The Fishbowl

I think my music writing days are finally done- I'm too cheap to pay for anything and my free Soundcloud account is at the upload max- the world is spared.

Though my country playlist was the early analytic favorite- "The Fishbowl" is by far the most listened to playlist.

'My Country Vibe"- you can find it here:

My Country Vibe

For this post, I wanted to comment on the inspiration of this playlist, which I enjoy listening to- so if anything, it has given me a fun way to hear some tunes. Multi- genre and a lot of fun for me.

Link to Playlist (25 songs)- you can listen to it at the link below- with a Soundcloud app (free) you can put the list on shuffle - I also listen to Morgan Wallen and many others on the same app.

The Fishbowl

The title "Fishbowl" is a little bit of inside humor with the people I work with and the chaos of work at times... but don't we all live in a fishbowl these days?

Song 1- The Madness- this is a song based on the Nietzche parable called "The Madman" and was part of the "God os dead" mantra. There is a lot of Francis Schaeffer here too- if we remove all form, there is only chaos- who will restore the order?

Song 2- Fighting the Fade- this is my attempt to create the energy of "Do not go gently into that good night" -

Song 3- Escape from Pandemonium- this came from a late night of insomnia and reading Milton's "Paradise Lost"- you can find a blogpost about it as well

Song 4- We Got Ourselves a Game- I love how this turned out, I tweaked the narrative from something I read a long time ago about "The Theory of Competition" and "flipping the script as underdogs". There is no truth to the rumor that this was on Diego Pavia's playlist when they upset Alabama.

Song 5- Lost in Translation- I'm really proud of this one and worked hard on it. The problems with mass communication technology and how lonely we are. I have a fondness for the alt rock sound, so this turned out much better than I hoped for

Song 6- Unknown and Unrealized- this song has huge complexity and I don't think I can sum it up in this blurp. It has an allusion to a haunting song by the Revivalists called "Soul Fight" and describes what I call - a beautiful struggle- is there joy is accepting things that are unknown or unrealized? After listening to the revivalist song (and others) I finally wrote on night:

In the space where we don’t belong,
There’s heartache but it’s still a song,
It’s where the might-have-beens all hide,
In the unknown and unrealized.

"Soulfight" has various meanings to different people- so I think the same will be for this tune.

Song 7- Things of Hell Too Well- this was just a phrase that jumped in my head on day while I was driving and is based on a Nashville musician, Rivers Rutherford quote "A man doesn't have to die to go to hell"- the song is a lament to why we don't see more heavenly things and our hearts are so weighed down.

Song 8- Blue Yeti- I was in the office one day telling a co-worker about the Abominable Snowman ride in the early 80's at the Miracle Strip in Panama City- and I got such a visual of that memory, I wanted to write lyrics that captured that amazing ride! I wasted about 2 hours trying to fit 'Abominable' into lyrics and just changed it to Blue Yeti that has an easier flow for the meter of the rhyme.

Song 9- Weekdays with Foss- in some ways, this entire music experiment is the fault of Sam Walter Foss, a newspaper poet at the turn of the 20th century that captured me about 10 years ago. Foss wrote some trivial stuff, stupid stuff, deep stuff- but he so captured life that I love just reading his quips. This songwriting is a modern day Foss experiment.

Song 10- The Whirlpool of Regret- this song will sneak up on you- it is the slow drift away from truth that we all go through- I actually saw a whirlpool one day while I was fishing and it was beautiful and made me thing about the spin would be disorienting, companions enjoying the ride, people throw in a rope to save- but we reject truth- and at some point it is too late. This isn't as much about eternal damnation as it is the e of sin when we should know better- bad company corrupts good morals.

Song 11- Cold Coffee- this is the first poem I ever wrote AFTER college and is a admonishment for my poor work ethic in my early 20's.... I'm much better now.... LOL. The hardest part of any pursuit is the finish! Do it now and do it well!

Song 12- She's a Real Girl- a shout out to my wife - but also my belief that men are ultimately attracted to women who are real and true to themselves. As a dad of three daughters, I see up close how cruel this society is to women.... way too much here that I can explain. But I love strong women who are comfortable in their own skin and don't take **** off no one.

Song 13- Electric Midnight- this one was fun- a thought experiment about my lifelong struggle with insomnia. I wrote 90% of these songs wide awake at 2 or 3 in the morning. I fall asleep dead to the world between 9 and 10 PM and wake up with my brain on fire at 1, 2 or 3 in the AM. "Awake at 2" didn't sound very cool so I thought "Electric Midnight" and then I wanted it in an 80's classic rock style like Kiss, or Judas Priest- this one came out much cooler for an old head banger like me.

Song 14- Rivals in Our Trenches- my life long love for Robert Frost's poem- "Mending Wall"- I worke don the lyrics to this for a really long time. The alt rock sound made the message pop in my opinion and I have a lot of satisfaction on this one- very appropriate to our political climate.

Song 15- The Silence of the Infinite is Evident- I wrote this after reviewing quotes I had saved from Blaise Pascal who is under rated as an apologist. The title and message cuts two ways. The silence of God is evident but His reality is evident in vast silence as well. The visible church of God is hurting and our young people especially are suffering the consequences of a moral darkness, sort of an eclipse of God. He IS still shining, just like the sun continues to shine during a solar eclipse, He is hidden, or maybe a better term; 'blocked'. Our people seem to just be gazing at the earth.

Song 16- Relics in Foul Dust- this is such a dystopian and apocalyptic song! Based on the Shelley poem, "Ozymandias" it is simply what becomes of man after he collapses on his own weight of sin. The song is figurative, but I also fear a literal one as well. "World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones".

Song 17- The Weight of the Absurd" is a shout out to Camus, Sartre, and the existentialists and based on the story "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Camus. Though I admire the rugged survival of the existentialists, the Christian message is still much better, though we can learn more about toughness!

Song 18- Still He Prays- I'm surprised how many people in Birmingham DON'T know about the Brother Bryan statue on 5 Points South. Anyway, I wrote this after the shootings when I saw the statue and the police cars and thought "He is still praying".

Song 19- Letter to My Dad- based on an actual letter written in 1947 by a young Jim Collier to his dad. a picture of that letter was included when his son Forrest sent me some documentation for a story I was going to tell about his dad in Sunday School. The letter itself was so intriguing, I spent a good week researching the letterhead, etc. And it became a short story and this song. We all long to be with out heavenly father!

Song 20- Always Almost- This phrase just came to me one day while I was driving and thinking about how many victories are so close- but "a win is a win and a beat is still a beat" - then I thought but we also 'almost' have calamity so in th elong run... it all evens out.

Song 21- Red Cloud's War- for some reason it took me almost 6 months to finish a book I was given about Red Cloud- it was a great book! But I would only take it with me on trips, etc. So when I finished, I decided to write a poem and then I turned it into this song. This is probably my favorite on the list.

Song 22- Finding Quiet- I write a lot about mental health and the anxiety and panic attacks that are prevalent in society today- we are overworked, no sabbath rest- and because of modern day technology running fast and hard- burned out, and full of FOMO. To survive some days, you just need to make it to the next day... I survive by time daily just thinking and praying alone- and that quiet space is a sanctuary. I pick a woman's voice for some of these songs just to evoke the emotion... sorry if that seems sexist.

Song 23- The Seas of God are Endless- the title comes from Foss line, but I was listening to 'Sailing" by Christopher Cross and wanted to put a sailing song on the list and it also echoes Garth Brooks, The River.

Song 24- Chasing Phantoms- any reader of Jayopsis.com will know that my title is a reference to the poem Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant- Thanatos- death and opsis- eyesight. So his poem is "a view of death" and Jayopsis is "my view" and I counter his view of death with th Christian world view. I love his poem (he wrote it at age 17) but I also reject its premise. This song is my response.

Last song- The Last Encore- this song is a lament to the loss of Eddie Van Halen and Glen Fry and when I hear their songs, I am sad that they are no longer playing them. It is so strange to hear them in their prime but know that they are gone. SO I wrote some lyrics around the idea and there are easter eggs  in the song to those two.