Patience Belongings

1) Knockin’ on Maloney’s Door (Bob Dylan cover) 00:00-04:35
2) Dust (13th Floor Elevators cover) 04:36-09:21
3) Pale Green Stars (Everclear cover) 09:22-13:17
4) There is a War (Leonard Cohen cover) 13:18-17:34
5) Mountains of the Moon/TVQ (Grateful Dead cover/original instrumental) 17:35-26:14
6) You Telling Me to Calm Down Now?!? (Verve Pipe cover) 26:15-29:02
7) Cold Cold Ground (Tom Waits cover) 29:03-32:52
8) Dirty Old Town (Ewan MacColl cover) 32:53-36:50
9) To Ramona (Bob Dylan cover) 36:51-39:50
10) I Walked With A Zombie (Roky Erickson and The Aliens cover) 39:51-46:04

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 10 – “I Walked With A Zombie” (Roky Erickson and The Aliens cover) (recorded January 12th 2011 at “Bayside” Keyport, NJ )

Track 10 is the final track of this album. It’s a duet with a pretty cool chick that I know.

I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie last night

I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie last night

I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie last night

I walked with a zombie (he walked with a zombie)
I walked with a zombie (he walked with a zombie)
I walked with a zombie last night

*I sang with a Tracy (he sang with a Tracy)
*I sang with Tracy (he sang with a Tracy)
*I sang with a Tracy tonight

*Lyric change

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 9 – “To Ramona” (Bob Dylan cover) (recorded October 27th 2010 at “Bayside” Keyport, NJ )

Track 9 is another Bob Dylan cover. What can I say? Bob Dylan covers and open mics go together like clouds and the rain. “To Ramona” was originally released by Bob Dylan on his fourth album, 1964’s “Another Side of Bob Dylan”.

Ramona
Come closer
Shut softly your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness
Shall pass as your senses will rise
The flowers of the city
Though breathlike
Get deathlike at times
And there’s no use in tryin’
T’ deal with the dyin’
Though I cannot explain that in lines

Your cracked country lips
I still wish to kiss
As to be by the strength of your skin
Your magnetic movements
Still capture the minutes I’m in
But it grieves my heart, love
To see you tryin’ to be a part of
A world that just don’t exist
It’s all just a dream, babe
A vacuum, a scheme, babe
That sucks you into feelin’ like this

I can see that your head
Has been twisted and fed
 With worthless foam from the mouth
I can tell you are torn
Between stayin’ and returnin’
On back to the South
You’ve been fooled into thinking
That the finishin’ end is at hand
Yet there’s no one to beat you
No one t’ defeat you
’Cept the thoughts of yourself feeling bad

I’ve heard you say many times
That you’re better ’n no one
And no one is better ’n you
If you really believe that
You know you got
Nothing to win and nothing to lose
From fixtures and forces and friends
Your sorrow does stem
They hype you and type you
Making you feel
That you got to be just like them

I’d forever talk to you
But soon my words
Would turn into a meaningless ring
For deep in my heart, love
I know there is no help I can bring
Everything passes
Everything changes
Just do what you think you should do
And someday maybe
Who knows, baby
I’ll come and be cryin’ to you

It’s a simple love song I first heard on “Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash”, “The Pogues” second album released in 1985.

I really enjoy this track because a harmonica player from the crowd joined along too. If I remember correctly his name is Mike P. I remember talking to him afterwards and him telling me of the other long running open mic in Keyport, NJ at “Espresso Joe’s” that still runs on Wednesday nights. I also remember him warning me to get there early for the sign up around six o’clock because the sheet tends to fill up quick and the later you get there the later you will go on.

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 7 – “Cold Cold Ground” (Tom Waits cover) (recorded November 10th 2010 at “Bayside” Keyport, NJ )

*with Joe Walsh of “The Believers in Things” on drums

“Cold Cold Ground” is a track off of Tom Waits’ 1987 album “Frank’s Wild Years”. It’s the last album in his so 1980’s so-called “Junkyard Trilogy”, all masterpieces.

Around the one minute and fifteen second mark Joe Walsh of “The Believers in Things” joins in on his drums spontaneously having never played the song with me before. It says a lot about what a great drummer Joe is because he is able to listen and feel out the perfect parts to add.

If you listen very carefully around the two minute and forty five second mark you can hear the previous people on the list discussing their other bandmate’s drunken meltdown which is Track 6. Bandmate #1 says, “He fucking destroyed, fucking destroyed that microphone,” and Bandmate #2 responds, “Did he?”

Around the three minute and twenty-seven second mark is the real gem, which you really have to listen for, but it’s there. After the Tom Waits’ line, “Beware of my temper and the dog that it’s found/Break all the windows in the cold cold ground,” which is eerily spot on for the feeling in the room at the time, you can hear the previous two guys talking again and Bandmate #3 who had the meltdown chimes in gleefully. Conversation transcript:

Bandmate #1:  I don’t have a good feeling about tonight…

Bandmate #2: What?

Bandmate #1: I don’t have a good feeling about tonight.

Bandmate #2: So what don’t you have a good fucking feeling about, man?

Bandmate #3 (original meltdowner): It did feel good, man.

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 5 – “Mountains of the Moon/TVQ” (Grateful Dead cover/original instrumental) (recorded October 6th 2010 at “Bayside” Keyport, NJ )

“Mountains of the Moon” was originally released on “Aoxomoxoa”, the 1969 “Grateful Dead” album. The lyrics were written by the ever grateful Robert Hunter. The studio version is really pretty and is highlighted by what I think is a harpsichord. The recording I’m presenting here segues into an original instrumental composition in it’s early stages called, “TVQ”. Probably not the best idea to play my mournful version in a crowded bar, but if it’s in your heart you got to let it out. People clapped at the end in support anyway, plus love hearing my older brother Chris shout, “KFC!”

Cold mountain water, the jade merchant’s daughter
Mountains of the moon, Electra, bough and bend to me
Hi-ho, the carrion crow, folderol-de-riddle
Hi-ho, the carrion crow, bough and bend to me

Hey, Tom Banjo
Hey, a laurel
More than laurel you may know
More than laurel you may sow
Hey, the laurel, hey, the city in the rain

Twenty degrees of solitude, twenty degrees in all 
All the dancing kings and wives assembled in the hall
Lost is the long and lonely time, fairy Sybil flying 
All along the, all along the mountains of the moon

Hey, Tom Banjo
It’s time to matter
The earth will see you through this time
The earth will see you through this time
Down by the water, the marsh king’s daughter, did you know
Clothed in tatters, always will be, *Tracy where did you go?

Mountains of the moon, Electra, mountains of the moon
All along the, all along the mountains of the moon
Heigh ho, the carrion crow, folderol-de-riddle
Heigh ho, the carrion crow, bough and bend to me
Bend to me

*Lyric change, original is “Tom”

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 4 – “There is a War” (Leonard Cohen cover) (recorded November 17th 2010 at “Bayside” Keyport, NJ )

“There is a War” is a song off Leonard Cohen’s 1974 album, “New Skin for the Old Ceremony”. Like the title of the album, the content of the song rings true although the names have changed. I met a friend when I went to Rutgers University by the name of Tim Turzo. He lived off campus and I would go to what he called his, “little slice of heaven”, which was a cabin of sorts on a farm in North Brunswick, NJ. I loved going there and looking through his record collection and listening to the music he put on. This is one of those songs Tim turned me on to that just blew me away. In a way, this is a tribute to him just as much as Leonard Cohen.

There is a war between the rich and poor,

A war between the man and the woman.

There is a war between the ones who say there is a war

And the ones who say there isn’t.

Why don’t you come on back to the war, that’s right, get in it,

Why don’t you come on back to the war, it’s just beginning.

Well I live with a woman and a child,

The situation makes me kind of nervous.

Yes, I rise up from her arms, she says “I guess you call this love”

I call it service.

Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be a tourist,

Why don’t you come on back to the war, before it hurts us,

Why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get nervous.

You cannot stand the man I’ve become,

You much prefer the gentleman I was before.

I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control,

I didn’t even know there was a war.

Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be embarrassed,

Why don’t you come on back to the war, we can still get married.

There is a war between the rich and poor,

There is a war between the man and the woman.

There is a war between the left and right,

There is a war between the black and white,

There is a war between the odd and the even.

Why don’t you come on back to the war, pick up your tiny burden,

Why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get even,

Why don’t you come on back to the war, can’t you hear me speaking?

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 3 – “Pale Green Stars” (Everclear cover) (recorded May 9th 2014 at “Papa Ganache” Matawan, NJ)

I’ve probably listened to Everclear’s 1995 album “Sparkle and Fade” thousands of times in my life. “Santa Monica” off of that was their breakthrough single. “Pale Green Stars” is one of my favorite tracks on this album because it is so real. Definitely not a happy song by any means, but it helped me as a teenager. My favorite song off that album is probably “The Twistinside”, but that doesn’t translate well to an acoustic guitar.

This is also the only track on this album that is from the Papa Ganache open mic that I attended pretty regularly in 2014. The open mic no longer exists, but it was unique in that it wasn’t just music, but poetry, comedians, and I even remember one night a woman was just sharing her sketchbook with us and showing us her sketches, drawings, and paintings she was working on and talking about her process and inspirations for each piece. It was also nice because it was and still is a bakery and coffee shop.

Amanda is in love with the sight of the moon
She’s got pale green stars in her room
Right above her bed
Put them on the ceiling
Leave on the light
When the sun goes down then the stars might shine
Shining in the dark
Skinny little girl in her room alone
She’s got hell to spare in her home
If you can call it a home
Doesn’t want to be like anybody else
When no one is around she talks to herself
I can hear her in the night
Hey, hey yeah
It’s hard on a girl
When the blood won’t come when it ought to come
It’s hard on a girl
When you try to walk around on the shaky ground
Hey, hey
Daddy’s going away
Scared little girl watching *The Simpsons on TV 
Amanda always cries when you yell at me
Yeah, please don’t yell at me
Climb up all the stairs
Close the door
Doesn’t want to hear us fighting anymore
Yeah, better call it a day
Hey, hey yeah
It’s hard on a young girl
She thinks it’s all her fault when it all goes wrong
It’s hard on a grown man too
See my baby crying at the window calling out my name
Hey, hey
Daddy’s going away
She’s got pale green stars in her room

*Lyric change, original says “Aladdin”

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 2 – “Dust” (13th Floor Elevators cover) (recorded January 19th 2011 at “Bayside” Keyport, NJ)

This song is a song appropriately called, “Dust”. I say appropriate because one of the main inspirations for making this album is the cover. I’m referring to the photograph used as the art for the album. This photo was taken by my wife Tracy after Hurricane Sandy. Eight of the ten tracks on this album were recorded at the open mics at the  “Bayside Bar & Grill” in Keyport, NJ that is seen on the cover. The bar was destroyed and never rebuilt after Hurricane Sandy. They ended up knocking it down and nowadays in 2017 there is just an empty space where it used to be. In essence, like this song, it became dust.

“Dust” was released on “Easter Everywhere”, a 1967 album by “13th Floor Elevators”. I never learned the music for it so I just sang the lyrics over some original music I had which later became an original song called “Heather’s Heavy Sweaters”.

Dust from your skin
Must trust, when it scatters
Only love matters
It’s been overjoyed

Scents and perfumes
Whence, since your higher fragrance
Is memory
Incense and never destroy

Every stop we’ve taken
Is now a wonderous shrine
Where nature is in order
Your sense is sensing mine
As I love you
All the creatures play
As I love you
Now it’s safe to say
There’s no hang up in our way

The trees in our gaze
Will show us the love that we breath in
This shouldn’t amaze
They openly love all they are
And love’s all they are

Gifts, to begin
Bliss, cliffs of expression
They suit our impression
And every whim

Taste has got thirst
Faced, waste
Beyond uses
With so many juices
Were filled to the brim

Our pleasure’s not forsaken
We cultivate our bend
More chances re-awaken when beginning meets the end
As I love you
Now it’s safe to say
There’s no hang up in our way
As I love you

The faith that we build
Will strengthen our close growing closer
Till waiting is filled
We simply remember we are
Where ever we are

Clay that we print
May stay as we mold it
But will never hold it
The promise is long

Till we’re complete
Will, still is intention
We still need attention to help us along

“Blankets and Covers: Volume One” – Track 1 – “Knockin’ on Maloney’s Door” (Bob Dylan cover) (recorded February 19th 2010 at “Maloney’s” in Matawan, NJ)

This is the first track of a project I am calling “Blankets and Covers”. Around 2010 I started attending open mics, playing mostly covers. The first one I attended was at “Maloney’s Pub & Grill” in Matawan, NJ. I used to bring blank cassette tapes and a tape recorder to capture some music. Been looking at these tapes sitting on a shelf and decided to make an album out of my favorite moments captured.

This first track is a very jokey track, a play on Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”. I like this as a first track to this covers album because “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is a great song for beginner acoustic guitarists to learn. Also, I can hear my long time friends Anthony, Robby, and my wife making comments in the recording and it makes me happy.