Omg, I came across this song today when amazon suggested an all female playlist. I was driving (what’s new!) so I had no visual point of reference. Well, other than the unrelated scenery of an industrial park in which I was driving. FUCKING BRILLIANT, BRIALLIANT, BRILLIANT SONG! If you haven’t heard it yet (I’m sure you will!) check out these LYRICS, omg.
” Wish I could get a little un-drunk so I could un-call you At five in the morning, I would un-fuck you But some things you can’t undo “
Oh hell yes. I found the video here: https://www.baeblemusic.com/music-video/fletcher/undrunk.html
Just me. Still working on version with Sharky’s vocals & instruments.
I can hear your thoughts- I swear I can- Of the things you want to do
Little things like lean to touch my hand – maybe hold it too.
I can feel you tug at my belt, to pull me closer in
I can feel your arms around my waist, your whisper on my skin
But so many eyes are staring above crooked little smiles
Like they’ve never seen two people who walked down a rainbow aisle
I know of a place where we can be free- Oh, kisses on blankets by the sea.
Cotton candy clouds dangle from a periwinkle sky
The ferry bounces on a sequin sea toward the rainbow side
Where we will watch the queens dance around a pool that smells like bleach
and I will write our names inside a heart where the ocean meets the beach
Long after the last grain of sand goes down the shower drain
and winter brings a policy of icy and dark change…
I’ll dream of a place where we can be free- oh kisses on blankets by the sea X 2
Bridge: It’s so easy for most people to love, just to be
No bloody nose, no broken ribs no fractured dignity
His dress is gold, his voice is sweet, his lashes glittery
it’s so easy for most people to love, just to be
Gin & tonic, your perfume, a pool that smells like bleach
I’ll write our names inside a heart where ocean meets the beach
I know of a place where we can be free- oh, kisses on blankets by the sea x2
Oh kisses on blankets by the…blankets by the…blankets by the sea.
I played this out the other night when my friend Dave asked if I’d like to play a couple of songs at his show. In the middle of performing, I realized I never posted it. It took about a year to write, and I finished it about a month ago. Duh. I’ve been caught up in producing & composing the other instruments, which is taking longer than I hoped. Heck, I posted my last two quickly written numbers “If You Think You’re Going” and “Mas Caliente Que El Sol” before composing & production were even molecules of seeds barely touching the soil of my brain.
Lyrics: Tu es mas caliente que el sol- Wherever it is you may go
5 minutes after you leave all the air is cold.
Shoulders shiver like a fault runs through- Lips turn from red to blue
And our words turn to smoke as they follow for you. ***************************************
As the night was coming to an end I wanted to be more than friends of friends
You left your hand on mine as you said goodbye ****************************************
So much has happened between now and then
The earth froze and a garden bloomed again
Yet still I fall asleep and see your light dark eyes *****************************************
Tu es mas caliente que el sol- Wherever it is you may go
5 minutes after you leave all the air is cold.
Shoulders shiver like a fault runs through- Lips turn from red to blue
And our words turn to smoke as they follow for you.
Day 2 on the bus. The brutal desert wind forced me hibernate in this strange dwelling this afternoon. I’m dealing a little better with my challenging portable sound situation. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this song written and finished today. The “E” string on the one guitar I have access to broke after last night’s session. This tiny town has no instrument shop, and the one musician we asked didn’t have nylon classical guitar strings. Oh yeah, my friend Wendy and I realized. Probably noone in this town has nylon strings. Oh well. I adapted. I wrote a song that didn’t require a low E. I’m exhausted, coming down from a manic creative binge, and feeling like I can finally sleep., but do want to share a few thoughts on this song later.
Thoughts on this song, it’s now later: There is a chorus. It’s quite melodic, and slightly discordant. I’m debating where to place it. Formula dictates one thing, intuition quite another. Argh. The difficult decisions life throws at you. This song will be on “Asterisk”, the album I’m going to start recording this weekend.
I guess you could say I’m on an artists retreat, though it’s not quite what I set out for. I only meant to tinker on my downtime when I loaded the Cubase software on my laptop before I headed to New Mexico to visit a friend.
Instead, the second I arrived, I found the situation irresistibly creative. I’m sleeping on a luxury bus parked on my friend’s property. I started writing and editing and writing more. Then I turned the bus living room into my own recording studio. Oh, it’s crappy. Without my equipment at home, the hardware inside the computer does not make for ideal sound recordings. But I made do with what I could, and I’m really excited about this brand new song. I started it a few years ago, but had little more than the chorus. I attempted to finish it a few times, but didn’t get anywhere and let it go.. A rock show I recently went to, coupled with this retreat and recent events in my life unleashed me.
Lyrics:
If you think you’re going ~ Tell someone I know
Get the information flowing ~ My direction if you go
Cuz if you go I may just have to see you one more time
So I can turn off the light and put
it to rest
The way you lit up the night the last
time we met
And when you looked at me ~ I could
not catch my breath
I was undone
So if you think you’re going ~ Tell someone I know
Get the information flowing ~ My direction if you go
Cuz if you go I may just have to see you one more time
So I can turn off the light and put
it to rest
The way you lit up the night the last
time we met
And how you looked at me for a second
too long
It would be easier- if -I knew I was
wrong
We hardly spoke BUT where you went I
was aware
And when I turned around I’d find you
in a stare
You pulled my focus apart, unanchored
my heart,
I was undone
So if you think you’re going ~ Tell someone I know
Get the information flowing ~ My direction if you go
Cuz if you go I may just have to see you one more time…
I went to a Yiddish class in the basement of a synagogue last evening, and the teacher handed out printouts of Yiddish songs!
After a week of cajoling me to join her, I caved and carved time in my busy evening to meet my mom at a Yiddish class. It’s held once a week in the basement of a synagogue local to the town I work in. The space was gigantic. 2,000 carpeted square feet, unfurnished but for three cloth covered round tabled pushed to one corner. 10 or so men and women sat around them. The tables, the kind commonly used for catering, were so vast that the group of 70 and 80 year olds looked like bunch of kindergartners.
I had expected a classroom with rows of chairs and a chalkboard. It was instead very informal. The teacher sat at the head of the cluster of tables and spoke with us, not at us. The lessons, however, were planned and structured. First she reviewed Yiddish history, which included fascinating stories such as that of a Yiddish star who went on tour in Europe dressed as a man because the Orthodox would not let women perform.
Following the history lesson, she handed out a couple of Yiddish song printouts, with the English translation. She sang, and whoever was familiar sang along. See, it was beshert that I went as inspiration fell into my lap when I wasn’t looking for it.
I was particularly taken with Papirosen. You can listen to it here on YouTube. https://youtu.be/Di3R0mk3gEA and I pasted the lyrics below. The title immediately grabbed me. Cigarrettes. The taboo coolness, the curiosity of what such a song could possibly be about. Just a few lines in, it is revealed that a little homeless orphan boy is selling cigarettes to survive. Cold and hungry, he’s begging people that pass on the street to buy from him. If that didn’t tug at our heartstrings enough, the last verse takes a darker turn. He and his sister did everything together, but then she got sick and weak and ended up dying. So now he wanders the earth hungry and with nothing to live for, wishing he too would die. My gosh, this song does not end on a good note. Not a morsel of hope in it.
I have no idea how this will influence my future writing, but I am grateful to have had the opportunity to experience it. I know that it will somehow have great value.
Since the teacher reviews two Yiddish songs every week, I’m going to make it a point of going back at least once a month.
When I was younger, I’d seek inspiration in the back of smokey dive bars where local hip bands were playing, or go dancing at mammoth rave inspired state of the art clubs where DJ’s like Junior Vasquez spun. My how time changes us, lol!
Cigarettes- lyrics Herman Yablokoff
A cold night, foggy, darkness everywhere A boy stands sadly and looks around Only a wall protects him from the rain He holds a basket in his hand And his eyes beg everyone silently:
I don’t have any strength left to walk the streets Hungry and ragged, wet from the rain I walk around from dawn Nobody gives me any earnings Everyone laughs and makes fun of me
REFRAIN
Please, Buy my cigarettes! Dry ones, not wet from the rain Buy real cheap Buy and have pity on me Save me from hunger now
Buy my matches, wonderful ones, the best And with that you will uplift an orphan My cries and my running will be for nought Nobody wants to buy from me In the end I’ll perish like a dog
I had a little sister, a child of nature Together we moved around for an entire year With her, it was much easier for me My hunger would become lighter
When I glanced at her
Suddenly she became weak and very sick She died in my arms on a street bench And when I lost her
I lost everything Let death come already for me, too.
(s/n: Mix is raw and a capella in the beginning so you will recognize her) Today I had a singing date with an old music friend of mine. We decided on this date about a week ago. Since then, she has popped up on my facebook feed TWICE. People who had been in music projects with her are posting old band photos! I forgot the phrase she used, but she felt she was being pulled by the universe back toward music. After Tony’s “Recording Angels” posts this evening, this was four signs in one month. A photo of Pantsuit, involvement in my recording project, an invitation to perform at a U2 cover show, and most recently the aforementioned Recording Angels facebook post. I know some of the 5 people who actually read this blog will be able to guess who it is. And for the other, I do not want to sound clique-ey. Meet the voice that I am in awe of! I prefer posting photos with my blog posts, but she was too shy to take a selfie.
Too shy to take a selfie with me. Her presence in this photo is implied.
This song, it’s done, my gosh, I think the second verse took a year. I couldn’t force it. I’d just focus on another project and come back to it. It’s actually a pretty simple song. This is a rough draft. I have a very special someone coming over this weekend to lay down vocal tracks!!!! Omg, I can’t wait. It will sound more cohesive once the bass & drum tracks are laid and the distorted guitars thinned out a bit. But instrument arrangements aside. it’s done, done, done, I’m so relieved, let’s celebrate!!! Stay tuned for an evolved version soon………..Lyrics posted below.
c. 2019 Farrell Burk
“The Ice Palace”, Cherry Grove, Fire Island
K
I can hear your thoughts, I swear I
can, of the things you want to do.
Little things like lean to touch my
hand and maybe hold it too.
I can feel you tug at my belt to pull
me closer in
I can feel your arms around my waist,
your whisper on my skin.
But so many eyes are staring above
crooked little smiles
Like they’ve never seen two people
who walked down a rainbow aisle
I know of a place where we can be
free
Oh, kisses on blankets by the sea
Lil’ bridge break thing
Key change: Cotton candy clouds dangle from a
periwinkle sky
The ferry bounces on a
sequin sea toward the rainbow side
Key changes back: Queens in dresses sing- and
dance around a pool that smells like bleach
I will write our names- in a heart
where the ocean meets the beach.
Long after the last grain of sand
goes down the shower drain
And winter brings a policy of icy and
dark change
I’ll dream of a place where we can be
free
Oh kisses on blankets by the sea
I’ll dream of a place where we can be
free
Oh Oh kisses on blankets by the sea
(AFTER lil bridge thing, count 10 measures-which is 2 silent measures + 8
measures of guitar riff)
It’s so easy for most
people to love, just to be
No
broken ribs, no bloody nose, no fractured dignity
His
dress is gold, his voice is sweet, his lashes glittery
It’s
so easy for most people to love, just to be
Gin and tonic, your perfume, a pool
that smells like bleach,
I’ll write our names inside a heart
where ocean meets the beach
I know of a place where we can be
free-Oh, kisses on blankets by the sea –
I know of a place where we can be
free- Oh, kisses on blankets by the sea –
Oh Oh, kisses on blankets by the…blankets by the…blankets by the sea.
To summarize my last post, I destroyed “Clap For Youself” in the car on the way to work. Bye-bye. On the way home, I “saw” it, all mixed up, non linear, paired with an intense intuition in my gut that felt, “don’t give up”. And that’s where I left off.
To follow up, I since sat in the living room with my acoustic in a narrow sliver of time I had one evening that week. The completely new chorus came to me within maybe 2 minutes. This after slaving for months with the other version. Also, the next morning, again in a sliver of time while I got ready for work, the words in the old last version slid into place. The new melody forced it to rewrite itself. It became concise, subtle, and pinpointed what I was trying to say all along but couldn’t. At it’s heart, it’s a song about loneliness and trying to overcome it.
You still can hear People cheer If you listen through time Like the faintest of chimes On a whisper's wind
This is quite a rough version, nowhere near what it will be if it ever gets “released”. We are used to “finished products” in music, so I hope you’ll bear with me through these early stages. After all, I know hip hop artists who wait years for their producers to “drop” their single, because it’s not polished enough. This is a blog about a creative process, not a bid for a Grammy.
Me & my dad at my cousin’s wedding circa 2004. He was one of my biggest fans in everything I did.
Serena Williams lost the Australian Open in only the quarter finals. My hero looked tired, flat footed, slow and …gasp…still bloated with baby weight. I myself am no skinny mini, so I say without judgement, I just…wanted my hero back. And I wanted to cry. “This could be it”, I thought, which I’m sure was the sentiment of so many others. But in the interview after the match, she said with 100% confidence that she WILL win again, it’s only a matter of time, implying that Margaret Court record is hers for the taking, just not quite yet. And I thought, who am I to disbelieve her? She may be sluggish and awkward but if Serena Williams says she is going to come back, then Serena Williams is going to come back. And I will make dance music like I hear on Sirus XM’s BPM station. It takes a lot of patience building loops, and envisioning songs when you’re used to writing on an acoustic guitar. But it is only a matter of time.
s/n: There is a copyright on the earlier version, but it’s so easy to “publish” these days, which is of equal importance to registering in D.C. and indeed is a copyright, albeit unregistered. Besides…who reading my blog is going to steal anything?? It will have a registered copyright soon enough.
