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Liner Notes for The Golden Door
(Listen to complete versions of the songs at Rhapsody http://mp3.rhapsody.com/glenn-bourdot . Also available at I-Tunes and Amazon, simply type my name in their search box)


The Golden Door


"Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!",

- Emma Lazarus, Statue of Liberty, 1883

These are my "castaways", songs I don't know quite what to do with - a few really old ones, a couple of newbies - but they've all persisted. Recorded in a two-hour rush of adrenaline, kratom, and Summit Pale Ale, they are demos, intended for sharing with my fellow musicians in Minnesota, with the aim of working them into a finished product before I launch into my new life as Tantric Master in the mountains of Peru.  Or maybe Arizona. (watch this space)

That being said, what a splendid bunch of ruffians! And, unbeknownst to me at the time I recorded them, they actually hang together quite well as yet another rendering of the Hero's Journey.  (Or Fool's Journey)  Since friends have been asking to hear them, I've decided to just put them out there, warts and all.

Many thanks to Rockaday Records, and the ever generously sagacious Jon Manners!

:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

Angel On the Wing - written in 1997 for my then 18-year-old daughter who had just moved on from a difficult relationship with a young man I really liked.

"Ain't no disgrace that laid that tear in your eye
Every little heart is born to roam"
.

 A waltz !

Sixteen Candles - The newest song of the bunch. I channeled a sixteen year old school-shooter/suicide bomber for this one... disquieting.

"Some want money, some want fame
Some want a new bad-guy to blame
I just want to make my name
With sixteen candles going down in flames"


Sacrifice of Love - An old friend of mine went to a seance in Amsterdam in 1978 and connected with his recently suicided buddy (who, speaking through the gypsy lady), kept saying one thing over and over again: "Don't do what I've done!  Don't ever do what I have done!!"  Humorously rendered here, of course.

"When real life just can't deliver
When the real people just won't do
I'll be there with bells on, you'll see right through me
Cause I've made this sacrifice for you"

The Golden Door - The quote by Emma Lazarus says it all. Don't even know why, I'm just profoundly touched that there is some kind of mysterious *help* available for us mortals. The song took off from the image of a Door and wrote itself, back in 1996.

"Hold onto me I'm real
When your tired heart is cold
I'll light a fire up, one you can feel
I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door"


Shaky Train - A self-assigned project to write a "train song". The Tin Pan Alley intro melody is lifted directly from... uhhmmm, you tell me... a free copy of this miraculous disc of mine will go to the first individual who correctly names the group (circa 1968) from whom I have nicked this arcane piece of Americana whimsy. (Hint: they are British)

"This train only carries rabble
Street bums and the half insane
If you've had enough of that burr in your saddle
Take a seat on this Shaky Train"


Deep Water - A song in progress.  I'm soliciting lyrics, as this is just a bunch of chords that won't go away until I come up with something. It's what all my songs sound like when they first arrive as the "wretched refuse of your teeming shore" (Lazarus, ibid).

Big World - Once upon a time, I actually sat down with a gypsy lady myself, in New Orleans, (in the Vieux Carre, or French Quarter), who kicked my slacker butt, and told me to "get going".

"What's with you man, you've got to shake it up
I swear to Goddess, I ain't makin' this up
The way of magic is a winding road
Now I don't want to hear you cry no more"

Return of Light - The product of a request from my beloved to come up with a tune for a Winter Solstice gathering, this song makes me laugh every time I sing it. The guy is such a whiner!:

"There's a planet spinning
I'm on it, and the planet's winning"


Hahh...!

*breath*

May we all realize
that we ARE the ones that
we have been waiting for.

And may we get here in time!

Namaste y'all,

Glenn
gbardo@yahoo.com

(Listen to complete versions of the songs at Rhapsody http://mp3.rhapsody.com/glenn-bourdot . Also available at I-Tunes and Amazon, simply type my name in their search box)

Creation date: May 24, 2009 2:07pm     Last modified date: Jul 5, 2009 9:16pm   Last visit date: Mar 28, 2024 2:06am
1 / 20 comments
Dec 6, 2022  ( 1 comment )  
12/6/2022
11:12am
Klaiz Bang (ericc6727)

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