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Here’s the video of the Nickle Creek song.  It’s groovy.

If it’s not embedded on this page, click here instead.

Here’s what I wonder – and many others have too.  Why do we call him doubting?  Weren’t all the other disciples equally questionable?  How many of them ran to the tomb to greet the risen Christ?  I’m not saying that Thomas didn’t have a crisis of faith in the moment that the teacher he’d been following for the past three years was arrested and murdered.  He clearly did.  Didn’t the rest of them have that same crisis of faith?

What we forget is that Thomas is the only disciple to assign divinity to Christ.  When he finally saw Jesus for himself, he said:  “My lord and my God!”  Nobody else calls Jesus God.  Nobody.

So did he doubt?  Sure.  And did he come to understand more clearly?  Totally…

So I’m not sure how I feel about this.  We were out and about when Lyz sent me a text telling me that Michael Jackson had died.  And I’m kind of… I don’t know, I just feel different.

I love music.  I’m so deeply engaged in music.  I say with conviction that I don’t think I would be alive today without music.  And so how is someone with that kind of background supposed to deal with the death of a music icon?

The first record I ever owned – the record that taught me that music could be cool and not the obligatory weekly lesson – was Thriller.  So how do you say goodbye?

I wouldn’t say I’ve been a hard-core fan.  I watched the news reports in horror during the trial in Santa Maria wondering whether or not he was guilty.  I generally figured that I didn’t know enough about what was going on and didn’t pass judgement for myself.

And still, the music and lyrics have held deep meaning.  Thriller, clearly.  Black or White.  Man in the Mirror.  It’s been a while since I’ve listened to them all.  I think I’ll start again…

Ok. It’s come to my attention that those who read this on Facebook aren’t able to listen to the song. For those people, follow this link to the native blog.

Take Me Home.  It’s very nearly one of my best songs, and clearly the best on my original demo.  It’s not uncommon (maybe even typical?) for a teen to write about lost love and I was no different.  This song outlines a real relationship that took place my senior year of High School.  She was from the “rival” school, but we worked together and we found connection.  As you might guess from the “lost love” theme, the way it ended was not – at least in my view at the time – what I wanted.

Here are the lyrics:

It’s all gone now and I don’t know how
A million years won’t dry my tears
Independence, I thought it would make sense
But that hole in my heart is tearin’ me apart

Baby, baby would you put your hands in mine
Take me home where there’s no such thing as time
Try to love me, let me love you too
Tell me what I can do
Tell me what I can do

Rumors, lies, or love in disguise
It’s our secret and I’ve tried to keep it
Kisses in the shadows and a love that only we know
But now time goes on, the start of a new dawn

Baby, baby would you put your hands in mine
Take me home where there’s no such thing as time
Try to love me, let me love you too
Tell me what I can do
Tell me what I can do

Baby, baby would you put your hands in mine
Take me home where there’s no such thing as time
Kiss me softly under full moon’s light
Take me home to a place with endless night
Love me tender, love me true
Tell me what I can do
Tell me what I can do

What can I do?
I’m listening to you
‘Cause I’m in love with you
I’ll do it all for you

Kiss me softly under full moon’s light
Take me home to a place with endless night
Try to love me, let me love you too
Tell me what I can do
I’m listening to you

So I wrote this in either 1989 or 1990 and recorded it in the early ’90s.  The amazing acoustic guitar is a guy by the name of Eric DiBerardo who also engineered the recording.  He just rocks.  You’ll also hear the Bryan Adams style end-the-song-and-then-drum-fill-it-back-in goodness!!  I still really like the lyrics to this song, with the possible exception of the “baby, baby” at the top of each chorus.  But even that has its charm…  I hope you like this one.  It’s one of my favorites…

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I’m finally putting another song on this site.  I suppose it’s taken me so long because this is probably my least favorite of my songs!  To be brutally honest, I think the lyrics are cheesey, the chord progression is adolescent, and the melody lacks…  melody!

With that said, I remember something my sister said about the song once.  She pointed out that I wrote the song while in high school about racism and asked me how many teens were really present to the continuing challenge we face in race relations?

I really appreciate that compliment, and it’s for that reason that I’ll post the song here even though I don’t like it.

I wrote this song in the late ’80s, probably close to ’87, and I recorded it with a new 3rd verse at around the same time as Lie to Me.  It’s a song that remembers Martin Luther King and has a little bit of a U2 influence (although it’s hard to find).

Here are the lyrics:

A white man burns a cross in a black man’s yard
A mexican is stabbed; we hear and we laugh hard
Five asian children are shot without regard
To the family that feels a stab of pain deep inside their heart

A man came down from Georgia
With peace on his mind
But a burned down house and a gunshot wound
Are the only way we’re kind

Martin Luther King – he’s a man we all knew well
A man who taught that violence is not blessed, it’s hell
But still the white man claims that he’s the best race in the land
He’s got to learn that if he says that crap war is close at hand

A man came down from Georgia
With peace on his mind
But a burned down house and a gunshot wound
Are the only way we’re kind

White cops beat down a black man; King’s suing for a couple o’ mil…
Black men take down an Arab and they videotape for a thrill
I’ll cry as I watch the news tonight ’cause every night is always the same
We’re killing each other, every man ane brother; we’re the only ones to blame

A man came down from Georgia
With peace on his mind
But a burned down house and a gunshot wound
Are the only way we’re kind

Ok.  So, do you see what I mean about cheesey lyrics?  Actually the third verse isn’t entirely horrible.  Just a little horrible.  The hook references MLK directly, and the second verse and the bridge reference a school shooting I remember hearing about in Stockton where five kids got shot.

I suppose what I was uptight about most was how we as humans divide ourselves and often act out that division in violent ways.  I do remember that I played this song for something in High School (without that third verse) and a friend who is African American told me how touched she was about its social awareness.  I suppose that’s something…

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Ok.  This is one of my earliest songs, written some time in the mid-1980s and recorded in the early 1990s at a little studio in Santa Clarita.  When I originally wrote the song, it was shortly after receiving my first real keyboard and I was in the midst of a real Depeche Mode influence.  Later when I recorded it I was beginning to really feel passion for acoustic instruments.  The piano solo in the middle posed a dynamic juxtaposition (I’ve always wanted to use that word!) with the very digitized instruments through the rest of the song.

Here are the lyrics:

I’m hurtin’
I wish someone would care
She said it wasn’t me
She told me she was sorry

I don’t see
A stake burns in my heart
It’s happened to me before
I’m closin’ off my door

I wish that I could find
Someone to love me
Someone to care

Tell me why
I don’t know what to do
About this life I’m givin’
Tell me what’s wrong with just livin’

Lie to me
Tell me that you love me
Tell me that you care
Run your fingers through my hair

I wish that I could find
Someone to love me
Someone to care

One of the things that’s always bugged me about this song is that it’s not all that long.  I remember that somewhere fairly early on in my music awareness I learned that a song has to be around the three-minute mark to be considered playable on the radio.  This one (at just two-and-a-half) never fit the bill.  And at the same time, I didn’t think it needed any more lyrics.  So I left it.

In hindsight, I kinda dig it.  It’s clearly about wanting to be with someone and not really caring if any feelings were reciprocated.  Combine that with the aural dissonance between the piano and the digital-keyboard-ness and it’s all a bunch of dramatic contrast.  So, clearly I wrote it!

Enjoy…

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I’ve been doing some good work on getting my music ready for the world.  A good portion of that work has been on this website so that I can share it in a way that has some sense of organization.  If I’m doing that well, this page will have this post (the one you’re reading now), and if you’re viewing by the “Bob’s Music” page you’ll see some header text up above.

In addition to this highly geek-like and code-sensitive experimentation, I’m working on a Flash MP3 player so you can play the music directly through your browser.  I also plan to add some info for each song like lyrics, when it was written and recorded, and some random thoughts.

I hope you enjoy listening.  Please feel free to share your thoughts!

I was looking online at contemporary Christian music and I ran across this skit that was performed to a song that I know and like called “Never Alone” (by BarlowGirl).  I have to admit that this skit seemed dark and ill-conceived at first.  I’m really glad I chose to watch the whole thing!

This skit is about the presence of God in our lives, even in the little things.  It’s about the influence that God has on the world and the things that God calls us to do that have great impact.  I’m glad I watched it.  Twice.

The other day I walked into the room and Cameron was singing “Santa Clause is Coming to Town.”  How cute, right?  But it just didn’t seem like he was singing the melody quite right.  I kept listening, ’cause it sounded pretty familiar.  Then it hit me!!  He wasn’t singing the classical Fred Astaire / Mickey Rooney 1970s jingle.  No, he was singing the Bruce Springsteen version!  Here’s the video:

Now, if that wasn’t enough, there’s more!  He’s begun requesting songs as we drive back & forth from school.  Right now his favorite song is “The Final Countdown” by Europe.  For that nougat of goodness, check this out:

He’s so my boy…