Category: Rock and/or Roll

Categories
Demos FAWM 2014 Rock and/or Roll

St. Patrick

Listen to the MP3 while you read all about it below.

You know about FAWM, right? During February Album Writing Month, thousands of songwriters across the globe commit to writing 14 songs in 28 days, congregating at FAWM.org to share inspiration, encouragement, and demos of completed songs. Last year I was a newbie who used the opportunity to write my Hallel Psalm cantata Everlasting to Everlasting. This year I’m working on a project called “One Long Year,” a song cycle detailing the year-long unraveling of the protagonist. Each song will be tied in some way to a date on the calendar, starting and ending on New Year’s Eve. In the case of the song below, it’s St. Patrick’s Day.

1. Do you remember
The night we fell in love?
We were closer than a kiss
Pressing hip to hip
And I said, “I can’t…
I just can’t get enough.”

We were drinking
to St. Patrick and to our love.
I said “God bless the holy saint
Of water and of drink!”
And you laughed, “Maybe–
maybe you’ve had enough.”

2. This year
Your kiss was quick, my drink was long
Do I think another round
will finally drown
This feeling
That we’ve been two islands all along?

CHORUS
There’s an ocean, there’s an ocean
there’s an ocean , there’s an ocean
There’s an ocean between me
And my love.

3. St Patrick
You sailed the sea to set sinners free.
If ever there was a soul
Adrift and alone
St Patrick
St Patrick, it is me.

CHORUS
There’s an ocean, there’s an ocean
there’s an ocean , there’s an ocean
There’s an ocean between me
And everything I love.

BRIDGE
Jesus Christ, I need a miracle
Like water into wine, or life to Lazarus
All I have left in terms of miracles
Is turning beer into piss.

I can’t. I just can’t get enough.
I can’t. I just can’t get enough.
I can’t. I just can’t get enough.

Categories
Half the Man

New Year’s listening

Followers of this blog will have noticed a significant drop in posting frequency in the last few months. The sad truth is that I’ve been too busy to post much, or for that matter, write much. So while you’re waiting for me to regain my mojo, why don’t you spend a little time with my Half the Man CD?

You can hear it in a number of ways: 1. Buy the CD at my website. Hand-crafted in small batches, they’re so rare, that if CDs were animals, this one would be endangered. 2. Buy the MP3s (whole project or individual songs) at CDBaby or iTunes. 3. Listen on Spotify, eMusic, etc.

Categories
Rock and/or Roll

Purgatorio

This is going to get weird.

“Purgatorio” started as a dream. I can’t remember the dream, but it must have been some kind of trippy, Bosch-esque thing, given all the hellish imagery that is in my rough draft. That draft lay dormant for a year or two before I decided that I needed to finish it, once and for all. The pressing opportunity was a concert I played with Erin De Young, warming up for Rachel Zylstra.

Indeed, here is a recording from said concert: MP3. It is not my finest moment as a performer, but cut me some slack, okay? The song is brand new and it’s not easy to keep that riff going while squishing words on top of it. At least Erin sounds great. If you can’t understand the words, you can read them below. (That’s not to say that you’ll understand them if you read them. I’m still trying to figure it out myself…)

1a. I lost my way on the road to hell.
My intentions were good, but it wasn’t marked very well.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh no.
I found myself in a life of ease.
My conscience was clear until I tried to sleep.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh no.

1b. In my dream there was a wishing well.
They tell me I jumped, but I say I fell.
I thought I’d never felt so low
Until the devil charged like a buffalo

C1. Well, I ran like hell, did a four minute mile
But as it turns out the devil can fly.
Stuck his fork into the meat of my thigh
Like a sausage in a pan over a fire.

2. One look around set my mind at ease.
I was surrounded by bigger sinners than me.
There were seven flavors of debauchery
All the heathens were dancing and the sinners were singing

C2. Look around and you’ll see more skin
Than a topless beach in the South of Spain
I could get used to this
If the lake weren’t fire and the sand weren’t burning.

3. The biggest surprise was the animals
That must have been a really bad dog.
They tightened up the collars and led us away
To the lake of fire where a ship was waiting.

C3. I’ve got no idea where we’ve been since then:
No port in the storm, no island on the horizon.
I’m losing my mind from the unnerving silence.
Losing track of time, but it seems unending.

Bridge
I’d give everything I had if I had anything to give
To turn back my life and live it again
How could I have known that this night would never end
Trapped in a dream from which there’s no waking?
And the only life left is reliving my mistakes, and
Wondering where grace is.
And why the light is fading.

Coda
So this is how it ends.
Staring at the ceiling.
It all begins again.
It’s quiet and cold
And sad and slow.

Categories
Demos Rock and/or Roll

One Take Terror: T Bone Burnett

FearfulOur final installment of the One Take Terrors is named after one of my heroes, T Bone Burnett. I’ve been following him since well before his Brother, Where Art Thou fame. But my digging deep into the Alpha Band catalog (on vinyl, I might add) is not the point of this post or this song. It is the ineffable nature of beauty. The very things we treasure most, we can’t grasp.

Explore the ineffability: T Bone Burnett, MP3

TBone Burnett
Greg Scheer, 1987

I’ve always wanted to meet TBone Burnett,
Charles Williams, or TS Eliot.
I guess there’s things in life that
I’ll never get.
Let me start again.
Let me start again.

Better than yesterday is not good enough;
I’ll keep on looking.
Better than yesterday is not good enough;
I’ll keep on trying.

I’ve always wanted to be a little sparrow’s friend.
I walk up slowly with my hands outstretched.
I tell him God’s my father, too,
but he flies of into the wind.
Sparrow do you know something
that I don’t understand?
That I don’t understand.

Categories
Demos Rock and/or Roll

One Take Terror: Maybe Fall Will Say

I don’t know that you could classify me as a tree hugger, but I do have my moments of feeling connected to mother earth. In this song, nature takes on a playful persona. Anybody want to nominate this as Earth Day’s anthem?

Maybe Fall Will Say, MP3

Maybe Fall Will Say
Greg Scheer
August 1989

Rain taps at my window as if it would tell me
he has been here longer than I.
He’s got no time for talking. He just keeps on working —
Greeting the trees, show’ring their leaves.
He’s running down the side walk
and racing down the street —
jumps in the river swimming his way to the sea.
Drifts to the ocean, surfs into the beach,
soaks up sun in the sand, then does the whole thing again.

How long has the rain come down? rain come down? rain come down?
and how many times have ocean waves struck the sand and rock?

The trees they are waving. I think that they are asking,
“Won’t you come too, and dance in the rain?”
I leave my warm window to burst into the backyard —
throw off my shoes — what good would they do me?
Dancing in my bare feet completely spent I fall
on my back see the trees are laughing at me.
They can go on laughing. I’m content just to be here
watching the rain steam from my skin.

How oft have I seen the trees dancing in an Autumn’s rain?
How could I ever resist the urge to join in?

The stones have their secrets; their centuries of wisdom.
These ancient seers have been watching for years.
How long have the rocks remained since they saw the first day?
and how long will mother earth rotate? Maybe fall will say.

Categories
Demos Rock and/or Roll

One Take Terror: The Calm After the Storm

FearfulThis song is a biographical rumination about someone I worked with. They were what I describe as a “bulldog”–all of their communications were a pre-emptive strike on perceived attacks. I don’t know that it’s great psychoanalysis or great lyrics. But I can’t get the tune out of my head.

The Calm After the Storm, MP3

The Calm after the Storm
Greg Scheer, 2000

You lived by the dagger, but died by the sword.
It was bound to happen eventually.
You won every battle but still lost the war,
but that’s something you couldn’t see.

Because your mind’s eye could only see enemies
threatening to topple you from your fragile throne.
Each person a challenge; each challenge a defeat;
each defeat brought more anger; and your anger brought more war.

When did it all go wrong?
You used to seem so strong,
but maybe all along
you’ve been sad and small and
now you’re alone on the calm after the storm.

The struggle for power that raged in your mind,
you thought could be won with the right strategy:
if all those around you were cut down to size
it would add to your stature comparatively.

How could you be so wrong?
You used to seem so strong,
but maybe all along
you’ve been sad and small and
now you’re alone on the calm after the storm.

When did this begin? Who was the first to attack?
Are the people who surround you really such a threat?
Or is there some one in your past who you’re still fighting back
for the wrongs that they did; for the vengeance you’ll never get?

Because the only power one has over the wrongs of the past
is the choice to forgive or to feed on the hatred.
You can pass the hatred on like a bitter inheritance
or you can leave it powerless in this generation.

Why can’t you leave it alone?
It never will make you stronger.
Why can’t you see what’s wrong
has taken you over?

When did it all go wrong?
You used to seem so strong,
but maybe all along
you’ve been sad and small and
now you’re alone on the calm after the storm.

Categories
Demos Quirky Rock and/or Roll

One Take Terror: There Was Nothing There

Fearful

When I lived in Pittsburgh, I was part of a group called the Rascals, Rogues and Rapscallions. It was a men’s club (not that kind of men’s club) that convened to hear presentations on a variety of arcane topics, after which songs were sung and cigars were smoked. Our summer meetings always centered on a “mass challenge.” Instead of one person presenting in depth, everyone was given the challenge to find “that interesting thing” about XYZ, and give a 5 minute presentation on what they found.

One year, we were given random coordinates on a map and given instructions to bring back a story. I was given coordinates that landed me in the middle of a state forest. All I could bring back was a song, aptly entitled “There Was Nothing There.”

 There Was Nothing There
Latitude 41 44 53
Longitude 79 13 58
June 2, 1995 Greg Scheer

If you look at a map of world
in the center’s the United States
take a right at Chicago, IL
you’ll run right into Warren, PA
In Warren County the heart of it all
Watson Township the crowning jewel lays
like the big empty ring that it is
it runs circles around lots of space.

There is nothing there.
There is nothing there.
Everywhere you look you’ll find
nothing, ‘cause nothing is there.
If you lo œok to the North,
If you look to the South,
Search the East or West
still there’s nothing there

I just had to see for myself
what mysteries this place could hold
I blazed a path to the depth of the woods.
And when I fixed my sore eyes on my goal

There was nothing there…

But in the end I needed some proof
so I went to develop my film
that would show that this journey was no spoof
but what I found in the camera shocks me still.

There was nothing there…

Categories
Demos Rock and/or Roll

One Take Terrors: Walk Away

Fearful

Today begins a series of “One Take Terrors.” These are songs in my back catalog that deserve to be heard, but have never quite fit into a larger recording project. To let them see the light of day, I went through a stack of them all at once, recording them quickly, without any frills and with no overdubs. Just raw songs.

This first one is something of a country ballad. To tell you the truth, I can’t remember what inspired it. I’m not much of a lonesome wanderer, so it’s not biographical. But I guess I tapped into the weariness of a long distance relationship, right at the point you’re wondering how long it can go on.

Listen to “Walk Away.”

There comes a time when I wonder why I’m calling.
You’re on the line, but your voice sounds like it’s miles away–and it is.
How long can I pretend that our love is what it once was?
No matter how hard I try, you’re fading away a little more everyday.
Everyday.

You know if I could, I would stop this foolish wandering.
I’d make up my mind to turn around and make my way back to you.
I’d make my promise good, and we would have all we’ve dreamed of;
but I don’t know how…maybe promises and dreams are all the same in the end.
All the same.

There comes a time to end all my talking.
I hang up the phone, find the road, and walk away…
Walk away.

September, 1990

 

Categories
Demos Rock and/or Roll

2013 Spring Cleaning: Prayer (God in Heaven Above)

During college, I had a long season of doubt. On Sunday December 6, 1989 at 10:13pm of that season, I wrote this song. What I think is especially interesting in hindsight is that I wrote my song of doubt in the form of a prayer!

Listen to the MP3 while reading the lyrics below:

God in heaven above (or in my heart below)
why keep me waiting for love?

If I were to see you would I know you?
If I were to know you would I love you?
If I were to love you would you love me too?

If I were to strike you woul it hurt you?
If I were to leave you would you follow me?
If I were to hate you what would you do?

God in heaven above (or in my heart below)
why keep me waiting for love?

If you think of me keep me in your prayers —
I need some help with things down here

If you would approach me I’d be listening
When you’re passing by me you can stop with me
When my heart is hungry maybe that is you after all.

If you’re feeling lonely you can talk to me.
I know just how lonesome one can feel.
If you really knew me would you still love me, after the fall?

God in heaven above (or in my heart below)
why keep me waiting for love?

If you think of me keep me in your prayers —
I need some help with things down here.

Categories
Rock and/or Roll

2013 Spring Cleaning: Louie Laughing at Me

When I lived in Salzburg, there was a street person named Louie who would often stop by to hear me play my guitar in the city square. He must have made quite an impression on me because he made it into two of my songs.

The first is a sympathetic–maybe even patronizing–description of Louie’s life on the street. In this second song, the roles are reversed. Instead of me pitying his life from my place of power and ease, in this one he presides over my trial to gain entrance into the after life. I await his verdict, but he can only laugh. The song is pretty much a transcription of a dream I had a few years after I returned from Salzburg.

I’m not sure why this has never made it onto any of my projects. It’s got all the hallmarks of great rock and roll: driving rhythm, a catchy chorus, shadowy figures gatekeeping the underworld, and whole tone scales. What do you think–will this ever be more than a B side?

MP3