“Conversation”
(2nd Skafish LP)
Released September 1983
By the spring of '83 when we recorded the new 2nd LP, I was totally stressed out. The record company not only rejected the original LP I turned in, but they degraded it yelling, “Freaks, freaks, Barbie Dolls! What is this shit you’re singing about?” I really wanted to make the new revised LP be the best it could be, but we had no budget, therefore no time to develop the record into a totally focused work. I remember one record executive throwing the tapes against the wall during the new sessions and just yelling AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS at me. These people were supposedly on my team, yet they kept attacking me. Didn’t they remember who they originally signed?
Secret Lover: One
of the good things that came out of re-recording the 2nd LP was that everyone
became more involved in the creative process.
Secret Lover was shaped as a true group effort.
Walk past the places with the neon lights
Just give yourself to the feel of the night
Reach out and touch those dark parts of your mind
Run to the arms that can make you feel so fine© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
Wild Night Tonight: Hanging out for years in East Chicago and Gary, Indiana and in South Chicago inspired this: The gangs, violence, shootings, and that ever-present feeling that something “wild” was always on the verge of happening.
Black guns, fast cars and tons of steel
Filthy air crowns city streets
The mad bad boys stab, slit and shoot
Someone’s cold and dead and sterile now
It’s a little wild©Copyright 1982 Skafish Music / Monona Music - All Rights Reserved
Made Up In The Dark: I woke up hearing these words, “Eye shadow’s blue, your lipstick’s red, in a room you’re alone, are you made up in the dark?” Since co-lyricist Glinda Harrison had spent the night, I told her that I had this “message” that came to me in my sleep, but I wasn’t sure what it meant. She immediately vibed into the idea that these were the chorus lyrics to a new song, so I wrote the rest of it right then and there.
Start the day Angel face
Make up shadow’s still in place
Early sun shines so bright
Fear will filter through the light© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
Victims Of The Night: We wanted to capture a grey, melancholy tone, but didn’t have any time to focus and develop it in the studio. This song deals with the point in people’s lives where they’ve experienced negative repercussions for their choices, and are trapped in a feeling of hopelessness. To me the lyrics reflected an empty “stranger in the city” essence.
Streetlight’s glow reflects the soul
Highlighting shadows of pain
So many secrets untold
The broken dream still remains. . . .
Loneliness follows down the street
Search all the faces that I meet
Hope slowly fading out of sight
Are we the victims of the night?© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
She Lives For Love: I revised this piece from our early performances. Live, Karen Winner used to vocally segue from “She Lives For Love” into “Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin while I played with a beach ball on the ground. When we did it at CGBG’s in New York, I kept trying to hand the beach ball to the audience and they looked at me like I was Betty Davis in the beach section at the end of the movie “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” I kept forcing the ball to one guy at the front of the stage. He was really hating it. Finally he threw it back at me, and disgustedly stormed out of the club.
Mermaids at sea
A life line fades
With lingering love
From age to age
Sailors keep sailing
They sail by unheard cries for love© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
Mother Is Waiting: My mother was such a tremendous soprano, that I wanted to at least feature her briefly on the record. Ideally, I would have loved to produce an entire album by her, but at least I’ve got this recording. I thought it would be touching to write about her missing my dad.…
I am waiting by the seashore
I am holding my red rose
Waiting© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
Lover In Masquerade: There’s so many people who wear masks, not just the “comb your hair in the morning” mask, but people who sell illusion, falsehood, all designed to manipulate the mind and heart of another. We wanted to portray the sense of deception we’ve all felt in a relationship.
I built my world around
Dreams that I thought would be
But now I am not sure
Who do I really see?
Your make-up and your mask
Now you’re dressed for the part
One eye on the main chance
Had me fooled from the start© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
She’s Taking Her Love Away: Right before we went into the studio in November of 1982, I wrote this in a matter of minutes-again the cosmic flow of the universe lent me a helping hand. It didn’t make sense to me at the time why I wrote it. Then when the record company heard the 1st completed 2nd LP, this was the only song they really liked. Without this particular track, they would have never let us go back into the studio. It seemed ironic to me that the record company then did not release it as the first single from the album.
(Entrance)
Rapture did start
(Romance)
Falling apart
(Finance)
Pay from your heart
Cause she’s leaving© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
I Might Move In Next Door: I performed this for years before the press picked up on the idea of me as the freak moving in next door. I really felt proud of myself when the press would say things like “I’m gonna send him to live next door to you!” As ridiculous as this may sound to any sane person, I took such comments as cherished compliments.
Home sweet home where you can roam
The place you thought where nothing would go wrong
Pretty place, a charming space
Where life is nice and white and straight and strong
Knock Knock
I might I might move in next door
Shock Shock
I might I might move in next door
Cry Cry
I might I might move in next door
Hide Hide
I might I might move in next door
Shed a tear for thing’s held dear
Your evergreens and patio decay
Sun shines in the roof caves in
The sky is falling down on you today© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
Bad Feelings Have Died: The clean and crisp old Moog synthesizers we used really made this song sparkle to me. It was fun for Barbie and I to sing about being out and about, kind of like Petula Clark’s “Downtown.”
Ten places to see
A drive and a walk
Two films and fun
You’re feeling up
With time behind
Your work is done© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
In
Another Time In Another Place:
I wanted to write
about the regrets of a love that seemed so out of sync, badly timed and unable
to work out.
In another time, in another place
Every fleeting moment was filled
with magic everyday
In another time, in another place
We believed in one trusted thought
the thought of you and me© Copyright 1983 Skafish Music - All Rights Reserved
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