RADIO FREQUENCY

CD $10; email for order info: lonelysummer@webtv.net

 

LISTENER COMMENTS Hey man, I wanted to let you know I think Radio Frequency is great! In my opinion, it's your best release in some time. The songs hit hard, both musically and lyrically. When I went to your website, it didn't surprise me that you'd been writing the songs over the course of several years. I've loved the political bent of much of it, including "It's All About Me" and "Tornadoes and Hurricanes". Even "Battered Boyfriend" could be a metaphor for American citizens' (dysfunctional) relationship with the current Bush regime - much like a battered spouse that keeps coming back for more. "It's All About Me" hit like a sledgehammer, but when it slowed down, it was like a serrated blade dragging across your soul. I couldn't believe the vocals on "I Hate Myself..." were you (the website indicated you had a little help with the lead vocals from two dead NW screamers!), and I loved the jumbled cacophony of voices at the end of "You're a Loser". "Lonely Summer" was a terrific ballad, too, a fine counterpoint to the overarching tone. But ultimately, the flagship of this album is "Road to Fairfax". I liked it so much I had to listen twice, and it made me laugh and think at the same time. I think Fairfax (Virginia) is home to either the CIA or State Department, I'm not sure, but it would sure make sense. I didn't know you had those lyrics in you - it sounds like a late 60's collaboration between Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Honestly, I Googled the title thinking you were covering the tune, but the only other "Road to Fairfax" is a country lovesong by David Massengil. Further, your "Road.." is perfectly produced/engineered, with a minimum of instrumentation to allow the lyrics to rightfully take center stage. Nothing short of brilliant. Again, great job overall (I only have three CD's in my car right now: Petty's new one, Spin Doctors' 2005 release, and Radio Frequency!). - Jay Donahue, 2/15/07

NOTES ABOUT THE SONGS IT'S ALL ABOUT ME - Oh yeah, it IS all about ME! I don't care how my actions affect anyone else, all I care about is inflicting my own twisted wordview on everybody else. Right? Is that the message of our world leaders? If you're one of the fortunate few in a position of great power, you don't have to abide by the rules us "little people" live by? Rules of common decency and decorum don't apply to you? Human life is cheap? Killing is not a crime? Deception is a virtue? Meanwhile, you preach about religion and God, but your actions and words betray an appalling lack of spiritual truth, your rhetoric is filled with hate and prejudice, love is alien to you. You can't be trusted, yet you are the ones we entrust with the future of us all. The ones we expect to keep us informed as to your actions - the media - are more interested in $en$ationali$m and making million$ than giving us truth. No wonder so many of us are hooked on psycotropic drugs and self-medicating with our latest high tech toys. Put down that phone and talk to ME! Get off of You Tube and tune into the inner You! There's a world around us that we have tuned out of! Tune in, turn off, and drop IN!

TORNADOES AND HURRICANES - The world is sure in a mess, and what humans don't destroy, mother nature will take care of! Like Uncle Bob said "you got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules" - but if you're a multi-billion dollar a year company, it's okay to dump contaminants into our rivers and streams, and filth into the sky. Wipe out the forests to make room for more luxury condominiums and shopping malls. Gotta have your priorites right, you know? Man's creations are more important than God's, right? There are some people who actually welcome the thought of an impending apocolypse, a nuclear nightmare. "The Bible says God is going to blow up the world anyway, we're just speeding up the process! The sooner the better, because God is going to take us out of this world before The End, we're going to be with Him in Glory while the rest of you burn in the fire!" In other words, if I don't subscribe to your particular interpretation of scripture, I'm doomed. I'm wary of anyone who claims to "know it all". Cynics on the other side say "I thought we did away with that God character? We'd better build a skyscraper up to the heavens, so He'll know we're in charge now!" Yeah, we're so smart we don't even know how to co-exist in peace. We don't need any help from any Higher Power, we just need more money and possessions! When will this nightmare end?

WHO KILLED KINDNESS - I've looked at the world around me and not liked what I've seen. I've looked inside myself and not liked what I've seen. I've done things I'm ashamed of. I've done things I've had to ask forgiveness for, things I'd like to forget. I went through a rough time in the early 90's (went? I'm still having a rough time!), but long after the events of that time were over, I was constantly reminded of them. Why? I thought I had put all that behind me. Then suddenly something triggers a flashback, and all the guilt and shame returns. I let someone else talk me into doing things that went against my beliefs, against my instincts. My own values were ridiculed - kindness, consideration of other people's feelings, self-respect, dignity, love. "Just use other people for what you can get! It doesn't matter if you hurt the other person, as long as you get what you want". Well, someone DID get what they wanted from me, and they DID hurt me. The memory of that is still with me, maybe I need that memory to insure that I don't make those same mistakes again.

TEMPTATION LOOKS SO PRETTY - Love is a very misunderstood word. What is love? Does anybody know? Why do people confuse "love" with 'lust"? They're not the same thing. And why is "love" so often conditional? "If you do what I want you to do, then I'll love you". Or "if you love me, you'll do what I want you to do.....even if it means doing something you are uncomfortable with, something you don't believe in." Huh? That's "love"? Don't preach at me about Jesus and then ask me to do things that go against His teachings. Yes, I believe in Jesus, and just as surely as I believe there is a God who watches over all of us, I believe there is a devil who exists to torment and tempt us. Some people call him Satan. Some folks call him Lucifer. You may have heard about him in some heavy metal songs, but he's not a cartoon character dreamed up by Ozzy Osbourne. He's pretty good at tricking people and fooling them. I've been tricked, I've been fooled, I made the mistake of believing lies spoken by someone who appeared to be a friend but was only out to tempt me. I waited a long time before recording this song, it was so private and personal, I wasn't sure I wanted to share it with everyone, but I kept going back to it, and finally decided I needed to do something with it. If someone else is struggling, they're not alone, I've been there, too.

BATTERED BOYFRIEND - My friend Heidi once told me "you're too nice, Ron. That's why people walk all over you." I've also watched other friends being used, I tried to clue them in, "hey, this person is taking advantage of your good nature", but it's impossible to get through to a person "in love". What is it about "love" that blinds us? So many of us have to find out the hard way, have our hearts broken, our dreams shattered. I wrote this song on the keyboard, it's based mainly around 2 chords, Dm7 and G.

YOU TRIED - My friend Adelina Larsen in Portland wrote this song. The original song was more boy/girl-ish, I rewrote some of the lyrics to make it more general. It could be about an abusive employer, friend, parent, or other authority figure. They'll do all they can to destroy you, put a gun to your head, throw you off a bridge, but they can't kill the Spirit. That's the one thing that lives on.

LONELY SUMMER - This started as two separate songs. I had the verses, but no chorus. The chorus was something I came up with just playing guitar late one night, but I didn't have a song to go with it. A few weeks passed before I tried both parts together. I wrote it for someone I was very much in love with, and even though that person is no longer part of my life, the song still has meaning for me. My friend Tara Banek sings harmony with me on the chorus.

TRIBUTE TO RICK - My friend Tina Freas-Gamos wrote the lyrics of this song about the tragic death of Rick Nelson. Dying in a fiery plane crash at the age of 45 (with his fiancee and entire band) was bad enough, then someone started spreading a story that the plane went down because Rick and the band members were freebasing cocaine during the flight. The tabloids loved this story, and splashed it all over the the covers, in large type, with gruesome photos of the plane wreckage. Weeks later, the FAA released the findings of their investigation into the crash, and ruled out drug usage as the cause of the crash. A faulty heater fuel line was the cause of the fire, but this report was buried in the back pages of newspapers, and so the rumours persisted. It was more fun to print the rumours than the truth. You can't libel the dead, right? David Nelson went on national television to defend his brothers reputation, but few people wanted to listen. David said "I never saw my brother do cocaine", and "to my knowledge he was not a drug addict". There was a tv show called "What Happened?' that explored the reasons for the fire and crash in detail, and completely cleared Rick of wrongdoing. This inspired Tina to write a song, but she needed someone to write the music and sing it. I put a tune to it, and rewrote some of the lyrics, recorded a demo, and played it for Tina. She loved it. I played it for a few other fans, and it brought tears to their eyes. It meant a lot to me, that our song could get that kind of reaction. Rick Nelson has been my favorite artist for as long as I can remember. I have to thank my mother for playing his music for me when I was growing up, and KIXI Light announcer Bill Norton for introducing me to Rick when he played in Seattle in 1983 and 1984. Yes, he was a teen idol in the 50's and 60's, and his clean cut good looks made him popular with the girls, but his talent was legitimate. He could really sing, he didn't have to lipsynch to someone else's voice, he had a real love for rock and roll, an instinctive feel for what songs were right for him. He had one of the best bands in rock and roll, with the great James Burton on lead guitar, James Kirkland on bass, and Richie Frost on drums. The Jordanaires sang behind Rick on his hit records, and later on, Glen Campbell sang and played on many sessions with Rick. In the late 60's, he formed the Stone Canyon Band, featuring future Eagles member Randy Meisner on bass and harmonies, Pat Shanahan on drums, Allen Kemp on lead guitar , and steel guitar wiz Tom Brumley. He wrote his own material, songs like "Easy to be Free", "Gypsy Pilot", "Life", and "Garden Party". He remained true to his artistic vision, crafting some of the finest music of the 70's, when most of his contemporaries from the 50's were forgotten relics on the oldies circuit. He continued to tour and record right up to the time of his death in 1985. The band that went down with Rick on that fatal flight was one of his best (especially lead guitarist Bobby Neal). Slowly, over the years, Rick seems to be getting the respect he deserves for his accomplishments, but still I feel he is overlooked. For me, he ranks right up there with Elvis Presley as one of the greats, and one of my biggest influences. Thanks, Tina, for your words, I hope I did them justice.

ROAD TO FAIRFAX - the subtitle of this cd is "how to scare the piss out of your friends and acquaintances". I've gotten some strong reactions to these songs - some positive, some negative. There are times I wonder if it is worth the effort to get my songs onto tape (or card, as the case was with most of these songs). What's the point in putting it out there, just to have it rejected by many people? "What's with all this stuff about God and religion? Whatever happened to the fun old songs like 'Party Everyday' and 'Tales to Here'?" I wish I could write songs like that now. It used to be so easy. Fun, accessible songs that people could dance and party to. Some people think I should be sent back to the mental hospital, and there are days I'm inclined to agree with them. I'm still trying to figure out this riddle called Life. I still ask questions, I know that I don't know it all. I'm still trying to figure out who I am, and what I'm supposed to be doing. I can't fault anyone who stops to ponder these questions.

I HATE MYSELF AND I WANNA DIE - one night I was channel surfing, and I stumbled across a Christian music video show. Along with the usual Christian pop rock, they also showed rap and punk videos. Christian rap? A gang of hoods yelling obscenities and threatening to kill you if you don't praise the Lord? Christian grunge? Suicidal lyrics about wanting to go to heaven? I attempted to write a Christian rap song, it got as far as the demo stage, but was full of "bleep"s and "censored"s. I got further with the punk song, but waited a long time before recording it properly. Some people will hear it as a slam on religion; others will hear it as a spoof of such death obsessed grunge heroes as Kurt Cobain or Layne Staley. Still others will hear themselves in it. Life here on earth is so hopeless, loveless, pointless, what's the sense in carrying on? We're all gonna die anyway, why not get it over with now? If heaven is supposed to be such a glorious place, if God really loves us so much, why can't he take us to be home with him today? Instead, it's like we're expected to endure this mudane existence, with a future so uncertain. Where will my next meal come from? Who are my real friends? What is my purpose in being here?

YOU'RE A LOSER - If you hate my guts, you can sing the chorus of this song to me. I know there's at least one person out there that would like to see me dead. Right, Furball? Physical and verbal abuse, which is more damaging? You know that old saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"? That's a lie. The vicious words you hear as your growing up can linger on in one's head for years, even decades. The venomous words then paralyze the victim with fear and anxiety, which leads to depression, and in some instances, suicide. Sometimes parents are the ones hurling the verbal poison - you're not interested in the things they want to you be, you're not following in their footsteps, so there must be something wrong with you, maybe a little verbal thrashing (or physical beating) will get you to shape up and be what they want you to be! Maybe it's other kids at school - you know, you gotta try to fit in with the crowd, do what everybody else is doing, get into fistfights, beat the piss out of everyone you don't like. If you're not out looking for trouble, you must be a "wussy" or a "mama's boy" and you deserve to be ridiculed. Maybe it's teacher's....or employer's...because you know deep down all you really want to do is screw around and waste time and rip off the people you work for. Maybe it's your pastor or other religious leader - "you're gonna burn in the fire for being such an evil person! Jesus died forgives everyone but you because you're so bleepin' EVIL! You DESERVE burn in hellfire!" Yeah, thanks a lot for tellin' me that. I didn't need YOU to tell me that, I hear it in my head 24 hours a day! Maybe you'd be HAPPY if I jumped off the Narrows Bridge. Maybe you'd like to dance on my grave! How does it feel to be so full of HATE? I feel like Micky Dolenz in the desert scene in "Head", except when I tell the voices in my head to shut up, it doesn't stop them. It's a battle I've been fighting, and probably will fight, all my life. At the worst of times, the chamber of negative voices becomes a chorus that I can't shut out. The middle eight of this song is a prayer to silence the voices, a cry to God for inner peace. Our words have more power than we realize. We can use our words to curse the darkness, or to light the darkness.