The Piper's Song

I wrote a song 13 years ago called "The Piper's Song."

Jeff Kreh and I got together and arranged it in instrumental format with my lead vocal, then we recorded it a cappella with Kreh singing the lead for the Variety Show album. I had lost this original arrangement, but I just found it again while cleaning the house.

I hope you like it!

A cappella version

Instrumental version

The Piper's Song

Play that Piper's song
Over land and sea
Call the wayward home
From their foggy dream

My inner man the Piper sees
Watching my heart, it's all very clear
Clutching my bag of favored things
Unto my chest and keeping it near

I cannot hide my jaded eyes
Pride dripping through the words that I say
Scoffing and laughing all through the night
Standing alone all through the day

Play that Piper's song
Over land and sea
Call the wayward home
From their foggy dream

Hearing the drone of the Piper call
Casting my cares unto the wind
Dropping my pride before the fall
Seeking the way my soul to send

Play that Piper's song
Over land and sea
Call the wayward home
From their foggy dream

Floating alone, I'm out to sea
Listening for the Piper's song
Out from the shore, I can hear it ring
Guiding me home where I belong

Play that Piper's song
Over land and sea
Call the wayward home
From their foggy dream

---Jeff

Saturday? Nay! Caturday!

Snow Day!

The yard.

Dead basil. Awwwwwwww...

The car gots a blankey. Yay!

---Jeff

The Best Day Of My Life

I just finished writing this a li'l bit ago--Jeff Kreh and I arranged it and recorded the rough edit last night.

It's called "The Best Day Of My Life."

You can listen to it on Soundclicks.com.

From up in those hills
They came one cloudy night
Destroyers all, they jumped down for a fight.

With poison pen
And forked tongues aflame
A character assassination game.

And the shills
I hear them thundering
"You know you're ill!
Why don't you lay down and die?"
I've had my fill
And with my Holy Friend
I'm gonna' make today
The best day of my life

I've got some skills
Out with a motley band
A nasty brew can swelter out of hand

But I can't tell
If they're satisfied
With filthy ships sinking out of pride

And the shills
I hear them thundering
"You know you're ill!
Why don't you lay down and die?"
I've had my fill
And with my Holy Friend
I'm gonna' make today
The best day of my life

I'll bend my will
Avoid the hucksters' game
Of candied hearts provoking haughty names

I hand my soul
To You, my Friend
I won't walk alone; a changing story's end

And the shills
I hear them thundering
"You know you're ill!
Why don't you lay down and die?"
I've had my fill
And with my Holy Friend
I'm gonna' make today
The best day of my life

---Jeff

What Is A Vet?

I was reading myself to sleep tonight and came across this piece written years ago. It's called "What Is A Vet?"

Thank you, veterans, for all of your sacrifices.

I also came across something a bit more salty, a bit more harsh, a bit more "colorful," so to speak. However, I think it brings the real fear of war home in a very visceral way.

http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2009/11/ksk-off-topic-some-thoughts-on-veterans-day.html#more-21205

I'm not going to post it in its entirety on my page, but suffice it to say, it is about as real world as it gets.

However, I *will* post "What Is A Vet?" below:

---Jeff

WHAT IS A VET

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he—is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another—or didn’t come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat—but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.

He is the parade—riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket—palsied now and aggravatingly slow—who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being—a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU.”

Remember November 11th is Veterans Day.

“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, USMC

Happy Veteran's Day 2009!

Since I'm an inactive Jarhead, I hafta' give props to the USMC Silent Drill Team.

Enjoy!

---Jeff

Happy USMC Birthday!

Happy 234th birthday to the United States Marine Corps!

10 November, 1775 at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Here's the 2009 USMC Commandant's video message:




Semper Fi!

---Jeff