my careless contagion

Disconnected, from Face to Face's 1992 album Don't Turn Away (which is, in my opinion, a perfect punk rock album) is a simply-worded song. The lyrics aren't complicated. The singing is straightforward and predictably angsty and overwrought in typical punk-rock fashion. I saw Face to Face perform a few times. Keep in mind this is a three-piece band. These sounds are coming from three people each playing an instrument. The bass alone is perfect. As a whole, it's profound and simple at the same time and paints a perfect picture of what many people feel at some point in their lives, which is a disconnect from those around them (and maybe even themselves).  Before I go off on a tangent, here are the lyrics.  You don't know a thing about me Is there something that you should know? I can tell you what you want to hear Let your inhibitions just go No you don't know what you will give up You don't know what you want It may take you years to find out You don't kno...

50 Ways to Say Goodbye is a good, albeit silly, song. I chuckled when reading the lyrics , but the song deals something most men have unfortunately done, which is explaining what happened to someone who was formerly a big part of their lives. People want to know why it happened. Or they're dying to know but are too polite to ask. Or they already made up their minds (in my case, I was usually the villain). You have no idea how many people wanted me to be the bad guy. It was comical until it wasn't. I must have a sinister look about me.  I just thought it is a fun song. It was released in 2012, so not throwing something shiny new out there. Anyway, I am on TikTok a lot (it's kind of a problem). There are some compelling accounts. One I follow is called hoe_math, which explains how modern, feminist women think and conduct themselves. This song, combined with one of those posts, got me thinking. When a woman dumps a man, is she required to tell him why? I think that's fair,...

You may ask yourself what the heck I'm doing writing about this song. We'll get there. But, first, listen to it so as to familiarize yourself. You've probably heard it. I used the lyric video because I want to talk about the lyrics.  The lyrics are vague, to say the least, but they bring up a few things I'd like to dissect. The lyrics are almost like brushstrokes. They are clumsy but give an idea of what the song is about. First, the mention of a star. The Bible mentions stars, and it often refers to angelic beings, usually fallen angels. So that's interesting.  The lyrics also talk about Atlantis, a supposed antediluvian civilization. I'm not going to say Atlantis didn't exist. I believe it or something similar to our modern-day myth of Atlantis certainly did exist. And it was wicked, otherwise God wouldn't have wiped it out. It is always referred to wistfully because mankind lost so much knowledge when it was destroyed, the same way people talk about t...

ABBA! Did you know the name ABBA came from the first letters of the band members' names? Now you know. I saw their names and figured as much. Holy crap, those names. They are definitely Swedish. We are back to writing about things without consequence. Whee. Pardon me, but I have a docket full of things to write about and no one is going to do it for me. Sometimes you have to write for the sheer enjoyment of it. Hopefully, someone reads it and likes it, but whatever. If not, they're missing out. C'mon, let's leave the squares at home. We're going on a trip to Sweden!  My first recollection of ABBA was when I was a boy and we lived in Broken Bow. One of my coworkers listened to ABBA. I didn’t know anything about them except they weren’t exactly cool at the time. But, what is this song? I guess it’s a love song. Not really, though. Most love songs are misnomers. They describe not love but lost love, broken love, lust, or something like that. Those aren’t love. Those ar...

Van Halen's Jump. What images does this bring to mind? David Lee Roth doing the splits in spandex? Lots of jumping? Eddie Van Halen (who is no longer with us) rocking on his guitar? Big hair? Yeah, it was the 80s. Here is another song that has a deeper meaning when you actually look at the lyrics. When I was a kid I thought it was just a fun song about jumping around. Hey, I wasn't too bright. The synthesizer, though. That’s a big sound.  David Lee Roth is the only singer of Van Halen I will consider, but they had some really epic songs over the years. I read David Lee Roth's autobiography many years ago. He had quite a life. A lot of what he dealt with was how to maintain balance and stability during all the rock and roll fame. He would go to an island somewhere and get lost. I get that.  This song was released in late 1983. (By contrast, Bad Religion released their first album in 1982. The band formed in 1979.) I was six years old. This was Van Halen's most popular si...

Rocket Man by Elton John. At this point you're really wondering what's up with dear, old Joshua. Why this particular song? What, you don't like piano ballads from the 70s (1972 to be exact)? Let me frame this song for you. It's not what it appears to be, unless you can see through the veneer. In 1972, probably not many could. Here's a little song about an astronaut. How cute. Actually, this song is whatever you want it to be. This is just my take. This song was covered a million times over the five decades since its release. A notable one I'm familiar with is by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes . I like punk or ska versions of songs because they really tighten up the slack and make more compact songs. When a song has a lot of covers, it shows the strength of the original. A good song can withstand a lot of reinterpretation. Elton John somehow remains relevant, also, probably because of his gay lifestyle (very much promoted these days) and legendary rock/disco past ...

No need for introductions. We all know Enya. Good. We're done here then. Well,  maybe I should add some more. Only Time was released in 2000. If you were me, you weren't doing much in 2000. If you lived a better life than me, you were building things you are enjoying now. It was a long time ago. Perhaps you started your career or bought a house or had a baby. I don't know. I wish I had done those things instead. But, time reveals our mistakes as well as our triumphs. The only way back to the right path is to seek God. Let's move forward. They say time heals all wounds. Time alone can't do that. Time is just days going by. It has no power in and of itself. I had wounds that festered since my childhood that weren't fully dealt with until God said it was time. Without the Lord moving in my life, I would still be handicapped and struggling. Or, I may have simply died. Grief can do that. It saps your life force. Makes you sad. Weak. But, let's continue. One thing...

I started a video blog today for my therapy. I share the link here in case anyone wants to keep tabs on that. The first video was long because I don't know what I'm doing. Obvious audio/visual problems exist, plus my thoughts are slow in coming (didn't help that I hadn't eaten anything). It's clear this is not for everyone. Watch if you want. With practice, this could be a very effective therapy. I just need to clean it up a bit.  Thank you all for following along on this strange journey.  God bless. Click here for my new blog, None Dare Call It Treason.  

  If you haven't heard any 90s songs for a while, the sound of this song may cause a second take. That's good. Because the music in the 90s was better than today. This song sounds a lot more like the 80s than the 90s, though. You could get away with anything in the 80s. Who in the pop sphere uses horns now, anyway? Maybe some latin bands. And there is something to be said for white guys not being allowed to dance, but I digress. My dancing actually looks a lot like this. Ask my son. Yes, you can poke fun at this song. But I love it. Heck, I lived it.  The British band Go West released King of Wishful Thinking in 1990, I believe, on the Pretty Woman soundtrack. Despite some of the sad-sounding lyrics, the song is a lot of fun. Okay, it is downright silly (but they aren't making fun of heartbreak; they know it sucks, and they want to give you a boost). It is eternally upbeat. That is the message, of course. In spite of what happened between he and his lady friend, he remains ...

Recently, a dear friend shared with me a series of videos on YouTube called "Fall of Cabal," which stretches to 10 episodes. The entire video is above as one, though I watched it incrementally as time allowed.  Fall of Cabal is in the same vein as the video I shared recently called Out of Shadows, though it is more comprehensive and included quite a few things I didn't know. It didn't shake me to my core, though it did embolden me to pray harder. This video reveals the wickedness of those who run our world. I would say to not watch if you are squeamish, but there is no time for that now. People need to wake up. Take action. Our world is better off in our hands than the cabal's hands. The people in charge of this world are often not benevolent. What is happening around the world right now is by design, and it is not for the benefit of mankind. As a wise man once said, "The masses of humanity have always had to suffer." Meanwhile, the powers that be...

I'm going to do something I rarely do, which is recommend those still reading this blog watch the above documentary called " Out of Shadows ," which runs about an hour and 20 minutes. This video has been put in front of me three times recently (it's making the rounds, apparently), which made me take notice, as my spirit halted me. Regardless of my convictions, though, decide for yourself whether or not the video is worth watching. It ends on a hopeful note, which is important because there is always hope. Nothing here is shocking to me. It talks about the following themes: CIA and NSA (US government in general) disinformation campaigns, occultism, Hollywood, mind control, politics, various so-called conspiracies such as Operation Paperclip, etc. Most of this information is extremely dated, as I've been aware of much of it most of my life. However, it is packaged well and is a good introduction to walk in a new awareness of reality. The subject matter is so br...

Dolly Parton has been a fixture in country music and popular culture my entire life. Her career started way before I was born, in fact. I Will Always Love You is a classic, and it came from an era when country music was very different. She wrote the song in 1972, reportedly the same day she wrote Jolene , which is my favorite Dolly Parton song. Also, take note of Dolly's seated position in the above video (recorded in 1974?), which is a very hard way to sing a song like this, yet she does it naturally and beautifully. Most people are familiar with the 1992 Whitney Houston version of this song, which is very good (though I don't care for the sax). Whitney was one of the greatest singers of our time, and I was deeply saddened when she passed. Still, I have to agree with this comment on YouTube: " Whitney's version makes your knees weak and gives you goosebumps; Dolly's version makes you break down and cry like a baby." Indeed, while Whitney's voice can...