This a song about Peanut Butter Hill So in a way it might be about you. It’s about neighborhood kids that go out to play But the special ones that wait for a rainy day.
Others would play in the sun and grass Or throw stuff at the fish in the pond. We would wait for the clouds to get grey Promising that rain is on its way.
Soon the dry creek would rise above our shoes We all cheered loudly to spread the good news. Our favorite hill melted into a wall of brown Too slippery to easily climb up or down.
You keep your hands in your pockets To get to the top of Peanut Butter Hill. Most of us slid half way back each time And laughed so hard on Peanut Butter Hill.
This a song about Peanut Butter Hill So in a way it might be about you. Enormous leaning trees embraced imagination A play house or needed fortress for generations.
Today the trees have all but fallen down The hillsides have eroded and barely left a clue. Of the adventures we all remember still And the fun we had on Peanut Butter Hill.
You keep your hands in your pockets To get to the top of Peanut Butter Hill. Most of us slid half way back each time And laughed so hard on Peanut Butter Hill.
I just released my newest project on CD Baby. This is my sixth album release over the years.
Very soon the Album/CD titled: “Eye of a Storm” will be available on Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Instagram, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, and about 150 other streaming services globally. Search for Michael S Kennedy and with a bunch of luck it will appear on the list. The songs and CD are cheaper on CD Baby so you can also save a little cash there.
I think I settled on 18 songs since my last release. I post almost everything on this blog first so if you have been here a few times you may have heard many of these tracks. I really like a lot of these new songs and they include some of the best lyrics I have written. In the year we have had, there were few opportunities for my friends to add vocals or instruments to some of my songs as in the past. As a result, all of these songs were written, performed, recorded and mixed by me. While it is a lot of work and I really wish someone would do it for me, it is also a lot of fun and I am proud to look back at this collection. I hope you try a few out because they are all different in their own right.
I went searching for years to learn the important things in life. Some spent in luxury, too many were spent in strife. Truly believing if I could just find the right questions Throughout all of humanity, someone would surely know.
What happens after death, are we all alone? The answers were never written in stone. What is the real difference between love and faith? Is it too late with three out at the bottom of the eighth?
The Answer Might Be 42 But it never was about that. Finding neither question or answer Nor even a wise old sage or wizard.
To learn how to listen I sought out musicians To know what is real I studied magicians. Accountants I’ve met could never measure true cost. Preparing for challenge I drank with those who have lost.
To see both sides I closely examined the moon. You can see the ground better from a hot air balloon. Can’t understand demons if you always talk to saints. What is freedom if you’ve never known restraints?
The Answer Might Be 42 But it was never about that. The secret of life is not found in questions Better served by learning whom to ask.
I often mention my talented wife and children sprinkled within posts over the years. When the girls were very young we made Christmas and the holidays a creative fest whenever possible. From pumpkin carving parties with over 200 pumpkins, costumes and haunted houses, we put our own flair into everything. We avoided the commercial and traditional.
Each year we would send our many friends a hand-made original Christmas ‘Card’. We would start two months before Christmas to imagine, design and create a unique holiday greeting from our entire family. Many are still hung up or placed on mantels to this day. It is hard to describe so you can get an idea of the projects. One time we made small cloth trees decorated in style with a hook on them so you could hang them as an ornament. Another year we took clear glass ornamental globes and other shaped bobbles and poured paint inside making them sparkle with bright colors and/or glitter on the inside of the glass.
As a musician I built up a small home recording studio over the years. In the lyrics we reference “7 tracks and SMPTE”. I had a digital recorder back then but advanced as it was at the time it only had eight tracks, and one of them you used to record a clock signal so it would sync with the MIDI instruments I had controlled by a hardware sequencer (RECORDING WAS A LOT HARDER IN THOSE DAYS!!!). Every few years I managed to work in a family musical project. Here are two audio recordings we sent as that year’s ‘card’.
This tradition really became a thing and people looked forward to getting their next card, knowing it would be unlike any other they would receive that year, or ever again.
Here is my family recording two Christmas carols for our annual card project. One is a traditional cover of a song you are familiar with. The other is our version of a classic. Even if you aren’t ‘all about Christmas’ and everything, I think you will find this cute and maybe hilarious at the same time.
I wish you all well and hope we can keep lost loved ones close to our hearts and friends and family in our thoughts.
Thinking of the times we were both in school They said I was an idiot and called you a fool. In high school you created a vaccine that kept thousands alive When I was bored I solved problems for the first warp drive.
One time I saw a kid push you around I thought you would never hit the ground. I went over to help you up and when I reached out a hand With a smile you said. “Bodies in motion. Now I understand’.
In class I was asked for money and I had to refuse That week I came home with cuts and a bruise. Forget the bedside manners and dispense with the charm That’s what you meant when you would yell, ‘First, do no harm’.
Bodies In Motion pushed in so many different ways. Bodies In Motion simply can’t be measured in days.
Bullies and jerks are really nothing new Feels like so many but there’s only just a few. Beauties and brats seem to roam free across the range They appear successful but soon that will also change.
Bodies In Motion pushed in so many different ways. Bodies In Motion simply can’t be measured in days.
Thinking of the times we were both in school They said I was an idiot and called you a fool. In high school you created a vaccine that kept thousands alive When I was bored I solved problems for the first warp drive.
Every musician hits a wrong note You just try to do it at the right time. The lyrics might ramble and get lost You can be sure they end with a rhyme.
Dress it up in lights and fantasy Fill it with glitter-truths and noble lies. Pretty poems form a pleasant jingle Packaged with a bow and ribbon ties.
Beautiful From A Distance We desire what we see. And only From A Distance It’s easy to believe.
What seemed warm and delightful Is now turned bitter and freezing cold. It only happens when you get too close Not sure I always knew that or was told.
Then you learn it’s a sale and not a gift No surprise now they expect you to pay. Payments for years turn into a lifetime For the shiny bobble you’ll just throw away.
Beautiful From A Distance Until you hand them your pay. Beautiful From A Distance You’ll just throw it away.
Every musician hits a wrong note You just try to do it at the right time. The lyrics might ramble and get lost You can be sure they end with a rhyme.
Dress it up in lights and fantasy Fill it with glitter-truths and noble lies. Pretty poems form a pleasant jingle Packaged with a bow and ribbon ties.
Beautiful From A Distance Until you hand them your pay. Beautiful From A Distance You just threw it away.
After smoothing out the timing and lyrics to match the mood I was after for this new song, I wrote a melody that seems to fit pretty well.
I squeezed some of the lyrics as I mentioned and cleaned up the instrumental glitches (a technical term for anything that isn’t right) and added a few parts to the instrumental verison I posted earlier.
Minor changes go on for a long time in the final tracking stage. A lot of it will not be used at all and some will be low in volume so as not to hear distinctly. But similar to color splashes added to the face in a painting, it can really bring out the rest of the ‘image’.
