I posted this song before, but I have entirely remixed it. The new mix sounds far superior to the original. I also shortened the title from “Tales of War On Venus” to “War on Venus.”
Lyrics:
We sit, swapping war stories We’ve barred all the windows and doors Each of us covered in blood Half of it mine, half of it yours
Two chairs, sitting face to face The room is bare, otherwise Suspiciously watching each other for Sudden movements, any shift in the eyes
There’s a word for why we’re here The trap, it fits us like a glove Explains all the mess and the misery And that four-letter word is love
Pause long enough to take a shot From the big bottle of poison We’re not much but we’re all that we’ve got We sweat bullets and swear “You’re the one. You’re the only one for me.”
Weapons at the ready, there in our laps Fingers never far from the trigger No one smiles, no one eats or sleeps Shots of whiskey and resentment get bigger
It’s no mystery how or where We both know who’s to blame, we insist Each of us swearing that the other struck first It was a case of love at first fist
There’s a word for why we’re here This trap, it fits us like a glove Explains all the mess and misery And that four-letter word is love
This is a song that I wrote in my early twenties but until now, no proper recording of it existed.
Trent Boswell – Full Moon Song
In the past year, I’ve learned several truckloads about “desktop music production” and how to get studio-quality recordings, using only my computer DAW (audio recording program) a basic, two input audio interface and a simple, Shure-58, dynamic microphone.
Also, I finally got a decent pair of studio monitors, so I can hear what is actually going on in the mix, without it being colored too much by the automatic tweaking of frequencies that is present in most speaker systems.
These factors combined, I’m now putting out recordings that are vastly superior to what I was producing last year. The latest material is sonically improved at least a couple hundred percent.
Lyrics
Sometimes I find out things about me Just a little bit more than I’d ever want to know Kind of put a damper on a real good mood Just when I was sure I was on a roll
I was sure I was
In the face of greatness, we often feel small Yeah, the Full Moon, she spits in my eye And wouldn’t we all just love to know Ooh, yeah… exactly why
I know I would
I look for answers in the other dimensions I listen for stories that cannot be told I seek someone to take my confessions And if there is no one, then I want control
God knows, I could use some control
Control
If you could only see what I saw You’d surely say that I’d lost my mind But I know it’s true that all are one and one is all I’ve seen it going on, all the time
Anyway you turn the question, It cannot be answered But anyway you turn the answer, It cannot be questioned I took a toothless profession in cancer On a slighted word, best not to mention
No, no
And I look for answers in the other dimensions I listen for stories that cannot be told And I’ll do anything for direction Anything short of sell my soul
Support this work by becoming a patron and get perks like patrons-only releases, early access free music, poetry and other artistic goodies that help keep us from sliding into the abyss of modern commercialization of the arts.
Magus72 on Patreon
Thank You
Special thanks to the following people for their video contributions:
It’s only a string section, not an entire orchestra. But what sets this apart from anything that I’ve ever done before is that, in addition to writing the chord progression, the guitar and bass parts and the lyrics, I also wrote the string part. That’s a new one for me.
And I didn’t just write something on guitar and then transpose it for strings. Instead, I wrote it the way a classical composer would.
To do this, I had to draw on the part writing rules that we learned in music theory class in college, something that I thought I’d never actually use. It was a long time ago, so I feel sure that I broke some of those rules in various places but remembering the basics (no parallel 4ths or 5ths, etc) got me through it.
SomethingLike A Rainbow
Lost and alone and wandering Finding a true friend there, in the rain Hold fast, together Warmth in a lover’s arms Loving each other heals the pain
A soft and gentle light, to lead the way Something like a rainbow
So many things we were told we’d see Most of them never came to be But no one can explain the redeeming grace That shines from the light in your face
A soft and gentle light, it leads the way Something like a rainbow
And it shines into forever Walk in its light, into forever
So many things we were told we’d see Most of them never came to be Still, no one can explain the redeeming grace That shines when a smile is upon your face
A soft and gentle light, it leads the way Something like a rainbow Soft and gentle light, it leads the way Something like a rainbow
And its light goes into forever Ride the light into forever
Here is my cover of “Hoochie Coochie Man”. This tune was written by the preeminent Godfather of the Blues, Muddy Waters.
Muddy Waters, The Godfather of the Blues
The lyrics are heavily laced with references to the Hoodoo conjure tradition of the American South. One commonly misunderstood line is:
I got the John the Conqueror Root
I’m gonna mess with you
To mess with someone was to put roots on them, meaning to cast spells on that person.
The root known as John the Conqueror (Ipomoea jalapa) is widely regarded as one of the most powerful roots or Plant Spirits; if not the most powerful.
The root, all by itself, was potent and to possess it was to hold power to exert one’s will. However, to possess a mojo hand (aka, mojo bag), made and empowered by a knowledgeable rootworker, was an awe-inspiring thing.
It was not a simple matter to travel to Louisiana and get a mojo, especially for a Black person, who had less opportunities and greater obstacles. If you wanted the magick, the only way to get it was to find a skilled doctor.
This was a man or woman who knew how to coerce the Spirits to work on their behalf. First, you had to find a rootworker and then you had to convince them to make a hand for you and pay them whatever their fee was, no questions asked.
Any rituals they prescribed you or tasks assigned must be followed scrupulously. But once you had a mojo hand, especially one containing John the Conqueror, it meant that you were a force to be reckoned with.
I’m doing all the guitar, bass and vocal parts on this track. I added Slight Return to the title as a little tip of the hat to another major influence of mine, the immortal Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was well aware of the lore mentioned here and his song “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” references similar themes.
During the last verse, you’ll see a quote, placed over a pic of Muddy Waters. It comes from the movie Crossroads, starring Ralph Machio; not to be confused with the movie Crossroads, starring Britney Spears.
It’s the story of a young, classical guitarist who dreams of nothing but playing the Mississippi Delta Blues. He’s a classical music major at The Juilliard School of Music but is mostly obsessed with Robert Johnson, arguably the greatest blues man ever.
This is the video for Unchanged. The .mp3 song download is available for patrons, over at Patreon.
It’s an original, definitely in the vein of my signature brand, a type of madness so strange that I had to give it a new name. I call it Purple Mind Licorice Music®️.
It combines alternative rock, funk, jazz, folk, blues, heavy metal and psychedelia. It’s a long name but Parliament already has Funkadelic and well, let’s face it, Alterna-Funk-N-Roll isn’t nearly as sexy as Purple Mind Licorice Music. Why yes, I do tend to talk about my music like James Brown talked about his. Thank you for noticing.
Side note, if you haven’t seen the filmGet On Up, it’s surprisingly good. I’m a big fan of The Godfather of Soul, The Minister Of New New Super Heavy Funk (even if he was a total wacko, in real life). But for whatever reason, I didn’t think the movie would be all that great. I was delightfully wrong.
Besides, alternative is a lousy category. Any genre that contains Nirvana, REM, Alice In Chains, Weezer, Coldplay and Bush isn’t particularly helpful in guiding listeners’ decisions. They seriously need to scrap that garbage and revisit the drawing board.Back to the business at hand. I’ve played this song live in my band but we just never managed to get a decent recording of it.
I’m doing the vocal and all the bass and guitar parts. Here, I abandoned my memories of how we played it in the band and just started from scratch, all by myself, just me and my computer drummer, Stinky the Robot.
Fake It ‘Til You Break It
I’ve got a habit of improvising my lead guitar parts, as opposed to writing out a solo in advance. There are songs that I write solos for but those are special cases. Usually, I just improvise and keep the bits that I like.
If anyone takes issue with that, many years ago I read an interview with David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) in a guitar magazine. He said that’s the same process he uses in the studio.
He would take several, improv passes at a song, then cut and paste the bits he liked. Later, he’d go back and learn those parts for the live shows.
Comfortably Numb was done that way and I think that song did alright. It sold like over a thousand copies or something. Trust me… in my head, that joke was hysterical.
Of course, I also have a habit of keeping what I regard as being some of “the more charming mistakes“, for better or for worse. There’s one or two of those in the jam section at the end of this tune. I was tempted to re-record those bits but if they make me giggle, then they stay. Giggles are a precious commodity, not to be wasted.
Unchanged
These wounds, open and tender Reveal your face to me Into the chalice of my arms The blood of your suffering flows free
It’s a mild mannered possession, This waiting for the rain Encumbered by the spell and Groggy in the slumbering delay
A scrap of ribbon, fallen From a lover’s hair Found by the boots of boredom Lament for things not yet dead
A piece of my soul floats there Down in the puddle below Somewhere in a watch pocket An insane notion explodes
Special thanks to the following people for providing the video footage and photos. If you enjoyed the visual aspects of the video, the credit is all theirs.
Nothing like a crime of passion to spice up your Saturday night. Here’s a little bit of murderous rage, tucked into a nice, folk song for ya. This is “Hey Joe”, a live cover song video by my band, Magus & The Plastic Infinity.
Words and music to the original are by Billy Roberts. Obviously, Jimi Hendrix is who made the song famous.
Guitar and vocals – Trent Boswell
Support the creation of more music, poetry and madness by Trent Boswell, at:
Many thanks to the following, for the images in the video. You may or may not like the music but if you like the video, the credit for that is all theirs.
Sometimes Nine was one of my old bands. This music video is for the song “A Thang”.
The song was mainly John’s idea but overall, still a collaboration. The lyrics were written by me. It’s called “A Thang” because it’s in the key of A and for a while, it had no name. We’d end up saying “Let’s play that A thing”. Goofy but true.
Lyrics
A Thang
Memory soothe my mind With with endearments of a time A terrain, cool and kind Where we walked, unafraid
It’s hard to find a place To keep your memory I came to the crest of forever The edge of the wheel, far gone
In search of things that I held in my hand A palace of grandeur, it stands in a land A far off way from here, a man with Cool, candied celebrations… celebrations
Still on pause, no more Now, lambent angels, by the score No wounds beyond recall And joy adorns my eyes
If you like bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Jane’s Addiction, Jimi Hendrix or The Mars Volta, then you’ll probably dig this.
This is a brand new recording of the song that I wrote many years ago but never had a chance to record it until now. I’ve played it live with my band quite a few times but unfortunately, we never caught it on tape.
I’m playing the bass and guitar parts and singing. Everything that you hear on this track is me, except for the drums. That’s because I don’t have access to a live drummer right now. Besides, feeding and caring for a wild animal like that is expensive.
Here’s the full video on YouTube. Don’t forget to hit the thumbs up 👍 subscribe ✅ and the notifications bell 🔔
The song is called blind in the sun and the lyrics are below. Originally, it was a poem and I set it to music (hence the Roman numerals in the lyrics).
The .mp3 file is attached to my Patreon page, so you can go there, download it (for free) and play it whenever you want.
I forget sometimes that people don’t always follow my rather eccentric, artistic choices, so I will explain something about this track. I purposefully chose not to clean up the sloppier guitar licks on this track, because it’s the feel that I was going for… teetering on the edge of the abyss.
Going back and punching in smoother, cleaner guitar parts is easy enough. I just didn’t want ’em, not for this. I’ll mention two songs that inspired my playing on this. One is “God”, by Tori Amos. Her guitar player is way better than he sounds on that track. It’s dirty, gritty and foul, for a reason. The song is about existential angst and the loss of faith, so it’s gotta be grimy.
The other is “Come On (Let The Good Times Roll)” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. On that song, he does what jazz musicians refer to as “going outside”, meaning that he lets his solos wander just a little bit out of time and out of key, on purpose. Of course, he brings it back in or it wouldn’t be interesting. I chose to step outside on this track but hopefully not too much.
Feel free to share the link to this page or the Patreon page, or the YouTube link on your social media, that’s the best form of advertising there is for underground artists. I thank you in advance. Enjoy!
Just click that big, unwieldy link, below, to listen to the track. Or go to the Patreon page. You can download the song from the Patreon page and have it for your very own. Just don’t forget to water it every few days and never feed it after midnight.
Blind in the Sun⠀ Can you cringe beneath The shadow of a fly? You’d better try Running ‘cross the sand Fire in the hearts of your band In the joy of being alive Stripped of delusion And so forwardly stride
Lost in the garden with canonized illusions There are the keepers Of the tower But I am not a member Of the dark December The light of the sun refracts In my eye
II.
Everything is water Electric fluid matter In a paper cup Called Time
III.
Somewhere in the North There are real vampires I know you go to visit From time to time To roll in the stench The decadence of Thirst for blood To dine with a pack Of wild gods
I have no intent Of adopting your bent; Partying down with the devil On your shoulder
I have no intent Of going where you went Beating on a skull In a hellish midnight circle
But who am I to say? That you are not ok? I will simply stay Behind
Kevin Trent Boswell 