Wish

This has nothing to do with Mother’s Day.

Here’s a song I wrote a while back. I wanted to share one of my piano songs with you all, just for the sake of variety, and because I needed a reason to practice them.

I have an old Wurlitzer electric piano from the 1960s that is in fairly decent shape, considering that it has never had a tune-up, or even been tuned. It’s in all original condition–for good or ill.

Anyway, this song was written for someone I never should have ever looked twice at. She was married, and there were other complications that I won’t go into now. But we did have a pretty solid flirtation, and I wrote a few songs for her before going our separate ways. Songs like this one–Like Spring, and this one–Rusty Nail, among others.

I have no idea where she is now. Kinda wish that I did, tho.

But then, as special as she may have been at that time, in retrospect, she was really just a distraction from the fact that my marriage had just ended.

Anyhoo, I always loved this song, but it never sounded right on the guitar, and I do not play the piano as often as I should, and so, it just never got let out for air. In fact, NO ONE has ever heard this song before. Not even Liam.

Anyway, here it is–Wish.
I hope you enjoy it.
I have plenty of other videos up on my YouTube page, so please feel free to browse. All comments are welcome!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy Sunday!

–
Wish
by: Joel C. Marckx
2001/06/06

–
You are the single most beautiful woman
That I have ever seen
Your simple words have amazing power
And influence over me
You are so elegant, intelligent
And I feel that not a moment spent has been wasted
Perhaps squandered
For there are no moments now

–
If I only get two hours, I would swim in your eyes
And make no wish for air
And if I only get five minutes, I would tell you all
That I have wished to share
You are everything I wish to find in Heaven
And if I only get ten seconds
I would say I love you
And I wish to find you now

The Traveler

I am not a fan of country music; certainly not modern pop country music, but I have never been one to deny my roots.
I grew up in Northern California, near Central California, which is the center of Oakie-dom. I never did understand why so many Californians had hillbilly accents until it was pointed out to me that all the Oakies that came here during the Depression never left. Duh! (My Mom says that they can all go back home, now).
Musically, I grew up listening to my parents’ John Denver records…and John Stewart, and Kris Kristofferson, and Mickey Newbury, and countless other like-minded artists.
As I got older and developed my own tastes, I listened to a lot of Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan; which all included plenty of country and folk music.
It’s in my blood.
So, while I am a rocker at heart, and I think that modern country music is an abomination, I still tend to write songs with a countryish flair to them.
This one is called “The Traveler”, and it is one if my personal favorites. It’s more folksy than country, but it is a bit different than my usual fare.
It’s an old song, but not a very old song. I tend to not pay much attention to anything written before 1997, and this was written in 2000.
TMI.
Anyway, here it is. I hope you enjoy it.
There are plenty of other songs on my YouTube page, so please feel free to browse around. As always, all comments are welcome.

Thanks,

joel

The Traveler – by Joel Marckx

Blue Moon Baby

Some folks have asked me about the title for my novel-in-progress–“Blue Moon Baby.” Well, it all started with a song I wrote back in 1998.
The song itself was just another song back then (15 years ago??? Holy Crap!!). Sacramento was going through a particularly rainy winter and spring, and my future ex-wife and I were sick of it all and wanted to get away for good. Thus, a song was born.
Well, fast-forward another 6 or 7 years, and I started to get an idea for a novel, and this song was the center of it all.
What’s the connection, you ask? Well you’ll just have to wait for the novel to complete itself.
Until then, here is another video made from my iPhone of me playing the very song in question.
I hope you enjoy!!
I have plenty more of my songs up on my YouTube page, so please feel free to browse them all. As always, all comments are welcome.

Thanks for stopping by!!

joel

http://youtu.be/Brta7sPsqFQ

So Conditional & Pristine

Here’s a couple more songs of mine, performed and recorded on the fly in Super Lo-Fi.
I write a lot of long songs, and these two are recent attempts at writing shorter songs. Before these, I don’t think that I have ever written anything shorter than three-and-a-half minutes long.
I will be posting some much longer songs in the near future, so stay tuned.
I have many videos up on my YouTube page, so please feel free to peruse them all.
All comments are always welcome.
Thanks for listening!

joel

http://youtu.be/C5X4GIfnxRg

http://youtu.be/emzCp5O42Gw

Brand New Day

Here’s another video. This is one of my favorite songs of mine. It is also one of the saddest songs I have ever written, yet still has a hint of optimism somewhere in there.
It’s a hard song for me to sing (well, they all are, really), so I hope you can all make out the lyrics.
I have plenty if other videos up on my YouTube page, do please feel free to browse around. And, as always, all comments are welcome.
I hope you enjoy!
Thanks for listening.

joel

http://youtu.be/gHIzRQaBzPA

You and I

Here’s a song I wrote a couple years ago, or so. I still consider it a new song because only a few people have heard it yet.
I included the lyrics in a piece of flash fiction I wrote a couple months ago of the same name. You can find that post here…https://jcmarckx.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/you-and-i/
Anyway, I hope you like it. There are plenty of videos up on my YouTube page, so please feel free to browse around.
As always, all comments are welcome.

Thanks for listening!

http://youtu.be/ZcUmbOGZBkU

The Raven

The Internet is defunct! Jesus, he was a handsome man.
Yes, I am still without proper Internet for my home computer, so I cannot post my usual stuff for a while yet.
I can bring you another song of mine, however, and tonight I bring you one of my most recent creations: “The Raven.”
I am proud to say that I am the only person ever to come up with that original title. Don’t bother–I checked.
Anyway, it’s another super Lo-Fi video taken off my iPhone, but it sounds decent enough.
I have posted several new songs on my YouTube page, so please feel free to peruse them all.
As always, all comments are welcome.
Thanks for listening!!

Joel

http://youtu.be/QRXUMCxB9i8

Rusty Nail

Well, I kinda fell off the face of the Earth there for a bit. Hard times have fallen upon the Marckx household and I could not pay the Internet bill. Now all I have is my 3G with limited data, so I won’t be blogging much, but I’ll post something from time to time.
It’s been kinda liberating, actually. Instead of stressing over what I would post each day, I actually read a book (Pigs in Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver), and made a bunch if progress on my own novel.
But today I bring you something a little different. Here is a video I made of myself playing one of my own songs. Recorded on my iPhone and uploaded to YouTube, this is my first attempt at such a thing. I hope you like it. If it doesn’t totally suck, I’ll do more in the future.
So, here goes. Thanks for stopping by. And candid and honest comments are most welcome, please!

Joel Marckx – Rusty Nail

Wednesday Morning Earworm – “Optimistic”, by Radiohead

In keeping with the A to Z Challenge this month, today’s earworm is “Optimistic” by Radiohead.  Again, I did not want to change my regular Wednesday theme of posting the song that pops into my head the moment that I woke up, but I put a little forethought into this earworm for the sake of the challenge.

After 1997s OK Computer, I never would have believed that Radiohead could have topped themselves.  However, they did.  2000s Kid A, and 2001s Amnesiac (which I still consider 1 album that got split in two), broke new ground both musically and sonically.  I could write a lengthy post about it, but it has already been done several thousands of times.  Let’s just enjoy the song.

“Optimistic” is one of the few guitar-driven songs from Kid A, and has a jungle rhythm and a haunting melody that borders on discordance.  The lyrics are cynical (my favorite) and sort of explain that however hard you try in the world, the world will continue to evolve without you anyway, so guess what: it’s all kind of pointless.

       The big fish eat the little ones, the big fish eat the little ones

       Not my problem, give me some.

Oh, and hey!  remember when dinosaurs were the biggest, baddest creatures in the world?  Well, where are they now?  The same place that humans will be in a million years or so.

        If you try the best you can, the best you can is good enough

       If you try the best you can, dinosaurs roaming the Earth

Love it!

Anyway, here you go.  Happy Wednesday!

–

I Don’t Always…

In keeping with today’s earlier post.