Hypothesis

Well, I've been away for awhile.  But Adam's song 'Hypothesis' is well worth coming back for (he actually got it ready for the internet since the last time I posted something here).

When Adam first played 'Hypothesis' for me several years ago, I was smitten.  It is simply a great, great song, with a wonderful story, terrific chords, and a superb solo vocal.  Yet most people have probably never heard it.  This song definitely deserves to be heard! 

Adam has included 'Hypothesis' in a new playlist of songs he has called Life's Child.  This and his other albums can be heard and downloaded on the website aplmuzak.bandcamp.com.

So, what's your hypothesis again, Adam?

The Grandmother Tree

'The Grandmother Tree', from AppleBlossom, has a dreamy, child-like feel to it, of two innocent, pre-adolescent children who, attracted to each other but having not yet bitten Eden's apple, would rather go play in the meadow on a lazy summer day than make-out in the barn.

Adam fishin' on Presque Isle, Erie, PA

In some ways, it makes you wish that our horny hormones were never invented.  But then again, if that were the case, I suppose there wouldn't be any children around to go play in the meadow, would there.

Adam, I love your vocals, guitar work, and easy rhythm in this song.  And Sam, I love your understated drumming.  Beautiful work here.  It reminds me a lot of 'Magnolia Moon', from Seals and Crofts' Takin' It Easy album, always one of my favorite (though mostly unknown) songs.

Lyrics:

If you want, I will marry you
Once we both turn eighteen.
But you just laugh and run off
to the Grandmother Tree
In your bare feet.

There you swing underneath her tree
I can see your hair blowing.
Stars and tears are the same for me tonight
Yeah, their coming out bright.

I strip down to my barefeet
and wrap my arms around yours.
If you want, I will marry you tonight
while things are alright.

I call out to the Nightingale
and lap up the evening stream.
Watch over her as she wears her veil
watch over us we sing.

Hold Here

'Hold Here', from Houses, speaks of the consolation and love that can be found with family (or at least a family where love has managed to survive the ravages of time).  However, to get the full impact of 'Hold Here', you need to have listened to the previous track 'Uphill and Downhill', which of course is not a song at all, but a recording of Adam's grandmother 'Noni' describing what it was like to experience her father's death when she was just a teenager.

This song reminds me of Cat Stevens' Wind, in its originality, sensitivity, and quiet spirituality.  (Trivia: did you know that Cat Stevens was also part Swedish?)

If you're part of a family (whether 'blood' or not) who can hold each other to sooth, console, and help heal the inevitable wounds of life, you are a very lucky person.

Lyrics:

Hold here, close to me
How often do we get to meet?
Your brother and your sister know
When you come here
I wish you'd never go, away.

My hands hurt, my love is dead
You broke up with your last boyfriend.
You know how we both hurt so
Just hold here and
I swear it will go, away.

So come back, even if you're well
I'll hold you here.

Lipsynching Life

Friday night (or Saturday) is often movie night for us, so what better day to listen to 'Lip Synching' from the Croakies album.

This song seems to be about the price that has to be paid for a shot at stardom in our American celebrity culture.  For every star or starlet who 'makes' it, there are thousands who start climbing that celebrity ladder, only to fall off (or be kicked off) before they make it very far.

But beware!  The water in that ocean is full of sharks and other predators who are more than willing, indeed eager, to take a big bite out of the innocent young 'things' who flock to that place of dreams.

Lyrics:

Fool me once, fool me a second time
"You should know us you should know our work"
But I'm a dunce, I've been missing lines
"Here's a word that we don't think should hurt"

You should leave, no you shouldn't stay
"Who'd be here to pump you up tonight?
You're living life you're an advertisement."
But you place the price out of sight!

I was believing you. All of you.

Where's my car? Where's my skinny jeans?
"Business has it's ups and downs you see?
You've got your looks, your pretty face"
Well ain't it enough to want them to want me.

You know I was lip synching life
Cause I was believing you
You know I was lip synching love
Cause I was believing you
You know I was lip synching it all
Cause I was believing you, all of you.

8th St. Mother's House

APL has a way of hitting you right in the gut (or 'solar plexus', as we used to say when I was young) when you least expect it...with his music, of course.  I'm talking now about '8th St. Mother's House' from the Houses album.

While it sounds like just a jaunty, playful little tune about nothing much at all, this is actually one of Adam's most profound compositions.  (I think I keep saying that about every song!)

Preacher for the Week at Topsail Beach, 1987


This song is about time, and memories, and life passing.  It feels like it's about me at age 60, looking back at all the life I've lived (and with much less in front of me than behind me).  When I'm standing at my computer, scanning boxes of our pictures from decades past, these lyrics are speaking directly to me: "Remember it well, remember it well.  But the older that you are, the more those memories carve your life away."

The word 'poignant' comes to mind.  This is definitely a poignant song, as in 'evoking a keen sense of emotion, especially sadness.'  But it's not just sadness, because with memories there is (or should be) gratitude and pleasure as well.  Hopefully, that's what memories do for us.  But I'll admit that it's a mixture for me these days.

Writing the other day on this blog about the Castle, built by Hedgie and Tom Dean and the scene of many of our best family memories, was a poignant moment for me, because it was sold some years ago and is no longer in the family.  It's just a memory now.

I remember the chain
That locked up the front door
And blocked the bay-front window.
I remember the feeling that
a memory is all I'd have.

Same thing with my family home in Pennsylvania where I was raised: sold (actually, under contract as I write), gone now, only a memory, along with most everything else from that time of my life, including most of the people. 

But that's our life as mortals, is it not.  Each moment we live in the present quickly becomes only a memory, like the grains of sand passing through the hour glass, going from the top to the bottom.  But unlike a physical hourglass, we can't turn our lives over and start it running again.

Perhaps here's the lesson I would take from '8th St. Mother's House':  Cherish the moments as you live them, and then cherish the memories you make of those moments.

And also take lots of pictures!!

Lyrics:

I remember it well,
the cat on the front porch of your 8th st. mother's house.
You gave me the front door, a sip of you lemonade.
You said it was homemade. No, I saw the powder there.
But I didn't care.

All the old days, cause the current age to race away.

I remember it well:
The old grand piano, that played through the bay-front window.
The blue-satin pillow, that held your hair so well.
Your Grandmother Willow, that never would stand still.

All the old days, cause the current age to race away.

Remember it well, Remember it well
But the older that you are,
the more those memories carve your life away.

I remember the chain
That locked up the front door

And blocked the bay-front window.

I remember the feeling that

a memory is all I'd have.

As though I was peeling towards,

The core of life that's so sad
It's so sad.

That all the old days, cause the current age to race away.

All the old days, cause the current age

The older that you are,

the more those memories carve your life away.