Here’s the world premier of a video I just finished editing last night for “The Sound,” a song from my forthcoming album, Tantric Machine.

I wrote the lyrics for “The Sound” after a night of drinking, walking 47 miles of barbed wire and listening to Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” and some Petey Wheatstraw records.

It’s an old song (writ in 1999) that I resuscitated after years of ignoring it. I didn’t like it at the time I recorded it but I’ve had a change of heart and decided to unveil it (or allow it to escape) for all the world to hear, particularly folks who frequent Dangerous Minds.

After three decades of making records, I still can’t get a handle on my own music, which in some ways is a good thing. If a song takes me by surprise it generally means it has something to say to me. In the case of “The Sound,” I was playing around with the kind of over-the-top, often funny, boastful lyrics you hear in old blues and rock tunes like the aforementioned “Who Do You Love” to which I added a dose of noirish Peter Gunn guitar and a Morricone-esque wail from a Casio keyboard. I’m not sure the song has anything to “say,” but it certainly draws from my history of loving the dark shit.

The Sound

This is the sound
Of big love come to town
In the night

This the beat
That crawls up the street
In the night

I’m the mighty soul brother
The mighty machine
That generates love
In your groovy love scene
In the night

This is the sound
Deep and profound

Well young Aphrodite
Was hung from the trees
When I rode though the town
With a bitch on my knees
In the night

The Portuguese mother
With albino twins
Gouged out her eyes
When she saw me walk in
In the night

Women love men
With money and wit
Some will respond
To the crack of a whip
In the night

I’m the mighty soul brother
And Lord there’s no other
Go ahead ask your mother
She knows what this brother can do
In the night

This is the sound of big love come to town

Thanks for indulging me. This is like undressing in public.
 

 
Big Love and God Lays Her Love On Me are tracks from my forthcoming album, Tantric Machine, produced by Hugh Pool.

Tantric Machine was recorded at Excello Studios in Brooklyn. The idea was to create an album that sounded post-apocalyptic, as if the recording equipment and instruments had been salvaged from the rubble of a dying civilization. So, we used lots of pawn shop rhythm machines, synthesizers, cheap shit microphones, antiquated effects boxes, analog equipment, etc.

I wrote the music and lyrics over the course of a few months in 1999. The album was recorded in 2000 and I just sat on it. It took pressure from friends who had heard it and liked it for me to finally decide to release it.

The album cover is by Alex Chavez.

I humbly offer Big Love and God Lays Her Love On Me for your listening and viewing pleasure. The album will be released later this year.

 
God Lays Her Love On Me after the jump…