A Couple New Songs

Under The Sun

When I lose it makes me lonely
The snow it blows but I am only
Thinking of the times I spent under the sun
Thinking that I never meant to say my work was done

The light is burnt out in the hallway
It seems so cold but I am always
Thinking of the times we spent under the sun
Thinking how I never went back there with anyone

You can’t save up the light of day
It won’t last into the night
Don’t waste your life away
You get one chance to get it right

Make a choice and you’ll defend it
All this time, you’re bound to spend it
Thinking of the times you spent under the sun
Think of all you need to do before your life is done

You can’t save up the light of day
It won’t last into the night
Don’t waste your life away
You get one chance to get it right

....

This song (Under the Sun) represents a slightly different direction my songwriting has been taking lately. I think the style is still pretty clearly "me," but something about the tone is new for me. It's serious, reflective, and metaphorical. I've written other songs with those characteristics, but usually they're not really about me. Writing songs that are at best loosely autobiographical is something I have hidden behind in the past. As for this song, I feel truly introspective and honest in the lyrics, and yet the specifics to which it refers remain fairly obscure. I have no interest in being gratuitously emotional... but I am really starting to believe that a song works out better when it portrays an opening of the narrator's heart as it were. Well, I've always believed it - at least inasmuch as I've always hated songs that were obviously written (usually commercially) by someone who was not at all "feeling" the emotion portrayed. Besides, I have some tolerance for "abstract art," but I'm not a big fan; this translates into music in the form of my belief that a song has to actually mean something! But converting that belief into a consistent practice of writing "from the heart" is something I have had to work on.

Is it still punk rock? Well, my first answer to that question is, Whatever. As far as I'm concerned, everything Crash Martinez does is punk rock, because you will always find MxPx and the Ramones at the proverbial bottom of my music-loving heart!! My second answer is: Is Social Distortion punk rock? Because I have to admit, they had the whole deep, meaningful, open songwriting thing down long before I started writing! Anyway, amid all this "growing up" lyrically, I continue to feel "balanced" when it comes to my punkrockerism by virtue of the more simple, fun and raucous songs I write. Under the Sun is in fact the second most recent song I've written, the first being the following number whose subject matter should be quite obvious:


We Like to Fish

We like to fish
It’s time to fish
Gonna go fish
Gotta catch some fish

Something about those floppy little dudes
Something kinda fishy about their attitudes
They’ll always be a sucker for a worm on a hook
Chuck it in the water and they’ll give it a look
Gut ‘em and scale ‘em and they’ll be ready to cook

We like to fish
It’s time to fish
Gonna go fish
Gotta catch some fish

Sittin’ in a boat or standin’ on a bridge
Soon we’re gonna have some fish in the fridge
I don’t wanna cry and I don’t wanna whine
But I hooked a really big one and broke my line
He took the bait and hook with him back into the brine

We like to fish
It’s time to fish
Gonna go fish
Gotta catch some fish

It’s the end of the summer and it’s getting kinda cold
The fish aren’t bitin’ now or so I’ve been told
The water’s gonna freeze all over the state
But I can’t resist the urge and I can’t stand to wait
So meet me at the shore with a bucket of bait

We like to fish
It’s time to fish
Gonna go fish
Gotta catch some fish