Tracy Jane Comer - Yellow Bike

Artist: Tracy Jane Comer

Song: Yellow Bike

Album: Yellow Bike EP (2006)

 

Originally titled "Solo Guitar & Vocals" with six tracks, expanded to EIGHT original acoustic tracks for this 2006 re-release. Seven vocal/guitar tracks and one guitar instrumental, performed live in the studio by Tracy and recorded/produced by Randy Green. Six songs are solo versions of material later produced/released on the Quietly ThereCD. Includes four award-winning tracks and other audience favorites.  

 

biography

music

 

Ten years old in ’74 in a run down shack with a bathroom on the porch
Free school lunch and hand-me-downs and a two-hour ride on the school bus into town
But a view of the ocean from my window
I loved to watch the tide just come and go, there alone

Bought a fishing pole at the five-and-dime...Never caught a fish, but I loved to throw that line
Sittin’ on the pier in the salty air, spinning daydreams to pass the time
And I rode my yellow bike on that beach road
Never thought about where I might go...I just rode

Riding, flying, on that road
Laughing, smiling, all alone
Living poor, but living free
Happy on that yellow bike on that road beside the sea

Hibernating in my room with my forty-fives and AM radio
Leaving all the world behind, never wanting more than just that time alone
The nighttime brought its dark and bitter haze
But oh, how I loved those daydream days by the sea

I wonder why I just can’t understand why I’m sad that I was happy then
Do I have such a better life today that I’ll never have that bliss of yesterday?

Twenty-six cats, and two hamsters, the air thick with ten thousand fleas
Waiting for that monthly check to buy one week’s worth of groceries
But I don’t think that occurred to me life wasn’t all that it should be...we just lived

Riding, flying, on that road
Laughing, smiling, all alone
Living poor, but living free
Happy on that yellow bike on that road beside the sea

 

Porcupine Tree - My Ashes

Artist: Porcupine Tree

Song: My Ashes

Album: Fear Of A Blank Planet (2007)

 

The concept of the album was heavily influenced by Bret Easton Ellis' novel Lunar Park. The novel is told from the perspective of a father, who bears the name of the novel's author himself, whereas the album is mostly from his son's perspective, an eleven-year-old kid named Robby. Many of the lyrics for Fear of a Blank Planet are lifted directly from the novel, particularly "My Ashes", which is an homage to the last chapter, in which the ashes of Bret's father are scattered and cover the memories of his life.

The lyrics deal with two typical neurobehavioural developmental disorders affecting teenagers in the 21st century: bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder, and also with other common behaviour tendencies on youth like escapism through prescription drugs, social alienation caused by technology, and the feeling of vacuity product of information overload in the mass media. In an interview with Revolver magazine, Wilson described the main character of the story as "...this kind of terminally bored kid, anywhere between 10 and 15 years old, who spends all his daylight hours in his bedroom with the curtains closed, playing on his PlayStation, listening to his iPod, texting his friends on his cell phone, looking at hardcore pornography on the Internet, downloading music, films, news, violence..."

(…) On Fear of a Blank Planet veteran progressive-rock act Porcupine Tree takes up the task of exploring the alienating forces of the media and its impact on our youths and ourselves. Fear's titular cut features lyrics rife with allusions to the confusing, isolating effects of TV, the X-Box, drugged out consumer escapades, and the ennui that arrives with prescription and self-prescribed numbness. "My Ashes" advances the themes of isolation, as a young person becomes increasingly estranged from himself.

(…)`My Ashes' is stunning, with that perfect verse/chorus interplay Wilson excels at, lush orchestration and nebulous, highly evocative lyrics. The wordless vocal which rounds off the song engenders a kind of urbane emotional atmosphere, a beautiful dignity. 

 

All the things that I needed
I wasted my chances
I have found myself wanting

When a mother and father
Gave me their problems
I accepted them all

Nothing ever expected
I was rejected
But I came back for more

And my ashes drift beneath the silver sky
Where a boy rides on a bike and never smiles

And my ashes fall over all the things we've said
On a box of photographs under the bed

I will stay in my own world
Under the covers
I will feel safe inside

The kiss that will burn me
Cure me of dreaming
I was always returning

And my ashes find a way beyond the fog
And return to save the child that I forgot

And my ashes fade among the things unseen
And a dream plays in reverse on piano keys

And my ashes drop upon a park in Wales
Never-ending clouds of rain, and distant sails... distant sails

The Jam - Wasteland

Artist: The Jam

Song: Wasteland

Album: Setting Sons (1979)

 

The Jam was an English rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punkrock contemporaries, The Jam wore neatly tailored suits rather than ripped clothes and incorporated a number of mainstream 1960s rock influences rather than rejecting them, placing them at the forefront of the mod revival movement.

Setting Sons was originally planned as a concept album about three childhood friends who, upon meeting after some time apart, discover the different directions in which they've grown apart.

 

(…) It had been reported prior to release that the album would deal with the concept of how 3 childhood friends had changed as they became adults after a modern-day English civil war (described in the song "Wasteland"). In essence, it was to be a Weller-generation version of The Kinks album Arthur,or: The Decline and Fall of the British Empire. (The two albums do make very good companion pieces.)

 

music

review

 

Meet me on the wastelands - later this day,
We'll sit and talk and hold hands maybe,
For there's not much else to do in this drab and colourless 
place.
We'll sit amongst the rubber tyres,
Amongst the discarded bric-a-brac,
People have no use for - amongst the smouldering embers of 
yesterday.

And when or if the sun shines,
Lighting our once beautiful features,
We'll smile but only for seconds,
For to be caught smiling is to acknowledge life,
A brave but useless show of compassion,
And that is forbidden in this drab and colourless world.

Meet me on the wastelands - the ones behind,
The old houses - the ones - left standing pre-war -
The ones overshadowed by the monolith monstrosities - 
councils call homes.

And there amongst the shit - the dirty linen,
The holy Coca-Cola tins - the punctured footballs,
The ragged dolls - the rusting bicycles,
We'll sit and probably hold hands.

And watch the rain fall - watch it - watch it -
Tumble and fall - tumble and falling -
Like our lives - like our lives -
Just like our lives.

We'll talk about the old days,
When the wasteland was release when we could play,
And think - without feeling guilty -
Meet me later but we'll have to hold hands.
Tumble and fall - tumble and falling -
Like our lives - like our lives -
Exactly like our lives.

Mudhoney - Sissy Bar

Artist: Mudhoney

Song: Sissy Bar

Album: My Brother The Cow (1996)

Mudhoney didn't invent grunge, but they were one of the first bands to truly define the style, and thanks to the bizarro-world logic that has defined their career, they seemed to loose interest in the stuff once you could actually make serious money playing it, ensuring that they wouldn't have to deal with the mainstream adulation that made followers like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden into multi-platinum cash cows. By 1995, grunge's brief fling on the charts was pretty much over … just in time for Mudhoney to decide they liked the stuff again, and make the finest album of their career, My Brother the Cow. On My Brother the Cow, Mudhoney finally found a noisy middle ground where their fondness for Billy Childish and Blue Cheer could peacefully coexist, and the songs are less sludgy and more driving than their early classics, but with enough cheap stomp-box thunder to remind you of who's playing

 

Reprise re-issued the album in 2003 with bonus tracks; between these Sissy Bar, originally included in a 7” attached at the original vinyl copy.

 

review

 

That's a nice looking bicycle seat
Can I smell it?
Mmmm
That sure is good
That's pretty nice
Is that?
Is that?

Just watch, sweety pie
Can I fix your forks?
You're wheels are un-trued

The Wallflowers - Angel On My Bike

Artist: The Wallflowers

Song: Angel On My Bike

Album: Bringing Down The Horse (1996)

 

No sophomore jinx here. Of course, there are only two Wallflowers left from their first release, so this could be called a whole new band. No matter, because the music here is assured and contemporary with just enough of the past showing through to catch one's eye.Jakob Dylan has been polishing his compositional chops and it really shows on such cuts as "Invisible City," the hit "6th Avenue Heartache" and especially "One Headlight." A fine effort indeed. (Allmusic)

 

review

She knows just what I like
The angel on my bike
She found me down on a two ton anchor
Tangled up in wire
She always gets it right
The angel on my bike
I could be killed if the train goes faster
Well angel watch my life

I can't handle a care
I want, but I can't be there
While angel's a prayer

It's 45 miles on that highway
Angel double prayer
I have to sleep with my eyes on the white lines
Elvis need of repair
I only wanted to believe
That angel it's me that you need
And there's only, only one heart on that highway
Angel double prayer

I can't handle a care
I want, but I can't be there
While angel's a prayer
I can't handle a care
I want, but I can't be there
While angel's a prayer

Now it's hard time on these wheels
These fairytales
Turn to rusted steel and it's
Gettin' hard now to believe
She's seein' me
Angel, please, tell me 
Can't you see
Angel it's only me
Angel it's only me

Well I can't take a care
Man, I want, but I can't be there
While angel's a prayer
I can't handle a care
Well, I want, but I can't be there
While angel's a prayer

Accept - Breaker

Artist: Accept

Song: Breaker

Album: Breaker (1981)

 

About album Breaker

Formed in Solingen, Germany in the early 70s by wild and crazy frontman, Udo Dirkschneider, Accept forged their way to the top of the 80s metal ranks with their brutal and heavy riffs and Udo’s trademark screeching banshee styled vocal trait. Distinctly original and instantly recognizable, Accept conquered seemingly the entire planet outside the USA. With such classic albums as Restless And Wild, Breaker, I’m A Rebel and Accept finally seeing mid-price status, those Stateside best be keeping their ears open and their balls to the wall!

Udo Dirkschneider: "I would say that this album is the result of pure anger (note: I destroyed 3 microphones during the production). Following our experiences with I'm A Rebel, we made it our goal not to be influenced musically by anyone outside of the band this time. One example are the lyrics of Son of a Bitch that are absolutely anti record company. With this album you can say that the Accept sound was born and brought us attention across Europe and a tour with Judas Priest. Furthermore, this album was a starting point for many musicians to begin playing their own music."

 

The song BREAKER is a bonafide metal classic and while much credit is givin to FAST AS A SHARK, this song is probably the definitive ACCEPT song, and crafted quite better as well. Be careful not to drive into that brick wall! 

 

music

review

 

Rollin' just like thunder,
tryin' to get you down
Mistreatin' ev'rythin',
if you were king he'd take your crown
if you were a dead man
he'd take ya from your grave
He will not mourn for you or me
Happiness he cannot feel
and love to him is so unreal
He burns like hell, he wants you dead,
altogether hate's all he feel
Movin' like spider, killin' off a fly
No hands, just fists, no heart, just rocks
Icicle brains
Bicycle chains
Rulin' like a tyrant,
teasin' ev'ryone around
He drags his legs, he plants his feet
he's bothering the ground
Here and now this man
you see plans his terror free
He's born to rule, a king to be
Icicle brains
Bicycle chains
He's a breaker
He will take ya
Destroyin' all around you
He's a breaker
He's a taker
He'd kill maim destroy to the end
Movin' like a spider
preyin' on the rest
Rulin' like a tyrant,
tyrannosaurus rex
You could be a dead man,
and you won't know why
No hands, just fists,
no heart, just rocks
Icicle brains
Bicycle chains
He's a breaker
He will take ya
Destroyin' all around you
He's a breaker
He's a taker
He'd kill maim destroy to the end