Category Archives: Songs and Playlists

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Songs To Restore Sanity

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[UPDATED - 10.30.10 at 6:30 pm - CLICK HERE]

In honor of Jon Stewart (and/or Stephen Colbert) and the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or March To Keep Fear Alive in Washington D.C. today, I put together a few songs (Who needs more than a few? You’re going to be watching the Rally on TV or out doing stuff because it’s Saturday) for your enjoyment.

These two songs by the Talking Heads have been on my mind all week…

The lyrics (when framed in a certain way in my mind) seem very relevant to the crazy political environment in our country – meaning the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, Carl Paladino, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller… I can’t even keep up with the list of Crazy Firecrackers, but these songs are for them and their intellectual leader – Glenn Beck.

Burning Down The House

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

by Talking Heads

This first song is dedicated to  The Crazy Firecracker Party…

Watch out you might get what you’re after
Cool babies strange but not a stranger
I’m an ordinary guy
Burning down the house

Hold tight wait till the party’s over
Hold tight We’re in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house

Here’s your ticket pack your bag: time for jumpin’ overboard
The transportation is here
Close enough but not too far, Maybe you know where you are
Fightin’ fire with fire

All wet hey you might need a raincoat
Shakedown dreams walking in broad daylight
Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees
Burning down the house

It was once upon a place sometimes I listen to myself
Gonna come in first place
People on their way to work baby what did you except
Gonna burst into flame

My house S’out of the ordinary
That’s might Don’t want to hurt nobody
Some things sure can sweep me off my feet
Burning down the house

No visible means of support and you have not seen nuthin’ yet
Everything’s stuck together
I don’t know what you expect starring into the TV set
Fighting fire with fire (emphasis added)

which leads us to our next song – dedicated to Glenn Beck…

Slippery People

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by Talking Heads

What about the time?
You were rollin’ over
Fall on your face
You must be having fun
Walk lightly!
Think of a time.
You’d best believe
This think is real

Put away that gun
This part is simple
Try to recognize
What is in you mind
God help us!
Help us loose our minds
These slippery people
help us understand

what’s the matter with him? He’s alright!
I see his face – The Lord won’t mind…
Don’t play no games – He’s alright…
Love from the bottom to the top
Turn like a wheel – He’s alright…
See for yourself – The Lord won’t mind…
We’re gonna move – Right now…
Turn like a wheel inside a wheel

I remember when
Sittin’ in the tub
Pulled out the plug
The water was runnin’ out
Cool down
Stop acting crazy
They’re gonna leave
And we’ll be on our own
Seven times five
They were living creatures
Watch ‘em come to life
Right before your eyes
Backsliding!
How do you do?
These slippery people
Gonna see you through

More Songs…

What, you need more songs?

Try these two songs (music and lyrics included) by Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Thrasher and Powderfinger

If you still need more, try this sound collage (below) which I create in March:

UFOverdriver – You’ve Got To Be Crazy (The Glenn Beck VS Eric Massa Mix)

ufoverdriver-you've-got-to-be-crazy

Listen Here

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

The Rally To Restore Sanity


Here’s a link to the website for the Rally today: http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/

When: 12-3 pm (Eastern Time  Zone) – watch it on Comedy Central

While I’m glad this Rally is going on today, it’s a shame we even have the need for such a thing.

Please note – I completely ripped-off the poster for the Rally to make my Songs To Restore Sanity graphic – just so you know.

And then there’s this – your Moment of Zen…

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Moment of Zen – Obama Will Not Be at the Rally
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

[Update - 10.30.10 - 6:30pm - Video of Jon Stewart's Speech at the end of the Rally today...]


Until later, best of (mental) health…

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Thrasher and Powderfinger

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Here are two songs from Neil Young’s 1979 album “Rust Never Sleeps” – Thrasher and Powderfinger – which seem very relevant to where we are right now as a country…

Listen, Read, Enjoy and Think…

[note: little known fact - The title for this album was borrowed from the slogan for Rust-Oleum paint, and was suggested by Mark Mothersbaugh of the New Wave band Devo.]

Thrasher

by Neil Young

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting in the full moon
They had given all they had for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.

And I was just getting up, hit the road before it’s light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin’ like my day had just begun.

Where the eagle glides ascending
There’s an ancient river bending
Down the timeless gorge of changes
Where sleeplessness awaits
I searched out my companions,
Who were lost in crystal canyons
When the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates.

It was then I knew I’d had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
With a one-way ticket to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends I still don’t understand.

They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.

So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road without that load
Brings back the time when I was eight or nine
I was watchin’ my mama’s T.V.,
It was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode.

Where the vulture glides descending
On an asphalt highway bending
Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars
Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar.

But me I’m not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrashers comes, I’ll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I’ll know the time has come
To give what’s mine.

source: http://thrasherswheat.org/lyrics.htm

Powderfinger

by Neil Young

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Look out, Mama, there’s a white boat comin’ up the river
With a big red beacon, and a (Tea Party) flag, and a man on the rail
I think you’d better call John,
‘Cause it don’t look like they’re here to deliver the mail
And it’s less than a mile away
I hope they didn’t come to stay
It’s got numbers on the side and a gun
And it’s makin’ big waves.

Daddy’s gone, my brother’s out hunting in the mountains
Big John’s been drinking since the river took Emmy-Lou
So the Powers That Be left me here to do the thinkin’
And I just turned twenty-two
I was wonderin’ what to do
And the closer they got,
The more those feelings grew.

Daddy’s rifle in my hand felt reassurin’
He told me, Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothin’
But when the first shot hit the docks I saw it comin’
Raised my rifle to my eye
Never stopped to wonder why.
Then I saw black,
And my face splashed in the sky.

Shelter me from the powder and the finger
Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger
Think of me as one you’d never figured
Would fade away so young
With so much left undone
Remember me to my love,
I know I’ll miss her.

source: http://thrasherswheat.org/fot/lyrics_pf.htm

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Trouble Every Day For Hungry Freaks, Daddy

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For some odd reason I’ve chosen a couple of Frank Zappa songs as my Fourth of July/Independence Day posting…

Both of these songs are from an album that’s still inspiring and relevant 45 years after it was released (1965) – Freak Out! by The Mothers of Invention – thank you Mr. Zappa, sir.

Trouble Every Day

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Trouble Every Day – Lyrics

Well I’m about to get sick
From watchin’ my TV
Been checkin’ out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it’s gonna change, my friend
Is anybody’s guess

So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ‘em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day

Wednesday I watched the riot . . .
Seen the cops out on the street
Watched ‘em throwin’ rocks and stuff
And chokin’ in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin’ ’round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin’ down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burn

And I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ‘em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day

Well, you can cool it,
You can heat it . . .
‘Cause, baby, I don’t need it . . .
Take your TV tube and eat it
‘N all that phony stuff on sports
‘N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head begin to hurt
From checkin’ out the way
The newsman say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so

And further they assert
That any show they’ll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They will be the first to tell,
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin’ hard and doin’ swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can’t be beat

And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They’ll send some joker with a brownie
And you’ll see it all complete

So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ‘em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day

Hey, you know something people?
I’m not black
But there’s a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I’m not white

Well, I seen the fires burnin’
And the local people turnin’
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite ‘em
And they say it served ‘em right
Because a few of them are white,
And it’s the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
Yellin’ “You can’t understand me!”
‘N all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and TV and
All that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don’t appeal to him
(No matter if it’s black or white)
Because he’s out for blood tonight

You know we got to sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I bet there won’t be many live
To see it really end
‘Cause the fire in the street
Ain’t like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don’t you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now’s the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain’t no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn’t free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns a store
You know that five in every four
Just won’t amount to nothin’ more
Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor

Blow your harmonica, son!

{and…}

Hungry Freaks, Daddy

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Hungry Freaks, Daddy Lyrics

Mister America
Walk on by
Your schools that do not teach
Mister America
Walk on by
The minds that won’t be reached
Mister America
Try to hide
The emptiness that’s you inside
When once you find that the way you lied
And all the corny tricks you tried
Will not forestall the rising tide of
Hungry freaks, Daddy . . .

They won’t go
For no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren’t afraid to say
What’s on their minds
(The left-behinds of the Great Society)

Hungry freaks, Daddy . . .

Mister America
Walk on by
Your supermarket dream
Mister America
Walk on by
The liquor store supreme
Mister America
Try to hide
The product of your savage pride
The useful minds that it denied
The day you shrugged and stepped aside
You saw their clothes and then you cried:
THOSE HUNGRY FREAKS, DADDY!

They won’t go
For no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren’t afraid to say
What’s on their minds
(The left-behinds of the Great Society)

Both Trouble Every Day and Hungry Freaks, Daddy by Frank Zappa off of The Mothers of Invention debut album – Freak Out!

Happy Independence Day!

Note: I wish I could say that I’m a long-time Zappa fan and all that, but I’d be lying… Somehow I avoided listening to Zappa – I mean, really listening – until this year.

What a guy, this Frank Zappa – how come nobody sat me down with a stack of Frank Zappa records when I was around 9 or 10 years old? I would have been in heaven and probably lived the last 4 decades with a different soundtrack in my head. But that’s how it goes…

But now I’ve found Zappa – like some lost child whose found his way home. You could call my sound collage project – UFOverdriver – The Return of The Illegitimate Lost Son of The Mothers of Invention, or something like that.

and totally unrelated -

…also remember on this Independence Day – Uncle Sam Wants You (and your children, house, money, stocks, savings, DNA, PIN codes, tax dollars, etc.) and promises to return all items sent to Afghanistan by at least July 2011, or soon after. No, really… he means it this time.

You’ve Got To Be Crazy

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You’ve Got To Be Crazy – The Glenn Beck VS Eric Massa Mix

ufoverdriver-youve-got-to-be-crazy

Listen to This Sound Collage…

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

 

A little theater for the mind…

For your enjoyment – a new UFOverdriver sound collage – contains: Pink Floyd, David Byrne and Brian Eno, a DJ John Digweed Mix, Johnny Cash, Eric Massa, Glenn Beck and more – based on “Dogs” by Pink Floyd – best with headphones and eyes closed…

Total length: 16:42 of goodness…

Part I (0:00 – 1:12) – Intro
Part II (1:12 – 6:38) – You’ve Got To Be Crazy (Part I) – Diamond Dogs Dance Mix
Part III (6:38 – 11:08) – What Part of Mea Culpa Don’t You Understand
Part IV (11:08 – 14:47) – You’ve Got To be Crazy (Part II)
Part V (14:47 – 16:42) – Who Was Trained Not To Spit

(Note: This is part of the Change Has Come Series – Parts IV through VIII)

I will post complete information about this mix very soon. Enjoy, and have a restful weekend…

FREE MP3 Download!

Would you like a MP3 copy of this sound collage to listen to on your iPod or other portable music device?

Download Instructions

Right click (with your right mouse button) here with your mouse, and choose “Save link to…” and then select where you want to download the MP3 file. Click enter and the download will begin.

You’ve Got To Be Crazy – The Glenn Beck VS Eric Massa Mix - | Size: 23mb | Length: 16:45 | MP3 Bit Rate: 192 kbs (high quality)

Until later, best of health…

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Change Has Come – Parts I, II and III

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ufoverdrive-change-has-come

 

Listen to This Sound Collage…

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Part I – If You Didn’t Care - 0:00 – 1:22
Part II – On This Day – 1:22 – 6:41
Part III – Our Most Desperate Hour – 6:41 – 10:22

Total Length: 10:22

From an album in progress called: Weapons of Mass Communication

FREE Download at the bottom of this posting!

About This Sound Collage

When I started working on this collage I chose to use pre-recorded music (instead of creating new music) because it made it a bit more like doing a radio show, and by using music that has a popular familiarity it allows me, as an artist, to make use of the mental baggage that comes along with it.

Every listener will already have memories, ideas and thoughts associated with the music pieces before they even hear this collage, and while they listen, their brain will pull from those memories and that will help emotionally color the way they hear this piece.

For myself, Pink Floyd has huge baggage. I won’t even begin to explain all the different ways Pink Floyd and their music have influenced my life and the way I hear sound and the spaces between moments of sound.

This collage starts with Pig On The Wings, Part I from Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals, an album I’ve been listening to a lot lately…

Lyrics

If you didn’t care what happened to me,
And I didn’t care for you,
We would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain.
Wondering which of the buggars to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing.

Source Material

Part I – If You Didn’t Care

Background Music Piece – Pigs On The Wings – Part I – from Animals by Pink Floyd – Effects added

Sound Clips:

  • Howard Beale from Network, the 1976 film that won four Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture
  • Several Morpheus quotes from The Matrix, the 1999 film which also won four Oscars

Part II – On This Day

Background Music Piece – Downpressor Man – Bob Marley and The Wailers – Trenchtown Box Set – Sampled and looped

Sound Clips:

  • Leonard Cohen spoken word introduction to his song Democracy from a live recording made in Switzerland in 1993 (I’m not sure how you can find this recording but here’s a link to his album The Future which this song came from)
  • Johnny Cash reading The New Testament, quotes taken from The Book of Revelations, Chapter 10
  • Several quotes from Network

Part III – Our Most Desperate Hour

Background Music Piece – Shine On You Crazy Diamond – Part I from Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, re-mixed by The Orb

Sound Clips:

Notes on Links: I’ve added links to some of my source material so you can get your own copy.

The Johnny Cash CD set of him reading the New Testament is great, and the link goes to amazon.com – Thank you Christi and Louie for giving me the set as a gift!

I would also recommend the Bob Marley 4 CD Trenchtown Box Set – 80 classic Bob Marley and The Wailers songs from the early days (1969-1972) with that old school reggae feel and sound but this particular 4 CD set was a bootleg and unfortunately the Marley family received nothing for it – just a word of caution and respect.

And if Pink Floyd’s albums Animals and Wish You Were Here are not in your CD collection, I’ve just got to ask, why not?

Commentary

Our Most Desperate Hour – or – I Don’t Have To Tell You Things Are Bad…

This sound collage reflects on the moment we are living in right now, in March 2010.

We live in a time with a lot of anger, disillusionment, discontent, with hopes deferred, and a growing disconnect between the top and bottom of society with a quickly evaporating middle… troubles, hatreds, run-away emotions and raw Americanism is simmering under the surface of everyday life, and being heated up more and more by AM radio and TV talking heads.

Every day our eyes and our ears are owned by the visuals and sounds of mass media advertising, programming and culture – with information overload until it all becomes a blur that wears you down, wears down your hopes and dreams, wears down your resistance to do anything more that just sit back and watch the show.

Meanwhile people move from sofa to bed to work to sofa to bed with more and more impotent rage running through their brain because they know this is wrong – very wrong. And it is true – this is very wrong.

But you can’t just sit and passively think about how wrong it is, how stupid Congress or The President is, how ripped off you’ve been… how dissed, pissed and dismissed you’ve been.

You can’t just sit around and hurt about your lost job or career, lost life savings, lost opportunities, lost elections…

But we do – and that just makes the whole pot simmer even more…

And – what makes it all worse is that we voted for change in November 2008. We were promised change, invited to invest our hope in this change and like the bank’s taxpayer financed bail-out, we seem to be on the losing end of our investment in hope.

All of this has lead to the questions which are the starting point for this piece – what happened to the change we were promised? Did our vote even matter?

On This Day

I remember the feeling of that night in November 2008 when Obama won the election, it was like something I had never felt before – like something in the cosmos went “snap” and the vibration of that snap went zooming around the globe.

It felt like it wasn’t just a person we were voting for, but for an idea and a dream, for change. And the whole world was watching, holding their breathe, hoping… and then cheering along with all of us as every TV news show announced with near synchronized timing the election results just moments before 8:00 pm our time on the west coast.

There was something too powerful in that moment for that change to just fade away.

Change?

Yeah, I can feel that something is going to change…

I felt the voice of the people that night when they said they had hope, when they voted in the secret ballots of their hearts for change…

If the politicians they voted for don’t bring the change, then it will come from somewhere. That’s just the way things go, and right now that’s where we are.

Change has come, and it’s boiling under the surface and it seems to be looking for someone to blame.

Change is inevitable. But how will we change, how much mercy and how much judgment will we have on those that brought us to this point – those things are being weighed in the hearts of very many people at this very time.

Mercy or Judgment. Care or Blame. Your decisions are being recorded in heaven’s unchangeable heart.

FREE Download!

Would you like a MP3 copy of this sound collage to listen to on your iPod or other portable music device?

Download Instructions

Right click (with your right mouse button) here with your mouse, and choose “Save link to…” and then select where you want to download the MP3 file. Click enter and the download will begin.

Change Has Come – Parts I, II and III | Size: 14.25mb | Length: 10:22 | Bit Rate: 192 kbs (high quality)

Enjoy!

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