Pop Music Voodoo vol. 2
“The Break-Up Song”, written by Issa Ibrahim and an unnamed former flame, was recorded in a halfway house/community residence in 2010 and is previously unreleased.
I stumbled upon this glorified demo of naïve charm, the only discernible fruit that was harvested from our all too brief union. She was and is a fabulously talented musician and I am in retrospect quite surprised that she looked to me in the early days for steps to better songwriting. Seems, as a Harvard and NYU music grad she was rooted in theory and impressed with my "intuitive"/I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-I'm-doing-but-I’m-doing-it approach. She would labor over songs for months (even years) while I just kind of churned them out...of course to me it sounds like it, but she was momentarily inspired, nonetheless. I have fond memories of the genesis of this song, started naked after passionate morning sex in my friend Geo's apartment in Chelsea, resurrected and fine-tuned month’s later by the pool of her parent's swank Westchester home, her tossing out lines from the water in a bikini, me banging out chords nursing a cocktail…ah, them were the days. It went unfinished until we broke up when I tagged the ending bit on and recorded it and sent it to her in an attempt to make peace. She was unimpressed and even critical of the "out of tune electric guitar," though she did say it made her want to cry. So here it is, but ironically enough telling the story of our relationship and break up before it even happened. If the title "Spooky" weren't already taken I'd be tempted to call it that.
“Married Women” and “Your New Bruise” were recorded in 2004/5 on the ward of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. I recorded the tasty electric guitar by ace musician Jay Shine while in the visitor’s room. Somehow at the time I thought the guitarwork was a bit much, removing Jay’s track from “Married Women” and releasing it as part of the compilation ‘The Asylum Years’, and recording a gentler acoustic version of “Bruise” also included on that album. Listening with new ears I find these once discarded tracks refreshing.
“Lazy, Dumb and Dangerous” was an early song encapsuling the history of Black America in a neat, if raucous, 3 minutes. It was recorded before I really had a handle on how to actually record, so it’s off in many ways. Still, for sheer blistering honesty and authenticity of performance it gets an ‘A’ for effort. I thought so much of the song itself that I re-recorded it several years later as a stripped down, moody blues reading that more successfully allowed the song to be received. That version can be found on the 2012 release ‘The Asylum Years’.
“Poor Little Crack Pipe”, a meditation on the opiate that is now technology, was recorded quickly in 2017 in a crazy haze of Trump derangement and burgeoning schizophrenia. So quickly in fact that I didn’t (wouldn’t/couldn’t) bother to put instrumentation to it, in favor of a drunken, off kilter, a cappella sing along save for a big Phil Collins “In The Air Tonight”-type of drum accompaniment that comes out of nowhere and goes just as quickly. The song was featured in the experimental film ‘Pop Music Voodoo’.
“Let’s Just” is my attempt at a pseudo sexy R&B tune that tries to get you in the mood but ends up being laughable. It was recorded quickly in 2017 in a crazy haze of Trump derangement and burgeoning schizophrenia. So quickly in fact that I didn’t (wouldn’t/couldn’t) bother to put instrumentation to it, save for splashy, sloppy drums and mouthing the bass parts. I’m proud of the vocal overdub outro and think, though clumsy there’s a naïve charm to this one that just may get you into bed. The song was featured in the experimental film ‘Pop Music Voodoo’.
“You’re The One” strikes me a bit vulnerable in its plaintive declarations of love and loss, then there’s the unusual middle-eight mention of the hospital as mistress that makes for an altogether awkward song from 2014 that now sees the light of day.
I’m more partial to the early Beatles full-band version of “Feel Him in Your Heart” found on ‘The Holy Buddy Collection’ but wanted to release this original version, consider it ersatz Chad & Jeremy. I’m reminded of the innocence behind writing the lyric and grace given to a one-time rival for a suitor’s affection.
Originally written as “Ayla Cries” for a friend’s newborn daughter of the same name and released on ‘The Asylum Years’, here’s a long lost re-do adopting the name Shyla after the stage name of my life partner and muse.
I always liked the song “Substitute” found on ‘The Asylum Years’, but some listeners thought that recording sounded canned and tinny, shattering my confidence. As a result, I took to re-recording several early songs in a more stripped-down acoustic style which served the songs better. This is one of those.
“Finally Gone” is the demo version recorded in a halfway house/community residence in 2011 and given to my then band DSM5 as a guide recording. The official full band version is the opening track on DSM5’s release ‘Insanity Never Sounded So Good’.
“Project Dreams and Ghetto Love” is a co-write with my long-time love Susan created in the halfway house/community residence I was living in following my release from Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. Susan came to visit often, and we recorded other songs there, most found on ‘The Holy Buddy Collection’ and one on ‘Pop Brut’. We were trying to reprise the lightning in a bottle we created with the song “D.W.B.” recorded by DSM5 on the album ‘Insanity Never Sounded So Good!’ Attempting a hardcore, Hip Hop, street vibe this song at once hits and cringes. Still, it was fun to do and that’s always the point.