"Eye of the Hurricane"
Album Notes
1 TIMING IS EVERYTHING
This instrumental actually messes with the idea of perfect timing, with a herky-jerky rhythms here and there.
2 PROVERBIAL WISDOM
There are too many instances where “words of wisdom” either fall short or can be interpreted in contradictory ways. This song is a small sampling.
Does time really heal all wounds
Or just cover them like dust
In an empty room
Suffering and pain
Too much to bear
Banished from our thoughts
As if we didn’t care
(Chorus)
Another timeless quote
Passed down through the ages
Proverbial wisdom
From the prophets and sages
Do they still make sense
Or no sense at all
Like a faded cliche
On a subway/boxcar wall
If you can’t say something sweet and nice
Then say nothing at all
Why bother with helpful advice?
Is a bird in the hand
Really worth two in the bush?
What’s the sense in taking chances
When you can just play by the book
"Three can keep a secret
If two of them are dead"
I think Franklin said that
Right off the top of his head
What doesn’t kill us
Can make us stronger
Made a lotta sense to Navalny
But he’s not here any longer
3 FIGHTING TO GET ALONG
This tune meanders through the varied nature of relationships in our lives. We all like to think we treat everyone equally, but we don’t always connect or, consequently, make the effort. And more importantly, there’s always the need to see past and work through our differences just to get along.
​
We sometimes care
For the ones who don’t
Go out of way
For those who won’t
Turn our backs
On those who try
Who wave hello
When we wave goodbye
Are we bored by those
Who do what’s right?
Do they Try too hard
To be too nice?
Or maybe those
Who break the rules
Do they drive you wild?
Make you lose your cool
Who’s to say
Who’s right or wrong?
It seems we fight
Just to get along
All forms of life
In John’s big old goofy world
Like to get their way
Like little boys and girls
​
4 COLORBLINDED
It has been well-established that people universally connect various colors with emotions. The color black (sometimes ironically described as “the sum of all colors”) is often associated with mystery, fear, negativity, uncleanliness, sin or evil, death and dishonesty. Might this, at least in part, have grown out of and/or contribute to feelings of bigotry and hatred? One study found “sin is not just dirty, it is black. And moral virtue is not just clean, but also white.” A morally virtuous person is said to be as “pure as the driven snow.” Is it a stretch to think that these color associations have played a role in racial prejudice and discrimination? As the song suggests, do they “help in only seeing things in black and white?”
​
Cursed and bedeviled
Another black cat
In the color of evil
Has crossed your path
Black-balled, black-listed
Your under attack
Lurking like the shadow of that
Monkey on your back
(Chorus)
Just a little misguided
We’re just colorblinded
Do we distrust and mistreat
What’s taught to be feared?
Does it taint what we choose
To read and to hear?
Clouding our sense
Of what’s wrong or right
Does it help in only seeing things
In black and white?
5 RAINY DAY GETAWAY
A song for lovers who make good use of a rainy day. It in some ways brings to mind for me Rosanne Cash’s old song “Sleeping in Paris.”
​
(Chorus)
I love the excuse/intrusion
Of a rainy day
Where we can make
Our getaway
Where there’s no place
Where we need to be
Anything more
than you and me
They canceled our flight
I guess Paris can wait
For another night
Let’s pretend
We’re stranded
In Montmartre
Till the morning light
We’ll ride this storm
Turn off the lights
And let ‘em think
There’s no one home
Rekindle this flame
Make love to the rhythm
Of the falling rain
6 EYE OF THE HURRICANE
Some people pass through our lives, never knowing the ways they have helped or influenced us. Dedicated to an old family friend, Walter Curry, long gone but not forgotten.
​
I felt the rage at a tender age
Too young to fully heal
I learned first hand
How a high-strung man
Can control the way you feel
But Wally share a nervous smile
When things got out of hand
I was caught in the crossfire
Much too young to understand
(Chorus)
I'd catch the eye of the hurricane
A port in the storm
When it started to rain
Whenever things got a little insane
I'd catch the eye of the hurricane
He never knew 'cuz I never said
Just what he meant to me
A source of calm and comfort
Others never seemed to see
So let this be my fond farewell
So many years too late
To this ever-so kind and gentle soul
Belittled for acting that way
7 AMERICAN IN INDIA
Instrumental.
​​
8 WITHOUT YOU
I’m not nuts about modern country songs (I could stop there) that thrive on a single phrase, but “I’ve Got What It Takes To Be Lonesome.”
​
(Chorus)
Without you
I’ve got what it takes to be lonesome
I’ve got what it takes to be down and out
I’m a hopeless case
without a doubt
If I don’t have you
I’ve got what it takes to be lonesome
You’ve had your reasons
And there’s nothing I can do or say
But I’ll go on dreamin’
You’ll take me back again some day
Think of all the good times
We used to share
What more can I do
To show how much I care?
(Chorus)
You’re like no other
Why do I bother anymore?
Their tender kisses
Only make me want you even more
My friends all tell me
I’m wasting my time
But if I can’t get you back
I guess I’ll have to die tryin’
​
9 ANGEL AND JOHNNY
Unrequited love comes easy when you fall for a narcissist.
​
Angel had her way with men
No two ways about it
But Johnny turned her head one day
And made her start to doubt it
He wasn’t one to ever leave
A heart the way he’d found it
He dabbled in the truth they say
Then danced his way around it
(Chorus)
Tell love I'm not taking any calls
I'd rather be left alone
I thought I needed her more
Than I needed myself
By now I should have known
Johnny thrived on make believe
Kept a trick or two up his sleeve
He promised her the kind of things
That could never come to be
She fell so hard she couldn’t see
The ways she’d been mistreated
He had to leave before she’d agree
He was the last thing she ever needed
​
10 THE URGE (TO DO THE WRONG THING)
I pushed this concept to the extreme, but the genesis was that voice in the back of our minds that tries to speak up every now and then when we’re making the wrong choices.
​
I’m not half bad
But I’m none too good
At doing the things
I know damn well I should
I’ve searched my soul
Spilled my guts to some shrink
But I still fight the urge
to do the wrong thing
Do the wrong thing
There’s men in jail
Serving hard time
For doing the things
That sometimes cross my mind
They’ve pushed me to the point
Where I might cross the line
But I don’t get any further
Than the corners of my mind
Those dark and dodgy corners
Of my mind
My patience these days
Starts to wear a little thin
Is it a matter of time
Before I do somebody in?
I should probably be arrested
Just for thinkin’ this way
It wouldn’t hurt to remind me
That crime doesn’t pay
You better put that damn gun away
​
11 WHERE HAS SHE GONE?
Sometimes, nonverbal clues are missed and a person is left wondering why things didn’t work out. It brings to mind lyrics to a favorite John Prine song “Far From Me”: “Why, we used to laugh together, and we’d dance to any old song. Well ya know, she still laughs with me, but she waits just a second too long.”
​
I bought her
The finest things
That money can buy
Did I move too fast
And make her wonder why?
What the hell
Was wrong with me
Just messing with reality?
Making us into something
Never meant to be
(Chorus)
Where has she gone?
I don’t understand
I had her eating right out of
The palm of my hand
Did she try to say
In her own way
Was she trying to let me know?
She was thinking it was time
For her to go?
Was I hearing things
She never said?
Just wishful thinking in my head?
Now all that's left
Is her impression
On my bed
(Chorus & Bridge)
It's a helluva way
To start your day
When nothing more is there
Than the essence of her
That still lingers in the air
(Instrumental/Repeat Chorus)
12 DON'T LOST SIGHT OF WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE
Be it a false friend or someone untested and unfamiliar, experience teaches that trust must be earned and when able to be counted on time and again. Best of luck navigating the dark sides and two faces!
​
Beware of the smile
On an unfriendly face
A display of kindness
In an unlikely place
As subtle as their sense
Of wrong or right
Or As loud as a conscience
In the still of the night
(Chorus)
Dark sides
Two faces
Don’t lose sight
Of what you cannot see
In the image of a savior
Until it takes the form
Of a rabid dog
In a raging storm
They’ll be at their kindest
When you’re under attack
Around any corner
Behind your back
(Chorus)
Dark sides
Two faces
Don’t lose sight
Of what you cannot see
​
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