King of Fools

Hangnail Phillips: Lead Vocal, Lead guitar 2, Backwards Guitars
Stan Corbett: Lead Guitar 1, Backwards Guitars
Michael Busch: Bass
James Keesey: Drums

LISTEN

I see her face
And as I look into her eyes I see the images of lace.
Units of time
They separate our lives from hers to mine
How can she pass by me?

I scan her mind
And find it possible a fault will catch my eye.
I see her face
And as I reach across a dream I see the images of lace.
How can she pass by me?

I wonder if she’s really the way I picture her…
I wonder if she wonders about me… about me.

(Solo 1)

(Solo 2)

I wonder if she’s really the way I picture her…
I wonder if she wonders about me…

I see her face
And as I look into her eyes I see the images of lace.
Units of time
They separate our lives from hers to mine.
How can she pass by me?

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Synthesizer, Baritone Saxophone

LISTEN

Make no misunderstanding
I don’t like underhanded ways
But I can turn my back and
Pretend you do the things you say
And pretty darling if the sun don’t shine
I can always see the light of day

You don’t have to play the rules
And you never have to tell the truth
I’ll be the king of fools for you.

I don’t mind being in storage
If I can have you for a while
Don’t mind you being unfaithful
I realize it’s just your style
And pretty baby if the sun don’t shine
I can always see the light of day

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Bass, Digital Drums

LISTEN

Hey Lucinda, won’t you come out tonight
You’ve been holed up in these four walls too long
Hey Lucinda, I wanna make things right
Won’t you put on your dress and come with me tonight

Hey Lucinda, I wanna see you smile
And raise that dark cloud hangin’ over you
Hey Lucinda, you know it’s not your style
Won’t you put on your shoes and come with me a while

I want you to know (no no no no no)
That we all love you so
And if you should stay
I’m just coming back some other day

Hey Lucinda, won’t you come out tonight
You’ve been holed up in these four walls too long
Hey Lucinda, I wanna make things right
Won’t you put on your dress and come with me tonight
Won’t you put on your dress and come with me tonight

Hangnail Phillips: Lead vocal and Acoustic Guitar, Backwards Blues Harp

LISTEN

Mabel’s been walkin’ on a high wire
She hasn’t slept for weeks.
She balances her tea tray on a fine linen
It’s everybody’s treat.

Sometimes you gotta give it up
Sometimes you gotta walk away, yeah.
Sometimes you gotta leave
Put your collar to the wind.

Tony’s been sleepin’ in the subway
He couldn’t take the pace.
When the heat got too much in the kitchen
He had to find a new place.

He said sometimes you gotta take a stand
Sometimes you gotta walk away, yeah.
Sometimes you gotta turn
Put your collar to the wind.

They say Frank’s been losin’ at the table
He’s fifty-thousand down
I hear he’s been hopin’ that the next hand
Is gonna bring him ’round.

Aw, man, sometimes you gotta give it up
Sometimes you gotta walk away, yeah.
Sometimes you gotta lose…
Put your collar to the wind.

LISTEN

Hangnail Phillips: Vocal, classical guitar, mandolin, keyboards (MIDI Score: pipe organ, honky tonk piano, ocarina, penny whistle, fiddle, cello, oboe, strings, percussion)

LISTEN

Quietly we sat and we listened to music
And drank ourselves into the night.
Softly we touched and the Zen was so much
That we knew that it had to be right.
Madly we kissed, overwhelmed by the bliss
There was nothing but us to do.
I made a promise, though not made between us,
That I’d be forever for you.

Words became mumbles as downward we tumbled
A hunger out of control.
Pressing and feeling, our Karmas were reeling
On fire down to our souls.
Into the night with our passions alight
With a love and a joining so true.
Nobody else could have felt what we felt
So I’ll be forever for you.

We came to our senses and closed all the fences
Denying we ever had loved.
We lived in our prisons, though matched in our rhythms
And seldom since have we touched.
Each time I see you my heart cries, “I need you”,
The years and years stand as proof.
So wait your life and see, after eternity,
I’ll be forever for you.

Hangnail Phillips: Vocal, Egmund Acoustic 12-string, Slide guitar, Blues Harp, Bass

LISTEN

I’m holdin’ me a letter, baby sent to me
She says she’s going back to her Pa
Even though he drinks at night and drives her friends away
He’s better than the sort that I’m

She told me I been sweet to her and showed her what love can be
With me she feels so safe and secure
So she gave me a one way ticket and I’m gonna spend my days
Sittin’ here at the 41 Hotel

[aside] I’m scrapin’. My eyes are stingin’ me

Every time I think about the way she up and threw me out
It hurts me right down to my soul
She made her mind, didn’t care about mine
Left me out in the cold, oh!

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Rickenbacker 360 12-String, Gibson SG, Rickenbacker 4001 Bass, Vox Continental Organ, Digital Drums

LISTEN

Don’t she look tasty as she saunters down the sidewalk?
Sure seems silky with that long black hair
High heels and short skirt she’s a long legged lover
Heads spin everywhere she goes
She’s got a smile that is like no other
She wants to swallow you whole

But don’t you believe
That’s a he not a she
And he don’t care who she sees
He’s a walking disease.

Don’t she look hot with her hips hugging hungry?
Don’t she look sultry with them bedroom eyes?
She draws you in like a sweet Venus flytrap
There’s nothing else you know
You’re like a zombie, like a housewife on Prozac
You follow down the road

Hangnail Phillips: Lead Vocal, Sitar, Flute, Avatar Guitar Synthesizer
Michael Busch: Acoustic Guitar, Moog Synthesizer
Stan Corbett: Bass, Arp Synthesizer
James Keesey: Tablas, Drums

LISTEN

Hey, I don’t know what to tell you
‘cept life ain’t black and white.
Through the haze and all the grays
It’s neither wrong nor right.
But there’s a way of things
And you can’t change that.

Girl, I wish that I could tell you
What you have to do.
But you see it’s not for me
It’s all within you.
There’s a way of things.
And it all works out.

As we pass beyond the glass
Of what we think should be,
Makes no matter when it shatters,
It was only a dream.
There’s a way of things
And we’re all one.

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Muted Guitar, Bass, Hi-hat & Snare, Clarinets
Dave Bennett: Electric Piano

LISTEN

Let us be lovers
Forget the things they do.
We can be happy together
Me and you.
Try not to think of the things that hurt
We’ll only think for ourselves

’cause everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.

I know you love him
As much as I love her.
But we’ve been waiting too long
For love to stir.
Stand here beside me and hold me close
Safe in the warmth of my arms

’cause everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.

Everyone is so downhearted with the great pursuit
But just between me and you, there’s no problem.
In the grander scheme of things, the real & make believe…
I’ll just wear my heart out on my sleeve

I’m not suggesting a permanent thing
Just therapy for our hearts

’cause everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.

Yes everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.

Hangnail Phillips: vocals, guitars, organ, bass, drums

LISTEN

It’s a gray day and it’s trying to rain
It’s been a long time
Now it’s trying again
We welcome a change in the weather
It’s been dry for so long
It’s a gray day but it won’t last long

It’s a cool day my head in the clouds
I’ve been singing
Just thinking out loud
How could I know you were dreaming
Of how much you need to be free
It’s a cool day for you and for me

In the night when the morning comes you’ll find me still awake
Staring up at the ceiling missing you
Even before Satyricon we’d sung our last refrain
You left me there
Standing in the rain

It’s a new moon and wonders abound
In the darkness I hear not a sound
And that which I thought was forever
Turned out to be just for a while
It’s a gray day but it won’t last long.
It’s a gray day but it won’t last long.

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Synthesizer

LISTEN

Big Blue Sky (Phillips)

I don’t remember life being this hard
Coming to terms with the things that we are.
I keep my composure but deep down inside
There’s a dark discordant feeling I hide

I look to the heavens to show me the way
To help me on that road ahead
When I need the comfort and strength to go on
I just look into that big blue sky

Copyright 1995, Hangnail Phillips

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Synthesizer

New Verse for Randy Barnett (2021):

All these months later my ship is so tossed
I search the horizons and find that I’m lost.
No wind for my sails, I’m just left adrift
With only the currents to close in the rift

I look to the heavens to show me the way
To help me on the seas ahead
When I need the comfort and strength to go on
I just look into that big blue sky.

Crunchy Frog Music
Hangnail Phillips: Vocal, Egmund Acoustic 12-String Guitar, MIDI Score

LISTEN

Blue that’s on the rise
Touched by a dark fluorescent hue
Seething with the weight of every angle’s point of view
By definition there is nothing to receive
The air is far to crisp for me to disbelieve

Moving side to side
The fading mist is hard to see
In subtle ways it still electrifies the scene
And underneath no one is putting on a show
Stripped to essentials at once dark and all aglow

Cold here serves to please
Frightened but at ease
Singular in thought and by design
Blue in mind

Feeling like a dream
Ethereal and on display
No sense of time
Clearer in purpose, words away
The wind swept trees are standing silent, I explore
No contradiction sensed, I wish I could say more

Cold here serves to please
Frightened but at ease
The singularity invigorates the cline
The color of the time
Bluer than thoughts
Electrified

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Synthesizer, Baritone Saxophone

LISTEN

Make no misunderstanding
I don’t like underhanded ways
But I can turn my back and
Pretend you do the things you say
And pretty darling if the sun don’t shine
I can always see the light of day

You don’t have to play the rules
And you never have to tell the truth
I’ll be the king of fools for you.

I don’t mind being in storage
If I can have you for a while
Don’t mind you being unfaithful
I realize it’s just your style
And pretty baby, if the sun don’t shine
I can always see the light of day

James Keesey: Lead Vocal
Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Midi Score (Drums and Digital Saxes), Rickenbaker Bass, Classical Guitar, Backwards Lead Guitar

LISTEN

I’d like to pave the world with concrete
Then I couldn’t see what we’ve become.
I’d really like the look of asphalt
Then all roads would really lead to Rome.

I’d like to set the world on fire
And leave us with a land of char and ash.
I’d like to see us drowning in our mire
And let that be our final dying breath.

We been steppin’ on God’s toes
And everybody knows
The world is goin’ down.

I’d like to pave the world with concrete
And make it flat from sea to shining sea.
Imagine strolling on an endless sidewalk
You’d never have your view obscured by trees.

We gotta face the world alone
Without The Beatles or The Stones
And what will we do now?

I’d like to spray the world with Krylon.
And hold it there for everyone to see.
I’d like change the air to a vacuum.
And watch the sun go down
Forever.

Hangnail Phillips: Lead Vocal, Gibson SG, Moog Synthsizer
Stand Corbett: Acoustic guitars
Mike Busch: Bass
James Keesey: Vocals, drums

LISTEN

There’s a midnight rain in Dowland and it’s freezing
And it’s a long long way to anywhere from here
There’s a distant glow from Aberdeen
But your light is the only one that’s near

Let me in
All I want is shelter from the storm
Let me in
It’s freezing and the fire is warm

It’s a long long way to paradise when you’re a dreamer
‘Cause you never really know which choice to make
There’s a million miles of highway to be traveled
But there’s only so much strain these legs can take

LISTEN

Hangnail Phillips: Vocals, Muted Guitar, Bass, Hi-hat & Snare, Clarinets
Dave Bennett: Electric Piano

LISTEN

Let us be lovers
Forget the things they do.
We can be happy together
Me and you.
Try not to think of the things that hurt
We’ll only think for ourselves

’cause everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.

I know you love him
As much as I love her.
But we’ve been waiting too long
For love to stir.
Stand here beside me and hold me close
Safe in the warmth of my arms

’cause everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.

Everyone is so downhearted with the great pursuit
But just between me and you, there’s no problem.
In the grander scheme of things, the real & make believe…
I’ll just wear my heart out on my sleeve

I’m not suggesting a permanent thing
Just therapy for our hearts

’cause everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.

Yes everyone should come to terms
With the problems of happiness.