My Favorite Songs, Ranked

January 30, 2017January 30, 2017 Josh3 Comments

Skip straight to the list, or read on…

If you know me well enough to know my secrets, you know songwriting is one of the top three activities I most love doing. I’ve got about 40 songs completed with another 50-60 in the pipeline of creativity. Most are from the prolific period of 2004-2011. One dates to 1991, and a few are much newer (2016-2017). Years for each are on the lyric sheets.

I didn’t learn how to play guitar until 2001. I’m forever grateful to my friends Cindy L. and Nathaniel D., both of whom invested their knowledge into my future. Much enjoyment comes from writing songs that can encourage or reframe the perspective of others.

When I record songs for the Like a Road blog, I prefer to keep it simple, with just an iPhone and no editing of the video or audio. I’m more of a live music player than a studio musician, so there you have it. I’m not all that pleased with any “home studio” demo.

Now, if you wish, you can check out my list of favorite recordings. I’ll add new ones to the list as time goes on, and do my best to keep the full track list updated as well. Enjoy!

Got Them Blues

January 27, 2017 Josh1 Comment

They say you can walk 10,000 miles in the morning
If you got the right shoes
They say you can walk 10,000 miles in the evening
If you got them blues

I’m learning how to do multitrack recording, and this is my first (flawed) attempt, using a song I know very well, having played it probably 10,000 times! For this one I played and sang for the video track, then recorded an accompaniment guitar and a djembe on one additional track each.

If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.

– Reid Hoffman

photo-jan-27-2-20-18-pm

Lyrics and imagery for the first verse inspired by the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “Air was cool, like my machines were” references the collapse of the fishing industry throughout the Gulf coast. The oil spill blowout occurred in the Macondo Prospect, releasing 4.9 million barrels of crude into the open sea. At the time, there was significant concern that the spill would never be contained, exacerbated by the several failed efforts to cap the well.

The music and most of the lyrics for this one date back to 2005.

Fishing boat image Designed by Freepik

New Song (Save My Soul)

January 21, 2017January 21, 2017 Josh3 Comments

We ask our questions
What life is for
The thoughts in focus
And then no more

But there is a light

He has put a new song in my heart
He is in my heart
He is the New Song
New Song, save my soul

new-song

‘Casa Get Down’ Liner Notes

January 16, 2017January 16, 2017 Joshheaven, lyrics, Poetry, prophecy, spiritual3 Comments

A view of heaven – the great palace of eternal music – with a modern frame of reference. Continue reading below the graphic for more about specific lyrics and phrases.

casa-get-down

This song came together on its own during a time of soul-searching and longing for the hope of a bright tomorrow. But then I saw tomorrow’s night club with the holiest of holies spinning records for his fans.

Big house right outside of town
Reminiscent of Audio Adrenaline’s Big House, another song with a modern (for 1993) view of heaven Also a reference to just how close the realm of eternity is to ours.

Casa Get Down
A pretty cool name for a house of endless dancing, if I do say so myself.

The cover free
To enter costs nothing. Or everything. Or both.

I’ll put you on the way
I know where the ladder is. I can show how to enter.

Shake your troubles
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Feel the beat so subtle
There’s always been an undercurrent of stillness and quiet in the voice of God.

Many mountains to move
The often told measure of faith, so freely expressed in Casa Get Down.

Like you’ve never aged
We’ll be healthy and whole, wanting for nothing.

Eyes are drawn to the open stage
Only the throne is lit
Daniel, who saw it, said God’s throne was ablaze with flames. In this viewing, the spotlight is on the turntable and the music is perfect.

King over a house of sin
Mission: To seek and to save the lost.
Purpose: A free gift given to those who’d never make it on their own.
Vision: Bright, majestic, a place to approach with boldness.
Values: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Everybody takes a bow
[A] Every knee shall bow

Every voice shouting out in every tongue
[B] Every tongue confess

The host starts shaking like a tower of power
Not just any host. The biggest baddest, raddest host of all. The lord of hosts.

Spin ‘Espírito Santo’
To spin a record is to play it. DJ lingo, for those not in the know. Espírito Santo is the chart-topping hit that never gets old.

‘If I’m Coming Back’ Liner Notes

January 12, 2017January 12, 2017 Josh1 Comment

A love song from just outside the dominion of linear time. Continue reading below the lyrics for a few notes about the poetry.

if-im-coming-back

As with many poems, the ultimate meaning is elusive and complex. We see shades of love and affirmation, as if the singer is seen as having been lost to the hearer.

Trade in my memories of heaven
Reminiscent of a near-death experience, in which the sufferer glimpsed eternity (a fairly well known tale). But the one who has witnessed the light in that way and then regained consciousness is seen to have lost something in the here and now.

Remember your face
A nod to those with prosopagnosia, perhaps.

Be in this place
Stay here just one day
A couple more polite references to an altered consciousness.

They say everything’s bigger in Texas
It’s true. They really do say this. Ever been to the Big Texan?

Forgot my age
a) rhymes with sage. b) fits with the theme.

I was bigger too
Hard times have a way of growing, teaching, and cultivating a greater empathy within us.

What is love but a list of offenses
That you’ve chosen to never write down
A counterpoint to ‘love is a battlefield.’

Took all my money
Money is an analogy for love, here and in another song of mine. Love is the purest currency of all, but it’s meant to be given, not spent; wasted, not saved.

You wonder if I’m coming back
I’m right here, take my hand, be with me
This line works like a chorus; it’s the refrain that reframes. Sometimes it’s the ones who are ‘whole’ that need to be made well. The Man from Nazareth made a reference like this, turning perspective on its head. Sometimes it’s good to look at things differently.

“I’m not as gone as I look!”