Both a book with music and music with a book, “Hello George,” a novella, and “As You Heard Me,” its accompanying soundtrack, form the latest collaboration between longtime partners in The Cucumbers, Deena Shoshkes and Jon Fried.
“Hello, George,” by Jon Fried, is the tale of an aspiring young music publisher in search of a reclusive songwriter. Full of fun, love, humor and the frustrations of life in and around the music business (circa 1990s and beyond), the story leads us on a search for what’s real, what’s imagined and most importantly, what we hear and how we are heard.
“Hello George” is published as a chapbook/e-book with accompanying music “As You Heard Me,” – the actual song demos referred to in the novella, plus bonus tracks (“More Songs by Daisy for Barry”). I Inspired by a demo recording of “There’s a Crop Circle on My Daddy’s Land” by Deena and lyricist Vaughan Daniel, Jon Fried created the story of George Krott, a fading country music star who returns to the top of the country charts by recording the song – in the fictional world, written by the mysterious Daisy Steinberg. The song reaches him thanks to Barry Marcus, a young man stumbling through adulthood and the music industry. Their three fates are twisted together by hope, mystery and song.
Songs from “Hello George” LINER NOTES (find lyrics and credits below these notes!)
“As You Heard Me” liner notes are from the novella “Hello George.”
There’s a Crop Circle on My Daddy’s Land: “…a rough and irresistible home recording with drum machine and rudimentary electric guitars and banjo – banjo played by someone who clearly didn’t know how to play banjo but plucked a devilishly catchy three-note riff. The whole thing shimmered with cheap, guileless magic, and it was all her: “Written, played and produced by Daisy Steinberg” in messy blue ink. The song was about a guy and girl chasing each other around a corn field on a delirious moonlit night and the next day they need an excuse for the girl’s daddy: it wasn’t them trampling the corn, it was aliens making crop circles. Easy to dismiss as a joke, and a low-fi one at that, so on my first listen, charmed as I was, I stopped the cassette maybe a minute in and went on to the next tape in my demo pile. But the chorus hook – and that banjo lick – kept coming back to me, so I dug it out and played it again.”
Waiting (Impressions of Chrysanthemums): “The second song was more of what I expected – acoustic guitar and voice, straight up singer-songwriter fare. With one notable difference – the guitar was in some strange tuning I didn’t recognize. It was also heart-stoppingly beautiful. Impressions of Chrysanthemums. After a hundred listens I still have no idea what it’s about – something bad happened and love may or may not be the answer. Quiet, moody, with its own odd edge, this was not a chart topper in any genre – what we used to call an album cut, one of the songs that won’t sell an album but once you buy that album, you play it over and over again and love it more than the single – and you become increasingly convinced that anyone who loves the single and doesn’t get this song is a shallow fool.”
Cut It Loose: “The next song took a completely unexpected turn. Cut It Loose, a funky groove like something out of the 70s, complete with cool keyboards and perfect little twangy guitar lines that had me picturing slim, graceful fingers not twirling notes but twirling hair, dark brown hair. I was sure it was dark brown hair, maybe curly, surrounding a sweet round face. Eventually, I found out I was wrong, though not entirely wrong.” Unattainable: “…the most inexplicable of all. Unattainable. A 20-second piece of spoken word art over what sounded like some avant garde piano and street traffic in the background.”
You Are the Sweetest Dream: “…I desperately tried to remember that post. You never know if the dream is real or not. In life sometimes you find out it is, and sometimes you find out it isn’t, but in that song, you’ll never know. That’s the mystery – that’s the sweetest dream. And the pure rising light of the verse contrasting with the darker falling away of the chorus gives us the beautiful truth of that uncertainty. It was something trite and overwritten like that, and I suddenly felt like a butcher, taking the blade of analysis to the tender form of her art.” Delete (work tape): “…a pop-rock paeon to girl power, power over the looming danger of online stalking, a three-minute celebration of the girl who can ‘use my little finger and make him disappear from my screen.’ One listen and I was jamming air guitar to a power-pop chord riff that would’ve made Johnny Ramone smile if he ever smiled.”
Only You: “…a slow rocking love ballad whose heart, harmony and melody had only one clear precedent, the early Beatles – yet was all Daisy.” Statue of Liberty (1983 demo): “…whose title included ‘(1983 demo).’ As soon as I played it I heard why she included that brief explanation: it sounded like it had been recorded underwater. Barely a song, just two minutes of echoing guitars, a clunky cool bass line and a few lines of vocals in harmony with herself. ‘Meet me at the Statue of Liberty, that’s where we’re gonna kiss, that’s where we’re gonna kiss.’ Like the 19-second collage poem Unattainable on the original cassette, it had no business on a publishing company song demo.”
“More Songs for Barry” liner notes are by Barry Marcus, as told to Jon Fried. (Daisy was so thrilled to have a listening ear she sent another crop of too many songs to Barry. And she’s got lots more….)
Reeling Feeling: By the time I met Daisy’s older son, he was 15, three years past adding the blazing piano part on this recording, well onto bigger and better things; her younger son, the drummer, went on to play on a couple of her albums. There’s a lot of talent in the Steinberg clan. Though that’s not how you spell pure fun and exuberance. You spell that this way: Reeling Feeling.
Counting: Riding tigers, ribbons, waves of time, hope and worry – don’t let the girlishness of the voice disguise the woman’s truth in her search for a love she can count on, a love that can count on her. And then there’s the way she bends my heart with the whammy bar on her Fender Mustang. And how the layers of that voice in harmony and answer become that woman’s truth. One Valentine’s Day: OK, so what’s really going on in is this light-as-air song, sweet as the scent of a hand-plucked bouquet? The verses are all courtship, pure as the plinking of a fingernail on ukelele strings. But the choruses – what’s that? Longing? Regret? Toss the regret aside, let the longing be fulfilled…at least as long as that scent and that song linger.
River of Time: Some people hear only the light and air in Daisy’s music, and there sure is a lot of that. But what then do you do with the slow, tender, crushing weight of a heart in pain that lives in every note of this song, this river of blue? Hello Rainbow: This little prism of sonic delight teases big questions out of me: Does the allure of innocence crush the innocence of allure? When innocence is entwined with desire do you want to possess it? Destroy it? Or be destroyed by it? Or possessed by it? It’s all sweetness and light – can’t we just let it scatter the gloom? Go ask the cowboy.
You Won't Even Miss Me When I'm Gone: Has anyone ever sung hope and heartbreak more purely than Daisy? And one last question: what would you say to her when she insists she’s a terrible producer? This song, like all of them here (with the one exception of that piano part I’m the Girl I Told Your Mama About: I’ve listened to this song more than just about any song ever recorded, maybe even more than Sweetest Dream. Yet I’m still not sure what it’s about. A wild girl has finally found the one she wants to settle down with, so she visits his mother and warns her about the wild girl he’s been seeing (herself) in words so considerate, polite and concerned that she’s bound to take her son aside and tell him to stop seeing the wild one and settle down with someone like this? I think so. What I don’t know is if she’s ever going to change, or if she’s just having more crazy fun with no idea of where it’ll all go. But I don’t listen for the answer. I listen because I can’t stop listening to it. And maybe because of this story Daisy told me: she had a guitar-playing boyfriend who taught her a few jazz chords and she tried to write a song with them. Maybe if I listen enough, I’ll be that boyfriend, at least a little bit.
Forever and Ever: Another boyfriend story. But first: Daisy grew up playing classical music. When she was very little she’d sit at the piano in her den and try to make up songs, though after her parents finally relented and got her the lessons she’d been begging for, she only played with music in front of her. Then came a boyfriend who one afternoon was jamming with a friend at their apartment. She decided she didn’t have to just sit there – she picked up a guitar and played along, despite never jamming a note on guitar or piano (at least not since she was five). That night, she and the boyfriend wrote their first song, and soon he’d dragged her down into his world of pop music. Years later, Daisy saw in one of her pitch sheets that some music supervisor was looking for a song based on Beethoven’s Pathétique. She thought, “I can do that.” And she did. Roll over, old boyfriend.
All songs performed, produced and written by Deena Shoshkes (ascap) Co-writers: ✩Vaughan Daniel (bmi) *David L. Graham (ascap) ✫Sally Gentry (bmi) Keyboards on “Reeling Feeling” - Jesse Fried Mastered by Scott Anthony at Storybook Sound
AS YOU HEARD ME - LYRICS side a
THERE’S A CROP CIRCLE ON MY DADDY’S LAND ✩
Billy Joe and I were getting into some heavy petting When I ran out into that field of corn Billy Joe came chasing after I was fast he was faster That’s how the whole story was born That night it was all over the news A UFO had landed, sounded better than the truth
There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land Everyone thinks was made by aliens Though it’s nothing that Billy Joe and I had planned There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land
The next day brought helicopters scientists and scholars Dollars to be made on what they found We sold key chains t-shirts coffee mugs and pictures Our farm became a fixture bringing tourists to the town As if all that wasn’t enough They found radiation right where we made love
There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land Everyone thinks was made by aliens Though it’s nothing that Billy Joe and I had planned There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land
Billy Joe were married right where it all began Daddy never knew the truth and I sure ain’t telling him
There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land Everyone thinks was made by aliens Though it’s nothing that Billy Joe and I had planned There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land There’s a crop circle on my daddy’s land
WAITING
Waiting waiting impressions of chrysanthemums autumn will take everything when the time comes I don’t want to look it up or be on guard I don’t want to pull a tarot card
There’s really nothing we can do except to try to see it through and start all fresh and new tomorrow
Dreaming dreaming loving you makes sunshine and spring time that can do anything I’m way too superstitious and not at all religious but sometimes I pray
There’s really nothing we can do except to try to see it through and start all fresh and new tomorrow
Always always we’re not cut out to be fighting against reality we’ve made our own infinity kissing in the midnight sea, you and me
There’s really nothing we can do except to try to see it through and start all fresh and new tomorrow
CUT IT LOOSE*
July ain't conditioned to take this kind of heat but when we dance like this ain't nothin but the beat you know what….. you know what to do... cut it loose..cut it loose..cut it loose..
We’ll cook it and book it tomorrow and today duck on in now and let's get this party underway.. you know what….. you know what to do... cut it loose..cut it loose..cut it loose..
Yeah, we’re gonna fake it till we make it We’re gonna spin and we’re gonna shake it We’ll keep it going keep it going keep it going till we drop… Cause there ain’t no sign about where to stop…
So run like you got it … you got it to do ain't nothing but a good time so cut it loose you know what….. you know what to do... cut it loose..cut it loose..cut it loose.. cut it loose..cut it loose..cut it loose..
UNATTAINABLE
Unattainable Unexplainable Unnameable
Reaching for the unattainable Falling for the unexplainable Facing the unnameable
YOU ARE THE SWEETEST DREAM
You are the sweetest dream I ever had Sometimes dreams slip away And they don’t come back Real is as real as the love I feel Baby, that’s a fact
Slipping, slipping away Into the dream, into the dream But it’s slipping away, slipping away But it’s slipping away, slipping away
You know just what it means This dream we have Just want to share all the beautiful things And make you glad Something like this, so sweet Baby, can’t be bad
Slipping, slipping away Into the dream, into the dream But it’s slipping away, slipping away But it’s slipping away, slipping away
You are the sweetest dream I ever had You are the sweetest dream I ever had You are the sweetest dream I ever had You are the sweetest dream I ever had
DELETE ✩
I saved all the email he ever sent I named the whole file after him He had me wrapped up totally Till he said he was married so casually Now there’s no word that’s as sweet As delete
Nothing felt neater then When I used my little finger and I made him disappear from my screen Now he’s in the recycle bin And that’s right where he should have been And there’s no word that’s as sweet As delete
Weeks and weeks and months of lies You know he really made a fool of me Now I’m cleaning up my hard drive Till it’s cyber lover free And there’s no word that’s as sweet As delete
Nothing felt neater then When I used my little finger and I made him disappear from my screen Now he’s in the recycle bin And that’s right where he should have been And there’s no word that’s as sweet As delete
I changed my email address I changed my screen name too Delete took care of all the rest And it felt so good to do
Nothing felt neater then When I used my little finger and I made him disappear from my screen Now he’s in the recycle bin And that’s right where he should have been And there’s no word that’s as sweet As delete… delete… delete…. delete
ONLY YOU ✩✫
I need you to hold me And feel your skin touch mine I need you to show me How much you want me in your life You and I together Is how forever's meant to be I want only you To love only me chorus: Only you… you I want only you Only you… you I want only you Looking in your eyes I know the way it’s meant to be I want only you To love only me You've seen me at my worst And you never complain It feels so sweet and pure When your hands run down my face You're my other half, baby That's why I believe I want only you To love only me repeat chorus: Wherever you go I will be there with you Let my heart be your home All my love I will give you repeat chorus:
I want only you to love only me I want only you to love only me I want only you to love only me I want only you to love only me
STATUE OF LIBERTY
Meet me at the Statue of Liberty Meet me at the Statue of Liberty That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss
Remember that wish that you made with me About kissing ‘neath the Statue of Liberty That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss
If you don’t want me I’m alone in the sea All alone with Miss Liberty That’s where we gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss
All alone in the deep blue sea Another fate that’s waiting me Where we gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Meet me at the Statue of Liberty Meet me at the Statue of Liberty That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss
Remember that wish that you made with me About kissing ‘neath the Statue of Liberty Well, that’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss
Oh, oh, oh, oh
That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss That’s where we’re gonna kiss
Oh….
MORE SONGS FOR BARRY side b
REELING FEELING*
There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling Can you see me on the ceiling I’m up off the roof Tearing the sky off my shoes And it’s all ‘cause of you There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling over you There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling over you
You know love and how it yearns You know fire and how it burns You know the road and how it turns
There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling Can you see me on the ceiling I’m up off the roof Tearing the sky off my shoes And it’s all ‘cause of you There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling over you
There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling over you
Lately I’ve been looking up And all I see are stars above And all I sing are songs of love It’s you my heart is singing of
Maybe you’re just playing with me And it’s nothing more than fantasy Still the dream is real to me
You know love and how it yearns You know fire and how it burns You know pain and how it hurts You know the road and how it turns
I’m tearing the sky off my shoes And it’s all ‘cause of you There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling over you There’s a feeling that I’m feeling And it’s got me reeling over you I’ve got that feeling… I’m reeling with feeling… for you
COUNTING*
If the fog would lift we could see the stars But hey, weird weather has taken us this far In a universe of night On a ribbon of time We’re riding that tiger Right down the line And I’m counting on you I’m counting on you I’m counting on you to count on me
The night’s holding on and we are too Lost in a moment just me and you In a universe of night On a ribbon of time We’re riding that tiger Right down the line And I’m counting on you I’m counting on you I’m counting on you to count on me
Eyes like yours are no easy encounter Eyes like yours
In a universe of night On a ribbon of time We’re riding that tiger Right down the line We’ve conquered the silence With the beating of our hearts Maybe it’s love that’s taken us this far And I’m counting on you Counting on you Counting on you to count on me
ONE VALENTINE’S DAY
He took me by the hand one summer afternoon Just walking down the street made me feel so good Once we were all alone he didn’t waste any time He held me close and put his lips on mine Try as I may I can’t forget the day Why would I want to anyway?
Brought me down to his place the very first chance
Played me his favorite songs and we just danced Try as I may I can’t change the day Why would I want to anyway?
Brought flowers to my job one Valentine’s Day Left them without a note and then he slipped away Try as I may I can’t forget the day Why would I want to anyway? Try as I may I can’t change the day Why would I want to anyway?
RIVER OF TIME*
This river of time Is where my heart is swimming It’s the race of a lifetime No way but the winning River of motion Emotion too River of lost dreams River of blue
You skipped a rock across its water We touched and you went on to the other side I know you’re still dreaming Of all there was Once you float in heaven There’s no forgetting love
River of light You brought me to this moment Hoping I could take it all Where I fall is for me to choose The falling is for my own blues The ones I’ll sing about me and you Whither I go What I do What I do
River of time River of truth River of lost dreams River of blue River of blue River of blue
HELLO RAINBOW*
He calls me Little Miss Sunshine Calls me out in the rain I don’t know where I’m going Or where I’m going to stay The storm clouds are brewing Lightning’s coming on There’s too much electricity
He says hello Rainbow, hello Rainbow I want you to color my world too Hello Rainbow, hello A little hope would probably do
He’s telling me stories about the West Singing songs of cowboys and trains going fast He brags a bit about his ways Now raindrops are falling on my face
He says hello Rainbow, hello Rainbow I want you to color my world too Hello Rainbow, hello Won’t you rescue me from my sweet gloom A little hope would probably do
Hearts can break in many ways In any place on any day Little Miss Sunshine, Little Miss Sunshine Won’t you come away, won’t you come away Let me carry you away
He says hello Rainbow, hello Rainbow I want you to color my world too Hello Rainbow, hello A little hope would probably do Won’t you rescue me from my sweet gloom
Hello Rainbow, hello Rainbow I want you to color my world too Hello Rainbow, hello Won’t you rescue me from my sweet gloom A little hope would probably do Rainbow, I want you
YOU WON”T EVEN MISS ME WHEN I’M GONE
You have so many girlfriends Just take me off your list Don't know why I hung around Or what it is I can't resist And what hurts so bad and feels so wrong Is that you won't even miss me when I'm gone
Watching you in action Makes me feel like such a fool All is fair in love and war But you broke the golden rule And what hurts so bad and feels so wrong Is that you won't even miss me when I'm gone
All this competition makes me feel like I'm lost in the sea Feel like I'm missing something you can't find in me
Love can make you feel Like the you, you were meant to be And once you made me believe That you loved me just for me And what hurts so bad and feels so wrong Is that you won't even miss me when I'm gone You won't even miss me when I'm gone
I’M THE GIRL I WARNED YOUR MAMA ABOUT *✩ Your mom and I were speaking Bout the girl you might be seeing I guess she’s never met her before I told she’s a wild one And she’d better watch her only son Or he’ll end up hooked up with her for sure
I’m the girl I warned your mama about I’m the one I said you’re better off without She’s starting to worry boy, you’re in trouble now I’m the girl I warned your mama about
We were just discussing How the girl you might be loving Could be the kind of trouble he’d pursue She likes to stay up all night And she wears her bluejeans skin-tight I didn’t even mention the tattoo
I’m the girl I warned your mama about I’m the one I said you’re better off without She’s starting to worry boy, you’re in trouble now I’m the girl I warned your mama about
She asked me if I’d like some tea She said she wished you’d date a nice girl like me
I’m the girl I warned your mama about I’m the one I said you’re better off without She’s starting to worry boy, you’re in trouble now I’m the girl I warned your mama about I’m the girl I warned your mama about I’m the girl I warned your mama about I’m the girl I warned your mama about
FOREVER AND EVER
Sitting in the morning sun Thinking you could be the only one They say love is going to get you And I’m so gone Think I just found my treasure
Sitting in my favorite chair Singing to the birds and the air They say love is going to find you And I’m so found All I want to do is keep you around Forever and ever and ever
All I want to do Is share my life with you And help to make your hopes and dreams come true
Soaking up the summery night Everything is glowing and bright They say love is going to find you And I’m so found All I want to do is keep you around Forever and ever and ever Forever forever forever