circlenine

To me this is the ultimate Circle 9 recording. From Joe's string quartet guitar solo via ebow, to the folk rock explosion after the last verse, to the George Harrison style back up vocals at the end, to the woeful tale of an out of control young-in searchin' for...he doesn't even know what! Something is empty. Something somewhere is off. I love this recording.

I really really really like this recording. Joe's using the vocoder. We rarely ever played this live. It barely registered when we worked it up for recording. It was a "meh" song. Of course, as me and Bri learned through out the course of THE BIG OPERA, you just can't predict which recordings are going to stick. This'n sure did.

This is gorgeous. I love the interplay between Joe's and my guitars. We had an electric and an acoustic version. We mashed them up. This is the prettiest shit with which I've ever been associated.

Here I'm name dropping my wife in a song title AGAIN! ;-) This is Hamer supplementing the mighty 9 on trumpet and Marge from Duku singing the back ups. This also has stayed in the live set forever. It's as true a declaration of love as I've ever gotten. Unapologetic love songs are tough. I don't know how the Beatles did it without ever sounding like a bunch of drips. I reflexively want to sabotage lovely little odes with profanity. I still am pretty much a 14 year old boy at heart. Also, the vocal/guitar line is inspired by "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" by the Beatles off of Abbey Road. It's a C-major so I expect to be weeping at some point.

I love my country so much I oft get emotional when thinking about the undoubtedly excellent shit that we have established. We're also Robespierre levels of dangerous bonkers. Our two main freedoms collided together with the Branch Dividians, the freedoms to arm and worship. In this nation they go in that order.  Distrust of governmental forces is engrained in certain strains of Americana. Of course it is. This is a nation built on people fleeing other nations. I remember reading an in depth article about Koresh in either Spin or Rolling Stone (pretty much indistinguishable to a hipster Gen Xer) and it boiled down to him being an American version of Mike Meyer's Wayne Campbell and WAYNES WORLD. At least that's what I took from it. Party on! 

I was trying to write a version of Crazy Horse's "Cortez the Killer" for Circle 9. I STILL want to work up a live version of this with Bri and Ochster. I have an acoustic arrangement too. I want it to be SFP's "out of the blue and into the black." The fellas never wanted to play this one. We were doing mostly 45 minute sets around this time so we would only have 1 longish song. Bidnizz, jack! This is my favorite Circle 9 performance. Also, I didn't realize it at the time but Joe Gallagher introduced the SFPeeniverse with "Moai," "Gateway Of the Sun," and "Pyramids Of the Moon." I'm forever in his debt! You can hear the "Moai" riff during the calm down part. Obviously the SFPeeniverse begins with Circle 9's THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.

I'm old enough to appreciate westerns. Yo dig. I was struck by something that conservative commentator David Brooks said during the upheaval of 2020. While discussing the protests sparked by the execution of George Floyd on PBS he said "(F)or many decades, the pioneer experience was the defining American experience. And then the immigrant experience was the defining American experience. 
Now the struggle for racial justice is the defining American experience." He's absolutely right. This here song is a romanticisation of the initial American Experience at the tale end of the European Conquest of the Americas. As a nation we need to talk about this shit. Millions died. Also this is an obvious nod to the "pioneer" of Outlaw Country, the legend known as Hank III.

Being a rock and roll kid I didn't realize until much later that you could write songs based in historical times. Fantasy is well represented but actual history is almost nonexistent. Being a big Steve Earle fan and having been introduced to the Pogues by the woman I would eventually marry it was like a whole new world of possibility exploded upon my essential existence as a songwriter. The further back I went the more and more it felt absolutely right to base songs in a time period that decidedly ain't America from the 1950s on. It's such a miniscule sample size! This is my first stab at writing about a different century. They're all just cowboy songs anyway.

This song was originally called "Life's a Beach" and I wrote it in 1987 whilst living at Ocean City, MD for the summer. I remember people crying when I would play it. I just RECENTLY realized that these piano middle C power ballads are very effective in bringing forth emotion. I repurposed it for THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. I used my wife's name. This is absolutely inspired by Ken Burns The Civil War which I watched over and over again. Growing up in Maryland we're there. 

This is inspired by Clint Eastwood's THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by the Band. In today's polarized world it's a challenge to attempt to see each others' perspectives. Philosophically it's eminently frustrating. Here's a different approach. I used to be a construction worker. Every cliche is pretty much rooted in reality. Everybody is racist or homophobic until they're working with a person of another race or sexual proclivity. Once it's proven that a worker works they transcend the stereotype. It always bugged me that this enlightenment stayed on the job site. At least that's how things appeared. 

The US is completely insane. The threat of violence is always present. That's what the Axis didn't understand during World War II. We are ahead of the curve always in terms of a willingness to inflict harm on other human beings. I also find the image of Europe looking on in concerned fascination while we butchered each other with iron clad war ships amusing. One day we'll come to terms with our vicious soul but I ain't holding my breath.

Here's the big shift from bar band to rock opera band. We opened with this for years, especially in showcase environments. I loved opening with it because there's awesome head bang breaks where I made my hair look crazy.  I shit you not. We were in denial for YEARS about boastfully being willfully ignorant of the way we presented ourselves but that was total horse shit. We absolutely played up the working class apocalyptic drunken mountain men on speed look for years.

This was one of the first songs I had to go back and change the lyrics because I got the geography fucked up! I was mimicking "Answering Machine" by the Replacements off of LET IT BE. I played this live until Ochster solidified himself as the SFP drummer. I was also trying to tell a sorrowful tale along the lines of another Replacements song, "Little Mascara" off of TIM. The open B minor would hurt my lil fingies when I played this acoustically. 

This was recorded during the same session as "Agenda." I was very proud of this. Honestly? Joe Gallagher is the only other guitar player I'll play chords behind. I was glad to hear him rock out here. I remember when we released this as a 45 we got feedback that Staten Island's college station played it muchly. This is me realizing that youthful rebellion turns into simply acting like an asshole at some point.

I wrote this between the Baltimore Colts and the Baltimore Ravens. It's my first, and almost only recorded, rapping. Even so, I write a lot of raps but they come out like singing. Everything always comes out a little differently (or even a lot!) than what is intended. This is the Dennis Barth Circle 9. Joey Joe Joe playing his old GEE-tar with the Egyptian symbols, and Pork on drums. This was the 9's first time in the studio. It was the first thing I recorded that turned up an a CD.

THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES PART TWO

ABE LINCOLN BLUES
Man after man has wilted from the pressure and the stress
Man after man has wilted from the pressure and the stress
If I can't get me a fighting General
I'll put my brains all on my desk
I take freedom to give it Oh yes I see the irony
I take freedom to give it oh yes I see the irony
We're the first ones to really do it right
It's all coming down to me
All these chumps around me they just don't see what's at stake
All these chumps around me they just don't see what's a stake
You know that ruling's meant for people
Not the whims royalty makes
I don't want no epitaph don't want no gravestone by my hand
I don't want no epitaph don't want no gravestone by my hand
Oh no
All I'm really wanting
Is to unite this promised land
Oh guitar
America is Zion she ain't perfect yes I know
America is Zion she ain't perfect yes I know
But when it comes down to it
Where the hell else you gonna go?
Four score and seven years that's just a blink in history
Four score and seven years that's just a blink in history
And when the killing's over
It's all coming down to me
Oh I'll tell yah

DEATH IN AMERICA
My Gettysburg nurse
Takes care of me
She is an angel
She's the Virgin Mary
This town stinks of death
Rancid aftermath
She reads Walt Whitman
What a fucking bloodbath
Oh man
The Union, sir, means the world to me
I'm a Pennsylvania boy
American as can be
Cut down by rebel fire
Now I ain't got no knees
Piles of bloody stumps
Small price because we're free
In America
Death in America
My Gettysburg nurse
Glows in the night
Her voice, a poem, soothes my plight
Hospital bed
It's a schoolroom floor
I'll never walk through another door
No way
My Gettysburg nurse
She held my hand
I am just a soldier
I am just a man
July 8th
Half past five
She smiled at me
And then I died
For America
Death in America

ANDERSONVILLE
(instrumental)

AN EDUCATED MAN
I'm an Ivy League colored in the 54
Now I'm living in a tent in '64
I teach these field hands how to read
Their ways don't mean a thing to me
Antietem gave Lincoln the where with all
I'm a chamber music lover in this free for all
But I can march and shoot 'cause I'm a man
I'm going to gun down some South Carolinians
I'm an educated man
I'm a fixture up in Boston high society
I enlisted, sir, to help to set my people free
Took a boat down south it's hot as hell
The southern women call me "n*****" while they're ringing on their bells
Down a mile of beach Battery Wagner stands
To reiterate I am an educated man
But my knowledge won't mean a thing to me
When I set foot into that killing spree
I'm an educated man
The first volley caught me in the eye
The second one lodged in my thigh
In pain I saw the colors fly
I stood and rushed the bunker then I
Barely missed a cannon blast
One more musket ball might be my last
I took a shell straight through my knee
You bastards SET MY PEOPLE FREE
I'm an educated man

SHERMAN'S MARCH
Gone southern man
Gone dixieland
Sherman's march to the sea
Black race finally set free
Burn, Georgia, burn
Cry, momma, cry
Sherman's march to the sea
Black race finally set free
Gone, General Lee
Gone, General Lee
Sherman's march to the sea
Black race finally set free

APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE
The winter nights were cold and wet
We hadn't taken Richmond yet
McClellan had us camped out there
"Oh Be Joyful" curled me hair
General Grant's got bloody hands
The Wilderness will test a man
I tripped on skulls of Federal Troops
I kicked 'em with me Union boots
Richmond's sacked and Lee is on the run
Jeff Davis has evacuated, son
Engaging rebels every day and night
Appomattox Courthouse in me sight
Bobby Lee was neat and pressed
Ulysses Grant just looked a mess
We took their guns and sent them home
We drank and toasted northern bones
I took the train to Maine and then
I kissed me wife and punched me friends
The whiskey cuts like heaven's knives
I can't believe I'm still alive

LONG WALK HOME
Feet on dirt I'm born to roam
Getting on with the long walk home
I see these white boys slinking south
Old school belles they fill their mouths
I wish I would see Massa Ted
I'd put a bullet in his head
"Fieldhand Slim" they did call me
Until Lincoln set me free
I'm getting out of Savanah
Up through the Carolinas
Up north up north I will go
I never even seen the snow
You fuckers best look out for me
I'll show you what a former slave can be
Sold my momma raped my wife
Whipped me beat me took my life
Blue coat black man broke my chains
I'm never going back again
These white boys pass as I head north
Any city any port
Feet on dirt I'm born to roam
Getting on with the long walk home

RISING OUTLAW
The sky's devoid of any trees
I'm glad I still got two good knees
There's a hole in my hand like Jesus Christ
I'm a rebel fighting 'til my work is done
Well they kilt my family and I dug the graves
You can't turn off a fucking wave
Still got my rifle I'll steal your horse
You'll be staring down the barrel of my gun
Fuck the US I must say
It's not my country anyway
The Second Revolution has come and gone
Now I'm robbing trains out in the desert sun
I'm a rising outlaw sling my guns
I dream about my dead wife and my daughter and son
I was hitching up my trusty mule
When they burnt my family down
I fought their war and truth be told
I never thought that I could be so bold
Now living with death is all I know
I'm rebel pride riding into town
Now fuck the generals
Fuck the south
Fuck the north and shut my mouth
Fuck the frontier what's yours is mine
I'm raining down lead like hail
Fuck the indians
Fuck the sky
Fuck the earth and say goodbye
When I strike you won't see me
This war will never end
This war will never end

ROSA PARKS WALTZ
(instrumental)

FANDANGO
What's the difference
War is war
Sacrificing
All the poor
Cannon fodder in the ranks
Stones to swords
Guns to tanks
Dadless kids
Rich man's game
Leaving corpses
And the blind and the lame
Peace is respite
War is life
Poor man's burden
And his wife
And sonless mothers
Power hungry
Sick with rage
Demand vengeance
Blood be paid
Death decreed
Murdering
Beyond bombast
Cowards sing
We sing
We don't deserve good
We just don't rate
Thugs with weapons
Thugs who hate
Trapped and cornered
Might be dead
Fire at will
BAYONETS
Fandango

THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES PART 1

MOAI
(instrumental)

FREEDOM AFRICA
Freedom Africa
I shine on the light
I'm a king I walk this land
The earth is my gift
The spirit flows through me

FORT SUMTER BREAKDOWN
(instrumental)

REBEL STAND
Who in the hell do these Lincolnites think they are?
Trying to come down on my beloved Stars and Bars
Arrogance and cotton is all they think we got
But we got fire them Yanks can go to rot
I was born in Dixieland
I built this house with my two hands
And now I take a rebel stand
Now what in the hell are these Federals trying to prove?
So we seceded we put the Bill Of Rights to use
Now I don't give a damn 'bout moldy history
But I'll kill me a Yankee because he would kill me
If you ask me why I'm fighting
It's because you come down here
To the land of plenty
The skies are blue and clear
It's God's country
So go the hell back home
Or taster my musket
My wife and children love me
I don't own no slaves
I never bothered anyone
Nor sent nobody to no grave
But now you're pointing guns at me
I'm just a farmer can't you see
You really left me with no choice
The Rebel Yell's my only voice
I was born in Dixieland
I built this home with my own hands
And now I take a rebel stand
I guess I'm just a rebel, man

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW
You go where you go
You die where you
You're born where you live
You march when you're called
You fall when you're hit
You charge when you're told
Kill or be killed
You reap what you sow
You bury your dead
You cry for your Maw
You take a man's boots
You murdered his Paw
Kill or be killed
Pack up and go
Die and be dead
You reap what you sow
You bleed 'til you're dead
No water for you
The wails of the field
At night they haunt you
You spit in the dirt
You stab in the face
Death is a friend
Life is disgrace
You reap what you sow

CSS VIRGINIA
No
Imagine if you will the CSS Virginia
Ramming French ships, where's my spot of tea?
Lord I hate the French all for queen and country
Let's recognize the Confederacy
Let's get revenge for the War of 1812
Our colonies can't rule they're not the crown unto itself
That is not right
Nor is it polite
No
Imagine if yu will
A powerful alliance
Great Britain joined with the good ol' CSA
If Jeff Davis keeps it up
We'll finally march on Washington
Make our empire whole again today

MISS KATHRYN
Miss Kathryn sits by her window her man's been gone a year
He writes letters home to his children his picture shows a beard
The farm's going badly the rolling hills they seem to call his name
Them damn politicians they don't die but she knows they're to blame
All the same
Sunshine day
People sway
The war's a million miles away
Lists come back to city hall
Her husband's name ain't there today
Miss Kathryn thinks back to when it started with euphoria to spare
Now all this time later she's just wondering why anybody cared
Every night is sleepless and every single damn night is alone
She prays every hour for her husband not to die and then to come on home
How the kids have grown
Ain't no laughter
In the windswept pasture
The fever grips again tonight
Feed the children
Try to keep her mind off of this evil plight
Hot summer night she turns around and stumbles to her feet
Standing up seems strange here in the darkness that seems so damn complete
The children are crying she holds them and sings a little song
She sheds no tears in front of them
She swears that she can't take this for long
But she's wrong
Sunshine day
People sway
The war's at her front door today
The list come back to city hall
Her husband's name was there today

CHEYENNE REVERIE
I hope wasichu kill each other and leave me alone
I hear they're marching all around on land that was our home
This land it holds a beauty that wasichu can not see
The earth is bigger than a war that's between you and me
How can settlers be called that when they just invade
They call us savages yet slaughter us
Because we're red they think that we are of a lower kind
They rape and pillage rape and pillage rape and pillage
When they're done their flagellation then they will kill us
Their white division is a crime to earth
They treat their men as pets and desecrate this holy land
The blood will spill the star chiefs lie
May the great spirit forgive them for they know not what they do

JEB
(instrumental)

PICKET'S CHARGE
There's a town up north
Pennsylvania bound
A town I never heard
A place called Gettysburg
We fought for seven days
We whooped them yankees good
Now Richmond's standing tall
Like I knew she would
Old Stonewall's come and gone
The meanest cuss you'll see
With Longstreet at his side
We're fighting for General Lee
June is hot and I miss my momma true
The Cause is why I'm here, son, how 'bout you?
How I miss the scent of southern pines
We're marching across that Mason Dixon Line
Stonewall Jackson's dead
His own troops shot him dead
We're marching through the north
To Lincoln's own back porch
We marched through Maryland
We didn't touch the land
Two days battle gone
We're charging come the dawn
General Pickett gave the sign and we stood up
Cannon fire lit the Federal embankments up
The proud red banner hoisted in the air
The first volley killed my brother and singed my hair
Armistead is dead
The summer grass is red
Dealt these filthy cards
I fell at Pickett's Charge
General Armistead is dead
The summer grass is red
Dealt these bloody cards
I fell at Picket's Charge

KISS THE SNAKE

05  "Everyone Slumbers"

10  Oh here's the main riff.

15  ...Ol' Lutzy dancing out in the crowd.

20  I am about to press the play button.

25  Here's my solo.

30  There's always the thunderstorm at SoWeBo.

35  I get profoundly depressed.