Give or take a minute to read some of my writing.

I’ve been thinking about my blog lately and I started thinking that as part of my blog’s theme I should have some posts that include some of my writing. My idea became solidified when I realized that I part of my creative writing blog assignment is posting a piece of my own creative writing.

Most of you or all of you for that matter, probably don’t know that I write poetry and song lyrics, I can guess that none of you know simply because I haven’t really told anyone. Anyway, I’m not really sure of a better way to introduce these. So I’ll just let them speak for themselves.

Tied to the shore

Give or take a minute

While I stare at the ground

I haven’t spoken in centuries

I miss that smile’s sound

Been out walking

Tied to the shore

I’m not looking

Cause I’ve seen it all before

Over the willow trees

I stopped and watched the sun

In and out of everything

Those memories run

Been out walking

Tied to the shore

I’m not looking

Cause I’ve seen it all before

Eight dozen old foot prints

Hiding under the snow

Something’s are better

When no one else knows

Been out walking

Tied to the shore

I’m not looking

Cause I’ve seen it all before

Remember Denver

She asked, “Can you wait till tomorrow?

I sighed, “I’ve been waiting forever.”

She said, “You cause your own problems,”

I said, “It’s probably something I’ll grow out of.”

Just then the rope slipped further

Two more feet, then we’re hanging by a thread

Remember when we lived in Denver

The world kept the promises it made back then

But it’s no harder then it ever was

We just fold early and that’s because

We’re trying to build a house in un-level ground

And she said, “You know you’re different now.”

Then I replied, “No honey, you’re the one that’s changed.”

She snapped back, “What’s your problem?”

I looked her in the eyes then I turned and walked away,

Just then the rope slipped further

Two more feet, then we’re hanging by a thread

Remember when we lived in Denver

The world kept the promises it made back then

But it’s no harder then it ever was

We just fold early and that’s because

We’re trying to build a house in un-level ground

Fair trade

I’ve been lying here

Buying something to prove

Sometimes telling the truth

And sometimes not

Trade a dollar bill

For some corporate luck

Lie to make a sale

And pass the buck

It’s a fair trade for a free world

It’s all the same

Even if it’s not

You can stay after you get paid

But you can leave if you want

I’ve been dying here

Trying to buy new shoes

Selling old news

To further the plot

Trade a dollar bill

For some corporate luck

Lie to make a sale

And pass the buck

It’s a fair trade for a free world

It’s all the same

Even if it’s not

You can stay after you get paid

But you can leave if you want

Born to roll

The night held us on trial

As the streetlights painted your face

we walked a silent mile

Sometimes nothing is the best thing to say

Trapped by some sweet aroma

While the moon raced across the sky

Just as we whispered hello

I heard the autumn wind scream good-bye

But isn’t it living

To watch the stars begin to fall

And isn’t it fitting

That we’re both stones born to roll

Like a tacky poem

Saturated in clichéd devices

I travel alone

But I keep one eye on the horizon

And isn’t it living

To watch the stars begin to fall

But isn’t it fitting

That we’re both stones born to roll

The night held us on trial

While the moon raced across the sky

Just as we whispered hello

I heard the autumn wind screaming good-bye

But isn’t it living

To watch the stars begin to fall

And isn't it fitting

That we’re both stones born to roll

And isn’t it living

To watch the stars begin to fall

But isn’t it fitting

That we’re both stones born to roll

So I guess that’s four, I have more and some are more poem like, these ones were written to be songs. In a way a guess they are kind of cheesy.

Well that’s all for today. I’m going to respond to the comments on the last post in the next one. I want to try to post more often. My new personal goal is to post twice a week.

Ladies and Gentlemen a New Blog Post

In my last post I mentioned that I had just seen Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones in the theater, and that is, in fact, exactly what I did.

The Rolling Stones are one of my all time favorite bands. They have, in my opinion, put out some of the best rock n’ roll ever made. They have released a great deal of fantastic albums, including one of the best streaks of consecutive flawless albums. The streak I’m referring to is the one that included Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street. Those four albums are nearly untouchable.

Now getting back on track, Ladies and Gentlemen was a recording the Stones made during their 1972 North American tour after the release of Exile on Main Street. Ladies and gentlemen was recorded during four shows in Ft. Worth and Houston Texas. It was shown in theaters but never really released, Bootleg DVDs are pretty common, and I had watched it before it had been re-shown in theaters.

The concert itself is fantastic. In 1972 the Stones were in their prime and it’s apparent in the concert. I remember the first time I watched it a few years ago, on a bootlegged copy I managed to get my hands on. I was literally blown away. The level of energy is astounding. As far as video recordings of live concerts go I think it’s the best I’ve seen. If I was making a top five list of dream concerts I would have liked to attend, I’m pretty sure it would have made it on.

The track list is as follows: Brown Sugar, Bitch, Gimmie Shelter, Dead Flowers, Happy, Tumbling Dice, Love in Vain, Sweet Virgina, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, All Down The Line, Midnight Rambler, Bye Bye Johnny, Rip This Joint, Jumping Jack Flash, and Street Fighting Man. Anyone who is a fan of the Rolling Stones would probably recognize that this track list would make a pretty good best of compilation. Except maybe Bye Bye Johnny, which is a Chuck Berry song, but if you’re a fan of the Stones you’d know they did their fair share of Berry covers on their earlier albums. You’d probably also remember that they were pretty good covers.

Visually the new release looked great, they really brought out a great deal of detail that wasn’t really visible on the bootleg I saw. It really looked great. The audio was also very good, if there was one complaint that I had it was how they fixed up Keith’s vocals on Happy. It sounded to me like they took the vocals from the album recording and spliced them over the video. That was a bit of a disappointment for me because I really like the audio from the bootleg and felt if they have left it, it would have been a more accurate testament to how great the world's greatest rock-n-roll band really was.

This is kind of all over the place and I apologize for that. I’m trying o make it as little like a review as possible just because I feel funny about doing reviews and I’d prefer just to talk about it even if, while talking about it I just say how much I like it.

Twitterpated

So I got a twitter account on Wednesday. It was a part of my public relations class in CreComm.

I actually had more trouble setting it up then I expected. First my confirmation e-mail wasn’t sent to me so I had to figure out that it wasn’t working correctly because I had to confirm my account. Once I realized that, thanks to Melanie my PR instructor, I then figured out how to resend the conformation e-mail. Then almost instantly my account was confirmed. After that, however, things still weren’t working perfectly. Twitter was asking me to set up my mobile phone, so I had to put in my phone number and then text it to fully activate the account. After that it was up and running. At the time is seemed like a lot to do. Now that I’ve typed it all up, it doesn't seem like so much.

I just saw Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones tonight in the theater, so I’ll probably talk about that in my next post.

We Got That Groove Now

Allow me to introduce myself.

Since this is my first post I think it would be a good idea to just make clear what I intend to do with this blog. I want to make the central theme of it music because it is a very important part of my life. I don’t plan on choosing a clear cut specific type of music or format. I just want to be general in my approach. I relate music to my life in a big way, and often I find I can relate specific moments of my life to a song or songs.

I don’t necessarily want to review songs or albums, but I’m probably going to be giving my opinion so it might end up turning into that sometimes. I don’t want to think about it too much right now, I’m finding the more I think about it the harder it is to keep typing, so I’m just going to type and see what happens.

I don’t want to try and push my opinions on to anyone reading and I am in no way expecting to try tell people what music to listen to, but if you’re reading this I mention a song or songs that you haven’t heard, I would just like to make a friendly suggestion that you give them a listen.

I’d like to take some time to talk about a particular album, the reason I’m picking this album is because I actually borrowed the name of the album for the title of this blog. So in case you haven’t already guessed the name of the album is “One Night Stand,” or “One Night Stand! Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club.” This album is probably my favorite album or at least one of my favorites. It actually has a few contenders for the spot of my favorite; it is, however, my favorite live album.

It’s kind of hard to get across all of the things that make this album so great without just having someone listen to it. If I was going to rate this album, I feel weird giving it any thing less then a perfect rating. Sam Cooke’s vocals on this album are perfect. It’s the best he’s ever sounded. His showmanship is outstanding. There’s parts in-between the songs where he’s just making stuff up to introduce the next song he’s going to sing, and just kind sings it, and then he’ll just laugh at something he said and then just keep right on singing.

Sam Cooke sings nine songs on this album, but when you listen to it, it just feels like one. I think Sam Cooke was/is the best singer ever, but more then that I think he was the best performer. The very first time I listened to this album I thought that the back round vocals were really odd. Some times they were loud and sometimes they seem distant, disorganized and hard to hear. After a few listens however I realized that it wasn't back round singers it was actually the crowd singing along. Each time I listen to this record I find it so amazing how the audience just becomes part of the show. The audience belonged to Sam. At one part on the album Sam says, “Everybody’s with me tonight,” and he was right. On that Saturday night in 1963, every single person in the Harlem Square Club was with Sam, and there’s no where else in the world they would have rather been.