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Believe it or not that pic at the top of the newsletter is me! For more pictures, visit the Wild Love Rebellion Facebook page. That was taken in about 1994, which was the year that my band Wild Love Rebellion had our first recording session for the album “Wake Up… or let me sleep…” which was never released officially until this past week! Now, after 30+ years, you can listen to the whole grungy psychedelic rock experiment for free on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you love to stream your music!

After two recording sessions in 1994 and 1995 to record 12 songs, we ended up never releasing the album officially, although a few songs were handed out as singles such as “Night” which we were blown away to hear on the radio in Lexington, KY one night in 1995.

As I started digging in to old pictures and old memories to prepare for this huge official release that is now underway, some of the lyrics that I wrote over 30 years ago stopped me dead in my tracks. One song, in particular that I want to discuss a bit today, has always been one of my favorites, “One More Way”. Musically, the song was one of our most original, with an almost folksy or Grateful Dead type guitar opening that soon gives way to our more familiar grungy punk-metal sound. Those lyrics, though…

I’m not proud of “One More Way” because it’s poetic. I’m not proud of the song because the lyrics were so on the money… Instead, I’m only a bit disturbed the song’s prescience.

When I wrote this song in 1993, I was in my early 20s, and I didn’t know anything about algorithms and there was no such thing as the regular dopamine loop we get from social media today anywhere back then except maybe from slot machines in Vegas… but I knew something was wrong.

I could feel it…

That zombie-smile of the satisfied consumer.
That blood-on-the-dollar stench reeking from every program on TV even the nightly news.
That gut-wrenching feeling that the whole American dream had been strip-mined, processed, shrink-wrapped and sold back to us at 19.99 plus tax…. but today only on subscription…

So I screamed. And I screamed.

Then I wrote it all down.

Wild Love Rebellion put my wild love words to music… and the song came to life. It jumped off the table like Frankenstein’s monster and never looked back, even decades after the band that gave it birth was long gone.

Here, today, I wanted to offer a FREE Download of the song in two forms, its original recorded with the band in 1994 and also a recently recorded Spoken word track. Along with that below, I’ve included a chapter from my book “Wild Love Words” which is basically a light-memoir where I present all the lyrics from our songs as poems for you to enjoy . Each chapter also includes a reflection of what inspired the song or what was going on in our lives at the time.

As part of the whole OFFICIAL RELEASE of Wild Love Rebellion “Wake Up… or Let Me Sleep…” , I have a VERY COOL offer available to you on Bandcamp. You can buy the whole album for like $7 (or whatever you want to pay, actually) and it includes a FREE PDF of the whole “Wild Love Words” book and another spoken word track “More To Say”. I will be announcing a LIVE LISTENING PARTY on BANDCAMP very soon so follow us there and keep an eye out here for more information.

Please share Wild Love Rebellion with any of your friends or family who are into AUTHENTIC 90s Grunge from a truly wild band that until now has remained “undiscovered”!

Here is CHAPTER 8, your FREE PREVIEW from “Wild Love Words” including the lyrics for “One More Way”.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Let’s talk!

ONE MORE WAY

Your blood runs red
Just like mine
But we've run too far
And run out of time

Should have heard them screaming
NO!
Should have heard them cry
Should have shut our mouths and
Shut up all our lies

Now there's a tax
On the breath we breathe
And an end to all
The things I've seen

Future hope is abandoned!
For ONE MORE tank of gas!
ONE MORE burning ash!
ONE MORE bag of trash!
ONE MORE bank of cash!
One more way to spend it!
One more way to look at things!

I hope we find
One more way to spend it
Before it's gone
GONE!

You can barely see
Just like me
Too busy preaching
Set your own self free

Should have stayed at home
Should have stayed in bed
Should have woke our mother up
Before she was dead

The bill's on the table
Can anyone pay?
I know how but
I must not say

I'm still running in quicksand
For ONE MORE tank of gas!
ONE MORE burning ash!
ONE MORE bag of trash!
ONE MORE bank of cash!
One more way to spend it!
One more way to look at things!

I hope we find just
One more way to spend it
Before it's gone

Gone, mommy
Gone gone daddy
Now Wild Love
Take me away:

People coagulate like blood
Around the scars of the world
And blood flows like people
Bent on destination

Cats dance on
The shoulders of the old
Claw bald heads and
Lick bloody wounds
The old are slow and swatting
Twisting stiff, pained bodies
Flailing arms miss easy targets
as the cats dance on and on

The cats dance on and on.

Them cats danced on and on.

Can we turn the clock back?
Will time defeat us?
Cut God slack
He doesn't really need us

Be.
Be real.
Take it all back.

^_Reflection:

The world events of 2017 make this song just as important to me as it was when I wrote it in 1993. I was (am) fed up with prejudice, bigotry and xenophobia. I was (am) fed up with greed, consumerism, and our oligarchy. I was (am) disgusted by the legacy we leave, being one of destruction, waste, and ruin.

The song and the lyrics reflect a lot of the hopelessness I felt then and still feel at certain times today. However, on reflection and closer examination, I look at the chorus of “Future hope is abandoned for “One more” this and “One more” that, and also now understand the implied corollary. We don’t have to abandon future hope-- we just have to avoid those things, actions, and habits that compel abandonment.

I’ve always believed in the power of the present moment, but this song asks us to utilize the past while aimed at a desired future instead of a fated one, through our present moment and never losing that focus.

We can change things-- in America and in countries around the world-- by standing together. Blaming the government for what it does to the people is ridiculous. The government is people. We are the government as well as the governed.

With less distraction and more focus-- just deciding what you want in your life is so powerful-- each of us has the power to create a better and more beautiful world. All I want today is to find one more way (and one more way and one more way) to get there. I look forward to seeing you in the better world tomorrow! 

Before Wild Love Rebellion, my career focus was on being a medical doctor, and before that, as a child-- it was actually becoming an Episcopalian Priest. My only point being that I really have always wanted to help people, and when I started Wild Love Rebellion, I was very confident that it was the best way to spread what I believed to be very valuable, and at the time--necessary ideas. 

One of the reasons, these words are all finally seeing print decades later is that maybe more than ever I really do think the world need a wild love rebellion of some sort. Hopefully, the words in “WIld Love Words” and the music on the CD companion “Wake UP...or let me sleep…” will cause at least some positive ripples into the future. Charities and organizations such as Wildlife Conservation Network will receive a percentage of the revenue generated from this book from the first until the last copy ever sold. 

There is a video for this song which was shot in 2017, available to watch for free on YouTube (EDIT: video included above).

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