's a simple case of matter over mind
It's a human race
There are winners all the time
Just a pretty face 
Such a pretty face

I go walking right in her general direction
I go talking without a fear of my detection
And I've been called every name in the book
But I don't care about it 
Some kind of crook may be remorseful
But if you take a look then you'll see
What kind of fool that I can be

You looked at the world your own way rose-colored spectacles
Only heard the things that you chose
Saw what you wanted to see
You didn't look too hard at me
Had no idea what I could be
On the other hand in my case I knew I wanted you
I could see the trust in your eyes
A trust so far out of place
You didn't see through my disguise
It hit you right between the eyes

Now the game I played is all over and done
Though it hurt you so
There's no way you could have won
So it wasn't fair
Do you think I care

I'll do anything to take advantage
Of a situation thrown my way
I'll move a mountain if I think I have to
I'm moving mountains every day

Call me anything that you want
That's your prerogative
Be as honest as you can be
Make sure you hold nothing back
I'll have to take it like a man
I'll do it any way I can
Odds I won't refute what you say
I've heard it all before
Yes I've heard it time and again
Because I've lived it and what's more
It's just of part of who I am

Do you think I'll change can an old dog learn new tricks
Turn my life around 
There's so much I'd have to fix
No it can't be done
I'll just have my fun







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Thursday, December 15, 2022

Smoke . . .

. . . and mirrors

Can you hear all that I say
Beneath all clever wordplay?
Don’t think that I’m insulting you
That I don’t want your point of view
Working from limited base
So easily losing your place
Why feign a blatant expertise
With no obvious philosophies?

Do you know
What you want
To accomplish here?
Will you go 
To the length you say you will
Or is this just all
Smoke and mirrors?

You may just set precedent
with every signal you’ve sent
Why don’t you learn the protocol
To no longer suffer this at all

Say what you mean if you mean it
Do what you feel in your heart
Make it real when you’re speaking your mind 

Impressions churning and spray
Like repairs flowing away
Pushing downstream ferociously
Uprooting each obstacle you see




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Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Grains . . .

Listen, buy, tell a friend . . . and thanks. 



Please, take a minute to  sample the entire album GRAINS






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Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Flowers . . .

Wishing upon a star
Takes me so very far.
Just don’t play around with my heart.
You must take special care
Not to damage or tear
Just the smallest little part.

Sometimes I’m not too clear
What is this thing that I fear.
It’s so difficult to describe.
How can something unknown
Make me feel so alone.
I should be the bigger man
But I clearly won’t. 

I’m just a sensitive flower.
I’m such a sensitive soul.
I’m just a sensitive flower.
So I’ve been told.

Maybe the way I react
Lacks some refinement or tact.
I just do the best that I can.
Sometimes we’re out in a crowd
Full of opinion so loud.
I go back inside of my shell.

No matter how very hard
I try to change how I behave.
I just can’t seem to please
All the people even half the time.
Do you think that I can be saved?

In this state of affairs
Don’t get caught unawares.
Just be cognizant of what’s there.
Why do those who can’t see 
Think that some vision can’t be
Advantageous to possess
For someone like me.






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Monday, December 12, 2022

The Devil You Say? . . .

 

(from Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend by Thomas Mann)
". . . the draught from him had got abruptly stronger, so that it went through my overcoat and pierced me to my marrow.  Angrily I ask:  "Cannot you away with this nuisance, this icy draught?" . . . He: Alas, no, I regret not to be able to gratify you. But the fact is, I am cold. How otherwise could I hold out and find it possible to dwell where I dwell?" . . . I (involuntarily): "You mean in the brining pit of fire?" . . . He (laughs as though tickled): "Capital! Said in the good robust and merry German way. It has indeed many other pretty names, scholarly, pathetical, the Herr Doctor ex-Theolugus knows them all, as Carter, exitium, confutatio, pernicies, condemnatio, and so on. But there is no remedy, the familiar German, the comic ones are still my favorites. . . "


Hell

- Squirrel Nut Zippers



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Sunday, December 11, 2022

Denial . . .


Denial, performed live in Ocean City (MD) in 2019 by Jay & Ray of OHO. 
Denial appears on OHO's Gazebo and also on Ahora, our latest release.

 
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Saturday, December 10, 2022

Friday, December 9, 2022

Chromatose . . .

 

Cover Art by Russell E. Jozwiak

Back in the early aughts I remember feeling a bit 'behind the times' regarding digital music, that is digital recording and reproduction of my music. So I read some 'dummies' material and played around until it gradually became more comfortable. After a spell of attempts at marketing original pop songs to other artists, and knowing (and being comfortable with the fact) that I was not nor ever will be a 'vocalist' of any particular distinction, at the suggestions of my three sons, I began recording my compositions as solo piano arrangements - stripped-down, bare-bones, jazz-inflected melodies with generous amounts of improvisation within each. Using a digital four-track machine (TEAC maybe?), I made the recordings then had an album mastered at a local studio, filled-in all the CD Baby forms and released Chromatose.




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Thursday, December 8, 2022

Me? . . .

 


Who, irrespective of religious affiliation, disposition or lack of any at all, can't appreciate a well-done spiritual song?  And by the way, one sure-fire way to determine if your sore throat is serious enough to call in sick to work is to recite, as low, serious and slow as you can, the line, "Why me lord?"


Why Me?

- Kris Kirstofferson



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Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Mother . . .

Chicago, originally Chicago Transit Authority, included a song on their third album entitled Mother, which was about the callous pollution and bleak future to which we were subjecting our 'Mother Earth.' An excellent song with a trombone duet improvisation, the song went out on a chord progression much like this,  which I had always thought was a beautiful sequence. My song, Mother Chi is based upon that chord progression and appears on my album For The Ride.

 
 
   
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Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Variations . . .

 

Plunge is a Jay Graboski original which appears on the OHO album Gazebo.  This improvisation resulted from trial-and-error in formulating a keyboard part for Plunge. A challenging set of changes on which to improvise. This performance is replete with the growing pains of a work-in-progress. 


   

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Monday, December 5, 2022

Of The Road . . .

 

He's in a rage
Simply because
Guy in that car,
Bout twice his age,
Is driving quite slowly.

Tries to contain
His temper as such.
Behind the wheel
He can't do very much.
But he simmers. 

This is the point
Where the tire
Hits the road,
Metaphorically.
Contains himself.




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Sunday, December 4, 2022

IF . . .

 . . . we haven't learned, shame on us!


(from The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser)
". . . (he) freely dispensed insults about many of those who worked with and for him, disparaging John Bolton ("a degenerate"), Chris Christie ("sloppy Chris"), Mark Esper ("just wasn't meant for the job"), John Kelly ("wasn't mentally fit for the job"), Jim Mattis ("the world's most overrated general"), H.R. McMaster ("a total lightweight"), Mark Milley ("one of the dumbest people in the world"), Jeff Sessions ("not up to the job"), and Marc Short ("Marc Long"). And those were just the people he had picked to advise him. He also did not think much of Joe Biden, Liz Cheney, James Coney, Ashram Thani, Andrew McCabe, John McCain, Angela Merkel, Lisa Page, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Adam Schiff, Peter Strzok, Alexander Vindman or Marie Yovanovitch. . . People he had no words of criticism for? Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jon-un, the January 6 rioters, or white supremecists. . . never explained why he hired so many stupid and mentally unfit people in the first place, much less what that would say about his judgement if they really were so incompetent. . ."


You're No Good

- Linda Ronstadt



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Saturday, December 3, 2022

Impress . . .

Some may say it's a little suggestive,
To name your song a word like impressive.
And also possibly presumptuous,
The opposite of the word humbleness.
You misinterpret my intent.
In bestowing this title, I do repent.
But if music is like fine champagne,
Splurge and get some John Coltrane.


The song Impressive (posted here) originally appeared on my album Another Shot and was inspired by John Coltrane's 'Impressions.'




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Friday, December 2, 2022

In A Nutshell . . .

 

(from The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser)
". . . "They want me to do a commercial because it seems that a lot of people that are inclined to be with me don't like the concept of - you know, they're anti vax," he said at the time, adding that he was considering doing it. People in the government had asked? "Yes," he said. . . But months had passed and no Trump commercial materialized even as tens of millions of his people refused to get vaccinated, putting themselves at increased risk of death from the virus. So we asked why he had not spoken out after he had been asked to. . . "Nope, they have not asked me," he told us. . . But Trump was the one who had told us about it in the first place. We point that out. Was he sure? .  . "Not that I know of, no," Trump blithely responded. . . Was he telling the truth the first time? The second? Neither? With Trump, one could never really tell. . . " 


Hello,Goodbye

- The Beatles



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Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Why? . . .

. . . BECAUSE!  (Besides, I'll bet you've never heard it.)

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mingus_(Joni_Mitchell_album))
". . . a collaboration (Joni Mitchell) with composer and jazz musician Charles Mingus. Recorded in the months before his death, it would be Mingus's final musical project; the album is wholly dedicated to him. Mingus was released on June 13, 1979. . . The album is quite experimental, featuring minimalist jazz, over-plucked, buzzing acoustic guitars, and even wolves howling through "The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey". All of the lyrics are by Mitchell, while the music for four of the songs was composed by Mingus, three being new tunes, a fourth being his tribute to saxophonist Lester Young from his 1959 classic Mingus Ah Um, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", for which Mitchell wrote a set of lyrics. . . . As with the release preceding, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mitchell hired personnel from jazz fusion group Weather Report, notably bassist Jaco Pastorius to play on the sessions. Mingus would also mark the first reunion of saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock in the studio since recording together on Shorter's seminal Native Dancer album, featuring Milton Nascimento, released in September 1974.
The album is spliced with excerpts, which are labelled "(Rap)", from recordings provided by Sue Graham Mingus, including a scat singing interplay between Joni and Mingus, and Charles and Sue arguing over his age at a birthday party. In "Funeral", Mingus and others discuss how long he will live and what his funeral will be like. He refers to the Vedanta Society and asserts that he is going to live longer than Duke Ellington, who died in 1974, aged 75, by saying, "I'm going to cut Duke!". . ."

Mingus died January 5, 1979 at the age of 56. 


God Must Be A Boogie Ma

- Joni Mitchel & Jaco Pastorius



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