Tumbleweed
Gene - Drums
Matt - Lead Vocals, Guijo
John - Background Vocals, Bass, Guitars
Blowing through Kansas where there’s nowhere to hide
Man keeps circling like a hawk in the sky
St Louis on St Patrick ’s Day
Ah whistling into Memphis sometime Friday
Nobody notices when he goes by
Got a hole in his shoe and a tear in his eye
He’ll never stop
Now everybody’s going out to Colorado
Still searching for that Rocky Mountain high
Who’s really working who’s really playing?
Ah some just milking the trust fund dry
Nobody notices when he goes by
Got a hole in his shoe and a tear in his eye
He’ll never stop…
Tumbleweed keeps on riding the western wind
Tumbleweed don’t talk much about where he’s been
Tumbleweed won’t you take me along for that ride?
Tumbleweed
I said my my my my my my how time flies by
Had a vision he was down at the old mill
Watching water pour over that rusted wheel
And he lost a sweet girl Miss Rachel Hodges
And the longing man goes on pilgrimages, yep
Nobody notices when he goes by
Got a hole in his shoe and a tear in his eye
He’ll never stop
Tumbleweed keeps on riding the western wind
Tumbleweed don’t talk much about where he’s been
Tumbleweed won’t you take me along for that ride?
Tumbleweed
I said my my my my my my how time flies by
John - well, this was always one of my favorite Coyote songs. I asked Matt if he'd mind if we "Raptorized" it, and he was cool with it, so that's what we did. We purposely kind of enhanced the dynamics of it - the louder parts louder and the quiet parts quieter - plus the somewhat Floydian middle part, but pretty happy with how this one turned out. Doesn't matter what you do with a song as good as this one - it's just going to be good, period.
Matt- This song was on JCs fourth album entitled Ghost Dance. I wrote this song a while back and basically it's a traveling tune about life on the road and the ups and downs that come with that. The trust fund line always got a nice reaction in Colorado. Good riding down the road with the stereo cranked tune.
Tell Me How to Get There
Gene - Drums
Matt - Lead & Background Vocals, Guijo
John - Lead & Background Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Slide Guitars, Bass
Michael Williams - Organ, Piano
Going against the flow of the tide
I don't know why I'm on this crazy ride
Cannot see at all where I've been
There's nothing left behind but the wind
Tell me how to get there
Tell me show me a sign
Now it's time to set my sight on space
The lines of time are etched upon my face
The movements of my life have now slowed
I just can't seem to find the endless road
Through the maze and arteries of life
I seem to get blinded by the strife
Blinded by the weight of all my fears
Blinded by the blur of all the tears
Tell me how to get there
Tell me what will I find
So when I take off into the void
Will I scream or am I paranoid
Is it just a fantasy I seek
Or is it just a daydream in my sleep
Will it be a journey back in time
Or forward me to what will be sublime
Will the light throw me in the black
Guess I'll never know, cuz I ain't coming back
Tell me how to get there
Tell me give me a sign
Tell me how to get there
Tell me what will I find
John - I'd originally written this song back over 20 years ago - and was paying a bit of homage to Coyote when I did it. We changed some of the lyrics around, but it's basically about getting old and leaving this world and hoping that the journey into the next world is a good one.
Matt- I always liked this song John had written. I had it culled back from the very first Raptor album, I knew we would get to it sooner or later. Really like the way this one came out. This song is kind of a rites of passage song to me, almost spiritual in nature. Just needed a little Guijo.
Special thanks to Michael Williams, as the organ was damned near mandatory, and the piano solo was very cool as well - a Raptor Trail first!
Euthymia
Gene - Drums
Matt - Lead & Background Vocals, Guijo
John - Lead & Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, Fretless Guitar, G-Strings, Bass, Organ
Lost in a time, long left behind, in a daydream
The light is turning black, your nightmare is back….
Regaining clarity, in sobriety, gives a new beginning
You're near the end, addiction will win….
Playing your part, for the beauty in your art, an inspiration for another….
Your masterpiece annulled, the picture is dull…..
And the pendulum is swinging
Changing the smile to a frown
Searching for euthymia
Flying high, crashing down……
Finding inner peace, riding on the wing, of the Field Sparrow
But you minds at war, lock the cellar door
So blue the sky today, worries washed away, rise above it all
Night it will fall, resume the dreadful crawl
Remembering the joy, of a small boy, and the humming of the fans
Cynical and grown, your life is not your own
And the pendulum is swinging
Changing the smile to a frown
Searching for euthymia
Flying high, crashing down……
And when you're high, the lows will try, to bring you to your knees.
And when you cry, your eyes will dry, and see still blindly…..
And the pendulum is swinging
Changing the smile to a frown
Searching for euthymia
Flying high, crashing down……
John - I'm really not sure how I arrived with the music on this one, but it came pretty quick. One part led to another... I told Matt that I thought it should be about something that would go from Heaven to Hell - hence the soft, happy first part of the verses morphing into the somewhat Satanic second parts of the verses. Man - did he kill with the lyrics on this one! I was probably a bit self-indulgent with the solos in it, but we don't have a record company telling us we should make our songs 4 minutes or less - so it was JAM time. The fretless Westbury (somewhat mandatory for at least something on each RT album) made it's appearance with a talk box. Somehow I doubt that combination has been used before, so maybe this is a first. The long solo was on one of my earliest guitars - another (fretted) Westbury Standard (I think it's about a 1980 model). I had an in/out of phase switch put on it years back, and it's just an odd, nasally sound - sort of like some of those old Brian May sounds. Weird, but cool!
Matt- The first time John sent over the music to this I was blown away. I knew this had to be something different and I think we nailed it on the contrasting lyrical lines. Kate, my doctor wife, actually gave me the name of the song after discussing its theme with her.. I was not familiar with the term Euthymia but it sure worked great for this. Once I had that idea it was easy to write the lyrics. John kills the response lines, almost disturbing and that was the point. I think we are just trying to find some balance in a world that makes you feel bi polar and on the verge of mental collapse sometimes.
Mountains
Gene - Drums
Matt - Background Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Guijo
John - Lead & Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass
Went to the mountains to try to find myself
Left the struggle an option for living hell
Don't know if it did me good
Now one stands where two once stood
Didn't matter it pushed me from my shell
When I see mountains they seem to say goodbye
When I see mountains they seem to say goodbye
Years passed, the relief turned into pain
Father Time was casting his tyrannical reign
Don't know what I could have done
When night chases the setting sun
Without warning, the future rose and became
When I see mountains they seem to say goodbye
When I see mountains they seem to say goodbye
In the end premonitions were all so right
Bells rang while looking for the infinite light
Don't know what I could have said
Never paused to look ahead
Down the hill and on into the night
When I see mountains they seem to say goodbye
When I see mountains they seem to say goodbye
John - This song is pretty personal for me. One of my very best friends grew up a street over from me here in Macon (since 1969 - how's that for a long time?). Anyway, his dad ended up moving to the North Georgia mountains back about 15 years ago, and then my parents ended up moving to the same town about 3 years later. To make a long story short, his dad started having health issues a few years back, and sadly passed away this past December. My dad started having health issues a while back, and ended up in the same nursing home as my friend's dad was. The parallels were pretty wild between the two. We moved my dad back here to the Macon area about a year ago.
One of the last times I went up there, was to go to my friend's dad's funeral, and it was just sad all the way around for me. My dad loved it up there, but we had to get he & my mother closer to home for obvious reasons. After the funeral, I drove back to Macon, and I pretty much wrote this one in my head literally on the way out of the mountains (down the hill & on into the night).
No. I won't be playing this one live. Too heavy... I don't normally write songs quite so personal, but this one had to be done.
Matt- John pretty much had this whole thing ready to go. All I had to do was add a few lines, play some Guijo and sing harmony. This song was just haunting the first time I heard it. Such a personal song for John too, I’m glad he sang it, it needed his voice on this one. I’m afraid we are entering the point of our lives where this theme will be recurring.
Need
Gene - Drums
Matt - Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
John - Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass
The Troubadour gave away the key
And chained the one he tried to free
So now you watch it all fall apart
And try to own what was your part
And you gave it away for free
And now there is no need
And I doubt she’s ever coming back
That train to nowhere is running out of track
And heaven seems so hellish
And every fear hides a wish, a wish
The setting sun cast shadows east
Reveals to all what’s seen the least
And you gave it away for free
And now there is no need
And I doubt she’s ever coming back
That train to nowhere is running out of track
And heaven seems so hellish
And every fear hides a wish, a wish
John - Matt sent this one over to me (the verse parts and the choruses) and said "Add some stuff" - so I added the weird beginning (and ending), and the bridges to it. Absolutely love this song. Definitely a little on the jammy side, but it was just kind of cool to use basically a pretty clean Strat to something like this. Definitely a little different sound to this one.
Matt- I was just goofing around on the acoustic guitar tuned in DADGAD and playing it with banjo picks when I came up with this one. Just the nuts and bolts, John added all the other parts but playing with banjo picks on the guitar sometimes brings out all kinds of different stuff. This song is really a cynical swat at the music industry and how personally, I myself have been part of the problem, desperately giving your art away for free in a wishful attempt to just be heard. It used to be record labels screwing us, now it’s the streaming outlets and subscription based music platforms. Shit man, we are used to getting screwed at this point. I truly feel that music has been devalued to point of no return. Break out the PVC and barbed wire. We won’t feel a thing. Take a number. Somewhere, somehow, some way, you can’t bet your ass someone is getting screwed over. This is certainly not exclusive to the music business.
Code 3
Gene - Drums
Matt - Lead & Background Vocals, Acoustic Banjo, Guijo
John - Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass, Mellotron!
The Ocean Calls
Who is your friend?
Rising too fast
Gives you the bends...
No sound at all.........
The tiger stripes
On hardened grass
Another mind ride
Sitting in the glass
No sound at all......
John - Let's not beat around the bush. This is the most insane song we've ever done. I reckon it's my fault for the disturbed music, but Matthew was quick to add the disturbed lyrics. Originally, I was kind of wanting to go reggae in the verses, but Gene quickly changed my mind with his playing. Gene was originally just going to use this as a practice pass, and after hearing his playing on it, I told him I'd harm him if he changed it! So then it turned into jazz, and then there's the hard rock, and then sort of the Police, and then the jammy stuff, and then...?
Finally - how many times have you heard a banjo & a guijo playing over jazz? No. You haven't.
The opening and closing parts are actually in the same cadence as "CQ, CQ" in Morse Code. As said - this song is sick. :)
Matt- Yep, this one is out there. It reminds me of something The Police might have done if they kept it rolling. Its grassy, jazzy, hard rock. I mean everyone does that. The lyrics, well there’s another story. If anyone can figure it out I will buy you a beer. Hint, is in the second verse as to how this came about but I doubt anyone will get it.
All is Forgiven
Gene - Drums
Matt - Vocals, Background Vocals, Guijo, Acoustic Guitars, Wrench Percussion
John - Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass, Gstrings
Oh...I'm gonna miss his place
On the edge of the wild
Trading, the tallest popular groves
For an asphalt mile
Gotta keep your faith
You're not the villain
All is forgiven
Oh... I had the grandest plans
On the edge of the wild
All hearts, were glad in the morning sun
But the dream never begun...
Gotta keep your faith
You're not the villain
All is forgiven
So, where's the silver lining
I know there's always one
So maybe, I'll just be here now
But not forget from where I come
Gotta keep your faith
You're not the villain
All is forgiven
John - I was messing around on an odd-tuned guitar one day, and came up with the verse chords for this one, and we took it from there. I don't even remember how or what I had it tuned to then, but it was still pretty cool...
The high-pitched crashing sound you hear going into the first verse is Mayes dropping a wrench when he was recording the vocals. You sometimes have to use noises like that, you know...
Matt- yea don’t try and tighten your mic stand with a small wrench while tracking vocals, although I multi task all the time for John’s amusement at playback. There have been some pretty funny things recorded by accident. John had most of this music done, I just needed to write some lyrics. This song is about living in the moment, and change, and the sadness of leaving things behind, but at the same time trying to keep the faith and be optimistic about the future. When you are standing at that cliff, if you never jump, you can well bet your parachute will never open. Sometimes you just have to leap.
Crazy Horse -
Gene - Drums, Vocals
Matt - Lead Vocals, Guijo
John - Lead & Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass
Dream and go to the world
Of nothing but, the spirit of things The real world behind this one Where everything is a shadow
A place where nothing is hard Dreamlike, smoke in billows The real world behind this one Dancing horse made of a shadow
Red nation rise A blessing for, the sick world
Longing for the light again for 7 generations
Real is the suffering Riding the back of a broken dream The real world behind this one Tree of life is running out of steam
See the circle pass of wisdom when all will beg The real world behind this one A nation grand, now living in the dregs
Red nation rise A blessing for the sick world
Longing for the light again For 7 generations
So sit and take this pipe
Just make your vision full
So speak your words not trite
And pass to Sitting Bull
Rare is the young white one Who comes only seeking knowledge In the real world behind this one Flower in the bog like a sedge
Dream and go to the world Of nothing but the spirit of things The real world behind this one Where everything is a shadow
Red nation rise A blessing for the sick world
Longing for the light again for 7 generations
John - This riff popped out of nowhere one day. A little different for us, but so is a lot of this stuff.
The solo at the end was basically me just noodling around with my wah pedal and trying to get a sound. I just went kind of nuts, and didn't EVEN think I'd use the track. Matt loved it (he's a sick puppy at times), and talked me into using it. At the end of said solo, I started doing cruel things to the guitar, and that's me crying "Mommy" into my guitar's pickups.
Finally, that's Gene on the vocals at the very end of the song. He thought he'd messed up. He didn't.
Matt- Loved this riff in this one the first time John sent it over. This is a pretty heavy song and basically it is about how Crazy Horse got his name and the vision he had in that dream. The bridge part is actually from a dream I had one night. I was sitting in a sweat lodge with Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull, smoking peyote. It seemed real when I woke. I think they were trying to speak to the wild Comanche.
Do You Remember Me -
Gene - Drums
Matt - Lead Vocals, Guijo
John - Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass
We were young and we had it all
Never needed a place to fall
A couple days was all we had
The memories were never bad
In a night we lived so much
The sights, sounds and the magic touch
Not a worry there were no laws
No tragic hero or fatal flaws
Do you remember me like I remember you
So many years ago
We had it made in the shade and everything was new
So many years ago
Sometimes I stare up at the sky
So many years have passed us by
The life we had has gone away
Our hopes and dreams gone astray
And in those days we should have known
Virility so soon is gone
And say the Sage just enjoy your youth
For time will bring its cruel truth
Do you remember me like I remember you
So many years ago
We had it made in the shade and everything was new
So many years ago
John - We weren't going to originally do this, but Gene accidentally recorded it. After hearing what a cool job he did on it, we just went with it.
I wrote this one about my time living up in Canada waaaay back in the 80's. That place was full of some of the coolest people I've ever known. Like the song says - we were young and only interested in having a blast every day. Wouldn't it be nice if all of us old folks could still have it that cool?
This one is pretty "poppy" for us, but what the hell? We ain't got no stanking rules we have to abide by!
Matt- This song happened by accident. I don’t think we really intended on recording it for the album. It sure came out good. It’s a nostalgic song, reflecting back to when things were easy and simple. Poppy yes, but I like some pop stuff from time to time.
A Real Friend
Gene - Drums
Matt - Guijo
John - Lead & Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, G-Strings, Bass
You're to the age where you've see the light
You're to the age where you've lost your fight
Auspicious rules and capricious sheep
Finally drowned you in a ficticious sleep
The ones who cared throw you to the wind
They never knew what you'd comprehend
Love's just a word filled with pretend
And no one has a real friend
You're at the point where you figured out
You're at the point where you turnabout
Ambitious plans and propitious thoughts
Killed the dreams of all you were taught
The ones who cared throw you to the wind
They never knew what you'd comprehend
Love's just a word filled with pretend
And no one has a real friend
In the end you've got to hold your course
Make the cut and consider the source
No need to care what they think or condone
They'll pay the price when they reap what they've sewn
The ones who cared throw you to the wind
They never knew what you'd comprehend
Love's just a word filled with pretend
And no one has a real friend
John - Probably the first time we've kind of gone into blues much (gotta say I love the blues), though it's kind of Raptorized Blues. As you can tell, this song is basically about being screwed over by folks you think are your friends - and really aren't. It sure is easy writing lyrics about assholes like that...
I pretty much don't have any confidence with my voice. I DO know, though, that it sounds better when I sing REALLY loud. To achieve this, I have to make sure that there's NOBODY around me, because I figure they'd be laughing at me if they heard that with no music involved. So while everybody was away, I screamed my guts out. At the end of the song, I went even crazier with it - blood and chicken soup were pouring out of my mouth (not really, but close). I wasn't planning on using that part, but General Mayes said "yes you are", so we kept it. Yes - I was hoarse after I did it.
Matt- John killed this. Boy can sing the blues and play the blues. This was the first time we introduced a blues based song, but man it came out pretty good. Raptor Blues. All I had to do was throw a little Guijo roll in there just because all blues songs need Guijo.
Your Ship Has Sailed
Gene - Drums
Matt - Lead & Background Vocals, Guijo
John - Background Vocals, Electric Guitars, G-Strings, Bass
So you think you're more than what they ever planned
Bought your life from crumbs they dropped at their command
Staring at the sun, you're still locked in the dark
One day's glowing sin is just tomorrow's master plan
Your ship has sailed, the wind exhaled
So you've wondered how to change your fatal ways
Stuck in protocol that glosses your new phase
Love was once your hate now age will force your hand
Egocentric plans will stalk your lonely final days
Your ship has sailed, the wind exhaled
Stuck in bird's eye view you stare at what you've done
Pungent lifeless dreams are dripping from your gun
Suddenly you wonder how it's gonna end
Pour your last night's rest into the next day's golden sun
Your ship has sailed, the wind exhaled
Just when you think that you threw the final spin
Mother Luck extends her hand from deep within
Feeling like a glove that fit the hand of doom
You're the cloud that shrouds the sky in what had been
Your ship has sailed, the wind exhaled
Your train derailed, the truth unveiled
John - I wrote the first part of this song for a country band I was in a few years back - originally titled "This Song Ain't 'Bout My Truck". Needless to say, that wasn't proper subject material for the RT, so I used the words from another song I'd written about 5 years ago. It's about a typical turd (this song would apply to more than one person I've had dealings with) who thinks he's got it made, shows little or no respect to others, and finally ends up getting figured out in the end. And yes - I was under the influence when I wrote the lyrics.
Anyways, I'd written the last part that was part of another song that I trashed (yet I liked this part). I wrote it right after Chris Squier (of Yes for those who don't know) died, and I'd have to very much admit that hearing "Starship Trooper" for the 9,403,302nd time - that the end of it inspired the end of this one. In fact - just call the second movement of this song "CS". Really a sad day for me when that guy passed away, so this is dedicated to him.
Luckily, this last part fit like a glove. So there you are. Three songs in one.
Matt- This one kind of went through several incarnations before we got it. John had several drafts written, but I also took a pass at the lyrics with it. We were calling it Red Wave but I did not like it. It just did not seem to fit. So I scrapped it for a few months and then we revisited it when John wrote these new lyrics. The original country version was pretty damn funny but I told John the music was too good to use on that program, so we kind of started over. Some of these things come real quick and some just seem to evolve. This one was evolution.