February 8th, 2014
2013-Where Were You When The Fun Began?
“Where Were You When The Fun Began?” was recorded in Mark Sammo’s home studio, Matrix Studios in Ithaca over the course of more than 3 years of sessions, using Digital Performer software & Mark’s library of sampling software, including Roland electronic drums & a host of keyboards. Danny & Mark began with a 1966 Martin D-18 & vocals, Walt Lorenzut’s Fender bass, & layered the rest piece by piece. In the 2nd year Amara Steinkrauss added soprano vocals to all 12 songs, & Donna Dennis alto parts to many. Danny wrote half the songs during the 1st year of recording, the other 6 previously.
Mark & Danny were nearly finished recording Fun Began when Donna Dennis , visiting her mother in Montana, was killed in an automobile crash on March 22, 2013. Donna & Mark had settled in as a loving couple for a year & a half, & this was a tragic end to their story. The album is dedicated to her memory. The album is also dedicated to the joy we experienced at Zobo Funn Band gigs 1973-1980.
Chris White: Cello, Max Buckholz: Violin, Rick Huyge: Tenor Sax & Clarinet, David Plaine: Baritone Sax, Bob Carlucci: Pedal Steel, & Richie Stearns: Banjo all have featured moments.
Danny Speer sang & played guitars, keyboards (in numerous disguises) & cello on Heart Attack
Mark Sammo played drums, percussion, keyboards, samples & wood flute & engineered it all
Harry Aceto, Danny’s oldest oldest musical confrere played bass on Rainy The Ragtime Cloudboy
About The Lyrics Of Fun began:
Honestly, “Where Were You When The Fun Began?” is a fanciful journey through my own timeline. Tutors advise “ write what you know”, to which I add-“ & embellish gracefully.” Since age 11 romance had drawn me like a moth to the proverbial flame, (offering plenty of illusion in illumination), but I feel that particular illusion-chasing was an experience shared by my generation & perhaps those that followed. We’re all in love with love. We’ve been set up by the happy endings that literature, then movies & television promised. Don’t forget The Baby Boomers were once named The Love Generation,(pre-STD’s), particularly those born between 1943-1957 when Neptune was passing through Libra. Van Morrison sang: “We were the wild children, born 1945, when all the soldiers came marching home from war love looks in their eyes.”
Faithfully married for decades I yet maintain that lost loves, pledges & romance smolder in fabulous melancholy, ever worthy of contemplation .Physical pleasure may be easier to remember than pain, but unfulfilled promises linger in artful suspense suggesting hurts as deep as the heights of joy. In The English Patient the guy never made it back to that cave as he meant to, & in our own lives most of us have booted a few, over-reaching our grasp. I know I have, but in most of these songs the narrations are fictional, with bits & pieces from here & there.
Waitin’ Til’ The Devil Comes To Pray is a direct quote from my 5th grade teacher in Texas, & fully autobiographical, While UDTS, switching channels, isn’t sure, but suspects I/We watch too much television. The song Queen Catharine mourns the ecological disaster of the passing of the old-growth forest & its lost civilizations. Columbia Falls mourns the passing of my mother Elisabeth Clark Speer, & the fallen space shuttle Columbia. Writing Your Name Everywhere & You Saved Me From Myself nod directly to my better half Eileen Hughes, who has saved me from myself & the ever-lurking wolf at an artist’s door regularly for years.
Where Were You When The Fun Began?
I woke up in a blue lagoon. I’d never ever seen the like before.
Massage in the Jacuzzi, potage a-loose-y-goose-y…
Down into woozy & my memory tore in
two phalanxes of bathing beauties marching single file in double-time.
Who knew there’d be so many duties?
All I wanted was to blow my mind.
I woke up in a heart-shaped cloud.
A long long list of things were not allowed.
Big Brother had my number, it might have been a bummer,
The endless summer falling drawn into a
Fan-tastic was her next advice- she said
“we’ve got it & it feels so fine”,
Uh-oh, no Baby Baby same mistake twice,
all I wanted was to blow her mind.
We three dreams of conquistadores…
time slipstream for a paramour
Everything like a wonderland…
where were you when the fun began?
I woke up in Another World,
Young & Restless with One Life To Live.
I never felt so buff,
the cameras were a rush,
My soap opera muffins in the nick of
time passages away from fun…
3rd planet from a type-G sun.
You can’t whistle but you hum along fine,
All I wanted was to blow your mind.
We three dreams of conquistadores,
lords & ladies in coach & fours…
Everything like a wonderland…
where were you when the fun began?
Song notes: with fond remembrances of the Zobo Funn Band (1973-80)
One Kiss
You say no- no you gotta go
But the next thing you know everything is in slo-mo
& the door is opening some more
As the music comes up there’s a band & a dance floor.
One kiss- the kind of kiss to rip a page out of Hollywood history
One kiss- the greatest gift your lips could give to me.
We walked in & joined the circle swim all at 3 miles an hour around the school gym.
& you know our love is gonna grow as we promenade our parts in the show.
One kiss is all we’ll need to get a great big perpetual motion going
One kiss- the sweetest gift your lips could give to me.
& that’s all- that’s all the cattle call. We should do-si-do right out of this hall.
Don’t you see that this was meant to be- everything leading up to the moment our lips meet.
One kiss- the kind of kiss to knock the socks off a perfectly moonstruck man
One kiss is how the world’s most famous loves began.
Notes: my personal torturers: Cullen Jr Hi- Houston Tx, Hattiesburg Hi, Hattiesburg,Ms & Monroe Hi, Rochester NY
Waitin’ ‘Til The Devil Comes To Pray
My old school teacher used to say:
“Got your homework done today?
You last-minute scribblers may be waitin
’ ‘til the devil comes to pray.”
5th grade when that chant began, she said:
“You’re not a bit cute nor funny Dan.
Keep on frittering time away-
You’ll be sorry some old day!”
Waitin’ ‘Til the devil comes to pray- devil comes to pray-o.
Waitin’ ‘til the devil comes to pay- devil comes to pay-o.
Can’t begin to count my sins…
same boat everybody’s in.
Catchin’ whiffs of the other side-
where do I go to apologize?
Skippin’ school & payin’up late,
puttin’ nothin’ in the collection plate,
Disrespect for the magistrate,
here he comes knockin’ at my gate. & (chorus)
Started out like a house on fire.
Didn’t take long ‘til I got tired.
Wore myself right out in fact…
took a 35-year nap.
Comin’ on strong & talkin’ fast,
how you gonna make it last?
Catchin’ whiffs of the other side,
where do I go to apologize? &( chorus)
Notes: Southland Elementary in Houston Texas. Max Buckholz -fiddle Richie Stearns-banjo
Umbrella Moon
Umbrella Moon, 1st quarter,
upside down in the afternoon
I heard you singing a tune
all right side up in the morning.
We just got under the warning
to see an umbrella moon go down
on planetary vacation sliding into the ocean.
We swam away to another day
our ripples all in motion,
underwater explosion to fade…
We crawl, we walk, we swim, we fly,
umbrella moon shines on beyond our time,
The only thing that matters: boy meets girl,
boy woos girl, boy loses girl,
can boy win girl back again?
It maybe could have been love,
but we drifted apart.
Unable to translate hearts,
we did not know who we are.
Now we know who we are.
Our once upon an umbrella moon
came back to phase me today,
or to keep me at bay…
Tomorrow is but another way to lose
you all over too soon,
but you gave me this tune
on an umbrella moon.
We think, we plan to guard our hearts…
umbrella moon shines on the secret parts.
The only thing that matters:
boy meets girl boy woos girl,
boy loses girl, does boy win girl back again?
When a boy & girl have electricity & chemistry
they only see the sparkle & the shine
When a boy & girl are so in love
they cannot tell the day from night
they cannot see love makes them blind.
Umbrella moon 4th quarter upside down
in the afternoon.
I heard you singing a tune
all right side up in the morning.
Notes: you know, when the moon is shaped like an umbrella & you fall in love
Writing Your Name Everywhere
Passion & thirsting
give a thrill to the air.
Questing & jousting,
a wistfully twisting affair.
Go all the way up the stairs.
Somebody’s waiting up there.
All of the answers to prayers…
all of the whens whys & wheres…
I’m calling you now to battle.
I want you now, nothing else matters.
I call you out, mad as that hatter,
writing your name everywhere.
Caught in the moment,
spotlights in our eyes.
Kissing the ceiling,
what a birthday surprise
Known to the groom & the bride-
swept away by the tide
on a free-for-all ride-
your best friend at your side…
I’m calling you now to love me.
I want to put you above me.
I’m calling you with my eyes closed
Writing your name in the air..
Writing your name everywhere…
Notes: dedicated to Eileen. Dizzy with it…Chris White cello & Max Buckholtz violin
U.D.T.S. (You, Daytime Television Star)
Be what you can be,
but don’t ask me I’ve been your fan too long now.
See duplicity,
your third eye frees you from that fickle boom-town.
What makes you so extra special you don’t have to stand in line?
Use it or you’ll lose it in a wrinkling of time.
( You- Daytime Television Star) UDTS
You got up & let the day go by without becoming more.
Telegenic you, too bad your rating’s fallen to the floor.
Take a walk outside yourself
& find out what you’ve always known-
Too much of a good thing’s got you
locked inside your comfort zone.
UDTS
We’re living in a world of expendables,
Planned obsolescence, this rules’ not bendable,
Commendable? No, they-all schooled us like a fool
but spendable tender- money make you cool, Mutt.
Good shit is running tight- days you can’t find the stuff.
Coal that was anthracite now just bituminous.
Little kids getting big & quality is ho-hum,
fixin’ back a heart attack with make-up & bubble gum.
See you on TV, it’s even free
until the powers that be conceive a user’s fee,
& oh yes, slightly less autonomy.
You’ve been down to nothing once or twice before
& charmed your way.
Now with nothing else to do
you’ll be back on TV today.
UDTS
Notes: Danny & Mark, with Boomer pride find their channel- switching leads to a fractured fairy tale
One Old Kenworth
The falling snow flies apart in my path,
flowing over my jet stream & cowl.
A cheating heart beats in her photograph.
Even by dome light I see it all now.
A million miles on this one old Kenworth
on Interstates under high-tension wires…
What draws me home to my tear-salted earth…
Those tell-tale faces in a town full of liars.
No one would tell me what everybody knew.
Everybody knew that she would not be true.
So elementary that everybody knew-
everybody & his brother
So when she quit me cause I was too long gone,
the beauty parlor knew ages ago.
My Grand Ole Opry is the tears of a clown,
another Dear John so long rodeo.
I’m driving out to the end of the earth,
it might be Texas, the radio’s on.
There’s no more phone poles & no more white lines,
there’s only this highway I’m on.
No one would tell me what everybody knew
everybody & her brother.
(The Angry Alternative Version)
Hello Baby, this is Daddy-
told her what the Bopper said
The bride was randy & that was just dandy
but the preacher’s face turned red like the Dan said
When she & that groom started into spoonin’
before the I do’s were pledged
I just kept the truck runnin’ as a best man bummin’
as her crimes to then was only alleged.
It was long distance love & only once in a while
& that kept the walk-a-mile fresh in the mouth
Like a bird gone south through the long green lights
of the U.S. highways seein’ the sights
I was buildin’ a log, growin’ a pair
when she said her old man disappeared in thin air
Love lost zing when I coughed up a ring
attached to a string yeah but who said life was fair?
She got the love nest I got the truck.
She kept the irish I kept the dumb luck
Getting’ away before the poison kicked in
of her sweet-talkin’ me while she was thinkin’ of him
I didn’t see it comin’ & I didn’t look back.
Goddamn right the bride wore black.
Shot ‘em noosed ‘em stabbed ‘em juiced ‘em
a long list of suckers like me in fact
Went to the kitty & the till was bare,
nowhere there my big cash stack
Death mask grinnin’ from ear to ear
at long list of suckers like me in fact
Took off smokin’ with my pants on back
burnin’ rubber in a panic attack
She’s a black widow ask who cares ?
a long list of suckers like me in fact
Notes: Max Buckholtz fiddle, Richie Stearns banjo
Heart Attack Of Conscience
I saw this coming a long time ago,
but I just shrugged & said I’ll never get old.
Somebody’d kill me, or I’d kill myself
before I’d have to pay that bill of health.
There used to be a world we brothers & sisters shared-
free love & revolution,
Burning down & starting over & over again burning down…
She gave me reasons to laugh with birds,
new ways to listen to what I heard.
She knew exactly how love should sound-
if only we had written it all down.
Then let her arms unfold in silken delicate delight,
& lit the passageway ahead on that expectant night
It felt like magic, but she held it as nonsense,
next thing I knew she had a heart attack of conscience.
Spring rolls for everyone & sundry,
newly free association finger food.
Fade back to almost forgotten, still so fine,
that once in a lifetime we both were in the mood.
I’m someone’s husband, she’s someone’s wife,
too many reasons not to twist a knife.
Don’t tell the story, we never do,
till I got going telling it to you.
Back on the day before we graduated from that town,
& took the long way home
all dressed up in our caps & gowns,
You were conceived then in that spur of the moment,
…Countdown to flatline for my heart attack of conscience.
Notes: newsboy enters whistling, becomes melancholy … clarinets by Rick Huyge, laughing with birds… Danny on cello, newsboy exits whistling
Queen Catharine
Queen Catharine
Tail end of the olden days-
tall trees that never were shorn…
Long house by Seneca Lake…
perfection’s not supposed to last that long.
We had our way for a glorious day,
we had our run for a hundred suns.
Queen Catharine- Haudenaushonee
Green towers all in a living canopy-
a thousand miles of foresting…
Squirrel Hawks knew spirits in every breeze & tree.
Woe that you killed such a thing.
Not even league of our nations
could halt the foreign invasion.
Queen Catharine-
She came to the falls by our pastures so wide
like her mother French-Indian bride.
A most ancient power lay in that lady’s hand,
but magic was vanishing then from the land.
As chief of our tribe & a fine diplomat,
she made to Tom Jefferson Iroquois claims.
At Newtown we died for the cannon we lacked,
our villages burned by the army that came.
Who knows what might have been had we all gotten along
& saved some of the ocean of our forest?
Song notes: late -eighteenth century Seneca queen with French pronunciation as it continues locally in Schuyler county NY where I live. Chris White-cello
You Saved Me From Myself
Come what may, all signs say I’m here to stay,
even when far away,
lost in some wishful thinking,
what was I drinking?
I’ll try to be…
I’ll try to be the sea
washing up on your shore,
mountains to sand again,
but we’re forever more.
It’s just ridiculous or maybe miraculous
that I ended up with whom I needed to.
I can’t equate the way my bad behavior
rates someone who treats me like you do.
I’m here to tell you & whoever will listen
that you saved me from some extra bad decisions
Following many of my whims & pretenses
would have left me twisting in the wind.
You saved me from myself,
I keep trying to do me in
You saved me from myself & my evil twin
You saved me from myself-
who was that guy that I had to be saved from?
Come what may, we’ve got some place to be,
you right beside me here,
into the night together, & on to dawn my dear.
It’s sad to see- they’ll never have what we-
have in our hearts for free
Love in our very souls- that’s how we roll.
You saved me from myself & etc.
Notes: Meanin’ to swing, Bean! Chris White-cello
Columbia Falls
It’s all so beautiful, beauty so terrible…
torn from the moment about to come.
She wore the pants in the family
of lions & tigers & astronauts.
Cast out from heaven by jealousy
her tribe will thrive.
Although she will not survive the changes that come,
she will live forever in everyone.
She is so beautiful, love so ephemeral,
shimmering curtain about to part.
Now like the frost on the windowpane,
one puff of smoke from a calumet,
Gone are the words that were spoken all yesterday.
The way that our footprints are erased by the tide
can’t erase her memory from my mind.
Whatcha gonna do when the engine stalls,
how you gonna live through a flaming crash?
Whatcha gonna do when Columbia falls?
How you gonna look up after that?
Be in the moment out of yourself…
Whatcha gonna do when it all boils over,
mushroom clouds when the atoms smash,
Isotopes form in the jet stream river,
hell in a handcart after that.
You’re contemplating the edge of eternity,
you want to pledge an alien fraternity,
be faster & sharper in perpetuity,
shaping it straight so there’s no ambiguity.
There is a ghost when you need it to be so,
you need it to show you the way to go
So put your mojo in the totem pole
to keep the tribe alive arriving whole.
The overmind, the ubersoul,
the mass unconscious of the human whole,
The great unwashed & the mind-controlled, the jollies,
the follies & the stroll patrol
All sitting up on a T-ball pike,
when the giant swings, the ratings spike
The children laugh & the crowd goes home,
keep on spinning through the great unknown.
I feel so beautiful with you beside me dear
knowing tomorrow may never dawn.
Millions of stars in the firmament
shine on & on like we never met,
But I won’t forget what you showed me here.
The way that we fall behind before we move on
brings us to this moment in a song.
Notes: thinking of my mom Elisabeth Speer 1918-2004, & the space shuttle tragedy of 2003
Rainy The Ragtime Cloudboy
Raining on someone else’s town,
a little black cloud follows you around.
You didn’t get sad all by yourself,
but now that she’s gone no one else can help.
Bet you by golly you could get jolly
chasing some folly far.
Bet you by jingo, swinging that lingo,
slinging that air guitar you could be
Bringing the nation the trickeration
they’ve been crying for-
misery loves company
Rainy the ragtime cloudboy-
cloudburst the world’s been waiting for…
Can’t stop that downpour,
shut the door here comes the storm
He’s a bad fine uproar, Mister monsoon,
the typhoon tycoon from Rangoon & Ulan Bator singing
Singapore sling you later in rainy Kuala Lumpur
Smiling at someone else’s frown
when you knew how to bring them down
feels like an empty victory now,
now that nothing is out of bounds.
Raining in places where all the faces used to be dry,
erasing traces of cases of never say die.
Bagging the rags of fallen flags of railroads gone by…
nice for once or twice or thrice for
Rainy the ragtime cloudboy-
he needs that frown turned upside down.
He’s a grounded flyboy-
just dragging his rain around.
But in the heartthrob meantime
what was lost may soon be found
in the strangest places as love rearranges faces
& brings his bright side back to town.
Notes: one kiss is all you need to save the world. Harry Aceto on bass – my oldest musical confrere.