Cody Weathers

Music so hip you'll need a bigger belt

 

Cody Weathers: Free Horse Manure (Box Set: Disc 2 studio, 2002)

 

 

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$10 for CD, available by special order

The Songs

My Every Dream's Come True: written two weeks after Sad And Lonely Boy

 

Broken Heart: written, not recorded for As Rome Burns

 

Mama Earth: written for the play The Flower That Shattered the Stone. This 1992 production originally was intended to feature popular songs from the '60s, but did not obtain the appropriate permissions for reuse. The producers of the play instead asked Cody to provide new music for the show. Cody's score made use of material from As Rome Burns as well as several new songs including this, Asylum, and a theme for the Bremer Town Musicians which eventually became Puppy. The show band was comprised of Cody (drums/vocals), Dave Potts (guitar), Neil McPherson (keyboards), and Jason Kay (bass) with additional vocals by members of the cast, including Rebekah Knoll, who later performed backup vocals on As Rome Burns, Drive By, and Suck Pumpkin.

 

Sticks and Stones: written for Separate Ways

 

I'm Just Looking For the Paper: written for side project Shadows: Blues In The Dark. Shadows was the creation of ROQUE keyboardist Neil MacPherson, Scott Farr, and Dan Langhoff (who performed backup vocals on As Rome Burns). In Summer 1993, the band asked Cody and Speranza to play drums and bass for their debut album Blues In The Dark. In initial discussions with the band, Cody was to have provided 3-4 songs for the album, but when the sessions rolled around, the core members filled the bill on their own, and Cody's songs wound up as alternates for the concurrently-recorded Drive By album.

 

The Machine (Inst): Improvised during a soundceck during the sessions for Checkmate with Cody on keyboard and Speranza playing guitar. Additional commentary by Nick Walsh.

 

Buy The World: Another Shadows/Drive By unrecorded alternate

 

2000: Written for As Rome Burns, recorded for Archaeology but cut from the final mix. Remixed 2002.

 

Feelings(live): Song #2, long parodied in rehearsals by Matt "Keyheim" Preheim.

 

Sudden Realization: Written for Drive By.

 

Shy Birds: Written for Less Yackin'

 

You Could Be The One: Written for Guitool.

 

Train: Cut element of the Afraid of Love song cycle on Flame Cow.

 

Sleep With Him: Written for Flame Cow

 

Dreamscape: Written for Less Yackin', cut from Archaeology

all songs (c)1988-2002, Cody Weathers, all rights reserved except The Machine by John Speranza and Cody Weathers. No stealing the worthless material, OK?

Additional MP3 Singles:

 

 

 

Don't Hate the Players: 

Cody Weathers: All voices and instruments except....

 

John Speranza: Guitar on The Machine and solo on Dreamscape 

John Fried: Bass on Feelings

Robert McIntosh: Percussion on Feelings

Cat Mayhugh: Guitar solo on Feelings

 

MP-FREES:

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    Liner Notes

    Notes on the 2000 CD re-release of Free Horse Manure:

    This CD is the second installment in what is expected to be a 10-disc box set of previously unreleased/unrecorded/rerecorded material from ROQUE/Flip Nasty/UFO Catcher genius songwriter Cody Weathers. Though his unparalleled brilliance and magnificent contributions to the field of Rock and Roll are legendary, a dissenting opinion has been equitably printed below:

     

    Why I Don't Put Up With This S*** Anymore: a lament by John Speranza

    1. Too much effort for 10 fans
    2. Do not care which songs were written for which albums
    3. Diminution of song selection quality from Disc 1 to Disc2 can only get worse.
    4. Do not care that Dreamscape "ushered in a new free dichotomous major-minor polytonality over pivoting geometric tonics." the song sucks. Sucked then. Sucks now. Suck on this pretty little bird.
    5. Quality of parody liner notes diminishing
    6. Rock and roll died with [Hendrix/Cobain], man
    7. I am not your b****, Cody Carl Weathers
    8. Rule of thumb, every 300 songs, 1 should be good. The Machine.

     

     


    Lyrics:

    My Every Dream's Come True: Don't you know that you are every bit as slick as fire, every bit as free as wind and rain is free to move about this Earth? Oh you could have anything, anything your heart desires. Anything, so long as you have me. I will be your soldier, I will be your shoulder, something of a savior, husband, lover, clown, and friend. Carry me in the box inside your heart. CH: When I dream at night, every dream is you. When I wake, my every dream's come true. Don't you know that you are every scrap of air I breathe, every piece of love I need to love the air I'm breathing? Oh we could be anywhere, anywhere there's love and air. Anywhere, so long as we're together there. Kiss me at the altar, any time you falter, stumble, cry or fall, that kiss will be my call, and I'll come running, I'll come running. Carry me.... CH. Hey, someday's every day now. Someday is here.

     

    Broken Heart: I remember lazy days with sunlight in your hair, the little car that got so far was taking us nowhere. And somewhere in the distance, someone shouted to beware. So young --too young. I think we didn't even care. Chorus: To destroy a broken heart as soon as it's stricken is better than to break a heart and leave it ticking. Afternoon with lots of room but precious little space. In the air, a lonely hair has fallen on your face. We could see it coming, but we could not get away. The things that I regret the most were the things I didn't say. Chorus. Conversations trite with no end in sight. Silent sighs to myself under bright streetlights. Twisted, double-fiste, am I being blacklisted? Were you trying to drop a hint, cause I sure as shit missed it. Trying to break my heart, were you trying to make ammends? We were doomed when you said we could still be friends. Imitations, limitations, Dr. Jekyll's new creation. I don't know if that was love, but I miss your inspiration. What am I to do? I remember countless times I called you on the phone. Eleven rings forever meant you still had not come home. Somewhere in my memory I still was not alone. I think I got too anxious when i cursed the dial tone. Chorus. I remember happy times when you and I went out, sitting down to dinner with enthusiastic doubt. But flowers don't change people -- that's not what they're all about. It doesn't help to kick and scream. It doesn't help to shout.

    Mama Earth: Mama, mama where'd I let you down? These fields of brown, they once were green. Mama, mama where'd I let you go? This acid snow fills acid streams. And if I had it all to do again, I think I'd think less about myself. Mama, mama how'd I let you go? I'll never know what beauty means.

     

    Sticks and Stones: I don't even care about the times you told me lies. I don't even care when you look at other guys. i don't even care about the promises you've broken --you're always there when I need you most. After all, baby, it's only the blues, and I've hurt worse, to tell you the truth. Just don't ever leave, whatever you do, because where would I be if I was without you. Pre-CH: I look in your eyes and it's all all right; it's all I need. CH: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but you can break my heart. What's the deal baby, how do you feel? Will we be torn apart? I don't really miss the records that you took, and I don't really care about your mean left hook. I don't even care that your cats ate my shoes. All I need to know is that I can count on you. After all, baby, it's only your temper. If I use some patience then things will get better. I love you, my darling, I'll give 'til it hurts. I know that you'll tell me the kindest of words. Pre-CH CH. I don't even care about your passion for sushi, and I think that you're cute when you tell me I'm crazy. No matter the price, I've got to be with you, 'cause you always lift me when I'm feeling blue. After all baby, opposites attract, and any time I leave, you know I'll always come right back. Don't need no money, as long as you're near. Promise me darling, you'll always be here. What about those contacts that give you purple eyes? Well, I love you the same --even in disguise. As for my drums, I know that they're loud, but I'm always happy to know that you're proud. After all, baby, we're only in love, and when I get to thinking, it's you that it's of. After all, baby, it's only romance, and you're just so sweet to give me this chance. Sticks and stones, baby, sticks and stones, but you won't break my heart. I love you so much, not even sticks and stones will ever tear us apart.

    I'm Just Looking For the Paper: Uncanny all the things you do to make me wrong. I could put a cork in you, but you would just explode. I tell myself that time will make this clear. Time may be an enemy of mine. Chorus: I'm just looking for the paper and a woman who's not fucking someone strong who doesn't listen, but she's glad that I can hear her. Where's the funnies, my good money went for some sort of subscription, and I haven't seen the ocean, but I've heard it's grey and lonely anyway. Why must this be an issue on the slate? Club and gut the rabbit just to find out what he ate. I tell myself that time will make me free. Time may be an enemy of mine. Chorus. Why do I expect each time that chains won't weigh me down? Chorus. I won't sit still, I have to be with you. I'm not content to chase your shadow. I won't be numbed, I won't succumb, I won't become that passive once again.

     

    Buy the World: I feel live I've been locked in a cage, locked out of view for some vicious design. You may decide to taste many men time and again. Don't say you want my time. Chorus: Still i buy you trinkets dear, but the truth is you won't sleep with me, even if I buy the world. I see no way to work you out. There is no way to twist this straight. Don't try to pull that shit on me. Don't think that love means I won't hurt you. Chorus. You say you're sorry --yank on my leash. My neck is free, though blood was let to slick me. You say that you have done nothing wrong --meant no one harm-- but I just think you're careless. Chorus. Remember love can be transferred. Remember trust is just a word. You must prioritize your lies. The truth, though ugly, is preferred. ,BR.

     

    2000:I could be more patient with the shortfalls of my fellow man. I can't explain why it is I can't accept the crimes that we commit. Everyone's a hero when you see them on the silver screen. They wear white hats and in the end the carnage spills away into the sea. Everyone's forgotten how it is they used to look away. They can't accept anything That isn't what they'd really like to see. Everyone's a shadow when it comes to lighting up the way. We cannot see anything: it's time to let the sun ignite the world. Pre-ChorusStar light, star bright, first star I see tonight…. Chorus: Here comes the sun, it's the dawning of a brand new day --let's put the world back together. We greet the sun on the dawning of a brand new age --let's keep the world safe forever. Something quite enticing in the way you hide yourself from me. I can't explain what it is I love so much in something without hope. I could be more patient with the shortfalls of my fellow man, but it's the girls I love the most, who keep me warm when nothing seems to work. Some would say it's hopeless because the world won't be a better place, but I refuse to give up now when everything is hanging on the edge. I could be more patient with the shortfalls of my fellow man, but I refuse to compromise when I am right and this I understand. Pre-Chorus/Chorus. Seems the sky has fallen. Will it ever be above my head? And if I wait 2000 years, will anything around me really change?

    Feelings: Feelings --take your aggression, let it go. Greetings --greetings come and greetings go. All I want is to hold you close. All I want is to feel your touch. Chorus: Feelings, feeling you. Greetings to say to you. I know the feeling/I've got this feeling, do you? All night long, in my sleep, I dream of you until I weep. Oh, the stereo, turn it up real loud. Feel like I'm atop a cloud. She walks on ice, she's cold as stone, guess that's the price of being alone. Chorus. Stayed awake, couldn't get to sleep. Counted rejections instead of counting sheep.

     

    Sudden Realization: Flashes like sparks through sawdust disturb the meal I have no focus my eyes wander in a ravenous gaze of reckless, simple pounding like a leaden point that sheds my skull like cardboard from my brain, and in the breeze my head has never known lilt whispers of mistakes I've made --I feel I may be drying up whilst bubbles peck my crown and scrap my thoughts in lurid cinemas of waste I look to see that no one cares as if I were another shrimp and peeling made me tangible, appealing to the olfact and sensible at last.

    Shy Birds: "Come and take me dancing," she said "come and solve my problems. Don't you leave me beaten --don't let me dissolve." And so I try to utter forth again. CH: Shy birds find their wings won't take them high enough. Shy birds try sometimes too hard. But I will pluck you from that bough --bring you down somehow. "What could be the matter," she said, "don't you think I'm sexy here? Come a little closer --touch me 'cause I like your fear." And so I force myself to try again. CH. The big picture, swift hands on the clock I know, still you have the strangest way of saying no. Even if I see the storm, I can't avoid it. The hail may come down on me, and I throw myself to join it.

     

    You Could Be The One: Anybody can tell -- test you with a razor and you're sharp as sharp can be. Desperation can smell blood upon the water like a hammerhead at sea. Won't you wash my loneliness away? If I gave you my word, would you still believe me and the stupid things I say? CH: You could be the one, tick-tock ticking clock still moving on. Didn't my mama tell me there'd be someone just like you? I'm a fool in my heart, stumble operator, so I'm walking really slow. You could tear me apart: push me with a pencil and I'd drift away like snow. Won't you breathe some life into my life? In the dark of your eye, could I light a candle so it warmed you up inside? CH. In the middle of night, sodium and cirrus like I'm walking in a dream. I could drill like a mole --cut away the plaster like a ghost to make you scream. Don't I capture something in your eye? Don't I capture something in your eye?

    Train: Everybody knows about the train, everybody knows about the mystery and the sway. Everybody knows about the way fate uses trains. Hold me like a pillow in the dark, rock and rumble swiftly on the rails around my heart. This is not my least pathetic part --this simple start. CH: Do you feel like dancing or running in those shoes? Do you feel like kissing like I do? Everybody knows about the rain, everybody knows about the patter and the spray. Everybody knows about the way love uses rain. Touch me like an arrow strikes a tree --smother me with needles and then cover me with leaves. Rupture every inch and let me bleed. oh, bury me. CH. Everybody knows about the moon, everybody knows about the flutter and the swoon. Everybody knows the siren's tune that fills the moon. Everybody knows about the train, everybody knows about the things you have to say. Everybody knows about the day it pulls away. CH. I was choking on the promise --I'm afraid of love. I'm afraid of loving you.

     

    Sleep With Him: CH: You can't eat, you can't sleep, and you can't say goodbye. You can't laugh, you never dance, and you can't even cry. Well, you don't have the strength to leave, but you can carry on, so you just sleep with him. Don't you know I'm the one for you? Yes you do, yes you do, yes you do. Don't you know that my heart is true? Yes you do. CH. Somewhere in the shades of grey is the lie that guides your heart. Somewhere in our broken way is the truce that makes us part. I don't know how to tell you how to really feel --it's a hopeless thing to start. Somewhere in the coming days is the dawn that breaks this dark. CH. Tired out and so long ago is the seed that waits for rain. Dried out in a cracking way in a salty acid plain. I don't know how to break it --how to end the drought. It's a cloud I really need. Tired out and so sick of sleep, and your piss just brings me pain. CH. Love is like a suicide --there's no way to take it back. Love is like an alibi so your heart won't find the facts. I don't know how to tell you how to find the one that you want to fall for you. Love is like a hunger strike, and I'm starving in this room. CH. Don't you know I'm the one for you? Yes you do. Don't you know that my heart is true? Yes you do. Don't I know you can't control the way you really feel? Yes I do. Sadder than a broken heart is the heart that cannot move.

    Dreamscape: It's an all-out mad confusion running rings around my heart: if I touch you, you're illusion, tender ether I am bruising. If I'd learned to play the cello, then I could've been the star looking down upon you, hello Miss Victoria dressed in yellow gown -- big eyes like tidepools full of moonlit skies, Chorus: Pretty little bird. I am drifting through the buds of spring trees and you are bent over something ominously sensual --I can't see what it is. You are wearing a green shirt which, as I near, I recognize as mine. Your hair is darker than usual in the bright light of the blue sun. And your big eyes are engulfed in the wavering shadow of the canopy of leaves sifting light as a hand through deep water. Gesturing with your silken hand and blowing kisses on a butterscotch knoll, you invite me to teatime on the knoll, where soon we languish supine in sleep. Chorus. Sift now the sands of this moonshore. The sun wilts as a dandelion in fields of tar. Sip now the champagne of pearl-bedded streams fed by rain the hue of morning skies. Willow whistle, ivy rustle, distant thunder booms accord. Hear now the hiss of uncut wheat. Taste now apples off the old tree. Laying in the chaff of the harvest moon, this is your sweat upon my sheets. Chorus. Break my heart. I'll convince myself I don't need you. Cut my throat, you zombies with your pheromone drunken stench. Haunting my life with telephones, reaching through the pillow into my head. paranoid me never trust this rancid game, chess never mumbledypeg, this is a lie, this is a lie. Chorus. Always you shall be queen of this desolate man, me, pressed flat by the weight of your foot. I expose my defenses for love. Slay me, for I have no will to move on. If I cannot sip of you I shall not drink. Bury me in chains, I have no will to stop you. Chorus. So beautiful this poison --to taste it, men would die. And so I must leave, never to sip again this philter I have spent my life upon. Kiss me or my heart will surely crack. Stab me 'fore I rip myself in two. Understand this fractal dreamscape, and I will wait inside for you.


    Listening Log:

    This is the second installment in my "Box Set" project, which is primarily an attempt to record and catalogue all of my hitherto unrecorded/unreleased material.  My goal is to have a good recording of each of my songs.  I estimate this will end up taking 10 CDs just for those songs.  The guitars (as well as many vocals) for this album were recorded direct through my Alesis guitar multi-effect unit since I was recording in an apartment with limited ability to mic an amp.  I like the effect on the vocals, but the guitars fall shy of what I would've wanted.

     

    My Every Dream's Come True: I wrote this right after finishing The Tale....  Otherwise, it would've definitely been on it.  I rank this song in my top 20.  This is the first song where I experimented with vocal doubling (the lead vocal is actually tripled --sung three times-- breaking into harmonies only at the end).  That practice is commonplace in larger studios, but with only 8 tracks, I rarely have the luxury.  I did like the textured sound of it, and made more use of the technique on Fortnight.

     

    Broken Heart: This was written in high school, around the same time as Mad About You and Too Much.  The breakthrough for me was coming up with the groove for the verse while walking home from work in 2001.  Then all the pieces fell into place, and the song really works for me now.

     

    Mama Earth: This was written within a few songs of "Broken Heart" and was featured in "The Flower That Shattered the Stone."  The drum part subtly illustrates one of my recording philosophies in action: it's better to burn effects so that the performer can manipulate them as part of the performance rather than assign effects to dry tracks in the mix ("paint it blue rather than put on blue sunglasses" as I've been quoted in interviews with myself).  By being able to hear the delay and distortion on the drums, I was really able to let the part breathe correctly.  I practically always burn effects.  This is my little environmental song, obviously.  It still works for me, since it's more about recognizing your own role in environmental waste rather than just complaining about how terrible such waste is.

     

    Sticks and Stones: This was written in the period between Separate Ways and Checkmate.  The original song is arranged more traditionally, but I thought the track lacked punch and decided to experiment with a semi-a capella version.  Every sound in the first section (before the obvious entry of drums/guitar/bass) is sung (some through effects, obviously).  I think this idea is an improvement, but the bottom line is that this song is not that good.

     

    I'm Just Looking For The Paper: I wrote this song in college, intending it for the Shadows project.  The central lament might be rephrased as: "Why is it so hard to find some girl who likes me?"  Vaunne's likely reply, "Because you looked like a homeless strangler in college.  Girls don't like that."  This is the original complete arrangement --typical of the era-- for a 5-piece band.

     

    The Machine: Speranza and I improvised this during our Checkmate sessions, me on keyboard and him doing all the heavy lifting in Cm.  It's got some cool ideas, but goes on too long.

     

    Buy the World: Also originally intended for Shadows.  I've totally got writing for pseudo-metal bands down to a science.  This was a candidate for several other albums, as well.  This is also the original complete arrangement.  The truth, though ugly, is preferred.  That bears repeating, man.

     

    2000: Much of this was lifted from an Archaeology-era 4-track recording (sequence & drums), adding a new guitar & distorted vocal.  The song was written around the same time as most of the songs on Checkmate.  2000 is so far in the future, man.  I'll be 25!  Anything is possible!  It'll be a brand new age!  I mock, but that is a great distorted scat.  Let me just pat myself on the back, here....

     

    Feelings: This is among the first songs I ever wrote, as I explain in the fake live introduction.  Robert McIntosh on congas.  I feel pretty good about this rendition; I think it's the best version I'm likely to get out of it.  This song's OK, but nothing special.

     

    Sudden Realization: I wrote this as some sort of exercise in my freshman voice-leading class.  Initially for piano and voice.  The lyric is about distracting thoughts leading to an epiphany about my own flaws.

     

    Shy Birds: This was an unrecorded alternate for Less Yackin'.  This is about being too shy for one's own good.

     

    You Could Be The One: Everything but bass & guitar solo was recorded as an unfinished alternate for Flame Cow.

     

    Train: This was written originally as part of the "Afraid of Love" song cycle (Afraid of Love/M/Train/No One Could).  I let go of that idea in favor of just linking Afraid of Love and No One Could.  I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.  It's about a girl I met on the train.

     

    Sleep With Him: There were a handful of pretty good songs I wrote after Flame Cow that would normally have been accumulating as candidates for my next album: She's the One, Oui Je Sais, Sleep With Him, Water Drowns Men at Any Depth, One Will Win You, To Know Your Love Again, Certainly, Blue as the Moon.  Except for Blue as the Moon, these all got sort of stranded by virtue of the fact that all of a sudden, my life was radically changed, and my new album was quite obviously going to be more positive and Vaunnecentric.

     

    Dreamscape: This song was really important to my growth as a writer in two critical ways, though not necessarily a track that was ever going to stick on an album.  This is really where I found my voice as a symbollic-imagist lyricist, and also had a major breakthrough in my somewhat unique harmonic system.  This recording leverages off a separate earlier 4-track recording, keeping the drums, vocals, and Speranza's solo, but adding a re-synchronized sequence with a few elements (guitar, bass) split out as non-sequenced tracks, as well as several new texture-vocal tracks.