YouTube: https://youtu.be/-c8_lOIY7fU Solution Six is a song I wrote in prison. I won’t repeat the circumstances or describe it, I have dozens of times, but I think it is pretty much self-explanatory in the words of the song.
This is also the second song that I ever wrote it broke my dry spell, after that I wrote well over a thousand sets of lyrics.
Another of my favorite songs from Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits release). The man writes deep. Totally different type of music but he reminds me of Tom T Hall. If you have ever listened to Mr. Hall you should. Hopefully you’ll see the similarities I am speaking about. #Singers #Songwriters #AwesomeSongs #SongCovers
his is a cover of Wish you were here. I set it up a little differently, played and sang it. It is a great song that has a lot of depth and I think that is why it became so popular and still is. #Music #cover #pinkfloyd #wishyouwerehere
Verse One: I spend most of my time filling the holes in my head. Sitting in this cell thinking about the life I’ve led. It’s all free food and therapy, but I may as well pay for something I can see… This room has a view but all I really wanna do is talk to you… It’s been so long… How could that be wrong? Everything we had was based on sex money and lies. When you left you took it all… Nothing to keep but alibis…
Hook One: What you took don’t amount to much, but I was never fixed in this world anyway… I was just sitting there waiting on a bus for the next… May as well take my time, I got… Plenty of it… Sometimes it runs late… But I ain’t entertaining offers while I wait.
Verse Two: Listen… I Just want to make this right before I go. Pay my bill or at least knock it down, I don’t know. I wish I could set us free from what we’ve done, but I figured it out, I ain’t the only one… Anyway, I ‘m just learning to walk before I fall again. I’ve been working on change, cleaning up some of this sin, but what’s the good in change… If the world’s still strange. Where’s the sense in being me, if what I was is all you see? Couldn’t stand up kept falling down and that little ball keeps spinning around… All keeps falling apart around me… you say, It will be what it will be…
Hook Two: I could never tell you nothin’ real. It was all about me all of the time. It was easier to hide the way I feel, like you were talking on my dime. I used to believe it was easier to hold it all inside… I never gave you anything… And I know how hard you tried…
Spoken: The snow is falling softly, probably turn to rain later… Sky looks that way… The air has that taste. The wind gusts hard as I step in from the cold… Feels like something familiar, but I haven’t got it placed. I find my way to the small corner table I knew would be there… Cast in shadows, but what are shadows for… And there you are, where you never were, and I find myself wishing I could touch your hand, like I could before… But I know it’s just a dream, I can’t touch you anymore. It’s raining in my mind, I can’t reach you anymore. And if I could I’d write this whole damn thing away… But all I can do is dream… It’s another rainy day…
Verse Four: I spend too much time watching the clock on the wall… You know, sometimes it doesn’t seem to move at all… All keeps stacking up… Cut’s into the emptiness that fills up this cup… And that bus is still running behind and sometimes I get so tired of standing here looking stupid… What the hell was I hoping to find… anyway. Thought about hoping a train… Getting there quicker… But thinking like that only makes me sicker… It’s like my life is stuck in A Minor or something… I don’t know what to do about it, but I know I gotta do something…
Hook Four: But I could never tell you nothin’ real… And I ain’t sayin’ nothin new… It was easier to hide the way I feel… Can you see it the same way too? If we never really had it, what was it you pretended… Was it over long before us or only started once it ended?
As I said, the longer I worked on the Studio version the more it changed. It was nearly ten years later, that had something to do with it but the feel of the song was different, Dell.
This is the original acoustic version I wrote in 2006…
I don’t know anything I thought I knew… It’s like my life was stuck in A Minor or something…
Instrumental——–Pick up main———————————————————-
Verse One:
I spend most of my time filling the holes in my head. Sitting in this cell thinking about the life I’ve lead. It’s all free food and therapy, but I may as well pay for something I can see…
This room has a view but all I really wanna do is talk to you… It’s been so long… How could that be wrong?
(spoken)
Everything we had was based on sex money and lies. When you left you took it all… Nothing to keep but alibis…
Bridge One:
What I kept don’t amount to much, but I was never fixed in this world anyway… I’m just sitting here waiting on a bus for the next… May as well take my time, I got… Plenty of it… Sometimes it runs late… But I ain’t entertaining offers while I wait.
Hook One:
I could never tell you nothin’ real. It was all about me all of the time.
It was easier to hide the way I feel, like you were talking on my dime.
I used to believe it was easier to hold it all inside…
I never gave you anything… And I know how hard you tried…
Instrumental———————–Into Verse Two——————————————
Verse Two:
(spoken)
I Just want to make this right before I go. Pay my bill or at least knock it down, I don’t know. I wish I could set you free from what I’ve done, but I figured it out, you ain’t the only one…
(sung)
That bus is still running behind and sometimes I get so tired of standing here looking stupid…
(spoken)
What the hell am I hoping to find… Anyway…
Bridge Two:
(sung)
Thought about hoping a train… Getting there quicker… But thinking like that only makes me sicker… It’s like my life is stuck in A Minor or something… I don’t know what to do about it, but I know I gotta do something…
Hook Two:
So maybe I could tell you something real… It’s a hell of a deal…
But I can’t hide myself inside.. I need something to call mine…
If we never really had it, what was it we pretended?
Was it over long before us or only started once it ended?
Instrumental———–Finger picked back to Verse Structure———————–
Verse Three:
Anyway, I just had to write this out… Learn to walk before I fall again. I’ve been working on living, cleaning up some of this sin, but I don’t know… What’s the use in being me if what I was is all you see? Where’s the good in change if the world’s still strange? It’s like I’m still stuck in A Minor or something… I don’t know what to do about it, but I know I’ve got to do something.
Bridge Three:
Can’t stand up… Keep falling down… And the little ball keeps spinning around
Livin’ my life in blue… … …
Tell me what I can do…?
Hook Three:
But I could never tell you nothin’ real… And I ain’t sayin’ nothin new…
It was easier to hide the way I feel… Can you see it the same way too?
If we never really had it, what was it you pretended…
Tell me, how long will it be ’til this broken life is ended…?
Xtro:
I don’t know anything I thought I knew… I don’t know… I don’t know anything I thought I knew…
Instrumental———-Finger picked to stop————————————————-
Principal Chords:
Written In C Major Played from A Minor. Instrumental piece…
Am= Am – A4th – Am – A9th +7th – Am = 8 beats
Dm= Dm – D4th – Dm – D9th +7th -Dm = 8 beats
Intro/Xtro
Am G Dm F Fma7th Am G Dm Am Dm Am
Verse
Dm Am Dm Am
Bridge
C G Dm F Fma7th C G Am F FMa7th C G Am F FMa7th C G Am F Fma7th C
Hook
G Am F FMa7th C G Am F Fma7th Am G Dm
Or Alt
C G Dm F Fma7th C G Dm F Fma7th C G Am F Fma7th Am
Why I Wrote It:
This is the first song I ever wrote. It was written at Clinton Correctional Facility Annex around October 1st 2006.
I was teaching a music class and one of the students thought we should write our own songs to perform at the coming Christmas show. I was reluctant but once I got going enthusiastic. As it turned out I was the only one who actually wrote a song, and the only one who actually performed. Since then, I haven’t stopped writing. Over one thousand sets of Lyrics, not all good, but several that I like, and over eighteen manuscripts, some fiction some nonfiction, three plays six or seven journals. It was like unlocking a door that had been closed for over thirty-five years at that point. It just came out.
I have about a hundred songs that I really like. They will end up in this database over the next few years. I’ll begin publishing the manuscripts in just a few months. I’m starting with a series.
This song is about my life before prison. What changed inside of me in prison because of the people I came in contact with, and because I was tired of being me. Also I was sober. Something I had not been for over thirty years at the time I came to prison in 2002. There is music for these lyrics. I’m writing this in October of 2012 as a free man after ten years in prison.
Yes, it’s very long, about nine to eleven minuets depending on the instrumentals. It should be here somewhere recorded as should the sheet music…
I don’t know anything I thought I knew… It’s like my life was stuck in A Minor or something…
Instrumental——–Pick up main———————————————————-
Verse One:
I spend most of my time filling the holes in my head. Sitting in this cell thinking about the life I’ve led. It’s all free food and therapy, but I may as well pay for something I can see…
This room has a view but all I really wanna do is talk to you… It’s been so long… How could that be wrong?
(spoken)
Everything we had was based on sex money and lies. When you left you took it all… Nothing to keep but alibis…
Bridge One:
What I kept don’t amount to much, but I was never fixed in this world anyway… I’m just sitting here waiting on a bus for the next… May as well take my time, I got… Plenty of it… Sometimes it runs late… But I ain’t entertaining offers while I wait.
Hook One:
I could never tell you nothin’ real. It was all about me all of the time.
It was easier to hide the way I feel, like you were talking on my dime.
I used to believe it was easier to hold it all inside…
I never gave you anything… And I know how hard you tried…
Instrumental———————–Into Verse Two——————————————
Verse Two:
(spoken)
I Just want to make this right before I go. Pay my bill or at least knock it down, I don’t know. I wish I could set you free from what I’ve done, but I figured it out, you ain’t the only one…
(sung)
That bus is still running behind and sometimes I get so tired of standing here looking stupid…
(spoken)
What the hell am I hoping to find… Anyway…
Bridge Two:
(sung)
Thought about hoping a train… Getting there quicker… But thinking like that only makes me sicker… It’s like my life is stuck in A Minor or something… I don’t know what to do about it, but I know I gotta do something…
Hook Two:
So maybe I could tell you something real… It’s a hell of a deal…
But I can’t hide myself inside.. I need something to call mine…
If we never really had it, what was it we pretended?
Was it over long before us or only started once it ended?
Instrumental———–Finger picked back to Verse Structure———————–
Verse Three:
Anyway, I just had to write this out… Learn to walk before I fall again. I’ve been working on living, cleaning up some of this sin, but I don’t know… What’s the use in being me if what I was is all you see? Where’s the good in change if the world’s still strange? It’s like I’m still stuck in A Minor or something… I don’t know what to do about it, but I know I’ve got to do something.
Bridge Three:
Can’t stand up… Keep falling down… And the little ball keeps spinning around
Livin’ my life in blue… … …
Tell me what I can do…?
Hook Three:
But I could never tell you nothin’ real… And I ain’t sayin’ nothin new…
It was easier to hide the way I feel… Can you see it the same way too?
If we never really had it, what was it you pretended…
Tell me, how long will it be ’til this broken life is ended…?
Xtro:
I don’t know anything I thought I knew… I don’t know… I don’t know anything I thought I knew…
Instrumental———-Finger picked to stop————————————————-
Principal Chords:
Written In C Major Played from A Minor. Instrumental piece…
Am= Am – A4th – Am – A9th +7th – Am = 8 beats
Dm= Dm – D4th – Dm – D9th +7th -Dm = 8 beats
Intro/Xtro
Am G Dm F Fma7th Am G Dm Am Dm Am
Verse
Dm Am Dm Am
Bridge
C G Dm F Fma7th C G Am F FMa7th C G Am F FMa7th C G Am F Fma7th C
Hook
G Am F FMa7th C G Am F Fma7th Am G Dm
Or Alt
C G Dm F Fma7th C G Dm F Fma7th C G Am F Fma7th Am
Why I Wrote It:
This is the first song I ever wrote. It was written at Clinton Correctional Facility Annex around October 1st 2006.
I was teaching a music class and one of the students thought we should write our own songs to perform at the coming Christmas show. I was reluctant but once I got going enthusiastic. As it turned out I was the only one who actually wrote a song, and the only one who actually performed. Since then I haven’t stopped writing. Over one thousand sets of Lyrics, not all good, but several that I like, and over eighteen manuscripts, some fiction some non fiction, three plays six or seven journals. It was like unlocking a door that had been closed for over thirty five years at that point. It just came out.
I have about a hundred songs that I really like. They will end up in this database over the next few years. I’ll begin publishing the manuscripts in just a few months. I’m starting with a series.
This song is about my life before prison. What changed inside of me in prison because of the people I came in contact with, and because I was tired of being me. Also I was sober. Something I had not been for over thirty years at the time I came to prison in 2002. There is music for these lyrics. I’m writing this in October of 2012 as a free man after ten years in prison.
Yes it’s very long, about nine to eleven minuets depending on the instrumentals. It should be here somewhere recorded as should the sheet music…
A few weeks back we were on the way home and the muffler fell off the car. It decided to hang on by the barest of thread and so it dragged all the way home and made a hell of a racket.
I consider myself a do-it-yourself guy. Sort of like a modern-day cave man: Even if I can’t do it well, shouldn’t do it; been warned not to do it, I’m doing it.
So, I got on-line found the parts locally: Muffler and tailpipe turn down piece and after nearly having to take a nitro over the price I looked on Amazon, where I buy everything, and found the same parts for less than a third of the local discount auto bargain fix-it-yourself guy’s price. I determined that since I have Prime and free shipping, I could get the parts in two days and so I ordered them.
The parts came after much finger clicking and tapping and cat petting (I didn’t have to pet the cat the cat just wanted to be petted). I spent two hours on a piece of cardboard from a shipping box wrestling the parts into submission. Ye-Haw, I thought. I know, not very caveman like, but I am not sure exactly what a caveman would say since they didn’t have Chevy’s to work on. I believe back then all they had was Fords.
Mom drove the car into town… Well toward town… She made it a mile and then I heard one hell of a racket out front. I was in the back in my office. It sounded like someone started a lawn mower: One of those old ones that the muffler had rotted off of. Well, I was half right, it did have something to do with mufflers. Curiosity led me to the front of the house where mom informed me the muffler had fallen off.
If you are a caveman, you do not believe in this. Things you fix stay fixed. Bears sleep through winter. Naked bodies should have hair on them… So, I refused to believe this. I went outside and looked under the car and sure enough the muffler had fallen off. Impossible I said, yet there was the evidence in front of me. A new muffler all scraped up from being dragged home by the tailpipe hanger.
This is the part where I said some cuss words, we have all never used and then I got out my trusty cardboard and crawled back under the car. Hmmm, I said. And hmmm again, and then I looked forward to see why the muffler had fallen off as it was obvious the muffler had been torn loose as the clamp was still attached. That was when I noticed that the entire exhaust was on the ground. All of it… All the way to the front of the car at the catalytic convertor.
They pay almost $550.00 scrap for a junk car now and I thought, well, ol’ Chevy you are dead meat. I had visions of Breaking Bad and Walter and Jessie crushing up the Bounder. Sigh. But then I went back on-line, skipped the local’s this time and priced that front section of pipe to the header pipe. I assumed it was two pieces, maybe three. In the old days it would be, but it was all one piece. I found the same pipe, called the Resonator pipe because it has a built-in resonator and a long pipe that joins to the catalytic converter and then extends to the wheel well and then all the way to the back of the car, for wide variances in the prices: From a few hundred to fifty bucks. I used a few more carefully chosen expletives having to do with things I use expletives for and then bought the pipe, a pair of ramps to drive the car up onto so my fat butt could crawl under the car, some clamps and some cat treats because the cat was right there and had seen the treats on my frequently ordered list and meowed. No stupid cat is my Houdini.
Yesterday I am editing a story and the last parts arrived and so I went out at noon and dragged out my now crumpled and smelly cardboard (It was rained on, and I think a neighborhood dog wizzed on it too) and went to work. Two things here: One; I am out of shape barely getting back on my feet, so I told myself I would go slowly, ha ha ha. Two, rotted, rusty pieces of metal are not having any happy thoughts at all, and this pipe system was no exception. I ended up having to cut the bolts off of the Catalytic convertor where the resonator pipe joins to get it loose, that was after an hour of prep work, um, crawling around looking at this and that and wishing it would fall off. After I cut the pipe loose, I realized there is a reason they do these things in a garage on a lift. How to get the pipe out? So, I jacked one side of the car up and gained enough room to get the old pipe out and the new pipe in. I called that car so many names it turned from silver to red.
Anyway, in with the new pipe, back on with the muffler, all new hangers, bolts, clamps and voila a new system was in place. I went back into my cave with the other cave men and grunted with satisfaction. Tomorrow we are going hunting… er editing…
This is song I wrote about a Train Ride on the Sunset limited several years ago, before it crashed in a swamp behind my house just a few months later. I spent almost three days straight riding to NYC, and three days riding back. It really affected me. I saw a lot and a lot ended up in the song…
Verse 1 Rode the limited… Halfway across America… Up through the south-lands and into the frozen north… Day on day… Listening to the sound of the steel rails… Met so many people on that train and some of the faces still remain… Son’s and daughters… Mothers and fathers… A sad young woman riding next to me… Night after night… Stars painted on her fingernails… And she dreamed her dreams… Yes she dreamed her dreams… Oh she dreamed her dreams… As the train rolled on…
Instrumental—————- Acoustic run through of the verse structure —————————————
Verse 2 Drinking a beer from the bar, and watching the world go by… Sliding by the windows of the car and falling away to wherever memories go… Making peanut butter crackers… With the little boy across the aisle… I laid my hands on his mother’s swollen belly… I felt her baby move, as I and her little one ate our lunch in the aisle at her feet… Oh it made me feel… As alive as the baby in her womb… Made me smile… Oh it made me smile… And I dreamed my dreams… Yes I dreamed my dreams… Oh I dreamed my dreams… And the train rolled on…
Hook 1 And the days slid by, riding on the Limited… All the towns and villages we visited… And the time slipped by, living in the slow lane… Traveling across my world by train. Verse 3 Made up a story … … … In my head … About the sad young woman riding next to me… It was how… somebody broke her heart and stole her smile… Um hmm… Left her sad inside instead… Then she said hello with a smile and her face became something beautiful. We talked the night away until she fell asleep lying against my arm… She slept so deep… Like she was sleeping in her own room… In her own bed. And she dreamed her dreams… Yes she dreamed her dreams… Oh she dreamed her dreams… As the train rolled on…
Verse 4 My last night passed me by like pages in a book… The boy with his belly full of crackers sleeping next to me… Yeah… And the girl with the broken heart, she dreamed her dreams as we rolled on through the night… Walking on the other side… Watched the world slide by… The towns and cities we passed… … Spots of light… … Spots of life gathered here and there.. I rode the limited across America… I rode the limited across America… it was a good long ride… It was a good long ride… And I dreamed my dreams… Yes I dreamed my dreams… Oh I dreamed my dreams… And the train rolled on…
Hook 1 And the days slid by, riding on the Limited… All the towns and villages we visited… And the time slipped by living in the slow lane… Traveling my world by train. Dreaming my dreams… Dreaming my dreams… As the train rolled on…
Why I Wrote It: * I took a train trip on the Sunset Limited from Alabama to New York and then back many years ago. This is the story about some of what happened. I could probably write several songs about it. That train trip has found it’s way into my writing, lyrics, books, short stories. It was probably one of the most memorable things I have even done. Just sort of stepping out of life for several days. The pregnant mother and her little boy were real. We really did make peanut butter crackers and sit in the aisle and eat them. The sad girl next to me was real too… * There is music written for these lyrics.
