"So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further …"
A modestly ambitious (at least, for this amateur musician and would-be recording studio engineer) 4-track home recording of some pieces quite on my mind at the time. To be sure, the master tape had deteriorated somewhat over the years prior to its eventual transfer to digital media … With thanks to Chris Bailey for his splendid electric guitar work on Running From Images and TV Gospel. And with thanks to Glover Gill for getting it all off the tape and onto CD.
A Battle Won Faster Than Most
Music, © John Roenigk, 2009
Originally composed as a piece for the band, Carnival, together with a rather unusual lyrical idea of Michael Wayne (Elder) Smith. The band never really took this on as a project before breaking apart. The complete original lyric is, for now, lost to time and lack of memory, but there is a fragment from which we may eventually remember the remainder, or otherwise move forward with this piece anew.
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The Big Picture
© John Roenigk, 2009
Originally composed in the mid-1980s with the eventual band of Glover Gill, John Roenigk & Michael Smith in mind (it was never made part of their performance repertoire). This is a rather skeletal midi rendered sketch of the piece — a rudimentary piano, bass and drums were the only parts that this author could, for the time being, muster. The vocals remain a work in progress.
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The Healing Embrace
© John Roenigk, 1991
Originally part (and the last track) of the "John Roenigk, 1991" cassette tape from a home-produced four-track tape recording. This is a midi sketch of the piece. Although the piece is a bit thin on instrumentation, well, perhaps, it should be, as it is meant to suggest a solitary journey to eventual assuagement, comfort, cure …
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In Pursuit of a Noble Cause
© John Roenigk, 2009
A droning chorale piece that won't go away, finally given a working title in May, 2009. This harmony was used together with a drum track in a documentary video by Joe Delgado in the early 1990s.
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Into the Flow
© John Roenigk, 2009
Originally conceived of in the early 1990s as a kind of "what would they think if they saw this place now" work — "they" being the pre-white man American Indian, "this place" being modern America. The work was shelved for a good long while until at the death of my mother in the year 2004 when, at the place of her birth and death at Clayton, Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, within the Choctaw Nation and with a strong inspiration therefrom, the last bits of this piece were more naturally cobbled together to make it more the whole.
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Life With Luci
© John Roenigk, 2010
Originally written in the cold of winter, 1989 or so. This is a song about falling in love, even after one may have sworn off of the stuff. It was written for the woman who would become my wife — Lucinda. Although almost finished back then on four-track tape with a bunch of now antique instrumentation, the tapes have, sadly, been lost. This is a midi reproduction of the piece. The wave file was created from the midi file via MixCraft 5 with instrumentation more or less as intended. The vocals are represented by the two synthesized brass parts. For this amateur of music notation, at least, trying to capture the (shuffle?) feel of this piece on paper was an absolute piece of work … And a great bit of mental and musical exercise.
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Little Light
© John Roenigk, 2009
From a musical idea following the purchase of a beautiful new Webber guitar (sorry, no link, this luthier has apparently retired) from Pat Skrovan at Quincy's Guitars in 2007, and in concert with thoughts about my wife and what she was going through at the time, and creation, the cosmos, comets and on and on. Something like keeping one's light shining whilst moving alone through the vastness of what can be such a cold and dark place, this existence — a comet in space is, to my way of thinking, a near perfect metaphor. Lyric and vocal remain a work in progress.
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Name and Number
© The Things, 1987; © John Roenigk, 2009
Musically speaking, this was always meant to be a playful little number. The Things, that were Glover Gill, John Roenigk & Michael Wayne Smith, opened with this tune in their set list back in the late 1980s. It uses a kind of slap-back syncopation between the bass and the very percussive keyboard part, mimicking the very mimicking of oneself as though from the other side of a mirror. In the midi sketch of the music, the vocals are represented by the synthesized brass parts. Ditto for the wav file. The lyric for this tune was a sort of first recognition of and pitiful look at the sad dichotomistic reality of "haves and have nots."
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On The Spot Preamble (Hymn)
© John Roenigk, 2010
A rather diligent hymn(ish) preamble of the harmony for the following piece and related to the harmony of the piece In Pursuit of a Noble Cause.
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On The Spot
© John Roenigk, 2010
The item itself …
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She Won't Do It Without The Glove
© John Roenigk, 2011
Well, the lyric for this one sort of says it all. This is a computerized sketch of the song, written in the midi notation software Music MasterWorks v. 3.92, then converted from midi to wav file format via MixCraft 5. In the wav file, the two vocal tracks are represented by the CS80 Blade patches.
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© John Roenigk, 1991
Originally part of the "John Roenigk, 1991" cassette tape from a home-produced four-track tape recording. The splendid lead guitar work here is by Chris Bailey.
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A Battle Won Faster Than Most
…
for a go in the pool my gymnasium best
oh just a stint before the rush of the crux
…
i sighed in relief as did parrot
and we straightaway proposed a toast
for we knew then how dear a dear friend can be
for a battle won faster than most
The Big Picture
shooting down the avenue after dark
picking up the signal it's on your mark
setting in motion this woebegone
flimsy notion of have and have none
ah show me the big picture
I need perspective I need a running start
I am the actor this is my part
dining on linens colored in apricot
drinking the vintage in on the spot
ah show me the bigger picture
for me for you
out of the clear blue it comes
breathing in the air of a new land
taking in a share of the view and
learning the meaning in foreign tongue
the message is clear the song must be sung
oh give me a look at the big picture
for me for you
out of the clear blue it comes
Into The Flow
they came they saw they conquered
this once was holy ground
now they worship a plastic mac
our numbers all but slaughtered
left for dead i could not make a sound
now i'm coming round
down to the river
to the edge of the icy flow
my maker my forgiver
please tell me all i need to know
i must have slept one hundred years
i awake to a setting sun
as another race has run its course in space and time
the names have changed but the faces seem familiar
oh this is the face i fear
they come they see they sack
down to the river
to the edge of the icy flow
my maker my forgiver
don't leave me here to go down slow
ash to ash dust to dust stone to steel steel to rust
this once was holy ground
now we sift through no more than gimcrack
(this land that)
we respected we cultured we deified
they really should give it back
down to the river
into the icy flow
my maker my forgiver
let me feel the undertow
Life With Luci
see before you a man who swore to always live alone
cheap romantic ways all spent in days bygone
now he sings and his guitar rings another tune
gawking with the grackles at dawn howling at the moon
i don't mean to pretend
i barely know her name
something more is happening just the same
you know i try to handle everything with such reserve
i learnt that from an English man i must confess
lately though it seems as if i've lost my nerve
o'er an English girl that a diamond or pearl is not likely to impress
i don't mean to pretend
i barely know her name
something more is happening just the same
from life in love
to life alone
the here and now
are come and gone
now i see myself in a cummerbun and a bow tie
dressed to the nines reading the lines but i don't want to tell you no lie
i don't mean to pretend
i barely know your name
something more is happening just the same
from life in love
to life alone
the here and now
are come and gone
from life alone
to life in love
i slip my foot in the suit
and the suit it fits like a glove
Name and Number
walking through the city
all of the people are staring blankly
looking at the sky
some are sure to pity
could be better off to
crawl into a hole somewhere and die
laughing in a limo
treading through the streets
in topgallant extravagance and style
if it seems the means extremes
well there are surely scenes
to leave it all behind at least a country mile
I could see the faces in the mirror
laughing out loud calling me by name and number
frantic dance and frippery and friller
I could not get close enough
dichotomistic twist
didactic tactic balling of the fist
time to slash the wrist they say
feeling so detached
a feeling only matched by another
just a mirror universe away
I could see the faces in the mirror
laughing out loud calling me by name and number
frantic dance and frippery and friller
I could not get close enough
She Won't Do It Without The Glove
i used to see them in the men's room
at the truck stop cafe i thought it was some dirty joke
well girls got the towel but just what is this for
say try one on man you can really score
i was too young i didn't know
i just got started back in '74
i knew the risk but there was always the pill
what gave me the strength to climb on up that hill
something so right
something so sublime
but there's a fly in the ointment
it happens every time
she won't do it without the glove
it's a crime and a shame what's happened to love
i'm a red blooded man but when push come to shove
she won't do it without the glove
it's holding me back it's cramping my style
she's probably right but it's so damn degrading
i feel like gumby or the son of flubber
i can tickle her fancy but only with the rubber
i used to think it was so simple
but at last this just was not to be
put on the glove if you want to make free
maybe the life of the monk for me after all
she won't do it without the glove
it's a crime and a shame what's happened to love
i'm a red blooded man but when push come to shove
she won't do it without the glove
but now the surgeon general is coming on TV
selling the concept of the condom to this shell shocked society
he's got to be right you know he did it for free
i'm gonna buy me some stock in that glove company
she won't do it without the glove
it's a crime and a shame what's happened to love
i'm a red blooded man but when push come to shove
she won't do it without the glove
TV Gospel
there he is that man on TV
discerning the wages of sin
fishing the pockets for notes labelled C
not much of a fisher of men
on the pulpit he stands ten feet tall
with the cameras at his feet
he's got the whole world in his hands
should you meet him on the street
recognize him as the well dressed man
but even if you're lost
don't ask this man direction
if you're not prepared to pay the cost
TV Gospel TV Game
beware the wolf in the cashmere cloak
with his bill of right and wrong
he no more knows of heaven or hell
than the singer of the song he tries to censor
can't buy a ticket to eternity
man, we're already in the thick of it
can't buy salvation from that man on TV
he prays out loud for the whole world to see
but he's an actor
hedging a bet on his soul
for the role of the God-damned Pharisee
TV Gospel TV Game
giving is receiving receiving is the same
but that man on TV is only taking
as taking is his game
TV Gospel
TV Gospel
TV Gospel TV Game
the whole world is watching and praying
and paying the price avoiding the blame
but Jesus makes no guest appearance all the same
better come to know yourself
before you try to know the Lord
he's not selling his religion
for any price you can't afford
there's faith hope and love enough inside of you
to knock down any wall
there's a way a truth and a life
to pick you up from the fall