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Who Said It Had To Be Fun? (fdm141)

by Chris Anderson

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1.
The Yammering Song 05:50
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I looked around her and I saw that she was laughing out loud aloud to nothing at all but this I said I was a gypsy king and that was just the life the life I never should have lead in this reflection I saw images that were not my own and so I cried myself to sleep and dreamt of thirty years ago when you all were strange but never so bold and aye im just a rambler a man, a boy - that I cant decide but this is all so new to me what did you say when you walked away and said that I could live but all the same you walked away I have never felt so old decrepit but romantic this must be a dream and yet im never so sure what it was you said when you said goodbye so as I sing this song again i'll only think of what this could have been if it wasn’t just the same goddamn thing again -1990
2.
God Save The Common Man 05:00
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All we see is anger Frustration and pain In this world that we live in We never seem to win This passion play game But we’re all in It’s common cause Common problem Common lies Common mercy God save the common man What was it that they said When everybody fell It was no joke any more And if one man tried to stand up He’d only come crashing down It’s common rise Common reign Common fall And common pain God save the common man Where was I when we came? Ever further from the light How did it all come into being? In these forceful days and nights It’s common rise Common reign Common fall And common pain God save the common man It’s common cause Common problem Common lies Common mercy God save the common man It's common sense. -5/4/92 (5:55pm)
3.
Black Tuesday 02:44
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one down - two to go a man stands feeling bold he looks like me and he wants to go down i can't find a reason he'd commit this treason but one more night will hurt no one she cried - on this black tuesday she's going home it's her eleventh hour i have heard enough on this black black tuesday she's alone with a word a word is part of her skin and he's doing nothing else but taking it all in these words won't fix it nothing you have proclaimed can make up for your loss on this dim day she cried - on this black tuesday she's going home it's her eleventh hour i have heard enough on this black black tuesday -September 1991
4.
Magic Carpet 04:17
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Send me away Flying on a magic carpet We’ll fly away far from here We’ll share all our laughter and our tears No war to worry for I don’t want to see it any more Send me away Flying on a magic carpet Paradise, a simple kind of life Away from all the trouble and away from all the strife The grass is green under my wing Secluded and secure, we’re singing You and I, we’ve got the world on a string Send me away Flying on a magic carpet Far away, out beyond the dream This caterwaul is barely just a scream We’ll lose ourselves within the empty page And dance our waltz across the empty stage You and I, y’know, we’re all the rage Send me away Flying on a magic carpet 3/31/88 (2:40pm)
5.
Don't See You Strange 04:30
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driven to the end of the line a path to hold the need a need for a new ruler a need for a new creed once i kissed the hand of a goddess then she sent me on my way i never felt such a sense of mercy buried in the light of one sun ray well, what do you know? i am only one don't know this got to change don't understand don't see you strange taken to a point beyond a pathway to the sky the meaning of the universe is a fact that we deny thou shalt bring you down a face carved into stone a thousand pardons for my conscience i thought i was all alone well, what do you know? desperation sentence someday this will all change don't understand don't see you strange two souls alone which one holds the dream? dawn will rise to shade together alone lead me through the shadows a whisper in a mind a faint cast of photocopies they are falling in behind bring order to the universe in the dying hand of one god with his visions of syncopation on the universal nod well, what do you know? we're only human mindless souls asleep together we all change it's not that i don't understand i just that i don't see you strange -5/28/91
6.
Laughter 03:59
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i see a camera thrill - chill a frozen spot in time a smile is forever a mountain we all climb memories washed away like the chill of an autumn wind my past has come to haunt me in this postcard that i send send a letter i need to know where you stand life is a simple game when we all go hand in hand alone on a desert isle i sit by the fire and laugh a while i can still remember the wind would blow we'd sit alone i know, i know, i know that time has passed me by like a stranger in a crowd the way we laughed at a time before would never be allowed send a letter i need to know where you stand life is a simple game when we all go hand in hand i know i might be late but my time will never come alone, i am divided under the sun under the river where we both swam under the lifeline oh, how we ran we ran - don't look back if we can, we'd fade it all to black send a letter i need to know where you stand life is a simple game when we all go hand in hand i know i might be late but my time will never come alone, i am divided under the sun send a letter i need to know where you stand life is a simple game laughing all alone laughter - laughing all alone -June 1991
7.
Buried 01:59
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i've got a heart and it's all torn apart coz she walked away with someone else and i just don't understand how she can take another hand when i've got two hands of mine ahh - she walks by and i don't know what to do so i sit here all alone just a-waitin' by the phone for something to bring me back to you -10/14/91
8.
The Madcap Laugh 02:24
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i'm in your distant eyes until you hypnotize the thoughts of colored window panes and your madcap laugh your voice is haunting, though with a psychedelic glow in and out your mind, you go with your madcap laugh are you laughing today? can you hear what i say? does your light burn as bright as the sun in the top of the sky i wonder why you offered us free games for may and tipped us of on arnold layne but where do you do when the sun goes away in the sky? are you laughing today? can you hear what i say? does your light burn as bright as the sun in the top of the sky i wonder why -November 1988
9.
Blue 01:48
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you said that you don't have the time to look my way you said even if you had the time you'd still walk away and this love deep inside lingers still and the shadow of your love is calling me home call on me -March 1991
10.
Street Mission 03:36
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there's a place where i go and spend all my living day everybody wonders what i do when i'm gone, but all i say is i'm on a street mission i'm tracking down the night no matter these conditions i always out the light i turn it out maybe i am at the show with all the women and the song or i stay out out on the road and don't come home til half past dawn i'm on a street mission with the struggles of the day i wait for my commission i stand right up and say i'm on a street mission i'm tracking down the night no matter the conditions i always manage to turn out the light i turn it out there's a thing that i do when i got nothing left to lose you might learn a thing or two by standing in my shoes when i'm on a street mission i'm walking down the wire no matter these positions i set my soul on fire when i'm on a street mission -1988
11.
Crested 02:04
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take a little walk beside yourself in spring the rains have washed out leaving all the best things behind leave them all behind crested on a melody lines of roots and thirds the stars fall leaving all the best things behind leave them all behind and crested on a wave -4/4/02 & 2/16/06
12.
Underneath The Bridge 05:00
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one came down alone with a number a number she wore along the lonely road a road that stopped at the edge of her insanity her mind won't let her go, go, go laughing, laughing at the way he rode he rode into town at the break of the storm a storm destroying all that they were living for their tears won't let them go, go, go oh, falling down they can't go home they walk alone down, down, down drifting down the river with a conscience a conscience leaving no conceit conceit is a question that you have to ask yourself you mind won't let you go, go, go oh, falling down they can't go home they walk alone down, down, down living in a world of disgrace disgrace, it brings you down, down, down falling down, i see you falling over but i can't let you go, go, go oh, falling down they can't go home they walk alone down, down, down -December 1991

about

Chris Anderson's 94th full-length album release.

Released thirty years to the day from my first album, Dialects, this new set examines that initial era, from the vantage point of an alternate dimension. New recordings of classic early FDM songs such as "The Yammering Song", "Laughter", and "Blue" are combined with songs that were completed in 2020, when tons of vintage, orphaned lyrics escaped the vault and were married to new pieces of music in a big to-do known as The Memo Project.

Some of those lyrics, like "Crested" and "Street Mission", were found stashed away in old, forgotten notebooks, while others like "Don't See You Strange" and "Underneath The Bridge" stared me in the face for three decades before suddenly making themselves known in the most obvious of manners.

Influences made themselves known in the form of "The Madcap Laugh", which is a tribute to Syd Barrett (whose first solo album was called The Madcap Laughs) and "Street Mission", which was written because I had read about the first song U2 ever wrote, and it was called "Street Mission". At the time, it was not available in any form, so I decided to write my own idea of what a song with that name might sound like (it was neither the first nor last time a song would come into being that way). Of course, when the U2 song finally made the rounds, those two songs could not have been more different. Both of those songs were the products of my 14-year old mind, as was "Crested", which turned out to be quite the little epic.

Kicking off this set is a new mix of "The Yammering Song", a curious little number from 1990 that appeared on that first album, and has gone on to be the most-played FDM song of all time. It always makes for a killer opener, and it always makes the diehards go "woo". The second part of this track is also known as the "Dash Reprise" and it was added to the song in 2000, and still occasionally appears in this slot. This takes us into "God Save The Common Man", which was one of three lyrics written in May 1992, and then stashed away until 2020.

Closing out this album is "Underneath The Bridge", which was started in 1991 and then abandoned when the Chili Peppers released their similarly-titled hit. Reclaimed in 2020, this version almost perfectly captures the spirit of whatever I had heard in my head when I wrote that original lyric, while sitting in one of my 12th grade classes. Sad to know that, three decades after this this was written, the sentiment in this lyric rings clearer than ever. Sadly, some things never change.

My initial intent for this commemorative release was to re-record that first album, or at least all of the key songs, but I never got around to it (some of those tracks are going to be a bitch to work out). Maybe for the 40th...

In the meantime, enjoy this little window into the creative processes of my teenage soul.

CA, 10/30/22

credits

released October 31, 2022

"produced" by Chris Anderson
Recorded and mixed in The Room, Fall 2020

except "The Yammering Song" and "Laughter"
Recorded in the Sidebar, 2011
Mixed in The Room, 10/29/22

CA: acoustic & electric guitars, bass, mandolin, drum programming, percussion, vocals, other shit.

All songs written by Chris Anderson between 1988 & 1992
(c) CA / Flying Dachshund Music (bmi)



(p)(c) Chris Anderson / Flying Dachshund Music. All rights reserved. Violators will be taken back to school.

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Chris Anderson Alexandria, Virginia

Chris is a wildly prolific songwriter who has hovered among the outskirts of the music world for over 30 years. On his own label, Flying Dachshund Music, Chris has released 154 CDs, 96 of them being full-length albums. That's just the tip of the iceberg and there are no signs of stopping. Ever.

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