“What Nobody Tells Me” and “The Party ’s Over” are the first two tracks on my We Could Use The Rain album with The Suspect Many. I wrote them with George Cremaschi in 1989. His bass-lines move both

tracks tremendously.

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“What Nobody …” comes from my daughter Paloma as she approached age 2. “I don’t want to do what anybody tells me / …” You may know about THAT attitude around age 2. “I’m runnin’ up this field with my eyes on bright chances / Runnin’ up this field lookin’ for what dances / That I might want to pick up / That I might want to ponder / …”

 

Dhyani Dharma and Mike Rose and Richard Howell collaborated on the great horn-parts. John Baker piano, Kenny Blackman drums, James Henry percussion. Peter Eckart engineer,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The Party ’s Over” comes from three weeks in what was Leningrad and then Barcelona, Paris and London, on visits enabled by Athletes United for Peace. August of 1989. Shudders prior to
imminent cracks could be felt in the Soviet Union, while parallel pitfalls continued in western Europe.

Babatundé Lea drums-set, John Baker piano, George fretless bass, Jon Karr lead guitar, Dhyani rhythm guitar. This one carries a lot of band fire. It's Jon's turn to be particularly tremendous. David Farrell

and I rocked in our chairs while remastering.

“My Old Man” and “Fat Snake Cruise” feature Dhyani Dharma on guitar. Dhyani—Gypsy, Buddhist, classical and flamenco composer, was my partner in songwriting, tracking, improvising and performing from 1989 into 2004. He's among the most dedicated artists I've ever met. Dhyani is a principal, too, in the group Urna with Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Glenn Spearman, and Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan. He learned 73 Ragas in 30 days for Urna's 1995 album Journey To The Beloved.

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"My Old Man", concerning George H. W. Bush foremost, concludes 1990-1991's Love Is The Main Flame. Myles Boisenand Tom Scandura joined us in The Coaxers for for "Fat Snake Cruise" on the 1994-1995 album Fat Snake's Tongue Has Got Talking Heads. John Heller, engineer for "Fat Snake Cruise."

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Go, Go—Great Resetters (Bessie LIKES Play)” grew out of a post for the Refusing the Great Reset on my donpaulwearerev.com website—Refusing the Great Reset a sequel to The Choice Is Us as alternative to the U.S. Presidential Election—and both part of
the now five-years-old series Flipping the Script. Bessie Smith is presented as guide back to humanity for those in ‘pretty perches’ who propose that We Masses should be ‘happy with nothing’ while a Ruling Few enjoy even more ultimate control of our futures through Messenger RNA additions to our genomes, courtesy mandates for Big Pharma’s phony ‘vaccines.’ Lyrics to this song are here. 

Now we arrive at more great company from the San Francisco Bay Area 1980s onward. Henry Kaiser piqued me especially through a profile of him by our mutual friend David Rubien. Henry was quoted in this San Francisco Chronicle profile as saying that "Neil Young puts more feeling into one note than Lee Ritenour puts into his whole life." Henry played on "Blue-Eyed Boy" and "We Can Have Everything" of 1989's Against The City and played great on that year's "Crack/AIDS (War Goin' On)". He accompanied

poems by Etheridge Knight and Lawrence Ferlinghetti on the first Rebel Poets' compilation, 1989, Worlds Made Flesh and he and Greg Goodman accompanied Daniel Higgs' 'The Astronaut's Prayer' on Rebel Poets' two, America Fears The Drum, 1992. The huge volume and range of Henry's contributions from the late 1970s (Metalanguage Records, Cuneiform Records, Madagascar, Miles' On-the-Corner albums, ...) into now deserves deep regard. His website gives entries. His youtube channel offers regular dispatches.

 

 

In 1991 we undertook poems of mine with improvisation by Henry on guitar or synclavier in his Oakland Hills studio. ‘Power Out’ is from Nicaragua and my attending a Feria of Libros y Musica there in July 1987. .

Likewise with Henry for a poem from my 1977 stay in Tanzania, ‘Over Dinner.’

Both the tracks from Nicaragua and Tanzania—and indeed all of these tracks—mean to present warm and organic alternatives to the nefarious no-fun and enslavement intrinsic to fantasies of a ‘New World Order’ and ‘Great Reset.' 'The Great Reset' poses for humanity a 'Global, Techno-Fascist State.'

The 'Bessie's Love Gives Lessons ...' post links to three tracks by Bessie: 1925’s “Saint Louis Blues” duet with Louis Armstrong on cornet (Fred Longworth harmonium) and 1929’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” and “Blue Spirit Blues” with James P Johnson on piano. As Louis remembered, Bessie’s voice was always sincere and at all times thrilling.

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We conclude with three tracks involving Alfonso

Texidor, poet and performer and bravura interpreter par excellence, from Puerto Rico to New York City to the Bay Area and beyond. Hamid Drake and 

I recorded 'Alfonso Texidor' among the 16 tracks of 

our unreleased Singing In The Airport from 2016. Hamid is of course a great force and creator himself. "Hamid is his own category," Maryse Philippe Déjean, my wife, has said. A nice interview that relates some of Hamid's dimensions is on the Quietus website.

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Alfonso speaks "straight on" in 'Call Me My Name',

one statement from Worlds Made Flesh. 

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In the closer for this ten-pack Alfonso delivers the celebration by and of other great ones, Sandra Maria

Esteves and an unnamed and indefatigable music-maker who may evoke for you Jimi Hendrix or Jerry

Gonzalez or Eddie Palmieri or Laura Nyro or ...

 

We truly live in a world of riches we have yet to claim as our own.

 

The letters of OWN can also form NOW.

 

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