Duplicate of Paul Iorio's Music Site

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

new material added January 13, 2009!
I'm Paul Iorio, and that's me in my Berkeley apartment!

* * *

Me with major influence Paul McCartney, who I was lucky enough to have met in 1986 in New York City (no, he's not involved with my music, but I couldn't resist posting the pic!)

* * *

OK, here's the cover art and song listings for

my "75 Songs" trilogy, now in full-release as

a 3-CD set. (You can request a copy at

pliorio@aol.com.)




* * *

Here's "75 Songs (Part 2)":



* * *

And here's "75 Songs (Part 3)."



* * *

And, for completists, there will be a 4th disc, "75 Songs (The
Outtakes)," including at least 17 extra songs that didn't make
it on the trilogy. Expect it in '09. Here's the cover art:



* * *

All told, the "75 Songs" series will feature around 95

songs and over four hours of music. All songs were

composed by me (except two of them: "Waterboardin'

USA," based on a Beach Boys tune, and "You Won't

Be Burying Me Now," based on a trad folk melody).



Much to my pleasant surprise, at least 24 songs from the

"75 Songs" series have already been added to radio

playlists in at least three countries. (I've been sending

pre-release tracks to radio people as I've recorded

them throughout 2008, and some have aired them.) I

am very grateful to all the stations that have played

my music. And I should acknowledge that KALX in

Berkeley, Calif., has led the way and really

been ahead of everybody in terms of airing my

songs. Thanks.



I must note that the "75 Songs" series would

have never seen the light of day had my pal Bill

Epps not given me the recording equipment to record

the albums. So thanks to him, too.



Let me put it this way: I've been writing songs almost

all my life, but I never had the money or the recording

equipment to properly release my music to the public

until 2006, after Bill financed a couple recording

sessions. By 2006, I had written a vast number of

original songs that had never been released. But now

that I have a recording studio at home, I'm able to

release songs at the same pace that I write them,

which I had never been able to do before. Hence,

"75 Songs," parts 1, 2 and 3.



* * *

--------------------------------------------

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT "75 SONGS"
(AND SOME INFREQUENTLY ASKED ONES, TOO!)



ARE THERE A LOT OF 2008 SONGS ON "75 SONGS"?

Some date from earlier this year. As I wrote the new ones,
I released them one by one to various radio stations, which,
much to my pleasant surprise, played some of 'em Stuff like
"Besides" and "Sexually Insane" and "You Won't Be Burying Me
Now" and others are of 2008 vintage.


WEREN'T MANY TRACKS ALSO ON YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUM
"ABOUT MYSELF"?


Not these versions. Every song on "75 Songs" was recorded
between August 2007 and June 2008.


"75 SONGS" IS YOUR THIRD SELF-RELEASED ALBUM?

Yes. The first two were "About Myself" and "Lime
Green Celery" (aka "Make a Noise!"), both of which
are no longer in circulation.


WHY HAVE THE FIRST TWO ALBUMS BEEN
DISCONTINUED?


Because I didn't like the production on either. It was
my fault completely. I didn't know how to use the digital
recording equipment on the "Lime Green"/"Make a Noise"
sessions, and the "About Myself" sessions were way, way
too rushed.

A lot of the songs on "About Myself" have never had a fair
hearing anywhere, because they were badly produced. That's
why I've re-recorded them for "75 Songs."


ARE ALL THE 75 SONGS YOUR OWN OR ARE SOME COVERS?

I wrote every word and every note of all 75 songs.
Except the melody of "You Won't Be Burying Me Now," which
is a traditional folk tune put to my lyrics. I was
responsible for everything from the big picture concept
of each song to the small picture production details.


I KNOW THE "ABOUT MYSELF" ALBUM IS NOW DEFUNCT. BUT,
FOR THE RECORD, WHAT WAS BILL EPPS' ROLE ON THAT ALBUM?


He was the producer/tech support person and funded
the sessions for "About Myself." Months after the
"About Myself" sessions, he also added some bass
tracks to the album, but those have all been
deleted. At those sessions, in 2005, he did make
a few minor production suggestions, and I do
appreciate them, but I have to say that those
suggested ideas have since been deleted. Simply
put, I don't do group songwriting or collaborative
songwriting and am not comfortable with it.

I think Bill still has a video of those 2005
sessions, so you can actually see him suggesting
a couple production ideas (e.g., "slightly faster,"
etc.) that have now been discarded. (The
lyric sheets in his hands are the ones I sent to
him in August 2005.) The problem with the
"About Myself" sessions is that the sessions
were too rushed.

When I arrived at the studio, Bill apparently
thought we'd have time to record only two of
my songs (or so he said to an engineer).
I quickly let him know I planned
to record 52 of my songs in the sessions.
And I managed to do it, too, though it's
obvious now that the recordings for "About
Myself" were waaayy too rushed.


photo of my pal Bill Epps (l) (and engineer Shane) during rehearsals of my songs at Paramount Studios, L.A., '05.




Bill didn't come aboard the "About Myself"
project until 05, many months after I had
already released the album on cassette tape in
early 2004.

Anyway, that's all academic now that "About Myself" has
been discontinued.



HAVE YOU EVER WRITTEN WITH BILL?

No, I've never written with Bill. (Unless
you want to count a jokey song we wrote when we
were kids, in 1975, to the tune of Neil Young's
"Tonight's The Night"!)

Frankly, I'm getting a bit sick and tired
of hearing bad information, probably spread
by his old school chums (who have no independent
knowledge of my music), that implies he might
have co-written a few of my songs.

For the record: Bill did not write or re-write
or co-write a word or a note of any of my songs, and
anyone who says differently is either a liar
or misinformed. (And I'm choosing my words
carefully here!) If you want to hear Bill's
own music, go to his own website.

Bill and I have had an explicit agreement from
day one: our separate songwriting catalogues
are completely "separate" (Bill's word). I've
sent him this very website several times and
have asked him if I'm leaving out any of his
contributions -- technical, financial or
otherwise -- and he's never mentioned anything.

(And, by the way, if you hear some rivalrous
person spreading bad info about my music, please
contact me about it at pliorio@aol.com so I can
make sure to correct the record.)


YOU'VE WRITTEN SO MANY SONGS. HOW DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHEN
YOU WROTE EACH ONE?



I've had a habit since 1997 of emailing
my songs to myself as soon as I've written them;
hence, almost all my songs are electronically dated
by the AOL email of my last three computers (which
I've preserved!). So there's no doubt about the
chronology of my songs and how they evolved. The
hard drive does not lie!


HOW DOES BEING DEAF IN ONE EAR AFFECT YOUR MUSIC-MAKING?

Fewer distractions.


WAS "ABOUT MYSELF" YOUR DEBUT?

Actually, I did release a 10-song cassette tape
to several critics and bizzers in mid-1998 ("Combination of the
Oceans" was on that one). I also recorded a one-song CD
of "Ten Years Ago" in 2001. Then I released the 2004
version of "About Myself" on cassette tape.


HAVE YOU PLAYED ANY OF YOUR SONGS LIVE?

No. I've never given a concert anywhere. Never even played
for friends at a party. I'm not one of those guys who has been
playing the bars and coffeehouses for years. What I have
been doing for over 35 years is writing songs on a regular
basis in the privacy of whatever apartment I've been renting.
Alone. No collaborators. No bandmates. In some years, I'd
come up with three songs a night.

Lately, however, some have expressed an interest
in having me perform live, and I'm definitely
open to the idea.


DO ANY SONGS DATE FROM 35 YEARS AGO?

No. The oldest songs are from 1979/1980, when I
first moved to Manhattan. By then, I had already been
writing for 7 years. The earliest here are "If One Rainy
Night," "You Know It Shows" (now being readied for "Part 2"),
and "Get Tied."


HOW CAN I GET A COPY OF "75 SONGS"?

You can request it at pliorio@aol.com. I hope to
offer it via various online stores in the future.


I NOTICED THE LABEL ON THE ACTUAL CD IS
ATTACHED WITH SCOTCH TAPE. IS THAT HOW ALL
THE CDs ARE BEING SENT OUT?


Yes. This is hand-made stuff, not mass-produced
banality. If you want slick packaging and production,
go buy some crap by Toto. This ain't
that.


IF I'M INTERESTED IN YOUR MUSIC ON A BIZ LEVEL,
WHO DO I CONTACT?


Contact me, Paul Iorio, at pliorio@aol.com. I'm not
represented by an agent or manager right now, no one
else is authorized to speak for me, and I own
all copyrights.

_______________________________________
_______________________________________


SHORT DISCOGRAPHY


"75 Songs (Part 2)" -- December 2008

"75 Songs (Part 3)" -- November 2008

"75 Songs (Part 1)" -- June 2008

"Lime Green Celery" (aka "Make a Noise!) -- 2007
[discontinued, because I didn't like the production]

"About Myself" -- 2006
[discontinued, because I didn't like the production]

--------------------------------------


LONG DISCOGRAPHY


"75 Songs (Part 2)" -- December 2008

"75 Songs (Part 3)" -- November 2008

"75 Songs (Part 1)" -- June 2008

"Lime Green Celery" (aka "Make a Noise!") -- 2007
[discontinued]

"About Myself" -- (2006)
[discontinued]

"About Myself" (cassette tape edition) -- 2004

"Ten Years Ago" (CD single) -- 2001

"10-Songs by Paul Iorio" (on cassette tape) -- 1998

[releases of singles not listed here because
they are too numerous to easily keep track of.]

__________________________________________________


OK, I've just started releasing my first new songs

of 2009, "Stealin' Medication" and "The Wine Song"

-- and here're the cover graphics and lyrics:


Stealin' Medication
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2009


Well, I'm going to the mansions where Pfizer lives
The mansions that they built by rippin' off the sick
Gonna tell them that they can't do that no more
There's a deep discount on aisle four

I'm stealing medication
Stealin' medication
Stealin' medication
Stealin medication

Fifteen million for the corporate king
I can't even buy Bufferin
I don't qualify for no deductible
'cause CEOs are so corruptible

I'm stealing medication
Stealin' medication
Stealin' medication
Stealin medication

Well, I pledge allegiance to the flag
And to the profits for which it stands
You say, "Bleed to death, it's a Darwin zoo"
Well, lemme tellya, I'm imitatin' you when I'm

Stealin' medication
Stealin' medication
Stealin' medication

[police siren and shoplifter saying: "Hey, what
ya talking about, man? This is my corporate bonus!"]

You say, "Bleed to death, its a Darwin zoo."
Well, lemme tellya, I'm imitatin' you when I'm

Stealin' medication
Stealin' medication
Stealin' medication
Stealin' medication


* * * * *

THE WINE SONG
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2009


I want wine, I want wine
I want more and more and more and more and more
Wine, I want wine
I want more and more and more and more and more

I love wine when it's dry
Love it when it's wet
I love when I remember
How it makes me forget

I tend to underthink
When I overdrink
I stop paying my shrink
So I can I make a stink

I want wine, I want wine
I want more and more and more and more and more
Wine, I want wine
I want more and more and more and more and more

Wine has been around since the beginning of time
That's what god was drinking on the creation line
When Jesus got in trouble all those years ago
I hear he was buzzing from a Coppola Merlot

I want wine, I want wine
I want more and more and more and more and more

I'd rather die at fifty
A-drinkin' lotza wine
Then live to be a hundred
Boring all the time

Wine can lead to rehab, or so they say
But I can't go to AA without my Vin Rose

I want wine, I want wine
I want more and more and more and more and more
Wine, I want wine
I want more and more and more and more and more

More and more and more and more and more wine
More and more and more and more and more wine
More and more and more and more and more wine

I want wine!!

[[MED COVER]]]

* * * *


December 31, 2008

Happy new year to all!


And a special happy new year greeting to

KALX, Marshall Stax, John at the String Theory

radio show and all the other great radio people

who have played my music in 2008!



There's plenty more to come in '09, starting with

two brand new songs that I've just finished writing,

"Stealin' Medication" and "The Wine Song," and should

be releasing next week.


* * *

Many thanks to KALX in Berkeley, Calif. (and

to Marshall Stax!) for playing a couple advance

tracks -- "Make a Noise!," a rap song

I recently wrote; and my folk-pop tune "You, Walking

Away" -- from my upcoming album "75 Songs

(Part 2)" last Monday (12/8/08).


* * *


Fortunately (and unfortunately!) demand for

advance copies of my latest album, the 3-disc

"75 Songs," has far exceeded the demand I'd

originally anticipated. So I've moved the

official release date of "75 Songs (Part 2)"

from December 6 to December 16 in order to

accomodate those who have requested or

require a pre-release copy. (If you'd like a

copy of the album, please email me at

pliorio@aol.com.) Also, my apologies to those

who have tried to contact me via MySpace;

because my MySpace site is linked to a mostly

inactive email address of mine, I neglected

to check messages there for the past week or two.

So, sorry for the belated responses. I'll be in

touch with the site more often from now on! -- Paul

-------------------------------







Many, many thanks to radio stations (particularly

KALX and Marshall Stax) that have played my new

releases, "Split the Gray" and "Life is a Winnowing"

(11/24/08). (And by the way, everyone should check

out Marshall's great show on KALX every Monday at

6pm, must-hear radio!) The two songs are included

on my next album, "75 Songs (Part 2)," newly-finished

and slated for release on December 6th.


* * *


Thanks a lot to the radio stations (especially KALX and

Marshall Stax) that have played my new song

"The Creationist Anthem"!


* * *

OK, I recorded two new songs yesterday (10/8/08)

that I wrote last week -- "The Creationist Anthem"

and "Jean-Claude Louise" -- and have just started

releasing them. Lyrics are posted below.


* * * *


THE CREATIONIST ANTHEM
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


Well, God created Earth 10,000 years ago for
Jesus Christ, who owned a pet dinosaur
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba

Well, Darwin's mom might've been an ape
But the last I looked, my mother sure looked great
All of creation took about six days, too
God's a fast worker, let's give him a brew

Well, God created Earth 10,000 years ago for
Jesus Christ, who owned a pet dinosaur
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba

Everyone drowned in Noah's flood
And their fossils got stuck in all of that mud
Mary gave birth without a man
She was so good-lookin', God gave her a hand

There were dinosaurs in Shakespeare's time
They became extinct in 1829
Read all about it in Genesis
And take a gander at what Charlie Darwin missed

Well, God created Earth 10,000 years ago for
Jesus Christ, who owned a pet dinosaur
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba

Jesus Chist, he died for my sins
Picked up the tab for all that I did

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba

---------------------------------


JEAN-CLAUDE LOUISE
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


Sky
Everybody touch the
Sky
Everybody touch the sky
With your feet
Move to the beat
Come down to mirth
For all that it's worth

High
Love's the highest peak in the
Sky
Love's the highest peak
For Jean-Claude Louise
Weak in the knees
Losing oxygen
Love comes again

Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same way
Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same
Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same way
Jean-Claude Louise will never be
Never be the same way
Never be the same way

High
You can see him getting
High
He's starting to caress her thigh
He's a cheat
Heart starts to beat
Cries out for more
Four on the floor

Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same way
Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same
Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same way
Jean-Claude Louise will never be
Never be the same way
Never be the same way

Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same way
Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same
Jean-Claude Louise will never be the same way
Jean-Claude Louise will never be
Never be the same way
Never be the same way

Jean-Claude Louise
Jean-Claude Louise
Jean-Claude Louise

___________________________________


Thanks to radio stations (particularly KALX

and Marshall "Hussein" Stax!) who have played

my new song "Love's the Heaven You Can't Reach."


* * * *

I've just released 2 brand new songs (8/25/08) that I wrote

and recorded last week. Here's the cover (lyrics are below):



If you'd like a copy, email me at pliorio@aol.com!



By the way, many thanks to radio stations

(particularly KALX) that played my previous song,

"Late October Chimney Smoke."



A few people have asked me about "Late October

Chimney Smoke" and how it evolved, so here's the scoop:


The title I had for around a year before

I did anything with it. And then, on a

fall-like summer day last June, as I walked

along a tree-lined street with a couple

chimneys going, the melody of the chorus

started coming to me, except the lyric

was taking a much darker turn than I

thought it would. I put the whole song aside

for a time. Then I heard Feist perform in

Berkeley in July, and afterwards I remember

thinking her voice must be one of the most

beautiful sounds on the planet, and when I

got home, the rest of the song just tumbled out.

And I wrote a final verse that changes the

meaning of everything before it. And

that's how the song came to be!


* * *


Also, here are some notes on two of my other

new songs:


LOVE'S THE HEAVEN YOU CAN'T REACH:
In early August, 2008, I had a generalized

shape of this song roiling inside my head. It

was like a hurricane that hadn't yet formed,

a sprawling, stop-start thing

halfway between "Black Dog" and "The Message,"

or "Black Dog" re-imagined as folk-rap,

with deliberately long and unwieldy lines

that slowly, over the first week of August,

I trimmed and shaped and tailored to the melody

and structure of the song, while still retaining

its purposely messy quality. I wanted a vocal

that was equal parts Allen Ginsberg and Melle Mel

and a guitar riff that was sort of Pageish.

Lyric is about my belief that we fall in

love with those who are just out of reach,

probably because they are just out of reach,

and (absent first-hand contact with the person)

we tend to imagine that she (or he) is heaven.

This one took awhile to self-produce.

Recorded my first version on August 4,

tried again on August 10, again on August 17,

and finally nailed it on August 19.


* * *


THREE MINUTE SONG:
In early August, 2008, I was listening

to some Dionne Warwick and was suddenly

seized by a melody of my own that was just

irresistible to me, and I hummed it for a

few days without having any words to go

with it. I decided to put that melody

to a lyric idea I'd had for years,

"Three Minute Song," a song that is exactly

3 minutes long because the narrator meets

his fate at the end of it. It quickly

became the story of a guy on death row

who'd just been given his final injection.

Because I wanted a distant, sort of martial

drum beat in the background, I put the microphones

far away from my drumming (which is how I mix

-- by mike placement!). Final version

recorded 8/22/08.

* * *

OK, here're the lyrics of that brand new song I mentioned:


LOVE'S THE HEAVEN YOU CAN'T REACH
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


I made that decision in a better head, so I'm not gonna
go back and change it now

I've never had a relationship that's lasted past what
rivals say about me to her

Hey, they're not looking after your interests; they're
just trying to split us apart

Look, you're not being cool about this at all


Love's the heaven you can't reach
Love's the heaven you can't reach
I can't reach it
It must be love
Love's the heaven you can't reach


Yeah, we were drunk, took turns reciting lines from "Howl"
from memory at that party

She's 30 but tells everyone she's 18 in base eight

She's just bursting with imagery these days; it's like
she's got syph or TB or something

She's living in a hole; the pilot light has gone
from blue to yellow (you can almost see the CO in the air)


Love's the heaven you can't reach
Love's the heaven you can't reach
I can't reach it
It must be love
Love's the heaven you can't reach


I told her to put the broccoli in the frig -- she
wasted some primo broccoli, man

Yeah, I know everybody wants her, but it doesn't
mean I don't want her, too

I'm confident around the women I don't want but
a dork around the women I do

Love's like a cat trying to fly to catch a bird


Love's the heaven you can't reach
Love's the heaven you can't reach
I can't reach it
It must be love
Love's the heaven you can't reach

Love's the heaven you can't reach
Love's the heaven you can't reach
I can't reach it
It must be love

I can't reach it
It must be love

I can't reach it
It must be love

I can't reach it
It must be love

I can't reach it
It must be love


Vocals, guitar, drums: Paul Iorio
to be released later this month (August)

---------------------

Here're the lyrics of "Three Minute Song,"

(which is exactly 3 minutes long!):


THREE MINUTE SONG
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


By the end of this 3-minute song I'll be a goner
At least that's what I heard the doctor and the warden say
I'm strapped to a gurney and I really want some water
Dying for a crime I never did, no way

Convicted of a murder that I never even heard of
They phonied up some stuff to make it look like it was me
I wasn't even in the state that bloody night at Nirva
The D.A. rode the case to fame politically

Sailing like a bird inside my mind
Freedom's just a dream away
Ran out of loved ones so long ago
They're graves

They found a vein and now the sodium is getting stronger
I'm fading fast and soon I won't be feeling any pain

Sailing like a bird inside my mind
Freedom's just a dream away
Ran out of loved ones so long ago
They're graves

Sailing like a bird inside my mind
Freedom's just a dream away
Ran out of



I wrote a new song on Friday (7/19/08) and released it today (7/21). It's called "Late October Chimney Smoke," and here are lyrics:


LATE OCTOBER CHIMNEY SMOKE
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008

I smell late October chimney smoke
I smell late October chimney smoke

Trees look like explosions
It's as brisk as the ocean

I smell late October chimney smoke
I smell late October chimney smoke

The way that you are
The way that you are
When summer turns to fall
The way that you are
When summer turns to fall
The way that you are

Orange leaves in the air
Harvest everywhere

Candlelight should
Light up the burning wood

The way that you are
The way that you are
When summer turns to fall
The way that you are

Slanted sunlight on the cityscape,
just like a Matisse

It's getting darker much earlier than ever
In more ways than you see

I smell late October chimney smoke
I smell late October chimney smoke

The way that you are
The way that you are
When summer turns to fall
The way that you are

Here in Berlin
Evil smell in the wind

Smoke's not like before
It's 1944

The way that you are
When people take a fall
The way that you are

I used to love the smell of autumn, now it makes me gray
The smoke that's coming from the chimney is alarming
And I don't wnat to stay

I smell late October chimney smoke
I smell late October chimney smoke

Trees look like explosions
It's as brisk as the ocean

I smell late October chimnhey smoke
I smell late October chimney smoke

The way that you are
The way that you are
The way that you are

-------------


______________________________


RECENT RADIO AIRPLAY!

[I haven't updated this section since May, 2008,
though there have been several additions to radio
playlists since then.]

On April 27, I wrote a new song, "BESIDES," which I recorded at my home studio in Berkeley, Calif., on April 28. I sent it out and am really pleasantly surprised and grateful that some people are already connecting with it.

Special thanks to KALX in Berkeley for playing "BESIDES" and "BETTER OFF BROKENHEARTED" a couple days ago (May 5).

Also, thanks to John of the String Theory radio show for playing "MEMORY LANE (IS A TWO-WAY STREET)" last month (4/7/08).

Thanks to KALX for playing my recent self-released song, "Sexually Insane," and "I'll Love You Forever (But Not in This Weather)" in March
(3/6/08)!

Check out the review of my new album in the East Bay Express, posted today on the paper's website (2/29/08)!

Thanks to String Theory (a terrific radio show I'm told is associated with NPR) for playing "Combination of the Oceans" in February (2/18/08).

And thanks again to KALX for playing "Mr. Freeze is Taking Over" and "Headin' Down to the Cool Jerk" in January! (By the way, check out Marshall Stax's program on KALX; it's truly one of the most innovative in the country -- he even plays cassette tapes, if the stuff is good enough! An astonishing A&R talent, he is!)

Thanks to String Theory for playing "Combination of the Oceans" (2/18/08).


Check out my songs on London's XFM Radio website (I'm listed
in the "Newest Artists" category). Here's a link: http://www.xfmuploaded.co.uk/pauliorio (it's on their
site but not theirairwaves yet!).


Sincere thanks (again) to KALX for
playing my songs "Armageddon Time" and "The
Holy Country Song" back in November!


And thanks to KALX for airing
my limited-edition non-album single "The Ballad
of Senator Craig" a couple weeks ago and for
playing another of my new singles, "Waterboardin'
U.S.A."


Sincere thanks to WFMU for playing "PRETTY
WOMEN AT THE FUNERAL."


Thanks a lot to KALX in Berkeley, Calif., for
playing "RICH AND DUMB," the first single
from the upcoming "Lime Green Celery."


Thanks to Radio Sotra in Fjell, NORWAY, for playing "YOU BRING THE LOVE."


Many thanks to FM 95.6 in Lengerich, GERMANY, for adding "MEMORY LANE (IS A TWO-WAY STREET)" to its playlists.

Thanks (again) to Rockhouse Radio in GERMANY for playing "YOU BRING THE LOVE."


And thanks a lot to CAR Radio (north of ATLANTA, Georgia) for playing "IF ONE RAINY NIGHT."

Radio playlists that feature my songs also include tracks by such recording artists as Prince, Feist, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, Tracy Chapman, Traffic, Wilco, Johnny Cash, etc.

a few of the radio playlists that've been including songs from "About Myself" and "Lime Green Celery."
_______________________________________________________________



TOURING INFORMATION


Sorry, I don't perform concerts and never have! (In fact,

I've never even played at a private party.)


___________________________________________________________________________



LYRICS AND NOTES ON THE SONGS ON "75 SONGS (PART 1)"


1. "Better off Brokenhearted" -- alt-country-folk. Recorded and posted a new, improved version of it on 3/30/08.(Glad I copyrighted this one in '98, as certain musician friends seem to be eyeing it hungrily!)

A combination of two songs I'd written in the late 1990s ("I asked Jesus Christ for a job on the waterfront" had been a freestanding song). I was trying for a "Grievous Angel" sort of thing, a hard alt-country-rocker.


2. "I'll Love You Forever (But Not in This Weather)"
A humorous song about eternity. "The first billion years of eternity are hardest, they say..." My main influences here were Dean Friedman's "Ariel" and Sylvia Plath's "Ariel," but also the Small Faces's "Lazy Sunday" and the Kinks "Apeman." I wrote this in my apartment in Berkeley in '02/'03 and had a ball doing so!


3. "Warm Alaska Sun" -- The only song I know of about the joys of a sunshower on the way to...whereever -- in the warm Alaska sun! I thoroughly enjoy playing this one. I like how it captures the mood of being in the midst of unplanned travel, the feeling you could end up anywhere by the end of the day.


4. "Secret" -- Singled out by the East Bay Express newspaper as my best song.

I have an old tape -- one of those old-fashioned micro-cassettes -- of me coming up with this one in my apartment in Los Angeles in '96/'97 and laughing aloud as I was writing it. Inspired by both the Beatles' "Do You Want to Know A Secret?" and "A Certain Girl" with the sound of Petty and the Heartbreakers, circa '79, in mind. I finished it in '98, though I actually came up with the idea in New York in '95, after having dinner with an old girlfriend who confessed to me, confidentially, that she was a lesbian and that I could not tell anyone that secret. This version was recorded April 2008.


5. "Headin' Down to the Cool Jerk" -- A fun story song with a neat plot twist. (And that's me on drums!) I wrote this one in January 2008. Some have called it Presleyesque though I see it more in the spirit of something like "The Pina Colada Song."

6. "Time Begins to End" -- I wrote this in Berkeley between late December 2007 and early January 2008. Of all my songs, it's the most personally cathartic in that I felt so much better after writing it. Based on the very sad experience of having seen my father just before he died of cancer.


7. "Combination of the Oceans" -- A sort of psychedelic singalong! Of all my songs, this one has been ripped off in small ways more often than the others. (I'm not flattered by that, by the way.) People seem to love the part that goes, "I could show you maps of stardust and wisps of gray," and so do I.

This one came out of a crazy mood that arose from being harassed by a landlord in the New York-area in the mid-Nineties, and my feelings came out in a surreal way. I finished it in L.A. in around 1997 and put it on my very first demo tape, which I sent out in 1998 (some people still have that '98 tape).


8. "Playing With Balls" -- About the joy of playing with balls (on this round earth). No hidden agenda. I started writing this in '04/'05, but kept thinking that a song about the joys of playing sports shouldn't be as somber as I originally wrote it. So in May, 2008, I re-arranged it as a reggae tune, an arrangement I'd always had in the back of my mind. Recorded May 26, 2008.


9. "Pretty Women at the Funeral" -- One of my best songs, in my opinion. I wrote it in my apartment in Los Angeles in 1997, grabbed my tape recorder and recorded myself as I was coming up with it. Then, as I'd always do back then, I put the tape in a desk drawer and went on to write other songs. In 2003, I re-listened to that tape from 1997 for the first time since '97, and when I heard it for the first time in six years, in '03, I have to confess I just loved it.

10. "Sexually Insane" -- Hard folk, sort of Zeppelinish/Bo Diddleyish. Riff folk. Not quite as sexually explicit as Mozart's "Leck mich im Arsch" but it'll do. I wrote it on February 19, 2008.

11. "Besides" -- I'm really happy this ballad has connected with people. I wrote it on April 27, 2008, and it took only days for it to be added to radio playlists (thanks KALX!).


12. "Little Bird" -- I wrote this in 2000 after a long hike from Los Angeles to Universal City on a very warm spring day. When I climbed over the Santa Monica Mountains, I was dehydrated and saw a very little bird on the branch of a tree. And it looked like it was bursting to say hello to the whole world for the very first time! And that's how I came up with the song.

Later, I saw a flock of birds in a tree and marveled at much the flock looked like a cluster of leaves, and that's how I came up with the part that goes, "Is that a tree or just some birds..."

I first recorded it in early 2004 and then recorded it again in 2005. But I was never satisfied with either version and so re-recorded it on May 26, 2008, in a more buoyant, airborne arrangement (with a brand new bridge).


13. "Armageddon Time" -- I wrote this in October, 2007, though came up with an early version of the chorus in July, 1998. Sort of a protest song but with some neato pop overdubs!


14. "You Won't Be Burying Me Now" -- This one puts my own lyrics to a melody of a traditional Italian folk song (the lyrics are not a translation from the Italian). I know the song from a recording by Roberto Murolo, a brilliant interepreter of trad Italian folk, noted for his understated, austere delivery. (He's sort of like Italy's Tom Ze in terms of vocal approach.) Recorded May 22, 2008.


15. "Standing on the River" -- A two-part song that I wrote in the late 1990s, recorded in 2004, re-recorded in '05 and then recorded definitively (I hope) on Feb. 23, 2008.


16. "Cold Sunshine" -- I could go back to my tapes and notes and find out exactly when I wrote this one, but my best memory right now is the early 1990s (probably '92/'93), when I was living in Hoboken. I like its momentum.


17. "Mr. Freeze Is Taking Over" -- A comic book sci-fi rocker about nuclear war. Bang! Zap! Pow! I wrote it between Dec. 2007 and Jan. 2008.


18. She's Got Everything --Sort of like a Ramones ballad.


19. "Get Tied" -- Like Burt Bacharach meets the Old West. One of the first songs I wrote after moving to Manhattan in 1979 (though this one was finished in 1980). I came up with it on the roof of the Beacon in New York and included it on my earliest demo (of 1998). I recorded this version this on 2/16/08.


20. "Bluer Than You" -- "Bluer Than You" began life as a suite in around 1993, weaving together multiple parts ("She's Having an Affair," "It's Not a Dream Anymore," "25 Again," "I Fall in Love Everyday").

But I also wrote another, shorter version without the multiple parts (and had an alternate treatment called "Sometime Thing"). In 2005, I played both versions to my friend Bill Epps and asked him which he preferred, and he said he preferred the non-suite version. At the time, I agreed with him, but I'm now thinking of reviving the suite, which has an interesting unpredictability, as a bonus track for future editions of "75 Songs."


21. "I Dream By Candlelight" -- I wrote this and "Complicated Flower" on the same inspired night in 2003. Droney, dream-like.


22. "It's Kind of Cool for June" -- I penned this in the spring of 1996 in NYC. About a groom abandoned at the altar. Brill Building-esque.


23. "Better Girl" -- A merger of two songs I'd written in the late 1990s (the chorus is actually a song fragment dating back to the 1980s). People seem to enjoy the lyrics ("I drew a picture of the future in my rear-view mirror..."). Sort of like an indie-rock version of Fleetwood Mac.


24. "About Myself" -- Sort of a Song of Myself. This was on a January 1, 1994, cassette tape I made, so it's at least that old and probably a couple years older. This is a 2008 version.


25. "Death Falls Like a Sunset" -- I wrote this in almost one piece in 2005. About death (in A minor).


26. "If One Rainy Night" -- Another of my earliest songs. Written on the roof of the Beacon in New York in 1980, around a year after I first arrived in NYC.


--------------------------------------


L Y R I C S



BETTER OFF BROKENHEARTED

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Got more than when you started
Girl, you're better off brokenhearted
Got more than when you started
Girl, you're better off brokenhearted
Better off
Brokenhearted
Better off
Brokenhearted

I asked Jesus Christ for a job on the waterfront
He said take my advice and say what you really want
I asked Jesus Christ for a job on the waterfront
I asked him nice so I'd get what I really want

And he said,
Got more than you started
Boy, you're better off brokenhearted
Got more than you started
Well, you're better off brokenhearted
Better off
Brokenhearted
Better off
Brokenhearted

I asked Jesus Christ for a Toyota Selica
He said, "Don't be silly and don't let me catch ya
Asking for a Toyota Selica
Asking for a job on the water front"

And he said,
Got more than when you started
Boy, you're better off brokenhearted
Got more than when you started
Well, you're better off brokenhearted
Better off
Brokenhearted
Better off
Brokenhearted

--------------


I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER (BUT NOT IN
THIS WEATHER)

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2004

I'll love you forever, but not in this weather, they say
I'll love you forever, but just not this Thursday

If it's eternity tomorrow then let's live for today
If it's only next Tuesday, get out of the way

Eternity's so overdone
I'd rather be havin' some fun
Eternity's so overdone
Doesn't care if you've lost or won

I'll love you forever but not in this sweater, I say
I'll love you forever whatever pre-nuptials say

If I wait until Tuesday, I'll see you in bed
If I'm waiting till Friday, I'd better off dead

Eternity's so overdone
I'd rather be havin' some fun
Eternity's so overdone
Doesn't care if you've lost or won

I have a friend who was jipped of three decades, they say
The first billion years of eternity are hardest to take
If life is a bother and you don't want to be here
You just have to hold out another forty years

Eternity's so overdone
(etc.)

--------------------


WARM ALASKA SUN

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

We can talk about Anchorage
We could talk about Spain
But we're stuck in silver rain
In the warm Alaska sun
In the warm Alaska sun

Aleutian solutions
We're packing up our sleighs
On the tundra highway
In the warm Alaska sun
In the warm Alaska sun

Ketchican, if you can, to the morning dew
Ketchican, if you can, till the evening, too
I don't know where we're going to

In the warm Alaska sun
In the warm Alaska sun

We can talk about sunshowers
On the way to Glacier Bay
Talkeetna, Skagway
In the warm Alaska sun
In the warm Alaska sun

Ketchican, if you can, to the morning dew
Ketchican, if you can, till the evening, too
I don't know where we're going to

In the warm Alaska sun
In the warm Alaska sun
In the warm Alaska sun

[above, photo by Paul Iorio.]

--------------------


SECRET

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

She told me a secret last night
(Said I can't tell anyone, can't tell anyone)
She told me a secret last night
(Never gonna guess it, can't tell anyone)

She whispered it in my ear
She said it so only I could hear
(Never gonna guess it, can't tell anyone, gotta keep it quiet, can't tell
anyone)

She told me a secret last night
I'll tell you just a little, tell you just a little
She told me a secret 'bout a gun
I'll tell you that much, tell you that much

I've known her for fifteen years
I've known her since my first real tears
(Never gonna guess it, can't tell anyone, never gonna guess it, gotta keep it
quiet)

I'll tell you this much for sure
(I'll tell you just a little, tell you just a little)
I feel I'm gonna have to tell you more
(I can't keep it quiet, never gonna guess it)

She swore me to secrecy
I can't tell anybody but me
(Never gonna guess it, gotta keep it quiet, can't tell anyone, never gonna
guess it)

She told me something confidential
(Can't keep it quiet, can't keep it quiet)
And now I feel like I'm going mental
(Can't keep it quiet, can't tell anyone)

If she wanted such secrecy
Then why'd she have to go and tell me?
(Can't tell anyone, gotta keep it quiet, can't tell anyone, never gonna guess
it)

Well, maybe I'll just blurt it out
Tell everybody what the secret's all about
(Can't tell anyone, never gonna guess it, can't tell anyone, gotta keep it
quiet)

[outro]
Mystery woman gonna never tell anyone
(Never tell anyone, blurt it out , baby)
Mystery woman gonna never tell anyone
(Never tell anyone, blurt it out, baby)
[Repeat last line]

--------------------


HEADING DOWN TO THE COOL JERK
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


I'm headin' down to the Cool Jerk, baby
Headin' down to the Cool Jerk
I'm all alone, my wife's at work
I'm feelin' like a sultan Turk
Headin' down to the Cool Jerk, baby

My wife's at work, so I can do my thing
At a place that's sorta like the Bada-Bing
It's got a pole and a stage and it's kind of smoky
And tonight they're doing some nude karaoke

[chorus]

She was curvy and lean and got my attention
And I wanted to search her like a Google engine
She wore a mask covering her eyes and her nose
But nothing else on from her head to her toes

I slipped her a fifty and said there's plenty more
And she took my money and in a familiar voice
She said, "This'll help pay for the ring you gave me"
And then I realized it was my own sweet Sadie

[chorus]

She said, "What the hell are you doin' here?"
I said, "I was just stoppin' by for a beer"
She said, "I've been workin' undercover vice
And I'd bust you now, 'less you take my advice"

She said, "Don't go down to the Cool Jerk, baby
Don't go down to the Cool Jerk, baby
When you're all alone, and I'm at work
Stop feelin' like a sultan Turk
Don't go down to the Cool Jerk, baby
Don't go down to the Cool Jerk, baby
Don't go down to the Cool Jerk, baby

-----------------------


TIME BEGINS TO END

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008

These things seem to come in twos and threes
You're losing weight and then you're on your knees

It's your time to die
Wave your arms goodbye and tell me
Time begins to end in just a few

You can't understand the lassitude
You wanna put it off a week or two
You can make me cry
Wave your arms and fly away
Time begins to end in just a few

But I warned you
As I warned you now
If I need you
Then I'll miss you and how

Time begins to end in just a few

You're sleeping at the wake, you used to muse
You'd rather have a warmer altitude

It's your time to die
Wave your arms and fly away
Time begins to end in just a few

But I warned you
As I warn you now
If I need you
Then I'll miss you and how

Time begins to end in just a few
Time begins to end in just a few
Time begins to end in just a few

--------------------

COMBINATION OF THE OCEANS

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Heaven
Heaven's a state
But heaven's kind of hellish, they say

Hell, get outta my way
Hell has got some heavenly grace

I could show you maps of stardust and wisps of gray
I could show you what you want, girl
But that would just be in the way

They changed the combination of the oceans
They changed the doors and doorknobs of the sky
They sailed the clouds and stalled the backward motion
And they pretend to want to tell you why

They boil the clouds
They paint the rain
They leash the air so none of us could stay

They tamed the birds
And burned the sky
And took our time so none of us could die

They changed the combination of the oceans
They changed the doors and doorknobs of the sky
They changed the clouds and stalled the backward motion
And they pretend to want to tell you why

I could show you maps of starudst and wisps of gray
I could show you what you want, girl
But that would just be in the way

Heaven, heaven's a state
Heaven's kind of hellish, they say
Hell, get outta my way
Hell has got some heavenly grace
[repeat]

I could show you maps of stardust and wisps of gray

[above, photo by Paul Iorio.]

---------------------------



PLAYING WITH BALLS
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Playing with balls
Playing with balls
Playing with balls

Playing wiht balls
Playing football
Playing baseball

Everyone I see is playing with balls, playing with balls
Father and son, I see, are throwing baseballs, throwing baseballs

Playing with balls
Playing with balls
Playing with balls

Playing with balls
Playing baseball
Paying the toll

On this round earth, everybody's playing with balls, playing with balls
There's just something so fun about tossing a ball, tossing ball

Playing with balls
Playing with balls
Playing guitar

Playing with balls
Playing with balls
Playing with balls

--------------------


PRETTY WOMEN AT THE FUNERAL
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005


Widow wants to know
Why there are
Pretty women at the funeral
Pretty women at the funeral

Friends already know
Why there are
Pretty women at the funeral
Pretty women at the funeral

Widow wonders quietly
Did you know him enough to care
Is there something you're not saying
Is there a reason why you're here

At the funeral
Pretty women at the funeral
Pretty women at the funeral

Friends won't let her know
Why there are
Pretty women at the funeral
Pretty women at the funeral

Widow wonders quietly
Is there a reason why you're here?

At the funeral
Pretty women at the funeral
At the funeral

------------------------


SEXUALLY INSANE
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


She plays spin the bottle with her wedding ring
I like the way she shakes my thing
She's going down, wearing that bling
She's sexually insane

She moves her hand beneath her tan
Shows me the whole master plan
Her husband must be a lucky man
She's sexually insane

Sexually insane!
Sexually insane!

All the time I used to think
That she didn't like to drink
Boy, I guess I had her wrong
She even swallows half the bong

Sexually insane!
Sexually insane!

I never thought she had it in her
Till I had up for dinner
Believe me, she ain't no beginner
She's sexually insane

We started eating 'round half past noon
Didn't finish till a brand new moon
Had dessert without a spoon
She's sexually insane

All the time I used to think
That she'd stop before the brink
Boy, I guess I had her wrong
She had me wailing like a song

Sexually insane!
Sexually insane!
Sexually insane!
Sexually insane!


-----------------------




BESIDES
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


Drawn out and wasted
She left me without saying goodbye
But I've already tasted
The meaning of lonesome and high

And besides, I didn't always want her
And besides, a couple drinks and I don't care
And besides, (she was) too pretty for one man
And besides, she's walking away

I knew when I met her
That she could do better without tryin'
But I took my chances
Though I was aiming way too high

And besides, there are days I don't think about her
And besides, she never was there
And besides, I still have my dreamin'
And besides, she's walkin' away

And besides, I didn't always want her
And besides, a couple drinks and I don't care
And besides, I still have my dreamin'
And besides, she's walkin' away

And besides, there are days I don't think about her
And besides, she never was there
And besides, too pretty for one man
And besides, she's walking away

And besides, she's walking away
And besides, she's walking away
And besides, she's walking away

-------------------------------


LITTLE BIRD
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio


Little bird
Little bird
Fly out from the fir tree

Little bird
Little bird
Fly out, come and see me
Fly out from the fir tree

Is that some birds
Or just a tree?
Still a mystery to me
Is that a tree
Or just some birds?
Tell me, I won't say a word

Fly out from the fir tree
Little bird
Little bird

I'm not quite smart enough for flying
But you just spread your wings, it comes so naturally

Little bird, little bird
Why can't I fly like you?
Little bird, little bird
Imagine what we could do
If I could fly just like uou
Little bird
Little bird
Little bird


[above, photo by Paul Iorio.]

------------------



ARMAGEDDON TIME
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio

In Beresford County, only preachers give thanks
The government army is rollin' in with tanks

Everybody's out of work, the teachers out of school
Everybody's sick of being treated like a fool

Armageddon time, armageddon time
Armageddon time

Mama can't afford the medication on the shelves
One of these days we're gonna steal 'em for ourselves
Shut down the chains overchargin' for the rich
Tell them to stop makin' money off the sick

Armageddon time, armageddon time
Armageddon time

It's half past high time
It's half past high time

Time
Armageddon time
Time
Armageddon time

Sometimes I'm lookin' at a beagle on the street
Half of 'em eatin' much better than me

It's half past high time
It's half past high time

Time
Armageddon tme
Time
Armageddon time

------------------


YOU WON'T BE BURYING ME NOW
trad,
with lyrics by Paul Iorio

When death directs you downward
To the cold, cold ground
You won't be burying me now
I won't be dying

If life lasted forever
There'd be nothing rare or beautiful

You won't be burying me now
I won't go down there
You won't be burying me now
I won't be dying


When death arrives from nowhere
Walk the other way
You won't be burying me now
I won't go down there

Nothingness breeds nothing
Caught between eternities
We're dying

You won't be burying me now
I won't go down there
You won't be burying me now
I won't be dying

You won't be burying me now
I won't go down there
You won't be burying me now
I won't be dying

----------------------



STANDING ON THE RIVER

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

I'm standing on the river
(He's just standing on the river)
I'm standing on the mountain
(He's just standing on the mountain)

Why you standing on the river?
Why you standing on the mountain?

I'm standing on the ocean
(He's just standing on the ocean)
I'm standing on the moonbeam
(He's standing on the moonbeam)

Why you standing on the moonbeam?
Why you standing on the ocean?

[transition chording]

Can't love off the ocean
Can't live off the sea, yeah
Can't live off your lovin'
But it sure makes it easier for me
But it sure makes it easier for me

Can't live off the ocean
Can't live off the sea, yeah
Can't live off your lovin'
But it sure makes it easier for me
But it sure makes it easier for me

-------------------------------



COLD SUNSHINE
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


Mama used to tell me 'bout the cold sunshine
On a cold October day
She was standing up against a Humphrey campaign sign
As the ice clouds flew away

She said, "Don't let me hear you talkin' 'bout the cold sunshine,
Don't wanna hear ya talkin' 'boutthe cold sunshine,
Don't let me hear you talkin' 'bout the cold sunshine"

Sometimes you're cold, sometimes you're hot, sometimes I'm yours, you're mine
Girl, you're just like cold sunshine
Cold sunshine

Sometimes I'm hers, sometimes she's mine, sometimes I've lost my mind
Girl, you're just like cold sunshine
Cold sunshine

Sometimes I'm thinking of the day when you'll be mine all mine
Girl, you're just like cold sunshine
Cold sunshine
Cold sunshine
Cold sunshine

-----------------


MR. FREEZE IS TAKING OVER

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


Gamma burn nightmare in a nuclear blast
Everybody's glowin' from first to last
Can't get the pills
Can't get the stick
All this radiation is makin' me sick

Mr. Freeze is taking over
In 2022
2022!
2022!

Bang! Zap! Pow!
Bang! Zap! Pow!


Outside there's only ultraviolet rays
Everyone's been wandering for days and days
In this kind of thing
No one's a winner
Everyone's bracing for the nuclear winter

[chorus]

Geiger counter tells me to stay underground
Everyone says there's nothin left of the town
Can't help the rich
Can't help the poor
Nobody was planning for a nuclear war

[chorus]

2022
Bang! Zap! Pow!
2022
Bang! Zap! Pow!
2022
Bang! Zap! Pow!

---------------------


SHE'S GOT EVERYTHING

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Some girls have nothing
Some girls have it all
Some girls have something
But not what you want

She's got
She's got everything
That I could want

She's got
She's got everything
That I could want
That I could want

Some girls bring flowers
Some girls bring the rain
Some girls stay for hours
Some just till the pain

She's got
She's got everything
That I could want
She's got
She's got everything
That I could want

-------------------------


GET TIED
Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

Get tied and get up
Get tied and walk away
Get tied and get up
Before tomorrow makes you go away

I was a settler
Way down in Cheshire, Tennessee
Now I'm just a bettor
From the mountains to the sea

I was alone
(Get tied and get up)
Out on my own
(Get tied and get up)
My only home
(Get tied and get up)
Was the hope of finding home
I say

Get tied and get up
Get tied and walk away
Get tied and get up
Before tomorrow makes you go away

I came to Cheshire
Before the other settlers did
I had ten acres
But lost my claim to a bid

I was let down
(Get tied and get up)
Run out of town
(Get tied and get up)
I lost my ground
(Get tied and get up)
And I hoped of finding home

Get tied and get up
Get tied and walk away
Get tied and get up
Before tomorrow makes you go away
Before tomorrow makes you go away
Get tied
Get tied


[above, photo by Paul Iorio.]
_________________________



BLUER THAN YOU
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005


You used to be like the others till the others tried to put you down
And all of the other girls, they tired to find a way to get around that town

But when tomorrow comes my way
I'll set my sails, and they'll be hued
Bluer than bluer than you
Set my sails
Bluer than bluer than you

You used to be like the kind of girl who wants to be a sometime thing
And all of the other guys, they wanted you to wear their wedding rings

But when tomorrow comes my way
I'll set my sails, and they'll be hued
Bluer than bluer than you
Set my sails
Bluer than bluer than you

And I can't make love when I'm
Bluer than bluer than bluer

Can't call it love when I'm
Bluer than bluer than you

If we're both breaking up
Then how come I'm bluer than you?

And I can't make love when I'm
Bluer than bluer than bluer

Can't call it love when I'm
Bluer than bluer than you

If we're both breaking up
Then how come I'm bluer than you?

You used to be like the kind of diamond everybody thought was a rock
But now that you've come of age, you realize it doesn't matter what they blog

But when tomorrow comes my way
I'll set my sails, and they'll be hued
Bluer than bluer than you
Set my sails
Bluer than bluer than you

But when tomorrow comes my way
I'll set my sails, and they'll be hued
Bluer than bluer than you
Set my sails
Bluer than bluer than you

You used to be like the others till the others tried to put you down

------------------------


I DREAM BY CANDLELIGHT

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

I dream by candlelight
Of torches in the meadow
Geysers of flame in the lake
(again)

I dream by candlelight
I dream by candlelight

I dream by candlelight
Of torches in the meadow
Geysers of flame in the lake

I dream by candlelight
I dream by candlelight
I dream by candlelight

------------------------


IT'S KIND OF COOL FOR JUNE

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005


Gone are the days and nights when we used to remember
All of the ways we tried to forget September

Gone are the days when we used to play
How could they've ended so soon?
It's kind of cool
It's kind of cool for June

The Green's kind of brown, the light's so blue from the lamplight
But the chill outside feels nothing much like you

Gone are the days that we gave away
How could they've ended so soon
It's kind of cool
It's kind of cool for June

Satin dress, still at the tailor
Invitations, girl we made 'em
A warm December when we made our plans

She never quite explained her position
She never told me why this spring turned cool

Gone are the days that we gave away
How could they've ended so soon?
It's kind of cool
It's kind of cool for June

Gone are the days that we threw away
How could they've ended so soon?
It's kind of cool
It's kind of cool for June

---------------------------


BETTER GIRL

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

I drew a picture of the way that I'm feeling today
Tell you 'bout tomorrow whem I've finished my sorrow up
Never thought I'd tell you what I'm gonna say

I drew a picture of the future in my rear-view mirror
Combing my hair and rushing down the stairs all alone
Never got to living like I wanted to

I've been looking for a girl who's changed

I drew a picture of a car that's been driving me far
I've been cruising through the stars and the suns on the way to the bar
Living like a flame with the butane on

I drew a picture of a time when I can change my mind
But the five and dime and signs and wines, they all wind up
Looking 'bout the same as they never did

Well, I'm looking for a girl who's changed

What do you do when you fall in love with someone better than you?
What do you do when you fall in love with someone better than you?
Better girl
Better girl

Darw me a picture of a place that you've never been
Draw me a picture of a friend that you've never seen
Crying like a lion in a desert cage

Well, I'm looking for a girl who's changed

[bridge]
You know she/used to wear/a bargain basement gown
Now she's in/silk and lace/no longer comes around

Well, I'm looking for a girl who's changed

Looking for a girl and looking for a world that's changed
That world aint here anymore
Looking for a girl and looking for a world that's changed
That world ain't here anymore
Well, I'm looking for a girl who's changed

What do you do when you fall in love with someone better than you?
What do you do when you fall in love with someone better than you?
Better girl
Better girl

----------------


ABOUT MYSELF

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

About myself!

I've seen Kosygin out on 81st and 1st and that's about myself
I've seen some trouble when she's walking down the runway, and that's about
myself
I've been to Zagreb, watched the midnight lights of a train that's been left
behind
Now I'm standing here on 46th and 7th and thinking 'bout myself

About myself!

I saw the ambulance outside of the Dakota thinking 'bout myself
I walked a narrow path on top of the volcano thinking 'bout myself
I've been to heaven on a mid-day carriage/couldn't see what I'd hope to find
But now I'm listening to the bells of the cathedral thinking 'bout myself

About myself!
About myself!

Every time I talk about you, girl, I'm really talking 'bout myself
And everytime I talk about the things we had I talk about myself
The world's a mirror that reflects the things about you that I love and I
hold so dear
So when I'm talking 'bout you, girl, I'm really just talking 'bout myself

About myself!
About myself!

[above, photo by Paul Iorio.]

-----------------------



DEATH FALLS LIKE A SUNSET

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2007


Death falls like a sunset
On everybody equally
Death falls like a sunset
On everybody, even me

Did you see it fall forever
On people you'll no longer see
Did you see it fall like timber, in December
Every single month, I tell you

Death falls like a sunset
On everybody equally
Death falls like a sunset
On everybody, even me

Did you see it wilt the flowers
In the penitentary?
Did you see it block the sunlight
It gets unlight
Enjoy it every minute 'cause

Death falls, death falls

Birth comes like a sunshower
It only comes sporadically
Birth comes like a sunshower
It leads to death eventually

Did you see it bloom in deserts
Where nothing is supposed to be?
Did you see it die in springtime
when you think time/will always last forever?

But death falls
Birth comes
Death falls
Death falls
Death falls


[above, photo by Paul Iorio]



----------------



IF ONE RAINY NIGHT

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

If one rainy night
A man comes knocking on your door
Please let him in and ask what for

And if he knows your girl
Set him down for some coffee
And ask him if she's still alright

And don't protest too much
You'll give yourself away
You still love that girl
No matter what you say

If one rainy night
A girl comes knocking on your door
Please let her in and ask what for
And if she is your girl
Set her down for some coffee
And ask her if she's still alright

And don't protest too much
You'll give yourself away
You still love that girl
No matter what they say


---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------


THE LATEST INFO UPDATES


>June 13, 2008


My new album, "75 Songs (Pt. 1)," is finally finished and is being released on Monday (June 16). See top of site for details.

---------


>June 3, 2008


A few days ago, I released a new 3-song single featuring "You Won't Be Burying Me Now," "Playing With Balls" and "Little Bird."

"You Won't Be Burying Me Now" puts my own lyrics to a melody of a traditional Italian folk song (the lyrics are not a translation from the Italian). I know the song from a recording by Roberto Murolo, a brilliant interepreter of trad Italian folk, noted for his understated, austere delivery. (He's sort of like Italy's Tom Ze in terms of vocal approach.) Recorded May 22, 2008.

I wrote the music and lyrics of "Playing With Balls" a few years ago but could never get it right in the studio. I kept thinking that a song about the joys of playing sports shouldn't be as somber as I originally wrote it, so last month I re-arranged it as a reggae tune, an arrangement I'd always had in the back of my mind. Recorded May 26, 2008.

"Little Bird" is one that I wrote in 2000 and first recorded in early 2004 and then recorded again in 2005. But I was never satisfied with either version and so re-recorded it last month in a more buoyant, airborne arrangement (with a brand new bridge). Recorded May 26, 2008.

________________________________________________


>June 1, 2008


I had posted over 60 of my songs to vibecat.com but, unfortunately, vibecat doesn't exist anymore, so I'm busy re-posting the songs to a new site.

________________________________________________


>May 18 - 23, 2008



For those of you requesting copies of "About

Myself," my first album, released in 2006, and

my second album, 2007's "Lime Green Celery"

(aka "Make a Noise!"), please hold on, because

songs from both of those albums will soon be

re-released, in re-recorded form, on a brand new

double-CD (with a third CD of b-sides) titled

"75 Songs By Paul Iorio." It will available this

summer, and you can hear many of the tracks online

now at www.vibecat.com/pauliorio.



I've already released part of the new album to

several people, and some of the tracks have

already been added to radio playlists. (Thanks to

everyone who has played them!)



With "75 Songs," I'll have absolutely nobody to blame

if it doesn't connect with listeners. All the production,

engineering, mixing and mastering will be done my me.

As has always been the case with my previous work,

I, of course, wrote all the music and lyrics of all

songs. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but not only

did I write every line of every song, I wrote every

word and aside -- and every melody, too (for better and for

worse!), just as I did on my previous albums. All revisions and

additions and subtractions and arrangements to every song are,

as they have always been, my own.) The only

element contributed by someone else is the financing,

made possible by a generous contribution from old pal

Bill Epps.



[Bill produced the "About Myself" sessions of 2005, but those

sessions were too rushed to produce anything usable; at those

'05 sessions, I brought 52 of my own songs to the studio

while Bill manned the soundboard and recorded my performances

of them in two short days. Because we didn't spend enough

time on it in '05, those '05 recordings have now been

demoted to rehearsal tapes. Anyone who sees Bill's videotape

of the '05 sessions will see that he barely had time to

adjust the microphones (and it's obvious now that the

few production suggestions he made, on around

two or three of my songs, were too hasty and ill-considered,

which is why those suggestions of his have been deleted

in the new recordings.]



The only thing delaying the new album is that I keep

coming up with new songs all the time (I wish someone

would write a self-help book on "How to

Stop Yourself From Writing Songs If You're a

Compulsive Songwriter"). My latest, "Besides," has

generated more response than I expected; and today,

I wrote a new one that I'm excited about, "You Won't

Be Burying Me Now."



So all this might take awhile. More updates later.


-----------------------



>March 31, 2008


Yesterday I finally cut a version of "Better Off

Brokenhearted" that I think works. It's already up

at the vibecat site!


------------------


>March 22, 2008


Just a note to those who know who I'm talkin' about:

I have a friend who has a habit of updating his own

old lyrics with bits of my own newly-released lyrics,

while still claiming the old date for his work.

Hence, to the unaware, he wrongly makes

it look like I was inspired by him instead

of vice versa. Not cool.


-----



>March 15, 2008


Yesterday I wrote a new song, "King Penis of Planet Zero,"

and today I recorded and posted it to the Vibecat site. I

had a lot of fun with it -- hope you enjoy it. Here

are the lyrics:


KING PENIS OF PLANET ZERO
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008


Oh, King Penis!
Oh, King Penis!
Of Planet Zero
Of Planet Zero

King Penis is such a drag
He makes me shine his shoes with his rag
Since he took over I have no worth
Now he's ruling all of planet Earth

Oh, King Penis
Oh, King Penis
Of Planet Zero
Of Planet Zero

King Penis makes me work for food
King Penis makes me sing the blues
One day I'm gonna put him in his place
But he's protected by his man Ghostface

Ohhhhhhhhh Ahhhh Ahhhh
Ohhhh Ahhhhhhhh Ahhh

King Penis and Baron Chop
They stuff their faces and feed us slop
He puts Polonium on his steak
Back on Zero, he's the biggest fave

Oh, King Penis
Oh, King Penis
Of Planet Zero
Of Planet Zerooooo
On Planet Zerooooo
On Planet Zerooooo
On Planet Zerooooo

-- --- --



>March 14, 2008

Yesterday I came up with a couple new songs,

"Chasing a Rainbow" and "King Penis of Planet

Zero," and have just posted the former to the

Vibecat site. It's a brief song -- here're

the lyrics:


CHASING A RAINBOW
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2008

Hey!
Where ya goin'?
I'm chasin' a rainbow

Hey!
Where ya goin'?
I'm chasin' a rainbow

Closer that you get, it gets harder to find
Pretty soon you're thinking that you're losing your goddamned mind

Hey!
Where ya goin'?
I'm chasin' a rainbow

Closer that you get, it gets harder to find
Pretty soon you're thinking that you're losing your goddamned mind

- - -


>March 11-14, 2008



One reason I'm very glad I included "Combination of the Oceans"

on my 1998 demo -- my very first demo -- is because it publicly

and indisputably dates the song (there are people who still

have that tape after all these years!). And that's sort of

a relief because at least one band and one singer/songwriter

(who both shall remain nameless) have since knicked bits

of "Combination of the Oceans" -- and needless to

say, I'm not very pleased about that. But the good thing is

the California band in question recorded its slightly

derivative song in 2000, two years after my demo was

released. And the unsigned singer-songwriter in question

has just now made his song public (on his website), though

he appears to be suspiciously back-dating his lyrics

(unfortunately for him, he didn't bother to back-date it

far enough, because his date still makes my song a year

older than his; perhaps he didn't know about my '98

demo). Same situation with "Better Off Brokenhearted,"

for which I also have a '98 copyright (which makes it at

least two years older than the lyric-bits by the

aforementioned singer-songwriter that are somewhat

derivative of my song). There are a few

people out there who know exactly who I'm talking

about, and you are doing that person absolutely no

favor by allowing him to lie (particularly when

all I'd need are my last few computer hard drives,

which I have, to prove incontrovertibly he's a liar).


- - -


>February 20, 2008


Finally, everybody is going to get clean versions of

the 52 songs I wrote for my debut album, "About

Myself." Since 2006, it's been bothering me that

several of the major songs on "About Myself" had

technical errors or were hastily recorded. (It

wasn't producer William Epp's fault; it was the

result of trying to record 52 songs in a mere

two days at Paramount Studios in L.A.) Now I'm

personally re-recording my songs for that album,

this time without the technical glitches or missed

chords that were on the Paramount tapes!



Also absent is William's background bass playing,

which he added as an after-thought months after

the sessions. William himself admits that he

cannot and does not play the bass guitar, so I think

it's best that the bass (which was too high in

the mix in some cases) is now gone from the album.

As I've told him, I never thought it was a good

idea to put an electric bass on an acoustic

album that was essentially a songwriter showcase.

- - -


>February 19, 2008


I've just now posted my latest song, "Sexually Insane," to

www.vibecat.com/pauliorio. I wrote and recorded it this morning

at my home studio in Berkeley.
____________________________



>February 10, 2008

There seems to be renewed interest lately in

"Warm Docking at the Shrine," which I wrote and

released last fall as part of a 3-song

single. Yes, I did write a previous song

in 1998 called "Warm Docking at the Shrine,"

but the new "Warm Docking" has nothing

to do with the old version. They share only

the same title. I came up with the line

"Warm Docking at the Shrine" in a story that

I wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle

newspaper, and as soon as I came up with the

title, I knew that it implied a terrific song.

My first try to create a song around it

was in '98; a few months ago, I threw out

that song and wrote a suite-like multi-part

thing, and that's the only version in release

right now.



>February 5 - 7, 2008


Thanks again to the radio stations that have

played my new songs "Headin' Down to the Cool

Jerk" and "Mr. Freeze is Taking Over" last week.

Both songs, along with 19 others, are now online as MP3s at:

www.vibecat.com/pauliorio.


Enjoy!

-----


FOR THE RECORD (to correct bad info): My first

album was not a collaboration in any

substantive sense -- unless (to use an analogy) you

also consider, say, Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are

a-Changin''" album to be a collaboration between

Tom Wilson and Dylan. I mean, is "Mr. Tambourine

Man" a Wilson/Dylan collaboration? I don't think

anyone would say that. I mean, I'm certainly not

comparing myself to Wilson/Dylan but, analogously,

the structure of that first album was the same:

straightforward acoustic songs that required very

little production.



Thankfully, I've had a habit since 1997 of emailing

my songs to myself as soon as I've written them; hence,

almost all my songs are electronically dated by the AOL

email of my last three computers (which I've kept!).

So anyone can see, for example, that "Doctor Says" was

written by me in final form in 1998. Or that I completed

"Standing on the River" in 2003 (minor production

changes William made to that song have since been

deleted). So there's no doubt about the chronology of

my songs and how they evolved. The hard drive does

not lie! (By the way, keep in mind that the

producer of my first album didn't come onboard

until '05.)



>January 21, 2008

It was around 10 years ago today that I

first sent my songs out to another person,

though I'd been writing songs for

more than 25 years by that time.



The '98 demo started off as a primitive, 8-songer

on a cassette tape, recorded on a 4-string guitar

in my bathtub, and evolved into a 10-song demo.


Here's the original demo (the word "Costello" refers to the fact that I later recorded some songs by Elvis Costello on the tape.


Here's one of the lyric sheets for the '98 demo:


And here's another:



I sent the demo to a few labels in '98

(here's a response I got from one):





The songs on the '98 demo, along with hundreds of

my other songs, would remain in my desk drawer

for another 6 years, until I put out another

cassette tape called "About Myself," featuring 52

of my songs, in 2004. The next year, in '05, a

friend I hadn't seen in decades, Bill Epps, stopped by

and generously agreed to fund a CD version of my

cassette tape album. And that's how that CD

came to be.



Anyway, I have a complete set of emails in my

AOL Filing Cabinet (on my previous computer)

spanning the 1997 to 2005 period that show, step

by step, how I wrote the "About Myself" album (I

always email all my lyrics to myself in order to

keep them stored; that also serves to show, through

electronic dating of the email, when I wrote

the lyrics.) Among those emails are the ones

in which I sent William my songs and song lyrics

for the first time (he didn't receive copies of

my songs until late August 2005, a couple weeks

before the recording sessions in Los Angeles, according

to the emails in my AOL Filing Cabinet, and

by then I had completely finished writing the songs).



And it's plain to see from these emails that

all my songs were in finished, final form

before William ever heard them.



I may post some of those emails next year as part

of an archival/timeline section of this website.



>January 15, 2008


I just wrote my first songs of 2008 and

recorded them last Sunday at my home studio

in Berkeley.



The songs are "Goin' Down to the Cool Jerk,"

"Time Begins to End" and "Mr. Freeze is Taking Over,"

I've put them together on a 3-song single that

I've just started sending out. (They'll also be

included on my third double-album, which I'll

release in the spring.)



Here are the CD's cover graphics and lyrics:




----------------------------------


>January 3, 2008


Happy new year everyone!




>December 2 - 15, 2007


Someone asked me the other day whether I write my

songs with musical notation. The answer to that

is an emphatic, "No!" I have never written any of

my songs using musical notation or sheet music

(in fact, I wouldn't know how to do it and, further,

sometimes I don't even know the names of the notes

I'm playing). And if there were sheet music for

my songs, I wouldn't know how to read it.



Below is a typical example of how I write out

my music; here is my own "sheet music" for my

song "It's Kind of Cool for June" (note how I

indicate bar chords by drawing their locations

on the fretboard; I know the names of some

non-bar chords). This is the only way, by

the way, my songs have ever been written in notation

(all text and changes to text were written by me):



Below is another example of "sheet music" I wrote for

one of my songs, this one for "Better Girl,"

completed in 2004 (copyrighted in '05), a year or so

before William came onboard the "About Myself" sessions.

Here're pages one and two of the song (all text and

changes to text were, again, written by me):






And here's a third example of my sheet music,

this one for "Doctor Says She's Gonna Come Home

Tonight" (when I'm not using bar chords, I can

identify basic chords like C, G and A minor by

their names). I wrote this one in the late 1990s

(all text and changes to text were written by me).




And here's how I wrote down another of

my songs, "Come on Like a Song," which

I wrote in '93 after a bad winter.

[Note: While I'm flattered that people seem to

like my line "poverty's what happens when you live

so honestly," I'm not at all flattered that

a newspaper writer in San Francisco ripped off that

line for some deadline news story he was writing

in late 2005. For the record, the only version

of this song in circulation was recorded (with that

exact line) on September 17, 2005, in Los Angeles,

after having been distributed throughout 2004 on a

discontinued cassette tape edition of "About Myself";

the newspaper story that stole my line appeared

much later.]



And here's yet another one, "You Know It Shows,"

which I wrote in the fall of 1980, when I was working

at Dell Publishing (and I've been singing it ever

since!). The song hasn't changed at all in 27 years,

except for one line -- "right through her dress" -- which

I came up with and added in June 2005 (I thought the

new line would drive home the fact that the lyric

refers to a pregnant woman; as you can see on the page below,

I added the line months later on the lyric sheet in

uncharacteristic block letters). I tended to write my

songs of '79, '80 and '81 on the roof of the Beacon in

New York, which is where I wrote this one, and it was

in some sense about a (non-pregnant) woman who I had

a crush on at the time and about how hard it was to not

show that I felt that way. (All text and changes to

text written by me.)



And another one. Of all the songs I've written,

"Little Bird" is one of the most fun to play, because

of its unadorned simplicity. This one came from

dehydration; after a very long hike through the

Santa Monica mountains to Universal City on a hot

day in the spring of 2000, I saw a very small bird

in a tree that came all the way out on a branch, as if

it were saying hello to the world for the first time.

Later, I saw a flock of birds in a tree, and I

marveled, in my dehydrated state, at how the birds

looked like a structural part of the tree. As soon

as I wrote it in 2000, I emailed the lyrics (the

same lyrics you see below) to myself -- and I

still have that email in the Pesonal Filing Cabinet

of my previous computer!


Anyway, here's my "sheet music" for it (all text and

changes to text written by me):




And yet another Paul song! This one is "Complicated

Flower," which I wrote in 2003 after seeing a flower on

Russell Street in Berkeley that was both fascinating

and contrived-looking. It looked like it had been

designed by committee but it was a real flower, a

complicated flower. Here's a picture I shot of the

actual flower that inspired the song!



And here's my "sheet music" for "Complicated

Flower" (all text and changes to text written

by -- you guessed it! -- me):





OK, here's another. It's called "Get Tied," and I hardly

needed to write down any chords because I've been singing

this one since I wrote it in 1980 in Manhattan (it was one

of the ones I wrote atop the Beacon in New York). When it

came time to record it in 2005, William kept calling it

"Get Tight" for some unknown reason -- I named it "Get Tied"

in '80 and that's been its name ever since!





I always use a tape recorder in

writing my songs and tend to keep the development

tapes so that later I (and you) can hear the evolution

of the song from its earliest incarnation to its final

form. In some cases, I can pin down not only the date

but the minute when I wrote the song because in the

background you can hear "Nightline" or another news

program as I write the song on guitar. My

producer on "About Myself," William Epps, recently told

me in a phone conversation that, after we had already

recorded my songs, he had done a post-recording notation

for some of my songs (hey, I didn't even ask him to do

it, either!). It's apparently fun for him (I bet he'd

do a notation for the Beatles's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely

Hearts Club Band" if he had the time!). But, no, I don't

write using musical notation. Never have.



By the way, Bill videotaped parts of the

"About Myself" sessions of '05, and those who

see it can see the few production suggestions he

made (those suggestions have since been discarded,

by the way!). Only part of video that is a bit

puzzling: at one point in the video, Bill obviously

misspoke, his camera rolling again, when he told

his sound engineer that "Paul wrote

two of the songs" on "About Myself"; Bill obviously

meant to say that "Paul wrote all fifty-two songs" on

"About Myself" (that's how many we were going to

record, initally). I explicitly corrected Bill about

that, on video, a minute later, saying "I wrote all fifty-two

songs, not two songs," but somehow I think my correction

wound up on the videotape cutting room floor while his mistake

ended up in the video. (I'm sure he wasn't trying to

swindle me out of part of my songwriting catalogue, which

took me most of my life to write; I think he just

misspoke. Keep in mind that it was Bill who said

that erroneous bit about "two songs" -- I didn't

say that.)



Also: as a point of contrast, here are the lyrics

of 5 songs written solely by William Epps for one

of his own albums. You can compare and contrast his work

with mine, and anyone can easily see how different our

two separate bodies of work are. Nobody smart would

ever mistake a William Epps song for a Paul Iorio song!


______________________


>November 24, 2007


Well, it's been exactly 2 years since I sent out my

music on CDs for the very first time, and in that

span, at least 9 of my songs have been added to

radio playlists in at least 3 countries. I'm extremely

appreciative of that and very pleasantly surprised,

and I want to thank all the radio people out there

who have been playing my stuff! And I hope

I'm able to come up with new material in the future

that's also right for your shows and stations.



Also: a gigantic thanks to the radio stations that

have been playing my two new songs, "Armageddon Time"

and "The Holy Country Song," in the last several days.

I hear the latter song is even causing a bit of

controversy (and I think that's a good thing!).




>November 15, 2007


Just wrote a new song on Sunday and started

releasing it a couple days ago. It's called

"The Holy Country Song" and its lyrics are

posted below.

---

>November 5, 2007


I've written and recorded several non-album

singles in the past few week, so I'm now

collecting them for a limited-edition

second-disc of "Lime Green Celery."


Yesterday I recorded yet another new song,

"Warm Docking at the Shrine," a multi-parter

that I'm just now sending out.


Last week's single, "Waterboardin' U.S.A.," has

already seen some radio play -- and I couldn't

be more thankful to those who've aired it!



>October 19, 2007


I'm coming up with lots of new songs that

don't have anything to do with the new

album. Must be the jalapenos!

"In the Moodlight" and "Forgotten by Name"

are in gestation. "Warm Docking at the Shrine,"

a multi-part thing, is almost finished.

----------------------


>October 16, 2007


Just released a new single to radio, "Chasin' You,"

from the album. Am surprised people are responding to

this one more than to some of the others, but they are,

and so I'm sending it out seperately.


Here's the cover art:


-------------------------

>September 4, 2007


Over the Labor Day weekend I recorded two

new original songs that aren't on the new

album, and they are: "Drunk Driving Music"

and "Murder on Harmony Lane" (lyrics are

posted in the lyrics section of this website).


P.S. -- I recently heard a rumor that I

was actually the writer behind some of the songs of

my brother, Jay Iorio (who has a music career that

is completely independent of mine). Not true. Jay

writes his own songs, and I write

my own songs, and we don't collaborate

at all or share any material. (In fact, the

last songs of his I've heard are the 12 he

self-released back in 2000.) By the way, if anyone

out there hears that rumor, please fee free to

contact me at pliorio@aol.com to let me know

who the source of it is (so I can have a little

talk with that source!).


---------------------


>August 13, 2007


"Lime Green Celery" has just been released. A

lot of people have already requested copies and

I'm trying to send them out as fast as

possible.


Anyway, here some info about the 22 songs on the CD:

"(The Overwhelming Weight of) the Water Blue Sky" --
The title came to me on the way back from grocery
shopping, and I wrote the lyric on the back of a
Safeway receipt dated October 21, 2006 (see below). As
I carried home my groceries, this line went through
my head: "When the overwhelming weight of the water
blue sky comes crashing down." For months, all
I had was the chorus, and then a chord progression
emerged for the verses, and lyrics emerged from the melody.



"You, Walking Away" -- I've always had fun
playing this one and wrote it with a certain
female vocalist in mind. Reminds me of
the first cool day of fall. I wrote it around 2002.


"Rich and Dumb" -- Originally folk rap that
started "Smart and poor won't open any doors,"
though the chorus has remained the same. Circa 2003.


If I Thought 'bout Getting Around:
For a decade or so, I had the musical phrasing/melody/shape
of the chorus but had no words for it, so (as I always
do) I let the words emerge from the ooze, always favoring
sound over sense. I wrote much of this one in the
1990s, when I first came up with "You Bring the Love"
(from "About Myself"). A roots rocker.


It's Good for the Roses:
I wrote this after being robbed at gunpoint one
afternoon on my way to a Lucinda Williams concert
in San Francisco in June 2005. I like the tension in
this one. Definitely influenced by Bruce Springsteen.


Last Night's Moon:
This is the only song I've heard about a moon that
lingers into the next day (and the relationship that
was attached to that moon the night before). Sort of
CCRish. (And regarding those sound effects in the intro:
I was trying to overdub a wolf howling but it ended up
sounding enigmatic, so I kept it, but might not in future
editions.)


Doncha Sleep
It may sound pretentious to say this but it's factually
true: I woke up one morning with the chorus of this song fully
formed in my head, so I grabbed my cassette recorder
and sang it on tape before it disappeared.

And that's generally how I write; songs come to me and I
immediately grab a tape recorder and record
them on tapes like these:




Make a Noise!
Folk rap. Couldn't find any drums so I used
the fretboard for scratch effect.


This Skull
Inspired by Shakespeare's gravediggers in "Hamlet."
Written in the summer of 2006 when my dad was dying
and I was suddenly reading lots of Shakespeare.


Somebody's Lover
I think this is one of the best melodies I've written.
Because of the chord changes, it's difficult for me
to play this one but somehow I got it right on the
take used for this album.


Long Story Short
Brief.


Just Tell Her You Love Her
"If you really wanna get rid of her, just tell
her you love her" goes the lyrics. "I Don't
Believe You"esque. I wrote this one in 2003
in my apartment and had a lot of fun coming
up with the chorus. I put the rough draft on
tape but came thisclose to losing the tape.


Things Denied in Youth
I wrote the original version of this in 1981 in
New York City, and it was one of the songs I
wrote in my first three years in New York,
from '79 to '81 (among them "If One Rainy Night,"
"You Know It Shows," "Get Tied," "Chasin' You,"
part of "Drowning Man," etc.). I also used the
title phrase in a story I wrote for the East
Village Eye newspaper in 1984 (see below).



I Wanna Die (I Really Wanna Die)
Written in 2006.


Chasin' You
Another one I wrote in my first few years in New York.


I Guess You Heard About the Pain
Originally intended for "About Myself."


Drowning Man
I wrote the chorus at the Beacon in New York in
1980 ("You don't save a drowning man/when he's
reached the shore/'cause when he's reached the
shore/he don't need you anymore") but wasn't able
to attach it to a suitable verse and arrangement
until I was walking down a Berkeley street in 2007
and started spontaneously humming the melody of the verse.


Lime Green Celery
This funk fragment also came to me on a walk through
Berekely in 2007.


Madness (in Room 6J2)
This one sort of rolled off my tongue in one piece.


Cold Sunshine
Another one that was marked for "About Myself"
but didn't make it on the album. I wrote it in the
early 1990s.


Death Falls Like a Sunset
Wrote this in '05.


Up in the Puzzle Tree
Puzzle Trees actually exist and their branches
sort of resemble verticle mazes. It always
puts me in a good mood to sing this one.


Drunk Drivin Music
Released as a 2-song single; may be included
in some future editions of the album. I wrote
the chorus years ago, in 2003, and always
loved the concept, but didn't flesh it out
until Labor Day weekend 2007. A bonus
track on some copies of "Lime Green Celery."


Murder on Harmony Lane
Released as a 2-song single. I wrote
this one in 2004. After several
hours of playing guitar in my apartment, I
started strumming a chord progression that
became what I originally called "Born Clean,"
which then evolved naturally into the "murder
on Harmony Way" chorus. Put it on a tape
in my closet for three years, until Labor Day
weekend 2007, when I prepared it for release.
A bonus track on some copies of "Lime Green
Celery."


All music and lyrics by Paul Iorio. Copyright 2007.
Guitar, vocals, sound effects: Paul Iorio. Produced
by Paul Iorio. Recorded at Paul's home studio in
Berkeley, Calif., August 11 and 12, 2007. (Thanks
to Bill Epps for invaluable advice and support!)

__________________________________________________


August 4, 2007


I'm now sending around the new album's

first CD single -- a three-song single

that includes "Rich and Dumb," "You,

Walking Away" and "(The Overwhelming

Weight of) the Water Blue Sky." ("Rich

and Dumb" is already getting radio airplay!)


The rest of the album, a 22-songer, will

be released by mid-August.

___________________________________________


August 11, 2007

I'm holed up in the home studio recording the new

album, "Lime Green Celery" -- eight songs

finished, around dozen to go. Self-producing this

time. The album will be out in days.

___________________________


>July 19, 2007


Well, my upcoming second album, "Lime Green Celery,"

is already off to a promising start, even though

only a handful of advance copies have been released

on cassette tape so far.


Its first single, "Rich and Dumb," has already been

aired on top college radio station KALX in Berkeley,

California (many thanks to Marshall Stax for playing

it!).

--------------------------


>july 17, 2007



Much to my surprise, my debut album, "About Myself,"

released around a year-and-a-half ago, seems to be

reigniting, even though I stopped sending it out a

few months ago.


In recent weeks, songs from the album have been

getting airplay, most notably on WFMU in New

Jersey (my favorite radio station on the planet,

by the way!). Sincere thanks to Steve Krinsky

for playing "Pretty Women at the Funeral" -- and to all the

others for adding songs from the album to their

playlists!


Because of the new interest in the album, I'm going

to start releasing "About Myself" again for a

limited time, this time in its complete, 43-song,

two-disc edition.

________________________________






"Lime Green Celery"

the next album by Paul Iorio

will be released later this month.

All songs by Paul Iorio
Produced by Paul Iorio
Vocals, guitar: Paul Iorio

copyright 2007





LIME GREEN CELERY (Side A)


1. You, Walking Away

2. Doncha Sleep

3. Make a Noise!

4. This Skull

5. Last Night's Moon

6. Somebody's Lover

7. Just Tell Her You Love Her

8. It's Good for the Roses

9. If I Thought 'bout Getting Around

10. The Things Denied in Youth

11. I Wanna Die (I Really Wanna Die)

12. Rich and Dumb

13. The Overwhelming Weight (of the Water-Blue Sky)

14. Long Story Short

15. Lime Green Celery

16. Chasing You

17. I Guess You Heard About the Pain

18. You Don't Save a Drowning Man

19. Madness (In Room 6J2)

20. Cold Sunshine

21. Death Falls Like a Sunset

22. Up in the Puzzle Tree



LIME GREEN CELERY (SIDE B)




23. Murder on Harmony Way
24. Armageddon Time
25. Warm Docking at the Shrine
26. Waterboardin' U.S.A. (based on
Chuck Berry/Brian Wilson's "Surfin' USA")
27. I Shot Osama bin Laden
28. The Ballad of Senator Craig
29. Drunk Drivin' Music



I intended to include four of these songs (tracks 16, 17, 20 and 21) on my first album, "About Myself," but didn't have room for them.]

________________________________

Lyrics of the "Lime Green Celery" CD (plus non-album singles)



THE HOLY COUNTRY SONG
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio

copyright 2007


Don't you hate all of those country songs
Saying, "I am the way and the light"

That "Jesus Christ is comin'
And everything'll be alright"

They say, "The Lord is my savior/
Won't you do me a favor, and get me into heaven tonight"

I heard them thankin' Jesus
On the CMAs last night

I heard them thankin' Jesus
On the CMAs last night

They talk about resurrection like it was an erection
Natural selection ain't right

"Don't talk that evolution/
Creation just took one night

The Ten Commandments make you a helluva man/
And I believe the ones I like

Though shall not go a killin'
Except when you're havin' a fight"

I heard them thankin' Jesus
At the CMAs last night

They can't have some nook
Because some boring book with badly translated text

Says you can't commit adultery
Or have recreational sex

Well, Jesus Christ put up a helluva fight
Takin' heat for what I done

Enabling bad behavior
So I'm forgiven for my fun


I heard them thankin' Jesus
At the CMAs last night

I heard them thankin' Jesus
At the CMAs last night


* * * *


THIS SKULL
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2007

Walking through the graveyard
The way I sometimes do
Thinking 'bout life and when it's through

Kicking a rock and found it was part of

A skull
It used to make a noise
This skull
It used to have a voice
This skull
It used to have a tongue
I wanna be the last one to turn out the lights
This skull

Walking 'neath the trees and falling leaves
Appreciating things I'd never seen

Shouting while I can before I become

This skull
It used to make a noise
This skull
It used have a voice
I wanna be the last one to turn out the lights
This skull
It used to make a noise
This skull
It used have a voice
I wanna be the last one to turn out the lights
This skull
This skull
This skull

__________________________________


LAST NIGHT'S MOON
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2007


Last night's moon still lingers today
But that still makes it last night's moon

Last night's moon still lingers today
But that still makes it last night's moon

We broke up last night
In the light of that moon
The crescent's still up in the sky today
But that don't make it anything but

Last night's moon still lingers today
But that still makes it last night's moon

Your lies were so clear
In the light of that moon
The moon's still up in the sky today
But that don't make it anything but

Last night's moon still lingers today
But that still makes it last night's moon

________________________________________


RICH AND DUMB
(music and lyrics by Paul Iorio)
copyright 2007


Well, my job's a bore
It gives me hypnotism
And he's just the boss
Because of nepotism
He got his job by working for his dad
But that's not half of what's making me mad

(What you say?)

Rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
For the rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
Rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
You gotta work for the rich and dumb


Right out of school
I had to work as a clerk
'Cause I didn't have the money
not to work for that jerk
He's on vacation now
But when he gets back
I'm gonna sing him this song and that's a fact

(what you say?!)

Rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
For the rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
Rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
You gotta work for the rich and dumb


I'm gonna quit my job and start my own business
I've got myself a blog and with you as a witness
I'm gonna turn the tide and right some wrongs
So I can find a way to stop singing this song

(Everybody's sayin')

Rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
For the rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
Rich and dumb
(you gotta work work work work)
You gotta work for the rich and dumb

__________________________________________


JUST TELL HER YOU LOVE HER
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


Saw my love just the other day
Tried to find a way to break up with her
Couldn't bear to break her heart
Had to find just the right words

I told my love a lovely lie
Something so she'd walk out that door
And then I looked her in the eye
Said these magic words

If you really wanna get rid of her
If you don't wanna see her no more
Just tell her you love her
Just tell her you care
Just tell her you love her
If you don't wanna see her no more

It works better than fare-the-well
Take it from me, I know
It works better than go to hell
Kill 'em with kindness and snow

She hasn't phoned since I told her so
Looks at me funny and sweet
She figures she's got me in the bag
Doesn't have to try things on me

If you really wanna get rid of her
If you don't wanna see her no more
Just tell her you love her
Just tell her you care
Just tell her you love her
If you don't wanna see her no more

Just tell her
Just tell her
(If you don't wanna see her no more)

Just tell her
Just tell her
(If you don't wanna see her no more)

_______________________________________


YOU, WALKING AWAY
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2007


You, walking away
Walking like I can't see the way you feel
You're feeling today
But if you want to stay, I say ok

You, walking away
Walking like I can't see the way mascara runs down your face
But if you just don't place, I say ok

You, walking away
Walking like I can't read the way you feel
You can't tell me thatg it's real
If your love is like a wheel
She said ok

You, walking to me
Walking like I can see you finally see what you mean to me
And if you want to play with me today

Walking away
Walking like I can't see the way you feel
You're feeling today
And if you want to stay I'll say ok

Walking away
Walking away
Walking away
Walking away
________________________________________________


(THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE) WATER BLUE SKY
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2007

Stars shine bright in the middle of the afternoon
Stars cast light in a halo all over you

I've been looking for monochrome nights
I've been looking for gold
But even gold don't look that much like gold
(It don't look like gold when you get up to it)

Stars shine bright in the middle of a mushroom
Stars shine bright, they're the only things shinin' through

I've been looking for light in the night
I've been looking for days
I've been looking for all the wrong things, so they say
(They say they're the wrong things)

The overwhelming weight
Of the water blue sky
The overwhelming weight
Of that look in your eye (eye)

Stars are dying, I'm still not getting all of you
Stars won't last nearly half as long as light they threw

Thought I'd last a little longer than this
Thought I'd have all day
Thought I'd know what to do when the light went away
(Thought I'd know what to do)

The overwhelming weight
Of the water blue sky
The overwhelming weight
Of that look in your eye


The overwhelming weight
Of the water blue sky
The overwhelming weight
Of that look in your eye
_______________________________________________________________

DONCHA SLEEP
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


I'll bring the salt
You bring the earth
You bring the circle that comes back from death to birth

Take your chance
Go roll the dice
Don't give up now, you've only tried it once or twice

Don't you sleep with anyone but me
Doncjha sleep with anyone but me
With anyone but me
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh

I've been to Spain
Inside my wine
But ain't seen terrain like the kind that you unwind

You junk the car for a flat tire
You throw me ice when I'm on fire

Don't you sleep with anyone but me
Doncha sleep with anyone but me
Girl, with anyone but me
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh

You sell the car with a flat tire
You throw me, girl, when I'm on fire

Don't you sleep with anyone but me
Doncha sleep with anyone but me
Girl, with anyone but me
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh
With anyone but me
With anyone but me
With anyone but me

-----------------------------------------------

I WANNA DIE (I REALLY WANNA DIE)
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


I wanna die, I really wanna die
I wanna die, I really wanna die
I can't live my life this way
It's just pain and bills I gotta pay
I wanna die, I really wanna die

I wanna die, I really wanna die
I wanna die, I really wanna die
Life just ain't goin' my way
I don't think that I'm a gonna stay
I wanna die, I really wanna die

I wanna live, I really wanna live
I wanna live, I really wanna live
But I don't wanna live this way
That's all there is, that's what they say
I wanna live, I really wanna live

I wanna die, I really wanna die
I wanna die, I really wanna die
But I keep on, I take what they give
Guess I don't like the alternative
I wanna die, I really wanna die
I wanna die, I really wanna die
I wanna die, I really wanna die

-------------------------------------

IT'S GOOD FOR THE ROSES
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


Blood red roses are growing from the spot
Where a man and his wife were taken down and shot
Blood red roses are growing in a knot
From a break in the ground outside the parking lot

It's good for the roses
It's good for the roses
It's good for the roses

Blood red roses are lying on a grave where
Where a man and his wife were unable to be saved
Blood red roses are soaking in a vase
Where survivor's minds are caught up in a maze

It's good for the roses
It's good for the roses
It's good for the roses

He lies in a permanent way
She lies up beside him in rain
He won't wonder what happened that night
She won't remember the last of the fight

It's good for the roses
It's good for the roses
It's good for the roses

Blood red roses are growing from the spot
Blood red roses are growing from the spot
Blood red roses are growing from the spot

-------------------------------------------------


MADNESS (IN ROOM 6J2)
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


Madness
In room 6J2

Madness
In room 6J2

I held a broken crystal ball right up to your wrist
You tell me all your truths but some you might have missed

Madness
In room 6J2

Madness
In room 6J2

I spent a fortune on you, unfortunately
Now I can't quite afford you, so I'll let you leave

Madness
In room 6J2

Madness
In room 6J2

Madness
Madness
Madness

-----------------------------------------

MAKE A NOISE!
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


When I was living on 86th, there was a bank in the back and a hack in a Mack and a phone on the wall and call from the ball, saying don't be late for your own first date

If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
Make a noise!
Make a noise!

Then I moved to 105th to a place near a drone with a mind of its own and a fax with a wax that'll glow like the sun on a day when you pay for an alternate way


If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
Make a noise!
Make a noise!

If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
Make a noise!
Make a noise!

Now I'm back on the vine and my mind's doing time with a bowl and a lime and a whole lot of crime with a rack and a track and I don't look back to a time when I pined for a piece of your mind


If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
Make a noise!
Make a noise!

If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
Make a noise!
Make a noise!

If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
If you don't know what to do
Make a noise!
Make a noise!

--------------------------


SOMEBODY'S LOVER
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007

How can you stand
I don't know
She gets whatever she wants
How can you stand
I don't know
She's got the love in her heart

And she wants
And she wants to travel south
And she wants
And she wants to follow north
And she wants

How can you stand without tears in your eyes
When you know she's been somebody's lover?
How can you stand without tears in your eyes
When you know she's been somebody's lover?
Somebody's girl

You know you gotta stop her
From lovin' someone she don't want

How can you stare
You don't know
She's got an ache in her heart
How can you love
Someone who
Tells you she's ready to part?

And she wants
And she wants to travel best
And she wants
But she likes the old northwest
And she wants

How can you stand without tears in your eyes
When you know she's been somebody's lover?
How can you stand without tears in your eyes
When you know she's been somebody's lover?
Somebody's girl

You know you gotta stop her
From lovin' someone she don't want

________________________________

IF I THOUGHT 'BOUT GETTING AROUND
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007



IF I THOUGHT 'BOUT GETTING AROUND
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


I fought the law and it was a draw
On 15th and 5th, where I made the call

Well, if I thought 'bout gettin' around
If I thought 'bout getting around
It's a big scandal, it's the talk of the town
If I thought 'bout getting around
If I thought 'bout getting around

You dodged a bullet but can't dodge the ball
You dodge my letters but can't dodge my calls

Well, if I thought 'bout gettin' around
If I thought 'bout getting around
It's a big scandal, it's the talk of the town
If I thought 'bout getting around
If I thought 'bout getting around

I'd come on over but trout's on the grill
People comin' over, no time to kill

Well, if I thought 'bout gettin' around
If I thought 'bout getting around
It's a big scandal, it's the talk of the town
If I thought 'bout getting around
If I thought 'bout getting around

____________________________________


LIME GREEN CELERY
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007

Tell her, please
It ain't what you think it'd be
Tell her, please
It's lime green celery

Tell her, please
It ain't what you think it'd be
Tell her, please
It's lime green celery
Lime green celery
Lime green celery
Lime green celery


---------------------------------------------


I GUESS YOU HEARD ABOUT THE PAIN
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


I guess you heard about the pain
I guess you heard about the pain

I can tell by the look in your eyes
Then she said, to my surprise

I guess you heard about the pain
I guess you heard about the pain

You're wrong, so go
You're wrong, so go
Everytime I love you it just goes so slow

I guess you heard about the pain
I guess you heard about the pain

I can tell byh the way that you cry
It came to me as no surprise

I guess you heard about the pain
I guess you heard about the pain
I guess you heard about the pain

---------------------------------------

LONG STORY SHORT
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


Too many nos, too many times, too many hurts
Too many nos, too many times, too many hurst
I'll make a long story short this time
I'll make a long story short

Too many nos, too many times, too many hurts
Too many nos, too many times, too many hurts
I'll make a long story short this time
I'll make a long story short
I'll make a long story short

------------------------------------------

CHASING YOU
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


Chasin' you
Through Spanish forests
Chasin' you
On Long Island

Chasin' you
Without an inkling
Chasin' you
In Santiago

But I could never quite explain
To you that I meant you no harm
I could never quite explain
To you that I meant you no harm
No harm

Chasin' you across the border
Chasin' you on the high seas
Chasin' you without you knowing
Chasin' you till I'd forgotten

But I could never quite explain
To you that I meant you no harm
I could never quite explain
To you that I meant you no harm
No harm
No harm

But fortunate for me
Good luck dances naked in broken windows
Fortunate for me
Good luck dances naked in broken windows

No harm
No harm
No harm

-------------------------------------------

THINGS DENIED IN YOUTH
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007

Every year about this time she wakes up
'Cause she feels it's just too real for her
To ever let you go

Darlin', ain't there just too much to feel?
And darlin', ain't your heart just like a reel?
And you know it

'Cause the things denied in youth are really never satisfied

Every year it's high time that she wakes up
'Cause she knows that youth gets old so fast
It never lets you know

Darlin', ain't your youth just like a field?
And darlin', did you plant enough to yield?
Because you know that

The things denied in youth are really never satisfied
The things denied in youth are really never satisfied
The things denied in youth are really never satisfied

[coda]

Things denied
In youth are really never satisifed
Things denied
In youth are really never satisfied

--------------------------------------

DROWNING MAN
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007

You don't save a drowning man
When he's reached the shore
'Cause when he's reached the shore
He don't need you anymore

dee da da da etc...

I must confess
I was the worst
I was best man at her divorce

She took my head
I took her heart
I had to wait to play the part

dee da da da etc.

You don't save a drowning man
When he's reached the shore
'Cause when he's reached the shore
He don't need you anymore

You don't save a drowning man
When he's reached the shore
'Cause when he's reached the shore
He don't need you anymore

-----------------------------------------------

UP IN THE PUZZLE TREE
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2007


Up in the Puzzle Tree
Can't complain! Can't complain!
Up in the Puzzle Tree
I'm insane! I'm insane!

Up in the Puzzle Tree
That's where I'm a-gonna be
Up in the Puzzle Tree
I'm insane!

_________________________________________________


MURDER ON HARMONY WAY

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2007
[released as 2-song single]

Born clean
Nobody's born clean
Born clean
Nobody's clean
There's a murder
On Harmony Way

Born clean
Nobody's born clean
Born clean
Nobody's clean
There's a murder
On Harmony Way

There's a murder
On Harmony Way

I got a dirty education

You told me
Everyone was innocent
You told me
No one was involved
in the murder
On Harmony Way

Big lawns
Poplar hedges
I moved here
'cause everyone said there's no murder
On Harmony Way
There's a murder
On Harmony Way

Time was
I could go strolling
Time was
I could go rolling
Without worrying
About Harmony Way
There's a murder
on Harmony Lane


I got dirty education

Born clean
Nobody's born clean
Born clean
Nobody's clean
There's a murder
On Harmony Way
There's a murder
on Harmony Way

Born clean
Born clean
Born clean

___________________________________________


WARM DOCKING AT THE SHRINE
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio


In a shitty little sub-division outside of San Antone
There's a man with a mast and a boat and a cast
With the hope of rowing home
Rowing home
Rowing home

He was hit by the car of his dreams yet he lived to tell the story
His heart beats like a clock that you'd have to take back to the store

He sits back in his captain's chair and lights up a thing or two
He's got forty minds of his own but he only uses a few

Velvet Crush
Sailing on the Velvet Crush
Velvet Crush

Don't tell me I don't know the part of her that's best
Don't tell me I don't know the velvet from the rest

Velvet Crush
Sailing on the Velvet Crush
Velvet Crush

The sails are set but tides are pulling us back
You gave us weapons when we needed a map

Velvet Crush
Sailing on the Velvet Crush
Velvet Crush

It's a wonder I used to know her
She's a wonder I used to know

Walking the streets, wandering
Used to be a beacon for following

Get your hands off my front door
Get your hands off knocking more
Get your hands off my own song
Get your hands where they belong (they don't belong here)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah -- no, no, no
Warm dockin' at the shrine

Get your hands off my ten rights
Get your hands off, 'less you want a fight
Get your hands out of prayer mode
Get your hands bailing out this boat (it needs some bailing out)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah -- no, no, no
Warm dockin' at the shrine
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah -- no, no, no
Warm dockin' at the shrine

They're at the shore with wine and smiles
They're greeting us for a solid mile
Dancing at the port of Ocatel
Singing their songs and a-ringin' all their bells

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah -- no, no, no
Warm dockin' at the shrine
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah -- no, no, no
Warm dockin' at the shrine

Yeah yeah yeah -- no no no
Warm dockin' at the shrine
Yeah yeah yeah -- no no no
Warm dockin' at the shrine

Get your hands
Get your hands

______________________________________



WATERBOARDIN' U.S.A.
parody song based on the music and lyrics
of Chuck Berry/Brian Wilson's
"Surfin U.S.A"

If everybody had oceans
Like the U.S.A.
Then everybody be boardin'
Like the C.I.A.

You see them wearin' their raggies
With water drippin', too
And Bush is pushing them to do
Boardin' U.S.A.

You'll catch them boardin' in Riyahd [feet up/head down/breath in and out
Along the Saudi line [feet up/head down/breath in and out]
Khalid Sheik Mohammed
Squealed on Hambali

All over Manhattan and down Doheny Way
Everybody's gone boardin' -- boardin' U.S.A.

We all be planning out our torture
We're gonna take real soon
We're waxin' down our waterboards
We've got renditions to do

We'll all be gone for the summer
Where waterboarding's ok

Tell the judge we're boardin'
Boardin' U.S.A.

Everybody's water boardin' -- Boardin' U.S.A.

Feet up, head down, breath in and out
Feet up, head down, breath in and out
Feet up, head down, breath in and out

You'll catch them boardin' in Riyahd
Along the Saudi line

Everybody's water boardin' -- Boardin' U.S.A.
Everybody's water boardin' -- Boardin' U.S.A.
Everybody's water boardin' -- Boardin' U.S.A.

___________________________


THE BALLAD OF SENATOR CRAIG
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio

Walking to the bathroom in the afternoon
The smell inside just put me in a lovin' mood
I put my hand beneath the stall to find a toy
But I was really after that toilet boy

Toilet boy
The Senator is looking for a
Toilet boy
Someone to do
Toilet boy
The Senator is looking for a
Toilet boy
And boy you'll do

I'm Senator Craig and I just touched your leg
I'm in the U.S. Congress, ain't no bad egg
I'm at work I uphold morality
But in my downtime, I'm on my knees in pee

Toilet boy
The Senator is looking for a
Toilet boy
Someone to do
Toilet boy
The Senator is looking for a
Toilet boy
And boy you'll do

Love Field
Is called that for real
The stalls in D.C.
Might charge you a fee
But that's all right with me


Toilet boy
The Senator is looking for a
Toilet boy
Someone to do
Toilet boy
The Senator is looking for a
Toilet boy
And boy you'll do

Urinal, my dream
Urinal, my dream
Urinal, my dream

___________________________


I SHOT OSAMA BIN LADEN
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio


I shot Osama bin Laden
He was throwing bombs on me
I shot Osama bin Laden

And every time I think about it, girl
I just wanna say

Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden

I caught a glimpse
Of him with al-Zawahiri and his other pimps
Fired away
I shot his beard straight off, it was an AeroShave (AeroShave)

I shot Osama bin Laden
He was throwing bombs on me
I shot Osama bin Laden

And every time I think about it, girl
I just wanna say

Osama bin Laden
Bombs on me
Osama bin Laden
Bombs on me

Ashes away
I threw his ashes down the toilet drain
Ate some sorbet
To celebrate what I did that day (that day)

I shot Osama bin Laden
He was throwing bombs on me
I shot Osama bin Laden

And every time I think about it, girl
I just wanna say

Osama bin Laden
Bombs on me
Osama bin Laden
Bombs on me

He was throwing bombs on me
He was throwing bombs on me
He was throwing bombs on me

____________________________


DRUNK DRIVING MUSIC

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2007

Drunk driving music
I know that I shouldn't do it
Drunk driving music
You know that it helps me through it
With my hair in the air
And the music blarin'
That drunk drivin' music
Drunk drivin' music

I'm sitting at home
I'm drinking alone
I wanna drive around somehwere
But I've had more than a few

She's calls on the phone
She starts comin' on
I tell her that I'd come on by-a
But I've had too much Stolichniya

I know I shouldn't do it
But it helps me get right through it
Hearing that

Drunk driving music
I know that I shouldn't do it
Drunk driving music
You know that it helps me through it
With my hair in the air
And the music blarin'
That drunk drivin' music
Drunk drivin' music

I see a cop pass
I think it's my ass
But then I see he's got a brew
And he's been drinkin', too
And as he flies on by
I hear it comin' from his side
Hearin' that

Drunk driving music
I know that I shouldn't do it
Drunk driving music
You know that it helps me through it
With my hair in the air
And the music blarin'
That drunk drivin' music
Drunk drivin' music
Drunk drivin' music
Drunk drivin' music


>July 22, 2007
Looks like "Rich and Dumb" will

definitely be the first single

from "Lime Green Celery," after all,

as it's already garnering airplay -- from

the always amazing KALX in Berkeley! --

even though the song has only been released

to a few people on audiocassete so far.

--------------------


>July 17, 2007


Now that a few people have

heard the new stuff, the song

people seem to be responding

to the most is "(The Overwhelming

Weight of) the Water Blue Sky" -- so

that may be the first single

(instead of "Rich and Dumb").

Meanwhile, as I mentioned at the

top of this website, my previous

album, "About Myself," is re-gaining

steam on the airwaves, so I'm taking

time out to release that album again

in its 43-song incarnation!


>july 7, 2007
The sequence and selection of

tracks has been finalized: 22

songs (all music and lyrics

by me).

In advance of the album's

release, I've been sending

around a 7-song EP on cassette

tape, which is essentially

the first 7 songs of the album,

though I've mailed it to only

a few people so far.


"Rich and Dumb"'ll probably be

the first single, though "You,

Walking Away," "This Skull"

and "Doncha Sleep" are being surprisingly

well-received by some who have

heard 'em.



>june 19, 2007

i've changed the album

title back to "Lime Green

Celery" -- it just fits,

somehow.




june 6, 2007...

OK, my new album is called "Make a Noise!" and will be

available on CD this summer! 20 original songs at least.

More to come.


(Incidentally, I recently heard a rumor that I

was actually the writer behind some of the songs of

my brother, Jay Iorio (who has a music career that

is completely independent of mine). Not true. Jay

writes his own songs, and I write

my own songs, and we don't collaborate

at all or share any material.)

---

june 4, 2007...

Well, my own next album is coming together much faster than

I thought it would and should be out on CD this summer. As

with my previous CD, I've written over 50 original songs but

this time I'm including only around 20 of 'em for a single

disc that'll be called either "Make a Noise!" or "Lime

Green Celery."


To be honest, I thought my previous album, "About Myself,"

self-released in '06, was going to be completely ignored

(after all, I had worked most of my life as a journalist, not

as a musician).


So what a surprise to see three of my songs hit the radio

airwaves in three countries last year, despite the

fact that my budget for the album was approximately zilch.


Anyway, I'm real excited about the new material, but trying to

narrow the songlist down to just 20 is a chore.


New lyrics will be posted soon.


* * *

may 2007...

Well, I haven't been sending out "About Myself" to anyone for the past month or so, and that's because I'm now hard at work rehearsing my new album, "Make a Noise!," which I'm really excited about.



PaulIorio
__________________________________________________________



EASTERN WESTERN
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005


Forty miles outside of Cheyenne
Drinking grain and shooting cans
Make a wish and he's your man
Speaks a language you don't understand

Eastern western
I don't know which way I'm going
Eastern western
I don't know

From the dune, there're just buttes and cliffs
Prairie land where no one lives
Wasted mesa and a geiger hit
No one's lived here since Rosso split

Eastern western
I don't know which way I'm going
Eastern western
I don't know

Oh, the open plains were big enough for two
You took the sky and I laid claim to you

Eastern western
I don't know

Now I'm back in ol' Montana
44 magnum in my hand
Shot the bailiff, not a popular man
Everybody thinks I had it planned

Eastern western
I don't know which way I'm going
Eastern western
I don't know
Eastern western
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
___________________________


TEN YEARS AGO
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Everytime I think about you, girl
I think about how far you went downhill
I think about a simple yellow pill
But girl, it's over now
If it ever was before

Ten years ago
I could've loved you, babe
I could've won you, babe
Ten years ago
I could've wowed you, babe
I could've saved you, babe

She was mugged on Ritchie Valens's star
Late one night on Hollywood Boulevard
Never was the same much after that
Started poppin' stuff and lashing at
All those who loved her most
If they ever did before

Ten years ago
I could've loved you, babe
I could've won you, babe
Ten years ago
I could've wowed you, babe
I could've saved you, babe

I think about you night and day
On the wing, on the way
I think about the way you went
And all the time we could've spent

Ten years ago
I could've loved you, babe
I could've won you, babe
Ten years ago
I cjould've wowed you, babe
I could've saved you, babe
I could've died in your place
I could've died in your place
I could've
I should've
_________________________________


THE WORLD BLEW UP
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

I'm glad I saw the world before the world blew up
The world blew up
The world blew up

I'm glad I saw the world before the world blew up
I've been all over this world

I'm glad I saw my lover 'fore she walked away
She walked away
One sad sad day
Yeah, I'm glad I saw my lover 'fore she walked away
She walked away from my world

I'm glad I saw the towers 'fore they tumbled down
They tumbled down
Right to the ground
I'm glad I saw the towers 'fore they tumbled down
They tumbled all over my world

I'm glad I saw the world before the world blew up
The world blew up
The world blew up
I'm glad I saw the world before the world blew up
I've been all over this world
(The world blew up)
I've been all over this world
(The world blew up, yeah, the world blew up)
--------------------------------------

FOREVER GOT AWAY LAST NIGHT

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

Forever got away last night
Forever up and left this morning
However we got in a fight
She didn't give me any warning

Took a subway
And a boxcar
Caught the last flight
Forever got away last night
Forever got away last night

Whatever you say about last night
Remember you're alone this morning
In the 'frigerator light
I bet you regret all your moaning

Packed a suitcase
And your memories
Left the heartache
Forever got away last night
Forever got away last night
Forever got away last night
___________________________


YOU KNOW IT SHOWS
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Bottlecap road on a summer's day
In that cafe where the Nikolodeon plays
When the balalaika plays on Brogan Street
You get crazy with your poison, you get quick on your feet

If I could have just one more day
I'd find some way, girl, to make you stay
And if I could have just one more try
I'd make you stay, I'd show you why

Do you remember
Drinking down Tequila money
Everybody watch you sashay
And you know it shows
And you know it shows

Summer cottage loving fishing
Pinocle on Central Bay
And you know it shows
Right through her dress it shows

If I could have just one more day
I'd find some way, girl, to make you stay
And if I could have just one more try
I'd make you stay, I'd show you why

Do you remember
Drinking down Tequila money
Everybody watch you sashay
And you know it shows
And you know it shows

Summer cottage loving fishing
Pinocle on Central Bay
And you know it shows
And you know it shows
Right through her dress it shows
You know it shows
_________________________


YESTERDAY, I HEARD WE NEVER TOUCHED

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

I -- can't believe a word they say
You -- doesn't matter anyway

Yesterday, I heard we never touched
No matter what you say
They say it's just a crush
And after all those days
And nights
I heard we never touched
It's strange to hear we never touched

I -- still remember what we did
You -- spend your life denying it

Yesterday, I heard we never touched
You know that nothing stays
I heard I wasn't much
And after all those days
And nights
I heard we never touched
It's strange to hear we never touched

Sounds like you're describing someone else
Sounds like you don't even believe it yourself

I -- guess I imagined everything
You and all the love you used to bring

Yesterday, I heard we never touched
No matter what you say
They say it's just a crush
And after all those days
And nights, I heard we never touched
It's strange to hear we never ---


Yesterday, I heard we never touched
You know that nothing stays
I heard I wasn't much
And after all those days
And nights
I heard we never touched
It's strange to hear we never touched
Last night, I heard we never touched

________________________________


STREETLIGHT
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Down at the end of the streetlight
I can see my lover clear
I can see my lover here
Like before

Down at the end of the streetlight
I can see my neighborhood
I can see you like I should
Like before

La la la la la la
Like before

Down at the end of the streetlight
I can see my lover clear
I can see my lover here
Like before

Down at the end of the streetlight
I can see my neighborhood
I can see you like I should
Like before

La la la la la la
La la la la la la
Like before

Down at the end of the streetlight
La la la
La la la
Like before

Down at the end of the streetlight
La La la
La la la
Like before

(variations on this to end)
__________________________

LIFE IS A WINNOWING
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

She left with the car, she left me dry
She didn't leave a reason why
"Two loves don't make a wrong," she wrote
She left me with this goodbye note

(It said)
Life is a winnowing, a winnowing away
Life is a winnowing away
What you don't lose they try to take away
Life is a winnowing away

I met her on the Internet
Shoulda known just what I'd get
Hooked her up with my best friend
That's when things began to end

Life is a winnowing, a winnowing away
Life is a winnowing away
What you don't lose they try to take away
Life is a winnowing away

I built a wall of sand
The tide came in
It washed away the wall
I watched; you went away

I tracked her down, I found my car
But haven't found our love so far
She was sleeping when I left note
You can guess just what I wrote

Life is a winnowing, a winnowing away
Life is a winnowing away
What you don't lose they try to take away
Life is a winnowing away

Winnowing, a winnowing, a winnowing away
Winnowing, a winnowing, a winnowing away
Winnowing, a winnowing, a winnowing away
________________________

WORST BEST THING

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

I once was lost but now I'm bound
I couldn't find my around
I couldn't find my around
I once was lost but now I'm bound

You're the worst best thing to happen to me
The worst best thing for me
The worst best thing to happen to me
The worst best thing for me

I used to have a lot friends
But all those friends they had to end
They had to end because my friends
Were not my friends when we began

You're the worst best thing to happen to me
The worst best thing for me
The worst best thing to happen to me
The worst best thing for me

I think about my single years
And I was single there for years
They made me laugh, they made me fear
But now they're gone because you're here

_______________________


DOCTOR SAYS SHE'S COMING HOME TONIGHT
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

If you turn from a love like her
If you turn back and don't say a word
I just say, ohhh

If you turn on a love like her
If you turn back on all that you were
I just say, ohhhh

Doctor says she's gonna come home tonight
Doctor says she's gonna be alright
And I've been waiting forty days and forty nights
Hoping you're ok and you're alright

Doctor says she's gonna come home to stay
Doctor says she's getting stronger everyday
And I've been hoping it would turn out just this way
We'll pick her up later on today

Doctor says she's gonna come home tonight
Doctor says she's gonna be alright
And I say, ohhh

Doctor says she's gonna come home to stay
Doctor says she's gonna be ok
And I say, ohhh

Doctor says she's gonna come home tonight
And she's home
____________________________

FORTY POUNDS OF PAIN
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

[played tentatively at first]
You've got to live it like you die it, girl
Or else it won't be right (right)
'Cause if you die it like you live it
You'll procrastinate all night

And after hours at the club and bar, one of those star-crossed nights
You told me everything would turn out just the way it still might

You've got to live or else you'll die just like you almost did that night
'Cause nothing's saving you except your cerebellum in a dizzy fight

I've got forty pounds of pain
I've got forty pounds of pain
Forty pounds of pain
I've got forty pounds of pain

The El Camino was sailing down the Four in the brackish light
Passing toll booths on the way to Caledonia on a midnight flight

Couldn't stop you, no one could, and no wanted to, except your ex-life
You told me everything would turn out just the way it still might not

I shoulda told you what I told you after waiting ten years time
I've got forty pounds of pain
I've got forty pounds of pain

Back on planet earth the highway's disappearing like money might
And in the morning do you think about returning but it don't seem right

You wanna look across the desert and say, "That's worth my whole
damned life"
But then you have a cup of coffee and a soda and say, "Not quite" (quite)

Forty pounds of pain
I've got forty pounds of pain
Forty pounds of pain
I've got forty pounds of pain
_______________________________


YOU BRING THE LOVE
Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

You bring the love and I'll bring the moment
You bring the rain and I'll bring the storm
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba baaaaa

I've got the love and you've got the want
You've got the want but I betcha don't
You say you won't but I say you might
I say come over here for a sight or two

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba (etc.)

I got the notion and you got the motion
We've got the power to cause some commotion
I've got the love and you got the need
You can come over and have some weed

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba (etc.)

You've got the time but I've got the moment
Here comes the wine and it's almost goin'
You've got the bat and I've got the balls
We're gonna break right over this wall

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba (etc.)
__________________________

THE 405

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

Talking on the cellphone
Driving out to Westwood
Talking with my baby
Who called me on the cellphone

She said, "Aint it a surprise to see you on 405"

Well, I hit and ran down hope on the 405
I hit and ran down hope on the 405

Hit by a head-on love
Hit by a head-on love my friend
Hit by a head-on love

You gotta look around, I said, "Get on down,
Here she comes on the 405, my friend"

You gotta shake it loose, you gotta double deuce
I got hit by a head on love, my friend

Hit by a head-on love

Going out to Westwood
Trouble in the next car
She couldn't take her eyes off
What she saw in my car

She said, "Aint it a surprise
To see you on the 405"

Well, I hit and ran down hope
On the 405 [again]

Hit by a head on love
Hit by a head on love my friend again
_____________________________

COMPLICATED FLOWER

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

I've been down with the brokenhearted
And she sounds like a mockingbird
I've been down with the brokenhearted
And she sounds like a

She's a complicated flower
She's a complicated flower

I've been the losers, too
All my life I've been living without you

She's a complicated flower
She's a complicated flower

And I wanna attend to you
All my life I've been dying for all you do

She's a complicated flower
She's a complicated flower

I've down with the broken hearted
And she sounds like a mockingbird
I've been down with the brokenhearted
And she sounds like a --

She's a complicated flower
She's a complicated flower

And I wanna go mend with you
All my life I've been dying for all you do
_____________________________________________________________
my former workplace neighborhood, which no longer exists



MEMORY LANE (IS A TWO-WAY STREET)
Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

When I was a caterpillar, girl
You know, I never could fly, I never could fly
Now I'm a butterfly and I fly
I've got that crawling thing all beat

Memory Lane is a two-way street
Memory Lane's not a thruway street

Well, you've got some things you talk about
I remember them differently
Other things you can't recall
Well, I recall them vividly

Memory Lane is a two-way street
Memory Lane's not a thruway street

Where is Memory Lane, dear?
Where is Memory Lane

You take left at Forget Me Not,
You take a right at I Forgot

Where is Memory Lane, dear?
I think I've gone down that road too long

Where is Memory Lane, dear?
I think I've gone down that road too long

Where is Memory Lane, dear?
Where is Memory Lane, dear?

You take a left where the dead have lain
You shake your fist at who's to blame

Where is Memory Lane, dear?
Where is Memory Lane?
-------------------------------------------------------


I GET YOU, BABE

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

When you're alone
It follows you home
The melody drifts
And then it returns

Climbing the hills and into the clouds
I said what I'd never said aloud

Everyone's got you but no one quite gets you
But I get you, babe
I get you, babe

When you come home
You're right on the phone
To all your old friends
You're mostly unknown

Climbing the hills in a total eclipse
You'd never heard these words from my lips

Everyone's got you but no one quite gets you
But I get you, babe
I get you, babe

For the last time I just want you to see
What you gave up when you gave up on me

Everyone's got you but no one quite gets you
But I get you, babe
I get you, babe
I get you, babe

Everyone's got you but no one quite gets you
But I get you, babe
I get you, babe
I get you, babe
______________________________________


BAYONET SKY

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

The bayonet sky is raining bayonets
It's raining apples and oranges and the alphabet
It's raining bad advice and that's the best you're gonna get
It's the bayonet sky

You go to work and they send you off to school
But the teacher's not so bright, and at the risk of being cruel
They're gonna put you in your place, they're gonna sit you on a stool
It's the bayonet sky

Nobody's gonna give you a break
Nobody's gonna give you a break
Unless your daddy's rich and your uncle owns
The place of work and where you're working from
Okay?
It's not okay

You join the army and you want the front lines
But they put you in the barracks, and at the risk of being blind
Then they tell you not to honor all the things you left behind
It's the bayonet sky

You get a job and you've got your big ideas
And they say they're gonna raise you but you know it's just a tease
But they send your job to Delhi while you're busy on your knees
It's the bayonet sky

Nobody's gonna give you a break [etc.]

Bayonet sky is raining bayonets
It's raining flaming birds and a burning jet
It's raining memories you're gonna never forget
It's the bayonet sky
The bayonet sky
-------------------------------------------------

COME ON LIKE A SONG

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Only shuttered windows
Chilling Broadway rain
Feels like another winter
Starting again in May

Remember how you told me that to lose somebody wins
And ending's just the way we begin again

But if you leave today, I missed the early warning signs
Girl, you know the way
The door aint hard to find
But don't you come on like a song
Don't you come on like a song

Only shattered windows
Bad November storm
Thought I had you figured
Though you had be warned

We parked the car and walked awhile
And watched the frozen trees
You said, "Poverty's what happens
When you live so honestly"

But if you leave today
I missed the early warning signs
Girl, you know the way
The door aint hard to find
But don't you come on like a song
Don't you come on like a song

I can't even miss you if you won't walk out that door
The past is seeping through the cracks
But the light won't last, the door won't stop the noise

But don't you come on like a song
Don't you come on like a song
-----------------------------------


DO-WHATCHA-WANNA-CAN-DO
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

How you change a river when the river won't turn?
How you change a fire when the fire won't burn?
I know it's up to you

And I'll do whatcha-wanna-can-do
Yes, I'll do whatcha-wanna-can-do
I'll do-whatcha-wanna-can-do
I want you

Wah wah what you want what you wanna do anyway
Wah wah what you want what you wanna do anyway

How you change a tire with a brokedown jack?
How you train a monkey when he's on your back?
I know it's up to you
I know that he's hurting you everywhere
Wah wah what you want what you wanna do anyway
Wah Wah what you want what you wanna do anyway

How you change a twenty when you've got a ten?
How you change a lover when she's just a friend?
I know it's up to you

And I'll do whatcha-wanna-can-do
Yes, I'll do whatcha-wanna-can-do
I'll do-whatcha-wanna-can-do
I want you

Wah wah whatcha want what you wanna do anyway
Wah wah wahtcha want what you wanna do anyway
---------------------------------------------------

HELLO, BAD EXPLANATION

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2004

Hello, bad explanation
I think I've met you before
Once at the bottom of a bottle of whiskey
Another time on the floor

Hello, bad explanation
I'm sure I'll see you again
You've been with me so long
Sometimes you're my only friend

You come around
I see you when I've been cheating
You come around
I see you when I'm in court
You come around
Whenever I say

Hello, bad explanation
I think I've met you before
Once at the bottom of a bottle of whiskey
Another time on the floor

You come around
I see you when it's the game point
You come around
I see when you when I'm in love
You come around
Whenever I say

Hello bad explanation
I'm sure I'll see you again
You've been with me so long
Sometimes you're my only friend
Hello, bad explanation
Hello, bad explanation
-------------------------------------------------


SPLIT THE GRAY
Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

Split the gray
Split the gray
Split the gray
With the blue
Divide it all by red

I don't think any gray day's permanent
I don't think blue skies are the point of it
We can't see all the light that's 'round our head
There aint no color without light and color's heaven sent

Split the gray
Split the gray
Split the gray
With the blue
Divide it all by red

I've been out looking for the brightest blue
I caught a glimpse but it was only you
Didn't know that gray was blue until this day
All those things you put away are put away to stay

Split the gray
Split the gray
Split the gray
With the blue
Divide it all by red
(repeat)


NOT THE REAL THING

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
copyright 2005

I'm loving your memory these days
I'm loving all the pictures that I've saved

But not the real thing, baby
But not the real thing
But not the real thing, baby
But not the real thing

I never like the present, it's too tense
I'd like to put the past behind a fence

Not the real thing, baby
Anything but the real thing
Not the real thing, baby
Anything but the real thing

Whatever the future brings, it brings along the past
I like the future but they say it doesn't last

I'm loving all the memories we've changed
I'm loving that the pictures don't complain

Not the real thing, baby
Anything but the real thing
Not the real thing, baby
Anything but the real thing
-----------------------------------------------

GUMSHOE TONIGHT
Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Gumshoe tonight
Gumshoe tonight

I was tracking Castro when he wasn't so big
Che Guevara told me where he's really been hid
I was told that Hoffa was thrown off a boat
I've always known the person who is really Deep Throat

So put me in a trenchcoat, I'm a gumshoe tonight
I know all the things that people try hard to hide
Gimme a trenchcoat and a bottle of booze
I can tell you things you don't know about you
Gumshoe tonight
Gumshoe tonight

Now don't get me wrong, I'm no conspiracy buff
I don't think that Oswald worked with anyone else
I could tell you secrets but I've sworn not to tell
The people out in Langley would give me such hell

So put me in a trenchcoat, I'm a gumshoe tonight
I know all the things that people try hard to hide
Gimme a trenchcoat and a bottle of booze
I can tell you things you don't know about you
Gumshoe tonight
Gumshoe tonight
Gumshoe tonight
--------------------------------------------------------

WRONG DRESS TONIGHT

Music and lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Baby, you're wearing the wrong dress tonight
Baby, you're wearing the wrong dress tonight
Wrong dress, wrong dress
Baby, it's the wrong dress tonight
Wrong dress, wrong dress
Baby, it's the wrong dress tonight

Baby, you're wearing the wrong dress tonight
Baby, you're wearing the wrong dress tonight
Wrong dress, wrong dress
Baby, it's the wrong dress tonight
Wrong dress, wrong dress
Baby, it's the wrong dress tonight
-------------------------------------------------------


WAIT FOR GIRLS

Music and Lyrics by Paul us
copyright 2005

In a world where you've gotta wait for girls
In a world where you've gotta wait for girls
(And they're well worth waiting for)

Wait for girls
As they put on their Air and they put on their pearls
Wait for girls
Wait for girls

In a world where you've got to wait for girls
In a world where you've got to wait for girls

Sometimes you wait nine months time
She's on your mind all the time
You've got to wait for girls

Wait for girls
As they put on their airs and they put on their boys
Wait for girls
Wait for girls

Wait for girls
Wait for --

In a world where you've gotta wait for girls
In a world where you've gotta wait for girls

Sometimes you wait nine months time
She's on your mind all the time
-----------------------------------------------
----------

OLD FASHIONED MAFIA TOWN

Music and Lyrics by Paul Iorio
Copyright 2005

Love that graft
Put 'im on staff
Take that bribe
Join our side

Wearin' that false carin' like a crown
It's just an old-fashioned mafia town

Hates the pill
Thou shalt not kill
Friday aggression
Sunday confession

It's omerta so don't no one make a sound
It's just an old-fashioned mafia town

He thinks "Sopranos" is the way you make a call
He keeps his powder clean
'Cause you can't fight city hall
Don't curse in front of the ladies
Smoke cigars and sit in the shadie
It's hard work carrying that booday
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Throw it in the bay
Look the other way
Drive a Towncar
Pass the state bar
(with a little help)

chorus
-------------------------------------------------


LOOSE NOTES ABOUT SOME OF THE SONGS ON

"75 SONGS (PART 2)" AND "75 SONGS (PART 3)."
(please excuse the numbering!)
1. MEMORY LANE (IS A TWO-WAY STREET)
Already being played on alternative radio in Germany, "Memory Lane" is a two-part pop song I wrote in 2002 and 2003. The last half came to me during a late-night visit to the World Trade Center site in late 2003, when I saw for the first time the devastation of the area first-hand. Before moving to California, I had worked in the twin towers and across the street from them at One Liberty Plaza for years, so it was, for a time, my workplace neighborhood, where I toiled and played and pulled all-nighters and dated girlfriends, etc. And I was truly horrified to see it so utterly destroyed. As I looked at the ruined area, I began thinking "where is Memory Lane?" and started humming a melody that became the line "You take a left where the dead have lain/You shake your fist at who's to blame." Sort of like "Rubber Soul" meets Doc Watson meets Glenn Tilbrook meets Radiohead.

2. DOCTOR SAYS SHE'S GONNA COME HOME TONIGHT
I wrote this in the late Nineties and was going to leave this off the album, but producer William Epps voted to keep it on the album -- and I think William was proved right about leaving this one one the CD. Yeah, it's a bit of a tear-jerker (I don't think William liked my non-verbal "woh-woh"s initially), but I like how it captures the hopeful feeling of anticipating the release of a loved one from the hospital after a long period of recovery. "We'll pick her up later on today..." goes the lyric. A bit James Taylorish. Hmm. Maybe we should've left it off the CD after all!

3. YOU BRING THE LOVE
A guilty pleasure. A sort of it's-a-Friday-night-come-on-over tune, like a Roger Miller single of the mid-1960s, or a Buffett song of the Seventies. I've always thought it was too dorky to record, though I've always enjoyed playing it. When I brought it to the studio, I was all ready to discard it until William (again!) insisted I record it, and he was (again) right; it recently was added to playlists on a German radio station.

4. I GET YOU, BABE
This one reminds me of hiking the hills near my apartment in Berkeley, and I wrote it there in 2003. The title was half a play on the Sonny and Cher song and half thinking about a former girlfriend who nobody seemed to really understand.


7. TEN YEARS AGO
I wrote this one on the way back from a Kate Winslet movie on Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles in 1998. It was around 11pm, the weather was crisp, and I was taking a 45-minute walk back to my apartment near La Brea Ave. The chorus began churning in me, along with the hook "If they ever did before," and I had to keep it going in my head all the way home because I didn't have a tape recorder on me. When I got home, near midnight, it came tumbling out, bridge and all. By 1AM, it was completely written, and I remember playing it over and over again into the early hours.


9. LIFE IS A WINNOWING
I wrote it in one fell swoop one night in 1998 in L.A. and liked the way the word "winnowing" became so elastic in the chorus. (And by the way, the lyric "I watched; you went away" is often mistaken for "I watched you went away" -- though the latter fits the country voice I was aiming for.)

that and also wrote a new middle eight. But I'm still not quite sure whether I prefer this pared down version over the suite.

12. EASTERN WESTERN
One of the key songs on the album, but the version here is sloppy (two wrong chords). Still, I like its atmosphere and its central guitar riff and that vocal hook ("I don't knowww!!").

13. YOU KNOW IT SHOWS
I wrote this in the Fall of 1980 in my apartment in Manhattan, and it's one of the best songs I wrote between 1973 and 1982 (along with "Do-Whatcha-Wanna-Can-Do" and "Get Tied").

16. COMPLICATED FLOWER
In 2003, I saw a flower on Russell Street in Berkeley that was both fascinating and contrived-looking. It looked like it had been designed by committee but it was a real flower, a complicated flower. Some see a sly hidden meaning. I like the way the melody of the verse varies each time out.

18. DO-WHATCHA-WANNA-CAN-DO
The earliest song on this album, written in Manhattan in 1979 when I was 21. Inspired a bit by Steve Forbert's "Alive on Arrival." I think it would have airplay potential if the last 20 seconds of "wha wha whatcha wants" had been edited out or faded out. Still a fun bit of pop.

19. SPLIT THE GRAY
A lyric about color. Gray. Blue. Red. Sort of Stevie Wonderish. "There is no color without light..." "I went out looking for the brightest blue..."

23. WRONG DRESS TONIGHT
More of a fragment than a song. The only lyric in the world that says, "Baby, you're wearing the wrong dress tonight."

25. FORTY POUNDS OF PAIN
To me, this one feels a bit like a cross-country trip. In retrospect, I probably should've called it "Forty Tons of Pain" but I liked the sound of "Forty Pounds" better. Written in 1995 and 2003.

26. STREETLIGHT
Every time I play this, it's almost like an aerobic work-out. And it changes with each performance.

29. HELLO, BAD EXPLANATION
Alt-country/folk that starts low and ends high.


31. BAYONET SKY
Whoishly angry rock, on acoustic guitar. I wrote this in L.A. in '98.

32. WORST BEST THING
A married man looks back at his single days. (Not from experience; never been married, though

33. THE 405
A guy runs into his girlfriend on the 405 freeway at an inopportune moment. Also written in L.A. in '98.

34. COME ON LIKE A SONG
I wrote this in 1993 in Hoboken and still enjoy playing it. "We parked the car and walked awhile and watched the frozen trees/You said, 'poverty's what happens when you live so honestly.'"

35. FOREVER GOT AWAY LAST NIGHT
In the style of R.E.M. circa "Document."

36. GUMSHOE TONIGHT
A light cloak-and-dagger rocker.

39. WAIT FOR GIRLS
Pop-rock. Written in L.A. in 2000.

40. OLD-FASHIONED MAFIA TOWN
I wrote this in N.J. in 1995 as a sort of humorous tune about a subject nobody writes songs about, and it's amazing how many people thing it's about their own hometown! Updated it in 2005.

41. YESTERDAY, I HEARD WE NEVER TOUCHED
Pop ballad, L.A., late-1990s. "I Don't Believe You"-esque.

42. NOT THE REAL THING
I wrote this at a time when it seemed that performers were singing so many songs -- some of them excellent -- about "the real thing" or "the real one" or "keepin' it real" that the "real" concept had become a bit of a cliche in pop music. So I went in the other direction and penned a tune about a guy who enjoyed photos and memories of people and places more than the actual people and places.

43. THE WORLD BLEW UP
Nice rhythm and concept. Written in Berkeley in 2005.
___________________________________________________________________________________


5. "Up in the Puzzle Tree" -- quirky pop song.
10. "You Know It Shows" -- I wrote this many years ago and still play it a lot.

11. "Doctor Says She's Gonna Come Home Tonight" -- a sort of tear-jerker.

13. "Ten Years Ago" -- A lot of people seem to like this one. I've just posted a new version recorded this morning (2/26/08).

14. "This Skull" -- based on the gravediggers's part of "King Lear."

15. "If I Thought 'bout Gettin' Around" -- roots pop.

16. "The Overwhelming Weight of the Water Blue Sky" -- I like the way it takes a whole different direction around two minutes in.

17. "Forty Pounds of Pain" -- starts with a whisper, ends with a roar.

18. "You Bring the Love" -- has already had some airplay in Norway and Germany.


20. "Life is a Winnowing" -- alt-folk country.

21. "Complicated Flower" -- everyone seems to like this one.

22. "The Ballad of Senator Craig" -- a song about the aroma of toilets and how that puts the Senator in a lovin' mood.

23. "Warm Docking At the Shrine" -- in '98, I wrote the title phrase in an article for a newspaper and knew it implied a terific song; in the fall of 2007, I wrote this song, a multi-part suite (I also wrote a very different "Warm Docking" in '98). Not my best song, but it has its parts. (By the way, the newspaper article I wrote was about an event at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A., hence the title; my song is about something else altogether.)

24. "I Shot Osama bin Laden" -- surprisingly upbeat and catchy pop for such a theme.


27. "Do-Whatcha-Wanna-Can-Do" -- Pure pop. And, yes, that's me on drums (and on guitar and vocals). I wrote this in the early 1980s, but didn't record it until 2004 (on cassette) and 2005 (on CD). The only time the producer of my first album, Bill Epps, ever suggested a line for any of my songs was when he suggested I change the last line of this song to "How you change a rubber when she's just a friend" (my lyric was and is "How you change a lover when she's just a friend"). Needless to say, I declined Bill's suggestion! I recorded this version at my studio (2/12/08).


29. "Memory Lane (Is a Two-Way Street)" -- I wrote this after seeing the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and wondering, as I walked around the World Trade Center area, where I had worked for years, where memory lane had gone.

30. "Come on Like a Song" -- I wrote this in the early Nineties, released it on cassette tape in '98, released it for the first time on CD in '06 and am just now putting out the MP3 version!

31. "Split the Gray" -- I like this one. The lyrics are simply a description of an abstract painting: "split the gray with the blue, divide it all by red."

33. "Eastern Western" -- I wrote it years ago but didn't record it until 2004 (on cassette tape) and then again in 2005 (on CD). I must say it felt like a triumphant moment when I finished the final take at Paramount Studios in L.A. in '05; I walked out of the iso booth after I'd finished recording it and everyone was all smiles and my producer William was playing my guitar riff on his keyboards even though the session was already over (his keyboards were not on the recording). I distinctly remember wondering why William was playing my guitar riff on the keyboards even though the session was over (I think he had his camera running and was photographing himself at the keyboards). Unfortunately, the final take had a couple glaring tech errors, making it unusable. To be honest, I've pretty much demoted most of the '05 masters of the Paramount sessions to rehearsal tapes, due to tech errors. I've re-recorded almost all of those songs and recorded this version of "Eastern Western" this morning in Berkeley (2/17/08).

36. "Hello, Bad Explanation" -- sort of Willie Nelsonish. starts low, ends high.


38. "Rich and Dumb" -- I wrote this in 2007. "You've gotta work work work for the rich and dumb."

39. "Somebody's Lover" -- I like the melody of this one a lot.

40. "Just Tell Her You Love Her" -- "if you really want to get rid of her," goes the lyric.

42. "Streetlight" -- If performed well, it can get aerobic. This version was recorded this morning (2/25).

47. "Bayonet Sky" -- Whosihly angry tune!

48. "Old Fashioned Mafia Town" -- Finally, a version that captures exactly the way I originally wrote it (my producer mistakenly left out the song fragment that opens the song in the version he produced in '05). When I first performed this for my friend Bill Epps, at my apartment in early '05, he laughed at the line "with a little help" and otherwise enjoyed it, so I knew it might connect with some listeners. This is the version I performed for him. (I originally had a brief voice-over bit at the end, which I deleted in '05, and then put back in in '08, and then took out again a couple days ago.)

49. "I Get You, Babe" -- I wrote this one after a vigorous hike in the nearby east bay hills and mountains, and the lyric came out whole (I pictured the melody as drifting smoke, which is how I came up with the first verse). Title a play on the Sonny and Cher tune.

51. "The Holy Country Song" -- very irreverent alt-country;
inspired by "The Vatican Rag."

52. "Make a Noise!" -- folk rap.

53. "Chasin' You" -- acoustica about obsessive love. The producer of my first album disliked this one, but I've enjoyed playing it for decades. (By the way, throughout pop history, there have been a lot of hits with titles like "Missin' You" (John Waite), "Lovin' You" (Minnie Ripperton), "Leavin' You" (both Bad Company and Stevie Ray Vaughan), etc., but I don't think there's ever been a "Chasin' You" yet!)

54. "Dontcha Sleep" -- the chorus came to me fully formed just
as I woke up from a dream one morning.

55. "The Things Denied in Youth" -- "are really never satisfied,"
goes the lyric.

56. "Last Night's Moon" -- CCRish roots pop. I recorded and posted a brand new version on 3/16/08.

57. "You, Walking Away" -- pure pop.

58. "Waterboardin' USA" -- based on Chuck Berry/Brian Wilson's
"Surfin' USA."

59. "Murder on Harmony Way" -- this one starts quiet but picks up nice velocity.

60. "Chasing a Rainbow" -- I just wrote and recorded this one several hours ago; a somewhat slight song. Not quite satisfied with my vocal, so I might not release it on CD until I fix it. (3/14/08)

62. "King Penis of Planet Zero" -- I wrote this song yesterday and recorded it earlier today (3/15/08). It's futuristic campy folk-rock with sci-fi sound effects and is lots of fun. (I'll be replacing the drum track in the next couple days.) Lyrics posted below. (As usual, I produced, performed and wrote it!)

63. "I Don't Know If I Know You No More" -- This song is less than an hour old, and I did a quick recording of it so everyone can enjoy it. (3/22/08)


[all music and lyrics by Paul Iorio, except "Waterboardin' USA," which
is based on Chuck Berry/Brian Wilson's "Surfin' USA."]




[photo by Paul Iorio]


___________________________________________



MY COMPLETE MUSIC WEBSITE -- INLCUDING ARCHIVAL AND
OUTDATED MATERIAL -- IS NOW AT
WWW.IORIOMUSICARCHIVE.BLOGSPOT.COM.
ARCHIVAL OR OUTDATED MATERIAL FROM THIS WEBSITE

Followers