An ode to impatience. An unsuccessfully attempt at writing a slam dancing punk/grunge tune, as the humour of the lyrics take too much of the edge off to be a serious contender in those fields. Tim's manic drumming speaks more than the lyrics of my original intent.

I've waited forever
for things to come and go
But if we're on to something
You've got to let me know

Chorus:
Yeah, the sooner the better
But better late then never
The sooner the better
Better late then never

I try to be patient 
and try and think things through
But if we thought forever
We'd 'think' ...but never 'do'

Don't rush your decisions
Take your ol' sweet time
There's no pressure, don't forget...
Just hurry up this time

Time flows like a river
But waiting takes it's toll
Time it soothes the sorrow
While waiting heals the soul

Time goes on eternal
Seasons come and go
See, I'm not in a hurry
I just don't like it slow

Chorus:
And the sooner the better
Better late then never
The sooner the better
Better late then never

Being a guitarist, I mysteriously found myself one day pounding on Tim's trap kit, singing this chorus "On and on and on" over and over. I just couldn't get it out of my head (in fact I know it's still in there somewhere). Tim however, sick of this, knocked me off his throne (braking my glasses!) and replied by saying "Swingin' in a tu tu red dog yeah!" A song was born.

And it goes on and on and on and on.
And it goes on and on and on and on.

Everything looking rosy as far as I can see
Everything from here to where the sky meets the sea

And it goes on and on and on and on.
And it goes on and on and on and on.

Rose Coloured Glasses
Rose Coloured Glasses
Look into my looking glass!

Looking at the world through rose coloured glasses
It's talking me nowhere, but I'm taking my chances.
The only thing you've got when your eyes are kept tight
Is a false sense of security and dreams of the sunlight

And it goes on and on and on and on.
And it goes on and on and on and on.

    Tim and Bradley lock down a serious grove on this baby. Written back in 1990, it's only seeing it's full realization on this CD. The lyrics speak on the enigma of life, love ...and the pursuit of lounge singers!?! 

Loves a journey, love's a quest
A constant search to find the best
A place in time, a circumstance
A fire 'round which lovers dance

You've got to believe in love sometimes
'Though hard to understand
The feelings in a woman's heart
And the heart inside the man

It's hard to believe in love sometimes (4x)

Love is patient, love is kind
Love can fool the hearts entwined
One second's bliss, another's pain
But through it all so much to gain

It's hard to believe in love sometimes (4x)

Tears of sorrow tears of joy
To some the heart, seems like a toy
Easy to hurt easy to break
Loves harder to give, then is to take

You've got to believe in love sometimes
'Though hard to understand
The feelings in a woman's heart
And the heart inside the man

It's hard to believe in love sometimes (4x)

You've got to believe in love sometimes!

    Thank God that Bradley and Tim talked me into doing a swing arrangement of this former rock song with silly lyrics. After hearing this mix, I'd have to say that this song has found it's home in "Swang." Kudos to Bradley for his horn arrangement suggestions, and for dragging his trombone out of the closet and blowing out his lip.
 

But I hope your feeling deep inside that I mean enough to you
I don't have much but what I've got I'd give it all for you

CHORUS:
Cause there is nothing I wouldn't do
There's no price I would pay to keep me close to you
Our love's a knot you can't undo
Cause if it came right down to it.
I'd give the world for you.

If to wear more fancy clothes would make you turn your head
Then I'd fly now to Paris and buy some fancy threads.

But I hope you're feeling deep inside that I mean enough to you
I don't have much but what I've got I'd give it all for you

CHORUS:
Cause there is nothing I wouldn't do
There's no price I would pay to keep me close to you
My love's a knot you can't undo
Cause if it came right down to it.
I'd give the world for you.

I'd give the clothes right off my back spend every ounce of blood
Give you my seat on Noah's ark to save you from the flood

but I hope you're feeling deep inside that I mean enough to you
I don't have much but what I've got I'd give it all for you

(Turnaround)

(SOLO)

If to buy you diamonds would show my love the best
then I'd work a dozen jobs and finance all the rest

but I hope you're feeling deep inside that I mean enough to you
I don't have much but what I've got I'd give it all for you

I'd give the clothes right off my back spend every ounce of blood
Give you my seat on Noah's ark to save you from the flood

CHORUS:
(al cappella:)
Cause there is nothing I wouldn't do
(Band:)
There's no price I would pay to keep me close to you
My love's a knot you can't undo
Cause if it came right down to it.
I'd give the world for you.

    The beginning of a new writing phase for me and one of the first songs recorded for this CD. I actually first met Bradley the day of this session. I originally built the arrangement around the feeling of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." However, it seems to have taken on a life of it's own. I remember Bradley and Tim not knowing initially what to think of that tritone-harmony-odd-feel Arabian 'bridge'  ...but all seems well now ...well, apart from Bradley moving into a tent and trading in his minivan for a camel.

I should think there is a beautiful side
To common things in everyday life
All it takes is just a different light
To brighten the (darkest?) night, tonight

I'm finally taking    ...a different look around 
No one sees clearly    ...with their head stuck in the ground

Chorus:
There's Seven Wonders of the World,
but one road takes you home
But for now who really cares
I'm just looking around
 

People that I've never met
Places yet to go
Where it leads who really knows
I'm just looking around

A new perspective changes everything
A different view ...well that's the same thing
I can finally see the fog start to rise
And it's opened my eyes

Chorus:
There's Seven Wonders of the World,
but one road takes you home
But for now who really cares
I'm just looking around

People that I've never met
Places yet to go
Where it leads who really knows
I'm just looking around

Just Looking ...Around
Just Looking ...Around

SOLO

PRE 
All I am saying is take a look around 
No one sees clearly with your head stuck in the ground

Chorus:
There's Seven Wonders of the World,
but one road takes you home
But for now who really cares
I'm just looking around

People that I've never met
Places yet to go
Where it leads who really knows
I'm just looking around

    For some reason, I think of this screamin' tune as "Son of 'Too Good To Be True'" from CD #1. Our adrenaline seems to peak most during the bridge, although I'm particularly proud of the fact that we got to salute Cagney in an earlier verse. "You dirty rat, you!"

Get your head on straight girl
Now there's no time to wait girl
I won't make it alone if we don't make it together
So put your "thinkin' cap" on
Oh where did we go wrong girl
Your commitment it seems comes and goes with the weather.

I'm surprised at you
You said you'd see this through
Now with those thugs that you're sayin'
I'm so surprised at you

Try to remember the place
And thoughts you seemed to replace girl
At least remember the day you said you'd be here for ever
So why you acting like that
"You dirty rat, you!"
No body's takin' your place, no way no how no never.

I'm surprised at you
You said you'd see this through
Now with those thugs that you're sayin'
I'm so surprised at you

    A love song. A woman is the absolute coolest thing God ever created. Women have inspired countless art works, poems, and songs, suicide notes, ect ...but I digress. Here, I was trying to paint a Mona Lisa.

I've been caught in every fleeting craze 
She's become the very thing that stays 
She, she, comes over me in the strangest way 

As I travel through life's daily  maze 
She somehow leads me through the  darkest haze
She, she comes over me in the stranges ways

    Cellos and trumpets surround a real psychedelic grove created by Bradley and Tim complimented by your typical Lewis Carroll type lyrics.?As you can probably tell most of these songs have deep autobiographical roots, lyrically. However, this is not true for this song. I've never actually held a tea party.

I know, yes I know, that I'm nobody at all.
I sometimes kid myself and dream I'm someone else
Because I rather be fool than no one  ....I'm nobody at all

There's many more who are just like me
At least that's what they keep telling me...
Forgotten sailors who are lost at sea
They number up to infinity

I know, yes I know, that I'm nobody at all.
I sometimes kid myself and dream I'm someone else
Because I rather be fool than no one  ....I'm nobody at all

Take off your hat for the symphony
That is so loud that we never see
The silent sound of obscurity
From lonely faces 'round you and me

I know, yes I know, that I'm nobody at all.
I sometimes kid myself and dream I'm someone else
Because I rather be fool than no one  ....I'm nobody at all

A Cheshire cat caught up in a tree
Is noticed even more visibly
Than we who fade from reality
This obscure municipality ...is where I call home

I know, yes I know, that I'm nobody at all.
I sometimes kid myself and dream I'm someone else
Because I rather be fool than no one  ....I'm nobody at all

   An exercise in language moshing. Literally it means "rice ticket," however you'd have to know both Chinese and English to understand it's full meaning. Once you do however, it's quite funny in a boogie woogie Chinese kinda way. Composed completely in a Beijing subway.

She had a good "peng you"
Working at a "fan dien"
Serving up some "hua shao"
Who said "mei wen ti"

Chorus:
Fan, fan, fan Piao
Fan, fan, fan Piao

She waited at the Hard Rock
Holding a red "mei gui"
Looking for the "lao wai"
She was too meet

He had a "da biza"
But was an old geezer
Without a lot of money
And "ta bu cur la"
 

She was from ol' Sichuan
Was looking for a rich one
Who would eat her cooking
Not this ol' "lao se gui"

After "bu hao Kala'ok"
He tired too hard to kiss her
She kicked him in the "pi gu"
"Lu ka tai ma fan"

Chorus:
Fan, fan, fan Piao
Fan, fan, fan Piao

    A "Parisian themed" pop rocker written with a guitar in one hand and a French phrase book in the other, merci bou cou! 
We enlisted the  help of "Misty," accordion player for fellow Melbourne band "The Magnets," to prepare the necessary ambience before the songs starts into the bass intro that has torn a few holes in The OBViOUS' sails more than once or twice. Still, the mighty sailors pulled together and didn't fall off the end of the world or get eaten by sea monsters (wink wink, nudge nudge). Bon jour! 

A little French cafe,
A rendezvous by chance that rainy day
The "pastry of the day"
Was serving coffee, and looking my way
Cafe si vous pla?t!!

Chorus
I see more here than meets the eye
I see more than meets the eye

A bit o d?j? vu
A coup d'?tat, when she walked 'cross the room
How could I say "adieu?"
When ma ch?re was winking at "you know who"
Merci beau coup!

Chorus
I see more here than meets the eye
I see more than meets the eye

Bridge
If I were you, I'd look in the mirror on the wall
Reflections will prove just who's fairest of them all
Then look inside your mind
See who's in your grand design

[Solo]

Chorus
I see more here than meets the eye
I see more than meets the eye

Chorus
I see more here than meets the eye
I see more than meets the eye... more than meets the eye 

Adieu~

    A guitar-synth written song with some picturesque lyrics. Written in a dusty basement in Nashville in the early 1990s, this song has had the benefit of many years of live performances before this recording (which of course will never compare to my original 4-track demo.)

Just memories left in Their hearts.

There's a jacket in my closet .. it went well with you
I found your note inside my pocket saying I love you

Although so many day go by
These little things remind... cause

Everything I see reminds me of you
Everywhere I go your memory pursues
Every time I turn you come into view
Everything reminds me of you

Feeling old sensations while sampling your perfume
Too bad the lady at the counter didn't wear it as well as you
Yesterday I paged your name
But the rain was all that came ...still

Everything I see reminds me of you
Everywhere I go your memory pursues
Every time I turn you come into view
Everything reminds me of you

Reminds me, reminds me of you  (6x)

Up in the clouds I seem to see your silhouette
The ribbons in your hair are formed by the sunset
Though it's many many miles away
It's like you're here today

Although I can not see you, your essence still remains
And although we can not touch, I feel you just the same
While we're a hundred million miles apart
These memories strengthen my heart

Everything I see reminds me of you
Everywhere I go your memory pursues
Every time I turn you come into view
Everything ....

Everything I see reminds me of you
Everywhere I go your memory pursues
Every time I turn you come into view
Everything reminds me of you

Reminds me reminds me of you (2x)

    A nasty "I told you so, you heartless...(well you get the idea)"  song. Nothing like rockin out in 7/8, which this song does most of the time, barring a few mistakes we liked so much we left in. The bridge attempts to show some balance to the nastiness, but of course that idea is quickly annihilated by a guitar solo completely full of irony with it's childish taunt of "na-na na na-na na" ...and "Camptown Races" (!?!) (Don't ask ...it's an OBVIOUS thing.)

Chorus
You've had your chance 
It's time to dance
It's all in the past 
No second glance

Too long in doing what you had to do
You're too late, cause no one ever waits for you.
Don't bawl, though you'll never have this chance again
Don't call, you knew that this was how it ends.

Chorus
You've had your chance 
It's time to dance
It's all in the past 
No second glance

SOLO
Why don't you find yourself another home
Don't ask, I gave you everything I owned
I hope no one will ever fill your shoes
'Cause I know some thing better will come after you.

Chorus
You've had your chance 
It's time to dance
It's all in the past 
No second glance

    The last song written for this disc which can in no way be confused with "Bye Bye Miss American Pie." . A song of loss, frustration and confusion. Bradley recently commented, quite astutely I might add, on how this piece seems to let the album breathe. Looking back, we all agree that it certainly rounds out the edges and completes the jigsaw puzzle in terms of the album as a whole ...dude.

Freedom you'll find
Is just another state of the mind
Love is word
That you will never learn as a bird in flight

Bye-bye butterfly
The wind will take you, high you'll fly
I'll watch you as the sun sets in the West. (Oh yes...)
Bye-bye butterfly
The wind will take you, high you'll fly
A bird in-the-hand, they say, is just a mess.   (I guess..)

Broken in two
A tree rooted inside me and you.
Barren and stark
You've pruned and trimmed it back way too far

These paper walls
Echo all that lived in these halls.
Silence so loud
It screams at volumes heard all around

Bye-bye butterfly
The wind will take you, high you'll fly
I'll watch you as the sun sets in the West. (Oh yes...)
Bye-bye butterfly
The wind will take you, high you'll fly
A bird in-the-hand, they say, is just a mess.   (I guess..)

[Bridge]

Bye-bye butterfly
The wind will take you, high you'll fly
I'll watch you as the sun sets in the West. (Oh yes...)

Watching you go
A sinking feeling follows the show
Blocking it out
The pain of things we couldn't work out

It's getting too late
To sit and think about it again
Not able to move
Trapped thinking a thought I can't lose

Bye-bye butterfly
The wind will take you, high you'll fly
I'll watch you as the sun sets in the West. (Oh yes...)
Bye-bye butterfly
The wind will take you, high you'll fly
A bird in-the-hand, they say, is just a mess.   (I guess..)

    An instrumental in two parts. Part one is the actual "dogfight" composed (and recorded) as a band at a rehearsal after I mistakenly lent my "two brothers" a Living Colour video. Part two ("Funk") is a piece I've had in my head for years. I can confidently say it has been exorcised completely with this great take.

    One of the few acoustic songs on this album. Inspired musically by the Beatles "In My Life" (with guitar-synth "harpsichord" solo) and ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky," this song speaks volumes about living life to the fullest and making every moment count ... and yet it's bittersweet tone reminds of the consequences of things already lost.

Chorus:
You think that two people like us, 
Could find much to do
...but we let it go, it  makes me cry 
When I see we've let the world go by

The dreams I had for you and I 
(The world goes by)
Was I naive to even try 
(The world goes by)

Like ships we pass into the night 
(The world goes by)
Without a struggle or a fight 
(The world goes by)

Not wanting to take ourselves "too seriously" or end on a less than silly note, we present "The obligatory hidden CD track":

    (Translation: "I love Chinese dumplings ....and you!")  Written in my car one day (and captured on my portable tape recorder) this little gem came from out of the depths of the same Cino-culinary-romanticism of "Woa Shi Won Mi Fan" (AKA "I Love Rice") from our first CD. An alternate classical version with "opera singing" was also planned, but abandoned about halfway though this project. 

Wo Ai Jowzi Hai Ni

I love dumplings ....and you!

Written, Produced, Engineered, & Mastered by Mr. Christopher at The Digital Banana Recording Studio  Fall 98 - Fall 99 -Palm Bay, FLA.

Thanks to: 
    Our original fans in China, our new fans in central Florida, and the people we've met all over the world on the internet.
    The Morley, Fan, Beckmann and Meins families
    Jonathan and Kalen from The OBViOUS China Office in Zibo (who dared us to record Fan Piao)
    Bob Thomas for his "almost free" business advice and warm friendship. 
    Elissa Morley for heading the artistic advisory committee. 
    Rick Anderson ...(our original WWWeb Page master) for continuing advice and "carnival intro" on "The World Goes By". 
    "Misty" of The Magnets for providing accordion in the nick of time on "More Than Meets The Eye."
    Kevin White (UK) video production. 
    Noel McGeough (US) video production. 
    MP3.Com and Riffage.Com, and CDviola.com
    T.U.F.M.O.B. members unite!!
    The Big Man Upstairs... 
 

Love to:
Lily (Wo Ai Jowzi Hai Ni) & Mei-Ling, Olivia, Amy, Chelsea, Sara Jeanne, Katherine Marie ...who all put up with so much so we could do this.

OBViOUS Merchandise can be purchased here

Disclaimer: No parrots were hurt in the making of this album.

Have Questions?  Send an email (and your requests to subscribe to) The OBVIOUS FAN CLUB Newsletter at: theobvious@the-obvious.com
 

...and you can always find the guys at The OBViOUS web site: http://www.the-obvious.com