I’m posting Dan Marsh’s album, Dog and Cat here, with his permission. I love the album and want people to be able to find it. Dan wrote the songs, and it’s him doing the singing and playing the rhythm guitar. The album was produced by Brad Belt, who’s also playing lead guitar and singing some of the harmony vocals.
Dog and Cat copyright 2010 Dan Marsh.
Midwest Action!, a site with some street cred around the heartland, recently reviewed my He Flies album. I probably won’t destroy any suspense by saying they liked it. Otherwise, why would I be putting up a link to the review here? But I did think the reviewer had an interesting take on He Flies, and the site imbedded mp3s of of four of the 
album’s songs. I was also surprised to see which four they chose to imbed. Anyhow, the review’s at: Midwest Action!
Just finished mixing the song below (“Dance Till Morning Light”). The lyrics are underneath the sound Icon, and a few details about the recording are under them.
DANCE TILL MORNING LIGHT
WELL, YOU WALK THROUGH THE NIGHT
YOU FEEL ALLRIGHT
THOUGH NOTHING IS REALLY REAL
YOU GET AROUND YOU’RE GETTING DOWN
YOU’RE SO HIGH YOU HARDLY FEEL
YOU BEEN UP AND DOWN THE STRIP
YOU KNOW THE TRIP
ALL ONE BIG HAPPY CROWD
YEAH YOU’RE LOOKING FOR LOVE
BUT CAN’T TALK ABOVE
THE MUSIC WE PLAY SO LOUD
CHORUS:
SO JUST DANCE, CHILDREN, DANCE
THIS SOFT ELECTRIC NIGHT
DANCE, DANCE TILL MORNING LIGHT
YEAH, YOUR LOCAL ROCK STARS
AND OWNERS OF THE BARS
LOVE TO SEE YOU OUT TONIGHT
GO ON FEED YOUR HEAD, KNOCK YOURSELF DEAD
YOUR MONEY’S GOOD HERE IT’S ALLRIGHT
ACROSS THE ROOM,
THROUGH THE GLOOM
SOMEBODY CATCHES YOUR EYE
SO YOU WALK THAT WAY
WHAT CAN YOU SAY?
YOU’RE BOTH REAL HIGH
CHORUS
I’m playing guitar and singing; my wife, Dorothy plays bass and flute. We recorded those tracks on Garageband and then transferred them to Protools at Evanston’s The Cave Recording, where Andrew MacCrimmon added drums, recorded by Robert Marshall, who also mixed and mastered the recording.
Should you feel curious how and when I came to write the tune you can click on: https://dumbfoundingstories.com/2014/08/19/dance-till-morning-light/?iframe=true&theme_preview=true. That post contains said info and video of me singing the song accompanied by acoustic guitar.
“Dance Till Morning Light” is on the album He Flies
Just finished a rough mix of the tenth song for my next album; the song’s called “May Third” and I think the album’s going be called He Flies. I’m posting the song’s mix below this paragraph, and below it the lyrics, and lastly a little info about the tune.
MAY THIRD
Here it is May Third
and yet clouds fill the sky
like they got a two year lease
Springtime, springtime,
I’m walking down the line
Lord knows, it’s clear to me
CHORUS:
There ain’t no cause in hanging round
The nights don’t fly like before in this town
Ain’t no cause in hanging round
Tom he left month or so ago
Believe he’s surely gone for good
And sister Lou she don’t
treat me like she should
Boy, she really lets you know
CHORUS
Everybody’s scattered, married, or lost their way
I’se told Davy’s selling cars somewhere
A time did come, a time rolled on down the road
All it left was a song
CHORUS
I wrote “May Third” way back in the early 197os, when I lived in Carbondale, but I never recorded it before now. Not sure why not, but things happen for a reason, I guess. I’m happy with the way the recording is turning out. All’s well that ends well. Dorothy McDaniel, my sweet wife, is playing flute, and Robert Marshall is drumming. I’m playing everything else, and most of the tracks were recorded in Garageband, then transferred to Pro Tools at The Cave Recording in Evanston, where Dorothy and Robert added their parts, and Robert mixed and mastered everything. Probably a f ew more tweaks to go on it in the mix.
Tentative cover for the album
OK, I’ll state right now that I’ve enjoyed more than my share of both zombie and vampire tales. Still, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that I think maybe, just maybe, zombies and vampires have been have been overused for several years now–in books, movies, TV, and comics. One day it occurred to me that both statements in the title up there could be seen as literally and figuratively true. Before you know it, some lyrics poking fun at the zombie/vampire glut had flowed from the old pen. Eventually I got around to putting them to music–a roots rock/rockabilly song emerged–and even more eventually to recording the song. Clicking on the icon below plays the recording of the song, and the lyrics are below the icon.
Zombies Stink and Vampires Suck
Cruisin’ long in my hybrid ride
NPR on the air inside
Terry Gross had an author on
Who had just written The Zombie Dawn
Got news for you hacks out to make a buck
Zombies stink and vampires suck
Zombies stink and vampires suck
I don’t care how you jive and shuck
I bet you actually had enough
Vampires and zombies and all their stuff
It makes no sense, I don’t care what’s been said
That zombies eat brains when they’re all dead.
And what’s so great ‘bout slurping up blood?
Your average vamp’s a stone cold dud
Sleepin’ in coffins don’t look like fun
Or always hidin’ out from the sun
All these sullen, sultry undead
‘bout to drive me outta my head
Zombies shufflin’ on down the street
Are lame and tired and let me repeat
This world needs another vampire tale
Like we need more junk in the mail
If you’re lookin’ for fans you’re flat outta luck
Cause Zombies stink and vampires suck
I played & recorded all the tracks on Garage Band, except for the drums, which Robert Marshall played & recorded at The Cave Recording in Evanston, Illinois, where he also mixed and mastered the song.
“Zombies Stink (and Vampires Suck)” is gonna be on the forthcoming album, He Flies.
Spring of ’73 my friends Mike & Janna got married and asked me to sing for their wedding. I wrote a song for it, “Something Good”. It was about them, but I’d just started meditating, and maybe it was about that, too.
Mike was an artist, total comics freak, and explorer of astral planes, Janna his
ancient photo
life-line, anchor. Their wedding was outside Metropolis in a meadow, at the bottom of a hill. In my memory the sky’s cerulean & the grass emerald. Mike walked down one side of the hill with his friends, Janna down the other with hers. I was a the bottom with the preacher, singing “Something Good”.
I don’t want to brag, but Mike and Janna are still happily married.
A recording of “Something Good” is below, it’s lyrics under that.
Something Good
Something’s got you singing
a new song every day
Something’s got you smiling
as you walk along your way
Chorus:
Something good has come into your life
something fair & beautiful to see
something good has come today
Now you don’t know why
but you’re laughing
& your fears have flown away
you can’t fight the feeling
that’s filling up your hearts, and
(Chorus)
Now your true love takes your hand
at your side is your best friend
All around loved ones stand
Your eyes fall on the sunlight
that dances cross the clouds
A river flows inside you, its current deep & strong
(Chorus)
The song’s on my About Time CD.
also ancient
I’m posting audio here of “Cards on the Table”, which I just recorded with a little help from my friends. The lyrics are below the song and some details about the recording below them:
CARDS ON THE TABLE
If I HAD A DOLLAR FOR EVERY FOOL I’VE KNOWN
EVERY LYIN’, CHEATIN’, BRAIN-DEAD BUMMER
WHO EVER TRIED TO RIP ME OFF
I WOULD NEVER HAVE TO WORK ANOTHER DAY
THE REST OF MY NATURAL LIFE
CHORUS:
PUT YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE
LAY DOWN YOUR MONEY
PUT YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE
WHAT’VE YOU GOT?
PEOPLE ALWAYS TALKIN’ BOUT
WHAT THEY’RE GONNA DO
GONNA MAKE IT REAL BIG, TAKE YOU WITH ‘EM
TO THE PROMISED LAND REAL SOON
THEY GOT A SURE FIRE DEAL COMIN’ THROUGH
AND THEY WANNA CUT YOU IN
CHORUS
ONCE I CHASED WHAT I WANTED STRAIGHT
DOWN THE OPEN ROAD
I GOT HIT HARD, KNOCKED DOWN, GOT UP & MOVED ON
BOTH EYES WIDE OPENED UP
SO IF YOU GOT A DEAL TO RUN BY ME
THERE’S ONE THING THAT YOU GOTTA DO
CHORUS
The guitars, bass and lead vocals were recorded in Garage Band on my computer and then transferred to Pro Tools at The Cave Recording in Evanston. There Robert Marshall recorded the drums, harmony vocal, and saxello parts, by Andy Mac Crimmon, Micki Broeker, and John Temmerman respectively. And a great job they all did.
The lyrics pretty much speak for themselves, and surprised me when they came out. Sometimes you don’t know what you feel till you say it.
Of course by now all of you know that Prince died, suddenly and unexpectedly, this week. I know that his music is pretty far afield from what some of you folks listen to, but his impact, not only on the music scene but on American pop culture in general was enormous. One could argue that he changed the entire texture of pop music through his production techniques and arranging savvy. His integration of Hendrix-influenced guitar, new-wave instrumentation, hippie philosophy, punk attitude and funk grooves drawn from classic James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, The Ohio Players and The Gap Band provided the template not only for the artists that he produced or wrote hits for, like The Time, Chaka Khan, Sheila E, Sheena Easton and Wendy and Lisa, but for other producers like Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Babyface and L.A. Reid. And it goes without saying that Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson pretty much owe their careers to Prince.
Culturally, I think many people forget how totally outrageous he was when he first hit the scene, with his over-the-top androgyny and his sexually explicit songs like “Head” and “Soft and Wet” (co-written with Chris Moon). With his death many LGBT people have come forward to say that Prince gave them the courage to be themselves. His bands were always multi-ethnic and multi-gendered as well, and although he projected a Svengali-like image when managing the careers of female artists like Appolonia, Vanity and Sheena Easton, it was always obvious that he had great respect for the female players in his bands. (Many hard-core jazz fans are unaware that Wendy, of Prince side-project Wendy & Lisa, and longtime guitarist in Prince’s band The Revolution, is the daughter of L.A. jazz and studio pianist Michael Melvoin.)
He was capable of playing (and often did) all of the instruments on his recordings; he was not only a great rock and funky rhythm guitarist but a stanky bass player, a drummer capable of playing or programming irresistible grooves, and a more-than-serviceable keyboard player. And, of course, he could sang! The world of music will miss him.
In his honor, this week’s pick is his “When Doves Cry,” from his 1984 album Purple Rain. Prince composed it and plays all instruments on the track; there are female background vocals (I think, although they could also be Prince), but I couldn’t find any credits in my cursory search.
Prince wrote this song specifically to go with a scene in the Purple Rain movie that had no 
music yet; the Prince mythology has it that he wrote it overnight and recorded it the next day. The texture of the song is remarkably open, and influenced pop music production enormously. It’s mostly Linn drum machine, electric guitar and very sparse synths. It was probably the first hit dance record to not have a bass part; Prince has said that he recorded one initially but that he thought it sounded “too conventional” so he took it out. But the textural space is one of his trademarks; quite a lot of his music, although there might be a lot going on, is very carefully arranged and produced to sound open. All of the rhythm parts, whether they’re drums or drum machines, percussion, guitar, bass or keyboards are carefully orchestrated to stay out of each other’s way. I think Prince would have been a hell of a big-band arranger, and that’s one of the things we’ll never have a chance to know now.
The lyrics refer obliquely to Prince’s troubled childhood and his parents’ relationship. I say this with the greatest respect, but Prince was a master of image projection; he knew how to let his music show tantalizing glimpses of his personal life without letting the listener all the way in. In this may have been influences by John Lennon and Bob Dylan, and he paved the way for Madonna, Sinead O’Connor, Adele and other singers who wrote confessional lyrics.
You can listen to it here:
This post is reprinted from News From The Trenches, a weekly newsletter of commentary from the viewpoint of a working musician published by Chicago bassist Steve Hashimoto. If you’d like to start receiving it, just let him know by emailing him at steven.hashimoto@sbcglobal.net.
Steve Hashimoto
This is the edition of A Princess of Mars that I first read
I’m posting a recording of “Barsoom,” a filk song Gary Robe ran in his fanzine Tennessee Trash for the Southern Fandom Press Alliance (SFPA) a few years back. At the time, I commented on it in my zine, Dumbfounding Stories, and Gary’s next issue featured a revised version of the lyrics, which I also commented on. This process continued back and forth in our zines for almost a year. For trufans and Burroughs Bibliophiles the title will be a tipoff: the song concerns Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian novels. Many moons now, I been meaning to record Gary’s finished version of the lyrics. When I got ready to finally do it, I noticed that his finished product was one verse shorter than John Prine’s “Paradise,” to which the music of “Barsoom” is set. I came up with another verse for the recording (verse two), and I made two or three tweaks to Gary’s words–which I hope he’ll forgive me.
I hope you’ll click on the audio icon below and check out the lyrics beneath it. If you like filk, and especially if you like filk and Edgar Rice Burroughs, I think you’ll be glad you did.
Barsoom
A big box of books handed down generations
We found Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars
All summer we spent meeting adventure
With Captain John Carter and his green buddy Tars
REFRAIN:
And Edgar won’t you send me ‘neath the moons of Barsoom
In the red desolation with Dejah and Tars
I’m sorry, cadet, you’re too late to go there
The lander’s cold data has turned it to Mars!
We flew in airships, rode thoats cross the wastelands
Lived by our wits and our swords of cold steel
Faced foes and monsters and found our one true love
It was larger than life and realer than real
REFRAIN
So what can you do with a dusty dead planet?
Make it our second home with some water and air!
It’ll take some nerve and a few generations
But someday we’ll send John Carter up there!
REFRAIN
Grandpa will you see me to the Moons of New Barsoom?
The colony’s ready; I’m starting to pack!
Heads up, Grandson; just get up on that spaceship!
Cause the Terraform Project’s done brought it all back!
LAST REFRAIN:
And Edgar won’t you send me neath the moons of Barsoom
In the red desolation with Dejah and Tars?
No problem, my friend; it’s all there in the pages
Just remember it’s Barsoom; it never was Mars!
“Barsoom” was recorded in Garage Band. I’m doing all the parts except the bass, which my wife, Dorothy, added.
Cover by Pablo Vitruvian
I just like this pic
We just finished recording a new song for our next album. The tune’s called “Over Yonder & Round The Bend.” I feel great about how it came out, and hope you’ll give a listen. The audio’s below. Lyrics, too.
OVER YONDER & ROUND THE BEND
CHORUS:
OVER YONDER AND ROUND THE BEND
I ONCE WENT THERE; I CAN’T SAY WHEN
SOME BRIGHT MORNING I’MA GO AGAIN
OVER YONDER AND ROUND THE BEND
IT WAS ON BEYOND THE FIELDS I KNEW
THICK MEADOWS AND TALL OAKS GREW
BENEATH A GOLD SUN THAT CAST ITS LIGHT
AND MADE WAY THEN FOR SUMMER NIGHT
(CHORUS)
BENEATH A PALE MOON FOLKS DANCED TILL DAWN
THEY SANG AND LAUGHED AND CARRIED ON
AND MET THE DAYBREAK WITH A SMILING FACE
AND LOVED EACH OTHER IN THAT FAR PLACE
(CHORUS)
ALL THE PEOPLE THERE THEY WORKED TOGETHER
TO BUILD THEIR LAND AND LIFT EACH OTHER
EVERYONE WAS FREE, FREE AT LAST
GOOD WITH THE FUTURE GOOD WITH THE PAST
(CHORUS)
YOU CAN SAY IT WAS ALL A DREAM
OR JUST SOME TRICKSTER’S LOWDOWN SCHEME
BUT I DO KNOW WHAT I KNOW
AND I KNOW WHERE I WANNA GO
(CHORUS)
I wrote the song and am on guitar and vocals. Andrew MacCrimmon is on drums, Gus Friedlander’s on banjo, and Dorothy McDaniel’s singing harmony. I recorded most of the tracks on Garage Band, and Robert Marshall mixed and mastered them at The Cave Recording in Evanston, Illinois.
To hear the other songs in the can for our next album click here: www.https://dumbfoundingstories.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/audio-playlist-of-about-time/
Dumbfounding Stories 