I Wunna Take a Trip Down to Rio – The greatest party in the Western Hemisphere. The music, the exotic local, and, not least, the beautiful women. Let's go!
Dead Chicken – In the city of Key West there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of feral chickens. By local law and custom, they are protected from molestation. One afternoon I saw a tourist almost arrested for stalking a chicken. I wondered, what would happen if you just happened on a chicken that had died. Here is my song.
Jack's Song – When I was in college, my friend moved into an apartment with several other people. One was a girl with whom he fell in love. She belonged to another, however, and he had to love her from afar. Over several beers one night, he related his plight to me. I wrote the song.
En Le Tap–Tap, Etienne – Just as in Florida, Haiti has no public transportation system. Trucks are often converted in to taxis. The popular term for these vehicles is "tap–tap". Because of his perceived affluence, our hero Etienne, who owns his own "tap–tap", is subject to social pressures to take a wife.
Circles – Was it Toynbee who expounded the theory that history was cyclical? Maybe not. But sometimes there are cycles to relationships. That's what this song is about.
I Want You to Be My Girl – Many times the idea for a song comes to me as a visualization. That's what happened here. Listening to Django Reinhardt, watching World War II documentaries, reading about German submarines in William Manchester's The Glory and the Dream, suddenly I get this picture of sailors, on weekend liberty from Jacksonville Naval Bass, dancing with their girls. Off shore lurk the long sleek subs of the Nazis.
Truck Stop Girls – My brother Bill called me on day. He was returning from a road trip and said he had just listened to "Interstate Highway" (Floribbean, 2008). He suggested I consider a CD of truckers' songs. I was already working on this recording but the idea percolated and this is one of the two trucking songs to result.
Opus de Samba – an instrumental from my Samba period. I actually thought it was lost but, after many months of reaching into my memory, it came back to me.
I Gotta Get Outta Here – I don't know if it is universal, but many youths are anxious to leave home and get out on their own. I know I was. This is a modern version of the phenomenon.
Light in the Sky – Gulf Port has the reputation as being a hot spot for extraterrestrial activity. From time to time people go public with claims of visitations. It's never happened to me. Really. This is just about how one might react should it happen. Dedicated to the memory of Nick Reynolds. I learned a lot about delivering a lyric from him.
I Can Hear Thunder – A philosophical social commentary. Dedicated to the memory of Fred Neil.
John Lennon Is Dead – One Saturday Night, as I went to bed this song came to me. I actually dreamed part of the lyric. When I arose the next morning I completed the whole song in only a few hours. Boy, I love it when that happens! But there are some incidents that we never forget where we were or what we were doing when we got the news.
