Doing a College Assignment

Alex sent me a text and asked for help for one of assignments for his music class. He has to write a blues song. I immediately thought of "Poor Musician Swingin'" and said I'd send him what I wrote way back in 1992.

Maybe there’s something below that will help …

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Poor Musician Swingin'

by Hanson/Schmitt

I'm broke

It's nothing new

Every time I get a paycheck

I give it to you

Say you gotta buy bread

That's okay

Give you my money

Why shouldn't I sleep all day

Poor musician swingin'

With someone naggin'

Poor musician swingin'

With my poor butt saggin'

Sleep all day . . . I swing at night

She left

She'll be back

It's nothing crazy

Just a swing attack

She'll survive

So will I

Playin', swingin'

Until I die

Wrote 8/25/1992 with my friend Ken in Sally Drive Studios

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Every Day Ordinary Life Blues

by Hanson/Schmitt

Boss is breathin' down my neck

Said son, "What's the matter with you?"

This job is getting to me

I need something different to do

Took a day off work

To enjoy life

Walked in the park

Mugged by a guy with a knife

Read newspaper of a crisis

In some distant land

Went back to work to escape

I still couldn't understand

Life is supposed to be tough

I know that to be true

But I have one too many

Things I have to do

I wonder when I try

To kiss the sky

It stays the same color

And life becomes a bit duller . . .

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Bad News

In the morning

I'll wake to find you gone

So I'll live

I'll find a way to go on

So when you leave

Don't take my key

And when he leaves you

Don't come cryin' to me

Cuz you've been hurting yourself

With the lies you tell

And if you wouldn't believe them

You'd still go to hell

Cuz you're bad news

Never a sight for sore eyes

Cuz you're bad news

You give me the blues . . .

You never smile

Unless you're taken out to eat

You like to lie

And say that you're just beat

You don't know

What you're talking about

And if he calls to ask

I'll give him reason to doubt

Wrote 9/2/1992

Gum Blues

Gum sticky and sweet

You make me complete

But one bad habit you do, I've seen you too

You stick to me like I'm made out of glue

You know I thought if I tried

I'd get you off my mind

But everywhere I look

I see remains of the tears you cried

There was a time in my life when I needed you

I had to believe your lies were true

Now the sun is brighter, I can see a new day

And I'm so glad I didn't invite you to stay

Gum, you're so sticky and sweet

Now you're gone, my life is complete

Gum, I don't think about you

I hope you don't think about me too.

Wrote 6/21/1993

When I showed these lyrics to Ken Schmitt, he gave me this look like, "Where in the world did you come up with this stuff?"

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Right In The Face

Think you got a method

I know you don't got a plan

Puttin' on your killer instinct

Searchin' for a man

But I'm here, right in your face

Open your eyes, I'm right in your face

You don't know a good thing

When it's staring at you . . . right in the face

I saw you last night

Out on the town

When I motioned to you

You looked down

I was your spark

The start of a fire

Did you forget the dark

Unleashed your desire

I'm a good thing honey

I'm right in your face

Don't ask for your money

I'm right in your face

Wrote 10/11/1993

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Concrete Shoes Blues

I've been tryin' baby

Tryin' to get back to you

But I don't seem to move

No matter what I do

I've been tryin' baby

But I can't seem to move back to you

Concrete shoes blues

They hold me still

Concrete shoes blues

They control my will

Nothing will make them go away

They're with me everyday

The concrete shoes blues

Drive me away

Since you said goodbye

I've waited for you

But if you're looking for me, you ain't looked hard enough

I tried to call you

You're not answering th phone

But your new man was there

I can tell you really care

Concrete shoe blues

Keep me away

Concrete shoe blues

Won't make me stay

Nothing makes them go away

As long as your new man continues to stay . . .

Wrote 1/22/1994

The Way You Are

Looking through the shattered window pane

Unaware of the wind blowing cross my face

I can't see the clouds

Your loving left me blind

I don't know why you treated me so unkind

But I guess that's just

The way you are

Narrow tunnel vision

Serves you best

That's the way you are

Why do you do this pain

Why won't you see the rain . . . makes the sun brighter

Looking at our pictures of smiles and laughs

Seem to mock the pain inside my soul

I can't see the smiles anymore

Your loving is what made me blind

Why did you treat me so unkind

Wrote: 9/8/1994

Favorite Subject in the Lyrics I Wrote

Years ago, I transcribed 19 spiral notebooks into a RoboHelp project - I think I've described that on this blog elsewhere - and recently, I started poking around the lyrics I wrote. I came across this article - about forgiveness - shortly after I came across these lyrics.

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Unable to Think

Authored on 06/16/1993

Two thoughts pounding
Pointing at I . . .
There's no way I can
Forgive this feeling
For visiting me twice
In a short lifetime,
No explanation found.
I return to the Burn, a
Sensation in my stomach,
The kind that festers
With Ignorance as they
Laugh together, joyful
And pleasantly planning
My fall. They'll wait
Until the festering
Increases, too immense
For words or for a
Poet to dominate into words,
Do you understand where
I'm going? The end is . . .
Unable to think.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Twenty-three in Years

Authored on 02/15/1993

I never can say what I feel
Neither can you

I never can open up to what is real
I can't talk to you
The words fight my instinct
Keep your mouth shut
This is for your own good
Lies I've learned to live with
Reflecting until the sun rises
Thinking about failures
Remembering when I've cried
Knowing why dreams have died . . .
Twenty-three in spineless years.

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Note

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Saturday	08	05	2006	Unable To Think	19A	06/16/1993	189	About Parents During Engagement
Saturday	08	05	2006	Twenty-three in Years	19A	02/15/1993	189	Twenty-three in spineless years

Transcribed into the RoboHelp project on Saturday, August 05, 2006

Falling Apart

Is it all falling apart
What was so strong
Is it all falling apart
Too short, too long
Is it all falling apart
Days end into nights
Is it all falling apart
Turn off all the lights

In the haze of the past
Seeing what should last
Commit me to you
My heart remains true
Not the beginning
Not the end
A constant reminder
Do not bend

Is it all falling apart
Days end into nights
Is it all falling apart
Turn off the lights
Is it all falling apart
What was so strong
Is it all falling apart
Too short, too long

Since I've been this way
Since I've asked to stay
Since you've been away
Since I began this long and lonely day...

[pause]

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I used to write lyrics like this and filled up 19 spiral notebooks. Not all of them were as awful as the above, but some were worse...

1 of 16

I vaguely remember this sort of challenge back when I wrote songs. Yes, I was a songwriter. I had visions of being in an all original music band, preferably hard rock or heavy metal, and playing songs that I wrote. I had visions of one of my best friends being my drum roadie, my band headlining the Cedar Rapids, IA, concert hall (US Cellular Center), and 'making it' in the music industry. Teaching high school English was going to be my fallback in the bizarre case that being a rock and roll drummer somehow, inconceivably, didn't work out. I was going to play drums, I was going to have Ludwig drums, Zildjian cymbals, Pro Mark drumsticks, and Remo drum heads. At the time, no one was making clear shell drums, like mine are, and so Ludwig was going to start up production again, just for me, just for my band, and I was going to have a huge double bass set, even though I can not, to this day, really play double bass. That was the plan. That is why I filled 18 spiral notebooks, of various sizes but a few were 200 pages, with songs. I feverishly wrote songs on place mats when I worked at a restaurant. I wrote so many songs that I can only vaguely remember writing some of them - the rest don't seem to have made an impression. I was going to write my heart out and leave it all on the pages. I was going to make my dream of being the next Billy Joel or Sting come through. I was going to write the equivalent of "Operation: Mindcrime" - the great concept album by Queensryche. I was going to write lyrics that would make Rush's Neil Peart think, "Wow! Great lyrics and he plays drums too!" I was going to earn the respect of all these musicians I admired - Lars Ulrich, Tommy Aldridge, Alex Van Halen. And then, I was going to meet the ultimate musician - Eddie Van Halen. He was going to invite me to an audition because Alex was unable to tour due some mysterious ailment. We were going to play arenas around the world - Michael Anthony on bass, Eddie on guitar, me on drums, and David Lee Roth on vocals. That was the plan.

Funny how plans change.

Nearly every thing I wrote about in the first paragraph did not happen. I never will play the US Cellular Center. If anything my friend will be the one in the band and I would be the one setting up his drums. I will never meet any of the musicians I mentioned above. The only thing that is really relevant is a dim memory that I used to write a lot of lyrics.

And, one time, I challenged myself to write a lot of songs in 16 days. That's the whole point.

Bet you thought I didn't have a point...