Cody Weathers

Dead Man's Blues: I've got the waking man's fever, the dead man's blues, I'm bundled in a blanket with only you to think of, and I know you think it too. I've got the wisdom of children that guides my head, I think about logic, but blush instead to turn you from your titan and his bed. CH:But I will retain your heart when it's over. You and your rattletrap cargo are overdue, you're hunting through the islands for something new to chew on, and you know I taste it too. You say the thunder doesn't scare you when you're alone, you only wanted weakness to draw someone beside you. Now this weakness is your own. CH. Something quite disturbing when you turn yourself upon your past. Still, I am invited, though there is no promise this will last. I've got the waking man's fever, the dead man's blues, I'm tripping on my coffin in these new shoes, do you hear that? Because the titan hears it too.

Dollface: Dollface likes me all tied up, she likes to make me sweat. She plays her game of chess, and I can't beat her yet. Dollface knows that she's in charge, she knows I cannot swim. Puts me on her diving board, makes me jump right in. Dollface has a little house which has a blackened wall, which has a little window so I might look right through. Dollface hides herself inside, but I can't tell you why. She takes her boyfriend in --can't look him in the eye. And when I ask her why, Dollface likes to tell a lie. Dollface likes me all tied up, I never see her crying. She says, "Take a moment to eat those words, swallow your pride, and choke to death." Dollface likes me all tied up, but I can hear her screaming. CH: Dollface, Dollface, set me free. Take off your mask and look at me. Dollface has a little heart that hides inside her breast. Dollface has a china mask that covers all the rest. Deep inside her little heart, there lies a dormant seed. Dollface starves herself to death --she can't take what she needs. Dollface has a little dream inside her hidden mind. She ties it up like me, and it gets left behind. But she runs 'round in circles, and so it comes again. Dreaming makes her vulnerable like paper in the wind. Dollface has a little world, it's almost just like ours. She takes her boyfriend in, and her mask hides her scars. She says, "Take a moment to eat those words, swallow your pride, and choke to death." Dollface needs my helping hand, but I am all tied up.

I Am The Moon: I am your glass medallion, silver dollar watching you above your shoulder. Following your walks at night. Kissing you with pleasant light. CH:You are the soil, you want the stars. I am the moon, I am the moon. I can elude your vision from beyond the trees, in your shadow or a cloudy breeze. I pull your oceans, blood and tears --indirectly hold you near. CH Bridge: Let my lunacy keep your heart. Let my lunacy light your dark. I am your glass medallion, silver dollar watching you above your shoulder Safety in my icy light --beacon of your dreams at night.

I Won't Quit: Angry at everyone who wants me to put my head on the block. Push me, pull me, ridicule me; shatter my knees, then expect me to walk. Ask me who's to blame, aren't you to blame, don't you have shame little boy? CH: I won't quit though I might be left alone. You can have your way, but you can't have my will. Helpless, lunging out, shadows of doubt are cutting my light off. Bleeding from my mouth and from my eyes, I want to break you, too. Ask me who's to blame, I'm not to blame: Why do I fear for myself? CH. Oh, I'm not holding right. How much longer can I keep resisting? Oh, I'm not up in time. Switch of willow breaks my knuckles. Cry tears of salt and ice. Break me down, I know it's coming. Oh, I'm not holding right. Slip into the air. Ask me who's to blame, you are to blame, and I don't care anymore.

Make Still Your Wings: Tight the stripe that winds the frame --I wonder does it squeeze the shape? Do the fingers find me on their own? Like a swan from out the sun, you glimmer on as moves the dawn. If I catch your feather, will you fall? CH: Feather, fall down to me. Darling, make still your wings. Shelter under my tree. Darling, make still your wings. Hollow you as light as air, as heavy as a rainy tear. Gripped by fog, you struggle with my storm. CH. Spinning like an apple in the sun and rain, when your seeds fall out like diamonds, I shall plant their grain. Flashing and reacting like you have no pain, but your head is in the larder and your bones are in the lane. CH. Fly over my golden-draped abode. feather, fall down to me. Touch me with your shape and face --wrap me in your bones. Darling, sway into me. Sharp the teeth that bite the knave that crushed the fruit that filled the cave. Do the strangers bind without a home?

Short Leg: Eighteen and feeling mean. Leaping in love with the junkyard queen. Darling, if I could, I'd hold you down. Don't trip on the short leg now. Antiques all new and clean. Mistaking myself for Jimmy Dean. Darling, if I could, I'd cause a frown. Don't trip on the short leg now. CH: I will bounce back from this, I do bounce back. Nineteen and living lean. Nothing for me on the classroom scene. Darling, if I could, I'd be your clown. Don't trip on the short leg now. Twenty and I loved you plenty. Saying crazy things I knew I meant, yeah. Honey, how'd I turn out to I let you down? Don't trip on the short leg now. CH. Bridge: There's no one in the world I can hold. There's no one in the world that's my own. Twenty-one, I'll need someone. Doing all the things I've always done. How about you, would you like to drown? Don't trip on the short leg now.

Nothing But A Song: Goodbye, Renee. Though you haven't heard your name, rest assured it was you. Another day seemed so easy to obtain, now I don't know what I knew. But it seems like you're just one more time I toed too much and crossed the line. Now it strikes me you and I were nothing but a song, I hope you get along. Double-dared, but the profit's not to share. Cathybear, now it's you. Never fair that my friends can paint who cares while I don't know what you'll do. CH: But I hope you're not just one more time I toe too much and finally cross the line. If it's true that you and I are nothing but a song, I hope you'll sing along. Patience, seize me --struggle me some sense. Rapture, tease me --mock me for a prince. I loved your life, but I said it to your face, now I wait day-to-day.

Something Out: If I could have the wisdom to know when my mouth runs away.... I'd be a better man to fight your pain if I knew what I should say. If I could have the courage to let a spark grow into flame, I'd be a warmer man beneath the stars by a fire that lasts the rain. CH: Haunt me, hook me, overlook me, throw my heart a bone. I miss you when you're gone, so why can't we work something out. If I could have the tick-tocks to work the knots out of this cord, I'd be a better man who knew you well, but time I can't afford. I must confess impatience has cost me more than I could pay. Were I a better man, I'd read your mind, but I fear I've lost the way. CH. Br: Haunt me, hook me, overlook me, throw my heart a bone. How much time is there, anyway? How much time?

Passing Through: The spectre of young love is laughing at me. The horse that you hide in looks happy and free. And though it's been years, I still trip in these shoes --I can't tie the laces, my heart is an avenue. CH: Passing through You're just passing through. The phantom of Pamela lewdly amused. Every day's loser day --I live to lose. Oh, I can drive nails through the tops of your feet. You're looking ahead, and I know you're not with me, just.... (CH) I know you don't love me, there's no need to hide it. A shoe with no partner, I'm roadside detritus from.... (CH) The banshees are howling, they mean it today. They bite me and pound me to scare me away. With your flip agenda, you think you're so clever. You're leaving on Wednesday to haunt me forever with....

Dangerous: Oh, I can take you, you're not as tough as you think. I can see that you're insane, but I'd die without your rain. Oh, be that thistle, and I will put out my foot. In my slumber I have seen that a crown can't make you queen. CH: Starlight steals my vision, and it likes me cold. And people stop to stare at the tracks I made. Oh, I could have the wisdom of a thousand years, but I'm in love with a dangerous gal, her name is you. Oh, I can reach you, you're not as far as you think. Though you stripe me with your stick, I know anger is your trick. CH. Bridge: Take ugly me and make me the picture in your heart. Oh, be my bubble, and I will keep you intact. Though you kick and bite and scream, you're more fragile than you seem. Oh, be my aching, and I will fill you with sound.

Too Much: CH: I would love to love you, I would kill to steal you, I would steal to touch you, I want too much. I must control my rage again, but still it coaxes, "give in." I feel so hard, so cold. I wish I had your hand to hold. Now, as I wander through my mind, I cannot face what I might find. I feel you slipping far away. Will this dog ever have his day? CH The swingset clatters in the wind. The starlight shines on me so thin. The midnight field, my toes are bare. I smell you in the misty air. I will not blame you for tonight. You could not see him in that light. And what you shared you lost to him. I will not damn you for this sin. CH. I must disguise myself again, so you can't see how hard it's been. I feel so empty and misplaced --my search for substance yielding space. I see your eyes in yellow skies, the sunset thinks you are unwise. Then all at once, you slip away. My lunge to grab you is too late.

Listening Log:

Our second, updated "Greatest Hits" album (the first being Not!), and our first album issued on CD rather than cassette.  As is the case with most such collections, we were trying to have one single album to market at shows and on tour which would likely have all the Flip Nastiest songs that our doe-eyed rookie listeners just fell under the spell of.  To that end, we did not include So Will I or Coyote.  Wait, that's not to that end at all!  This album also provided the impetus for us to join the swelling landscape of the world-wide web (with a lot of initial help from Eric Rorem), as we posted the initial cancerous cells of the now-overgrown tumor that is Torch & Bacon.  Most of these songs are brought in unaltered from other albums I've already reacted to with a few exceptions, so I'll copy my original reactions and add a few more thoughts as they arise.

Leave Me Be: (GUITOOL) Another of my strongest --top 10 on my list.  I love the "Australian Rugby Chorus," Cat, Speranza, Fried, Terri, and myself hut-hutting at the end.  This is subtle "sequel" to Coyote and is followed by Footsteps.

Mad About You: (RIVER DREAMS) much more Police in this arrangement than the original As Rome Burns version.  Because we're also the new Police.  Fried on bass.  Great chromatic riff in Speranza's solo.

Essence of My Time: (LESS YACKIN') A little bit older.  This was an optional inclusion at the Yackin' session.  Basically, we had a very limited budget, and needed to record basic instrumental tracks (the part where we sit together and play the song sans vocals, sans solos, as a group) by a certain time.  If we had enough extra time, there were a couple of songs we'd add.  This was one, and "You Can Stop Hiding" and "Shy Birds" were the others (which we didn't get to).  The high point of this song, for me, has to be the way Speranza hits that heavy guitar at the end (it's actually two parts --a rhythm part and a subtle lead line that fits inside it, making it seemingly oscillate high and low).

Dead Man's Blues: (SNAUSAGES) Seyca joins the John Speranza lyric interpretation club with this entry: Cody says, "I will retain...." Seyca says, "I wear a ten...."  Not to be outdone, Speranza says, "I'll irritate...."  There's a very good live version on Clapping Sold Separately, as well.  One of my favorites.

Dollface: (PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED) Left over instrumental track from the River Dreams sessions with vocals recorded fresh on ADAT.  This was one of my first ADAT projects, and the vocals are a little too muddy as a result of my unfamiliarity with the equipment.  Disappointment with that outcome as well as past experience with similar growing pains on Archaeology led me to decide on recording some "practice albums" before Flame Cow.  Great solo from Speranza.  I oscillate from year to year on whether my backup vocals will be pre-arranged harmonies or improvised.  This is one of the better improv harmony songs.  I love timbales.

I Am The Moon: (ARCHAEOLOGY REMIX) This song's in 5, as you can hear in the smarmy countoff ("1....2....5-4-3-2-1)  This is my daughter, Cara's (age 2), current favorite "dada song."  This remix is the original 4-track version with a new extra rhythm guitar and new re-recorded vocals.  I rank this in my top 20 best songs.  Thin metaphor masks theme beaten to death by songwriters (approximately 300 blows coming from me) throughout the ages: "I'm the one who's there for you, but you love someone else, oh why don't you love me, I'm so terribly sad."

Running Away: (LESS YACKIN') One of my most difficult arrangements to play.  I personally can't pull this song off live, although Speranza cobbled together a very good solo guitar arrangement that we occasionally did.  A lot of very tight counterpoint --I was ver proud of this song.  By band consensus, this song made the cut onto the greatest hits, although I probably wouldn't select it now.

I Won't Quit: (DRIVE BY) Shopped around a little bit, but as always no takers.  Speranza can definitely play bass with the best of them.  Great sparse solo.  He's very talented and incredibly cognizant of the big picture of a song --more so than me.  I wrote this while feeling down over a long, harsh period of stinging public criticism in (this is going to sound really stupid) Jazz Band in which every rehearsal was a chance for some lame-o beret-sportin' sax player to chip in about the crispness of my hi-hat, legitimacy of my setups, etc rather than deal with their own absolute lack of rhythm or originality.  Surely it was I, Cody Weathers, who caused them to Anti-Bird.  I and I alone, you see.  As a result, I take no crap from sax players, man.

Best of Days: (GUITOOL) I'd rate this as a top 5 song.  This is the version, though very good, is no longer as representative of the way I currently play it.  Backup vocals utilize a trick I employed liberally from this point on: tight harmonies performed by the Codies, but with Speranza's voice in the mix.  I'm responsible for hitting the notes, and he's more responsible for trying to follow me, but making his voice the dominant tone.  In this way, I can push Speranza's voice easily into the harmony group without him needing to learn the complex parts independently.  This is obviously about coping with the reality that someone you like doesn't like you back, despite what you thought the signs said.

Little Miss NYC: (NOT! REMIX) Despite being ridiculously simple to play, this one has somehow stood the test of time.  We didn't have enough time or available tracks to add all the backup vocals I intended on the recording, but I added them on this remix, along with the acoustic guitar solo and rhythm part (me playing). Cody says, "Gonna break down the walls with endless love...."  Speranza says, "Gonna break down the walls with LSD...."  I definitely prefer the extra parts.

Puppy: (SNAUSAGES) Another one of those mandatory songs that was good as an opener or closer.  For a long time, my Portland (v 1.0) shows used this as the platform for a variety of very fun group scats.  That trend didn't continue back in Denver, however.  Great solo from Speranza.  As the song goes along, more and more instruments join the guitar part.

Make Still Your Wings: (SNAUSAGES) I wrote this as a lullabye, not that I had anyone to sing to sleep at the time.  I really like this full arrangement of the song.  Later, this became the flagship song of our "Gussie's Style" live approach.  I booked a gig at Gussie's in Westminster, which was 4 hours a night for 4 nights in a row.  Well, I was under the weather, so I asked Speranza to come out and help me stretch the songs out with extra solos.  It ended up being a very addictive breakthrough that led us to reinventing songs on the fly for the remainder of the time we played together.  That particular Gussie's version is the backbone of the 17-minute fake "Exemplathon" recording off Monkey Eat Monkey (I just overdubbed a fake spoken intro, bass and djembe on top of the existing live recording).

October Air: (DRIVE BY) the drop-D version with a bridge that has since disappeared anew.  Cat, Usher, Fried, Speranza, and Bekah singing backup vocals.

Scared: (SNAUSAGES) Ironically, this song probably makes people who previously wouldn't have considered the possibility wonder if I, in fact, might kill little girls.  What a fantastic song of seduction.  We're firmly in the realm of words that I love, but are largely misunderstood because of a.) enunciation and b.) poetic masking.  What I'm saying is: I love this song.  Live staple even now.  And these days, there's almost an unwritten rule that this song be followed by....

Underneath My Skin: (GUITOOL) I think this may be my most marketable song.  Another top-5 best on my list.  (Keep in mind that's like being named "Cleanest Cockroach").  Just so you know I'm not saying this for 20 songs, this was my top-10 ranking of the Least Significant Failures candidate list: 1. Blue as the Moon 2. Best of Days 3. When 4. So Will I 5. Underneath My Skin 6. No One Could 7. Mad About You 8. Leave Me Be 9. Goodbye, Dream 10. Scared.

Wardrobe: (RIVER DREAMS) I think this one cracks the top 20.  It's certainly a mainstay of the live show.  Speranza on bass.  We had this crappy 5-string that we only rarely broke out.  It required re-tuning so that the open B-string would be in tune with the 5th fret.

Short Leg: (SNAUSAGES) another great guitar sound from Speranza and fantastic sputtering interpretation of the rhythm.  Tremendous solo --great ideas throughout the album that I often steal as the basis for my live scats.  The phrase, "don't trip on the short leg now," is something I told myself driving back to Denver from Portland when I reached Cheyenne at 2 or 3 AM, pushing the last 90 miles home after two hard days of driving.

Nothing But A Song: (GUITOOL) top-20 on my list.  Great energy to this song, one of our few real power ballads.  One of my favorites live.  Fully entrenched in a long line of romantic failures, lamenting each as nothing but a song.

Something Out: (LESS YACKIN') One of my favorites.  I love Speranza's solo at the top of the song, which ends with a "wind-down glissando," where we started madly detuning his string on the final note.  Nice solos by all three players, very distinct variety of ideas.  Jason Kaneshiro later recorded a cover of this (in a song swap) that's on Tongue Meets Eyeball.  I shopped this song very aggressively to publishers, but couldn't land a deal for it.  Wishing that somehow the force and simplicity of love's feelings could by themselves successfully navigate the social obstacles to romance.

Passing Through: (RIVER DREAMS) Not quite a top-20 song, but one of the other standouts from River Dreams.  Great bass part and solo from Speranza.  I don't know I had that piano solo in me --normally my improvs are lame to the Nth.  Capped off with the vocal triggers from the end of Lost.

Dangerous: (DRIVE BY) Another one that held a lot of personal attachment for me.  I loved playing this song.  Great sparse solos from Speranza --the same man I still quote proudly as saying "less is more.... than nothing at all."  We did a good job containing this groove.  By this point, I'd really started to write lyrics that resonated with me --I put a lot more effort into these words than, say, the words on Checkmate.  Like "booga-doo-yow" (sung by Cat at the end).

Too Much: (GUITOOL) I'm extremely happy with this recording of it.  All the performances are right on target.  Speranza performs a nifty variation on Nick's original lick in the middle two of the solo.  Very subtle piano overdub I'd forgotten about in the final verse.  A combination of Codies and Speranza, Fried, Cat, and Terri Kempton on backup vocals.