Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Kira: Steven Stills was not indicated, but you were getting warm but looking into the title. Stills, hoowever, was connecte with a cited influence.

admin wrote: but you were getting warm but looking into the title.

I know! I'm still searching that angle with no luck yet and comparing that with the music forums posts; grrrrr! hahaha, you've really got my knickers in a twist

But that still gives us Chris Hillman, Graham Nash and David Crosby (right off the bat) to consider as influences. Hmm, but if one of those is right I know the other forum to search ...

Is this our man from Hub City?

KIra: Go to the head of the class. Thanks to Stan for sending in this great song.

... and a fine song it is, indeed.



I'd be happy to recollect all my steps for you, but there's no time for that. I've got a new caper: Elvis has been spotted in a New Jersey Pizza Hut.

I was actually seriously thrown off the trail because there is a Hub City Big Band located in Peter's own province of New Brunswick:

http://www.hubcitybigband.com/

But don't we still have some influences to guess? And the theme?

Kudos to you, Kira. I had told Peter I would be surprised if someone would be able to figure out his anagram. And once they did, there are a number of cities claiming the title 'Hub City'. Those of us who live in Lubbock are just glad to have a title of any kind which might be construed as a positive. Peter found an inventive way of exposing my material. For me, it was fun to watch.

Thanks for the kind words regarding the song, as well.

Stan, your lyrics are really great, in a relentlessly tragic kind of way I wanted to cite Cohen as an influence too. The music is just uplifting enough to keep the mood from nose diving and to maintain a free flight throughout. Really nice work. It would be nice to hear a little about the story from you.

Yeah, the song is a real 'toe-tapper', isn't it, Kira? It'll make you want to jump off a curb.

Sadly, it's about the homeless and a friend of mine. Through a series of left turns in his life, alcoholism, personal failures,and loneliness he's endured, the lyrics reflect his life. The repeating line, "What day is today?", is often all to real to him.

Stan: One of the first influences I heard in your music was that of David Crosby of The Byrds. I expected this to be mentioned first thing and was somewhat surprised that it was not.

The Crosby influence added an extra dimension to your composition that was a real attention grabber for me. It accentuated the difficult subject matter addressed.

At the end of the day, however, I can say from this point forward that similar songs are Castlesque in their sound and presentation.

admin wrote:Stan: One of the first influences I heard in your music was that of David Crosby of The Byrds. I expected this to be mentioned first thing and was somewhat surprised that it was not.

The Crosby influence added an extra dimension to your composition that was a real attention grabber for me. It accentuated the difficult subject matter addressed.

At the end of the day, however, I can say from this point forward that similar songs are Castlesque in their sound and presentation.

Thanks for the compliment, Peter. I don't know if David would agree.

It's been so long since I've done anything on a solo level, it was at the least, refreshing for me. We'll see what the future holds.

Stan that was great. I was stumped I had no idea who it was except that I knew it was someone with a wealth of experience. Thanks for sharing your work. It's very good. Kira you did a great job tracking Stan down.

Very nice work Stan! (Sorry for saying I didn't think he artist was American! ). Would it be possible for you to post the lyrics?

Thanks for your comments, Brian and Steve.

86kubicki wrote:Very nice work Stan! (Sorry for saying I didn't think he artist was American! ). Would it be possible for you to post the lyrics?

No apologies needed regarding my locale, Steve. There a number of folks in Texas who don't think the state is part of America anyway.

Here are the lyrics. Thanks for asking.

AIN'T LIFE

LOOKIN’ INTO THE ABYSS THAT WAS ONCE MY LIFE
COUNTING THE REGRETS I CAN STACK UP TO MY RIGHT

WITH PLEASURES OF GREED THAT DON’T EVER LAST
ALONG WITH THE STONES YOU HAVE CAST OVER TIME


AND EVERYTHING’S SO GRAY,
WHAT IS TODAY
AIN’T LIFE JUST THAT WAY

SITTIN’ ALONE AT THE END OF THE BAR
FALLIN’ SHORT WHEN MY DREAMS WERE SO FAR

BUT TEMPERED BY THOUGHTS OF HEART AND MIND
WHILE LOSING MY SOUL A PIECE AT A TIME

(REPEAT CHORUS)

AND IF I WERE TO LEAVE WITHOUT A GOODBYE
WOULD YOU JUST LAUGH OR WOULD IT MAKE YOU CRY, OR SIGH

I’D BE ONE LESS NUMBER IN THE SYSTEM TO COUNT
ONE LESS FACE OF THOUSANDS WHO ARE DOWN AND OUT

(REPEAT CHORUS)




Copyright 2009 Stan Castles

I admit that after playing with the letters C-U-B--H-I-T-T-Y and coming up with nothing that panned out, I effectively threw in the towel. In fact, I thought "Hitty" was a red herring, and that Cub referred to the baseball team, hence my guess of Chicago. That sent me down a real rabbit hole.

Great song, Stan. I never would have guessed. Great job of obfuscation, Peter.

This was fun. Can we do it again?

JimK