The Day We Give Thanks We No Longer Live With Our Parents

And the day we all listen to this. Because, like a good Thanksgiving dinner, it can't be beat:

Alice's Restaurant

It Came From The Garage - A 2015 Halloween Mix

It's Halloween!  When we all treat processed chocolate like one of the three basic food groups.

 

Halloween!  When we lose count of all the little girls dressed as Frozen characters and the big girls half-dressed as things we don't want the little girls to see.

 

Halloween!  When we all dress up like monsters so the monsters won't come and get us, which means we'll all be seeing a ton of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump masks over the next few days.

 

Halloween!  Where we listen to, uhm, uh . . . song about how women are all witches?

 

Yeah.  There's not really a tradition of music-listening for this holiday, which means I had to dig a little to make a mix for it.  I tried to stay away from the obvious, assuming that you're all as tired as I am of hearing Bobby "Boris" Pickett singing "The Monster Mash," never mind all that women-are-witches crap, so I'm guessing a lot of these will be new to you. 

 

1   The Outer Limits – Opening

2   The Beast Of Sunset Strip – Teddy Durant

3   Tombstone #9 – Murray Schafe and the Aristocrats

4   Rockin’ In The Graveyard – Jackie Morningstar

5   Graveyard Stomp – Billy Ghoulston

6   Plan 9 From Outer Space

7   Pet Semetary – The Ramones

8   Devil Gate Drive – Suzi Quatro

9   Voodoo Voodoo – Lavern Baker

10  I’m The Wolfman – Round Robin

11  Werewolf – The Frantics

12  Maria Ouspenskaya Says It For All of Us

13  Werewolves Of London – Warren Zevon

14  The Mummy

15  The Mummy’s Bracelet – Lee Ross

16  The Mummy Walk (Walking Death) – The Contrails

17  I Was A Teenage Monster – The Keystones

18  (I Was A) Teenage Creature – Lord Luther and the Kingsmen

19  Screamin’ Ball (At Dracula Hall) - The Duponts

20  Bo Meets The Monster – Bo Diddley

21  Midnight Monsters Hop – Jack and Jim

22  The Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley

23  The Purple People Eater Meets The Witchdoctor – The Big Bopper

24  I Put A Spell On You - Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

25  The Outer Limits – Sign-off

      Bonus Track

Here's the link:

2015 Halloween Mix

The Lonely Love Poems

My friend Jacque Ryal has a great single out (with a couple of terrific remixes), and I've been working on writing a sonnet and a remix about it for a while now—the big hold-up being the stoopid English language, which has a scarcity of pure rhymes for the word “love.”

You can get the single here, via iTunes and Amazon:

Lonely Love iTunes

Lonely Love Amazon

And you can read the sonnet and the remix here:

Lonely Love

for Jacque Ryal

 

You say that it’s a dream—it’s hard to breathe.

   Pretend that you’re the hand and I’m the glove.

I’ll hold you tight and let the passions seethe.

   Nothing can hurt me like a lonely love.

Remember how the longing used to strike?

   It fell on us like lightning from above.

Beneath the burn, we all know what it’s like

   To hit the dance floor with a lonely love.

My heart’s always half-open, like a nest;

   Your heart is like the eagle to my dove.

I need the touch of claws to feel caressed—

   Only great hearts can live with lonely love.

      Desire is what we’re all a victim of
      And no crime sweeter than a lonely love. 

Lonely Love The DJ MJ Remix

for Jacque Ryal

 

Time stops each time I see you

And starts each time we touch.

I want to harmony you;

I always want too much. 

It’s just a crime of passion

That I’m the victim of.

When dying is the fashion,

I’ll live with lonely love.

 

Time freezes when you hold me.

The moment never ends.

Eternities enfold me

And on my heart descends 

A joy that’s ever-living

Like all the stars above—

A universe of giving

Within this lonely love.

 

Time dies each time you leave me.

I watch you drive away.

How Love loves to deceive me.

How Faith loves to betray. 

How wanting keeps exposing

The crime I’m author of—

One-way desire, half-closing

The doors of lonely love. 
 

Half-open hearts are dying.

Mine is a broken dove

Who only dreams of flying

The wings of lonely love. 

 

Copyright 2015 Matthew J Wells

 

Ne Dis Rien

I would have run if I had seen you coming.

   I would have fled if you gave me the chance.

Now you’re the French pop tune I can’t stop humming,

   The song that magics me into a trance.

Don’t say a thing; just lead me and I’ll follow.

   Don’t be afraid; just put your hand in mine.

We’ll waltz to where there’s nothing false or hollow;

   I’m with you to the dark end of the line.

Today’s for life—forget about tomorrow.

   No more sad solos—now it’s all duets.

Tonight our love will dig a grave for sorrow

   And when the night ends, we’ll have no regrets.

      When Life sings out, it's folly not to dance;

      When Love says “Now!” we have to take the chance.

 

 

Copyright 2014 Matthew J Wells

Ne Dis Rien

 

Home Town Gig

Rosanne Cash at Town Hall,  3/18/14

 

Steve Earle & Tift Merritt, City Winery, 2/12/14

Ballad of Summer

The song below speaks for itself. All I’ll say is, if you’re me, and you hear anything that has the line "My legs would give out in your undertow," then your own legs give out, and you have to share that song with everyone you know. It's from the Amy Speace CD How To Sleep In A Stormy Boat, and it's so good it sounds like it's been around for a hundred years.


The Sea & The Shore


Thanks and a tip of the Wells cap and bells to my sister Monica, who played this for me a couple of days ago.

Tift Merritt - City Winery, 9/23/12

Nicole Atkins - Music Hall of Williamsburg, 7/8/11