This song actually dates back to 1994, when I was working at the nightclub. Initially, it was to be the first song in my rock opera "On and On" (and might still be), but fate took a hand - there was this girl, see, and...

The result was that I changed the lyrics from the more "studious and removed" iteration, to something more personal, and dropped the whole she-bang into the same framework as the original rock opera version. The end result was this - which encapsulates not only the cosmological theme of the opera, but also provides a beautiful foil to the caprice and unpredictability of the world immediately surrounding us.

This song, written in November 2004, began life as a couple of spam e-mails I received. In order to circumvent the filters I use to weed out the spam, the authors had embedded a series of random non-sequiturs within the text of the mail. They were hilarious!

I took a lot of their words and phrases, and re-arranged them to my own purposes... and since all of the e-mails were trying to sell me Viagra, it was evident what the topic of the song should be. I did, however, give some serious thought to the true nature of the problem, and have recounted my own opinions here. Listen hard.

Written in the late summer of 2002, this song came about as a result of my puppy Max, and of my job at the time. I was working for Aspect Communications, and as a tele-worker, I had my office downstairs, with my desk positioned such that I could see out the back door.

On hot summer days, Max would ask to go out back, bumble around in the yard awhile, and then wander back to the patio and sleep in the shade, occasionally peering at whatever bird, squirrel, chipmunk, etc. attempted to traspass in his realm.

I'd sit inside, wondering what he was dreaming about, as he lounged out there with a Big Puppy Smile on his face, and here's my interpretation.

Whilst plunking about with the Outline of my rock opera in July 2004, I was facing the writer's block I mentioned previously - at least with regards to music lyrics. I had a few decent musical ideas, but couldn't seem to get any lyrics that suited the tunes... almost as if "I'd said everything there was to say".

In desperation, I turned to my Outline, and wrote some (fairly peurile) lyrics about the situation she was in - in Act 4. Using a little "text deconstruction algorithm" I whipped up in Visual Basic, I fed the lyrics into the application, and this is what popped out. Once I saw the "new" lyrics, my mission was clear - Alien Dub!

Here's a song for the fellas - good fun, that the females usually don't go for.

One of the beautiful things about the advent of computer-based music is the fact that when your Muse has fled, there are still lots of ways one can churn out a tune. Granted, I don't particularly care for such "pre-processed" music, but it's a nice way to pass the time until you get a decent idea of your own.

Also, sometimes you can stumble across just the right samples necessary to make a jolly, happy, pumping song without investing too much sweat equity. Here's an example.

This is another oldie... in this case,dating back to 1989, when the initial tracks were laid on my Tascam 244. My brother had come over to visit, and we were fooling around with different ways to record a bass guitar (he is a phenominal bassist), when we stumble on this huge, infinite-sustain sound. He recorded two bass tracks for the song, but I liked them both equally - so I left them both in there!

I always liked the tune itself, but could never quite get the lyrics to work for it. I attempted new versions over the span of 15 years, but somehow the results never matched the images I saw in my mind, about the song, or the girl,or her environment, or her pain.

Then, one night in October 2004, while browsing the Web just for fun, I felt all the tumblers drop into place. It took me about 20 minutes to write the draft, and then three successive nights to hone it into what I wanted... and then another three nights to finalize the audio and do the mixing.

Well, if you can't figure out what this song is all about, I sure as hell ain't going to tell you.

All of us need some happiness in our lives; my puppy Max is a constant source thereof.

While goofing around with the dulcimer one afternoon, I hit upon this combination of chords . Simple in themselves, the "plaintive" tone of the dulcimer set the overall feeling for the tune, so I fired up the old Workstation and sought out a fitting drum loop to go with it.

My buddy Mike Masquith dropped by lated that evening, and using my Classic Pod (Patch 2), he grabbed an axe and laid down that fantastic "sad guitar" part.

The next evening, I played the track back with a live mic and tall Scotch in hand, trying to evoke a sort-of "hi-tech Chris Isaak" sound. Meanwhile, Max was scabbling at the door, asking to be let out back (for about the 14th time in an hour; he's like that when Squirrel Encrachment is taking place in the yard). I turned to him while the headphones were still on my head, and asked him "You think that you're going out again?!"

Again, I felt the pieces of the song click together. I had the lyrics done in about 17 minutes.

This was recorded on a rainy night in October of 2005, while I sat in the studio with the patio door open, and Max romping in and out through the hole in the screen. The version I've posted here is the "radio mix" - the entire piece is about 23 minutes long, and evolves considerably from the section you hear here.

I was trying to capture the warmth of the evening - despite the rain and onset of Autumn - without resorting to the "hackneyed cliche" of dubbing in crickets, etc.

I began this song in March of 2005, and didn't finish it until New Year's Day in January 2006. The song had a considerable gestation period, along with an almost continual re-recording and modification over the 8 months I spent working on it. In fact, I am not aware of any song I've ever recorded that took as long - in the actual recording/mixing process - as this one did. If I say I'd spent 200 hours working on it, I honestly would consider that an under-estimate.

...and that's before SONAR bombed on me, necessitating a complete re-mix!

The tune came about in the wake of assisting Mike Masquith with one of his songs, "Smooth of Coarse". I had written some lyrics for his song ... which he ended up not using, in the end. I trashed the lyrics, but wanted to write a song that captured the same sad, lonely feel of love having faded - but without the heartache and angst that usually accompanies the event. Instead, I wanted a tale of people who had set out as lovers with the best of intentions, but failed. Kinda like real life.

Along the way, it acquired more and more of a Pink Floyd vibe to it, so I just rolled along.

The more I look at the way this country is run, the more of a sense of dread I feel. It's always been bad, but the stewardship of our nation under George Weasel's iron rule has really given me sense of foreboding. In addition to the errors and laxness of our own, there are the actions of Radical Islam, with it's message of hatred and death, plus the capricousness of Mother Nature to deal with.

In fact, I could have made this song an hour long, there's so much to contend with... but I decided to stop here, with this brief recounting of some of the more notable failures.

Yeah, right... everything works out fine. Boy meets girl; instant attraction, they fall in love. You and me and baby makes three.

What a fookin' crock.

Rather, let's sing a song for the unsung - the others who fall outside the statistical limit, and have done so for all their lives. The losers. Don't ask me how I know this.

I got to thinking about the Weasel, and what it must be like awaking every day and contemplating the depths to which he has brought our country as viewed by the rest of the world. What a yaning chasm of despair, anger, and hatred he's created!

Despite sore provocation in my life, I remain somewhat spiritual at heart, and if "vengence is mine" sayeth the Lord, there will ultimately be a day of reckoning. I won't be here to see it, bcause either Radical Islam, the NSA, or Halliburton will have gotten to me first. Yet, while I'm here, I ponder the question - when his end comes, what will it be like? In this song, I explore the topic.