My precocious young Long Island friends Storytellers are a jazz fusion group, a sort of revolving door of multi-talented instrumental geniuses around bass-sorcerer Mike Schuler. They sent me this beautiful instrumental song titled "colors" and gave me free reign over it. Ordinarily I dislike such vague assignments, but the music was so intimidatingly good that I had to deliver. I wrote a few pages of parts and got in the studio with them and Mike and the boys pointed out specific sections they wanted me to perform in and I just polished up segments of writing on the spot and delivered them. It was the most free-form process I'd ever recorded as but I think it came out great. They ended up rewriting this song into a different one called "Reverie" that I wrote a separate (And very different) set of lyrics for , but I always loved this, so here's an unmixed demo of "colors"!
lyrics
Wake to a blank sheet monochrome landscape
scapegoat escape, grow and scope it out
rotoscope and solo now and fill it fulfillingly as a dream-scape
the world can be a dull bland place, a hard bleak gray
blank slate enrich it with engravings and pigments
before you plant graves, rant/rave damn, play grab paint
and make a planet sphere canvas here your masterpiece
you live inside a work of art! An orchestral performance
the moment that you know that...you contribute to it
improvise your vision into the intrinsic artful beauty that is living
ears crave music, muses' Aural fixation,
when it fits? Aids the fits...it fixed aches and
there's correlations between the collaborations and our core's coloration
the creation catalyzing/changing collapsing to catharsis
an artist's aura is that of the arsonist
(the insistent charge within to deconstruct/destruct
create warmth and glow from what is horrible)
the conflagration turns the commonplace calm complacent
to the warmth of flame we are intrinsic need to morph and make
more engaged and we say things “gray” when things are vague
as we learn and situation, our world grows with the interplay
a vibrancy comes into play. A brightness in a simple stage
a spotlight, monologue time, log life to help us spot light.
Be it Mozart's sheets or Chekhov's Gun,
be it Ernest's typewriter or Renoir's brush
be it Banksy's stencils or the pen I clutch.
Every creation is a representation of our present engagement
expressing our pain and the pleasure we take in
we are made to keep making. We ache to create things.
the forest for the great trees.
We see the world in potentials and obsessively connect those
make a melody out of monotony.
We freak when seeing a frequent sea of frequencies
We're Free. Quenched. Eased.
Mellifluous, meticulous yet “success is in the details”
if I'm not tuned in and attuned to tunes I don't sleep well
Well, All told, don't paint in broad strokes
in awful odd coats of long rolls, find a strong role
you belong in so you'll no longer be longing with bored souls.
Grab a brush and dip it into color pigments lush and vivid
bucket dipping before a brush with death when bucket kicking.
We take notes to examine and extract from life
we play notes to expand a soundtrack for life
when I carry a tune, I feel it carries me too
and carries me to a place I'll happily croon.
Ruminate in your REM. Embark,
remember to exacerbate that “Cathartic” contains “art”
unlock the floodgates' dreamed Arcs uncaged
two of every an...imated stagnant painting... Un-Cage
(no “silence”) your thunderous cardiac..tions
supply an inspiring supple amplification
to enliven a canvas, you'll have to paint it
to “fix silence” you'll have to “break it”
When something's importune we import tunes
if something's important, well in pour tints
explore, implore, explode angrily, implode creatively
whatever is invoked, emulsify, evolve immersive highs
dissolve, adrenaline and experiment adventurous
don't fear the unknown, Conquer it, forget the detriment
...ascend to bliss
credits
from Whole > Sum Parts,
released March 26, 2019
Lyrics written and performed by Bruce "AllOne" Pandolfo
music written and performed by Storytellers
Left-field rapper, slam poet, singer/songwriter, and author Bruce Pandolfo from Long Island.
Creating to connect. Obsessively exploring and creating art as healing and growing.
Deeply vivid/introspective lyrics populate this ambitious folk rock project. The arrangements span from mellow/minimal to rocking and grandiose. Consistently emotive, unique and sincere. Brilliance. AllOne
Progressive yet punk, aggro yet emotional. One of my favorite bands from Long Island and doing everything they can to live up to their name, raising money for causes and making badass music, AllOne