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Blue - This tune was from having to explain how I felt after a terrible incident, people generally don’t like dealing with grief, so after awhile I just say “I fine doing good” just to get them out the way, I think its interesting tune the chromatic walk down with the A, C, G and D bit, and to transition to the Em D- Cmaj7 chorus is interesting, the chorus is actually from on old tune I had from thirty years ago, I loved the whole try to be scary bit at the end.
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Life is blue – This tune started off as a C to Am to G, an exercise from playing the Chula Vista farmers market, the one time I played their, then I wrote it one sad night shortly after moving to San Diego, the 1958 Kay upright bass sounds nice, I loved the sparseness and still have a feeling to it, nice tune, one of my favorite actually.
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High cost and low life – I always appreciated “turn the page” the Seger tune, how a billion people can jump up with a guitar and play Em D Am and sing the whole tune, the power of simplicity of the chords so I said to myself “hey what can you do with Em D Am?” and I had been talking with friends with this whole “high cost and low life “ idea, so I put them together, I adore the Em D G A and then the Em G D A, chorus, these tunes are all bigger than me, especially the good ones not the usual.
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Day in the knife cover - This tune is maybe my favorite Beatles/John tune, I love the John tunes more than the Paul tunes, I was at a hostel in Ocean Beach CA, and partying in the back with other guests, the place had guitars and we were all taking tunes singing and playing so at the end of the night I was explaining why when I busk I chose tunes I can pull off and made the comment “I wouldn’t do “day in the Knife by myself” and someone from UK said “I know you can do it.”, I went back to OKC the next day and completed the demo in one afternoon, yeah its not perfect, hey my bedroom is not Abbey road! Regardless, confidence is a very good fuel, anyway I listen to it and enjoy the tune.
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I don’t care – I was fascinated with 6 / 8 time, I always played the Santo and Johnny tune “Sleepwalk”, the lyrics just fell out like almost immediately, like I really felt that way
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I wanna fly like a seagull - I liked the Steve Miller tune “Fly like an eagle”. I never liked playing the too bumpy bit on the tune, the melody is cool, it just was way too bumpy on the groove, so I said to myself, “play it straight straight straight and just do the melody”, I remember I recorded the demo like in the last thirty minutes before I had to go to work, back in April 2024
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Being – I had been watching “James Brown Live in Japan Cold Sweat”. Concert video, I love love the rhythm section and of course Mr James Brown, so I wanted some kind of groove in the spirit of JB, I just made it up like in an hour, I like the little ditty
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What is best for me - The tune started off like a country song, Bm to G, it just evolved into this whole bit of repetition musically, first video with still pictures I ever created in April 2025, privately, its okay a bit robotic for me at times.
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King of the world – I was working on my AC compressor outside on a extremely hot August day in OKC, and I got a metal splinter in my right hand, so I took a break meaning to go get a pair of tweezer and get the painful metal splinter out, regardless, I started playing the bass and guitar, on a bit I had been playing around with, basically the tune is in the spirit and key for that matter (Bm) as “thrill is gone”, I made decisions to make it different, I purposefully played way more funky on a five string Fender bass and played as spacey as possible instead of blues, .. straight blues on the lead guitar, I thought it was a throwaway tune, done with a splinter on my hand, in like 35 minutes, the tune made me realize the thought of how at times, I don’t know a thing about these tunes.
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Torture – I bought 200 bucks for a whole lot of guitars, electrics and acoustics, way back in Covid shutdown days, ike 2021, one of the guitars was an acoustic guitar, that had such sharp frets and the neck was warped and would not stay not intonate at all made me say one day “This guitar is for torture not music”. In fact I slid my hand down the side of the neck and cut myself before I made the statement, I love the Am F/G bit and straight the exact same bit on F sharp D and E, E sets for the back to Am, I listen to it and hey this is clever shit, not just to pat myself on the back, I don’t care for this self love shit, it always, life always bites me in the ass if I even get close to thinking Im really the shit, all that been said, I love thius tunes, it needs rerecorded, I didn’t know shit about recording at the time, anyway in closing, I always love the way the Turtles tune “Happy together” was in a minor progression and ended on the major, so I thought “hey I been singing all about torture, so end on the beautiful (try to be!) “music” bit, maybe a bit too clever, anyway I like the wide open just jam lead guitar, I used a 1993 Strat plus I found in a pawn shop for 399 dollars.
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Recover – I was listening and marveling at ELO’s hit “Cant get it outta my head”, I loved the basic C majorness of it, I never want to be guilty of copying way too much, however in seeking an idea, I have to keep myself in the spirit/key, so I came up with a melody and read about how to get over grief online and in like one hour I had it done, a bit robotic, still cool though, I would make the tune purposefully make it bit more spontaneous if possible next time, an okay tune in my book.
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Run down – basically an exercise in playing only on basses, an okay tune, maybe bit dumb, oh well.
3. "One day in the city" -
I came up with the acoustic guitar
and basically recited how I felt that
day, I love this tune, I love the Strat
in position 2
I don't care was written when I was trying to get though a nasty annulment the more I learned of her liar ways. the more I began to quit having any good feelings,
After Wendy my wife died, I thought of the time she told me she loved me so much she would die for me, she would take a bullet for me, I was shocked, I didn't know what to say, when I came up with this strong melody and chord structure, I said write something about myself that is compelling, I couldn't thin of anything more compelling that what she told me that one day.
This week at the Illinois river studios is:
Never recover - a tune that began from reading about grief and listening to ELO's Cant get it outta my head". Counselors always try to rationalize folks who see help from being so grief stricken, grief is a product of love and death or any bad incident can happen art any time and there is no rationale behind it.
This tune was the product of realizing how many people in my life turned out to be low down thieves, men and women and how sad it is that nobody can be trusted, the tune itself, is all bass, three tracks of the fender jazz and two tracks of vocals and one bass drum track, simple yet effective, it was a Saturday morning project and its was a complete surprise at the resulting reception from fans, thank you! Sometimes the simplest of tunes are the most effective or correction its always not sometimes, simple tunes communicate well.
BEEN LONG LONELY TIME IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES, ITS GREAT FOR OPEN MICS AND PLAYING SOLO, ITS EASY, AND IT CAN GO FAR, SONG IS ABOUT A NO GOOD GIRLFRIEND WHO PLAYED ME REAL BAD, I WAS NAIVE AS I COULD BE I LEARNED A LOT, DONT TRUST ANYBODY!
IM GOING TO THe FLEA MARKET (at Jack Murphy stadium location home of the old chargers) TOMORROW AND SEE ABOUT SELLING A COUPLE OF GUITARS MAYBE NEXT WEEKEND. AND SEE IF WE CAN JAM OUR IMPROV BIZ AT THE FLEA MARKET WHERE KING BOUGHT A GREAT SOUNDING 20 DOLLAR FLUTE!
I was down a couple of years back at Xmas, I just bought a keyboard and I wanted to simulate a whole symphony playing a tune, I had just bought a 1978 Fender Vibrochamp amp and use the amp for the lovely Strat and five string Fender Jazz sound, the tune came one night and it was finished very quickly, I love the end climax where the "symphony" builds tension and holding around the A minor constant at the end , I thoroughly love this song, not in particular of what I did but love the message and the construction of the song, I always try to use non-standard word "rhymes" or word association, I love the "soldier on" phrase near the end.
The tune was just a bass warmup, and then I came up with the idea, how about make it a time travel thing? and lets make it like it was the show case tune on soul train, and make believe its 1973 rather than 2025, the track only has two bass tracks and some GarageBand drums!
Mighty low was part of a setlist that I came with Mighty low was created for a gig in Enid Oklahoma we got paid 200 dollars for a one hour set, it had to be all originals, I had like a week to get a group together, so I came up with like ten 12 bar blues tunes, tunes I knew we could knock out without rehearsal, we were all working back then we didn't have time for practice and so Mighty low was the one tune in the hastily created set that was memorable.
At the beach with sunglasses!
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Tempest SD is a musical artist known for crafting enchanting compositions that resonate deeply with listeners. With a focus on creativity and authenticity, each musical piece tells a unique story that touches hearts and souls. Blah blah blah........
Our mission is to create music that transcends boundaries, connects people, and uplifts spirits. Through our melodies, we aim to inspire, provoke emotions, and spread positivity across the world............................yup!
