Songs on this page: 14

Rock Songs

These songs are a slightly heavier style (but not excessively heavy). Really, these songs just have a higher energy level. Some are instrumentals and some have vocals, but all are intended to be potentially suitable for a rock radio station.

Yavanna Smiled - Sample only. Yavanna is the goddess of living things and the bringer of light to Middle Earth (The world of J. R. R. Tolkien). This tune is a fusion-rock piece with an up-tempo high energy beat and a latin flair in the second half.

"Light 'Em Up!" Version 3, 01/26/2005. Sample only. This is a rock n roll style song written specifically as encouragement and support for the 101st Airborne going to fight in Iraq. This is the title song for the new album. For this one, I wanted to create a rhythm and beat that makes people want to dance. I wanted to make it almost impossible to listen to it without moving some part of your body. Specifically, I was looking for a sort of ZZ-Top kind of vibe here with this one. Listen for yourself and see if you think you can hear that in there.

"Best Day Of Your Life" Sample only. To make this one, I took a rock sound, layered it onto a funk beat, using jazz chords and blues riffs, then I thought about sex.... It's an instrumental with a funky, but rockish, high energy feel.

"Heart of an Angel" Sample only. This is a 'power ballad' style of rock song. It builds from a single acoustic and voice into a much larger sound. Don't set the volume too loud at the beginning because it's going to get louder. For the bridge and chorus, I discovered a technique of hitting the guitar strings with a drumstick in order to get the sudden impact type of power guitar sound I was looking for. Lots of emotion here. This is about a boy who loves his girl deeply. He is praising her sweet soul and 'heart of an angel'.

I'm Not Driving Too Fast, I'm Just Flying Too Low - This is about my convertible Jaguar. I was telling my neighbor, who is a pilot, about a time when I drove down from Oklahoma City to Dallas, and on a clear, sunny day with very sparse traffic, I let the car run to where it was almost flying (I won't say how fast in a public place like this.....) And my neighbor mentioned that he starts to take off at lower speeds than that. He said that speed wasn't so fast for a flying speed but was very fast for a ground speed in a car. So I said I wasn't driving too fast - I was just flying too low. And thence came the song. I had plans to use this song in a special way. And I'd still like to.

You Make Me Feel Good - Sample only. This is an instrumental that is about that good, warm feeling that you can get from someone. That 'happy inside' feeling. There is no story that this song tells - just a feeling it describes.

The Best I Can Do - Sample only. At a time when I was having to lay off people every three months for 3 years, I felt very sorry for them and felt bad about what I had to do. I wanted to help them as much as possible, and I did. Still it was a dark time. This is a driving rock song.

Billy Goes For A Drive - Sample only. This is an instrumental rock song with a 'southern roll' to it. Good Driving music... Billy was a friend of mine who later became my boss. He bought a beautiful new Mercedes S500, and yet because of his constant travel to San Francisco every week, he rarely ever got a chance to drive it. Sometimes when he was home on a weekend, he would take it out - just to DRIVE it for the pure enjoyment of driving a fine car.

"Touring Baghdad" - Version 3, 01/26/2005. Sample only. I originally wrote this in April of 2003, just as the US troops were entering Baghdad the first time and were going through the streets and chasing away the remnants of Saddam Hussein's militia. I heard on the radio that some civilian was going to be given temporary control of Iraq and he was planning to go "touring Baghdad". I thought that sounded funny - almost like being on vacation. So I wrote this song. It is a funny song about going into Baghdad because Hussein's actions invited us in - and we couldn't refuse the invitation. Now, things have changed a bit since those first days. The US forces have captured Saddam Hussein, but now are entrenched in a ground war with insurgent terrorists. So I had to update the words to match the times. There are war sound effects at the beginning including an air raid siren. I looked all over the world to find a decent recording of an air raid siren, and finally ended up finding one right in my backyard of Allen, Texas.

"In My Sights" Version 4, 01/26/05. Sample only. This is one especially for the troops on the line fighting in Iraq. This is an agressive heavy metal rock sound. There were some of the 101st Airborne at a Christmas party in Dover TN, that seemed to like "Touring Baghdad" so I've decided to write a few more for them. This is one. For this imagine a scene similar to the scene in Apocalypse Now, where the helos are coming in blaring Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". Imagine a fleet of Air Assault Apache helicopters coming with speakers mounted playing this song. Now THAT will wake you up in the morning...

"Don't Look Back" This is a misfit tune from late 1999 where I found out after writing and recording it that the basic melody of it was already done by someone else. In this case, it turned out to be Eric Johnson's "Trademark". His was an instrumental, and this one is not. There are vocals, etc. And this is not as as good as Trademark of course, but the basic melodic structure is pretty much the same, so I had to scrap the tune. It was never included on any CDs. Sometimes, when writing a tune, it's easy to come up with a melody that 'sounds right' but you don't recognize it from anywhere, and yet you heard it somewhere along the line and just forgot over time. Also, I was just getting back into playing music again after having put it away completely for 10 years. I was a bit rusty and working out the kinks after a long Rip Van Winkle-like musical sleep, plus I was learning a new recording technology. It was a little 16 track Korg digital unit which I don't have anymore.

Anthem - Live - Sample only. This was performed live at Madison Square Gardens in front of 50,000 excited screaming fans. Well, ok - maybe not 50,000. How about 10,000? How about 200? ....Ten?.... ok - the truth is I did the whole thing in my home studio at 5am on a Sunday morning in total outward silence. I used various sounds from a synthesizer to get the crowd sounds. Ahhhh the fun things you can do with technology. I had SO much fun doing this song. I couldn't believe how real the crowd sounds here. High energy rock with harmony leads, etc. Used a Les Paul - White Magic.

Still Smokin' - This is also live at Madison Square Garden gardens in front of 50,000 screaming fans. er...um... yeah. Same 'concert'. lol. This tune is a 'comeback song' for anyone who once was pretty good at what they did, and now are coming back to do it again. A song of defiance and encouragement. I played guitar for 25 years, and then when my daughter was born, I put them away and didn't touch music - or even listen to it much even - for 10 years. For the entire decade of the nineties I played nothing. Then in 2000, I came back to it and began it again. After 10 years of nothing, I was pretty rusty, but I eventually got most of my chops back. This tune was an example. On the Eric Johnson list, we were talking about playing fast. I was trying to make the point that speed is not the point of music - but hey we're talking to guitar players here so...... I decided to make at least one song where I had at least some fast guitar playing, just to prove I can do it if I want to.

Just Like James Bond - This was from when I was managing a group of consultants for a large software company. This was at a time when the economy was still hot and it was difficult holding on to good talented people. I kept losing them to small start-up companies that offered more money and stock options, etc. I was trying to think of a way to keep them, even though I could pay as much as some other companies. So I thought of people who did their jobs for low pay despite dangers and other hardships. I thought of firefighters, and policemen, ....and secert agents. It occurred to me that the reason these people kept their jobs is that there was a romantic image associated with their job that made them feel important and special. They didn't just feel they were doing a job for money, but rather that they held an important position and were making a difference. They make movies about people who do those kinds of jobs - they don't make movies about people who are systems consultants.... So I decided to make a song that created an image of a super consultant. He was like a secret agent - in fact, other than the shooting and killing part, many aspects of the travelling consultant are similar to a secret agent, so I used that and drew comparisons. This super consultant was 'just like James Bond'