Red Hair (MP3)
Anybody Else
Take Care of Her
(Not Released) - 1997

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Red Hair (Joe Nolte, February 1995)

I run I crawl I live like I want to
I've seen it all and more than I want to
I can't escape the curse of my calling
So help me now cause baby I'm falling

She moves like a cat across your floor
And no one knows who she moves for

Red hair

Now every girl - oh it's my contention
Who lie and cheat, defying convention
They think they're neat - they hide their intentions
They really believe that it's their own invention

She moves like a cat all over you
And nothing that you know is true

Red hair

We both want the other one rearranged
And neither one will ever change

Red hair

Now you can go and fuck who you want to
Someday my words will come back and haunt you
You think you're it - you think that you know me
You don't know shit - and you can go blow me

Stay like a cat on your velvet throne
And I will live and die alone
Red hair red hair
...

Rather large time gap here, as the only compilation stuff that came out between the mid-80's and the mid-90's were songs on SST compilation albums that were taken after the fact directly from the albums. By early '95 I was wide awake again and writing furiously.

Which is to say I was writing a lot of songs, and I was usually furious.

This is a particularly furious one, the only one thus far recorded that was written for the "K2" girl ("K1" we've met on Awakening). K2 was taking a shower while I hammered this thing out one morning in about ten minutes. Sort of a Kinks meet Nirvana thing, with a strange chord progression at verse's end that I'm particularly fond of. The Last return to Punk Rock - finally!

Lyrically, well, the words speak for themselves. And it's all true.

I played it for Randall (former manager), who couldn't get past the fake Kinks riff and wrote the song off as Joe not being able to get out of the sixties. I don't play songs for Randall anymore.

Beware of the last verse - there are naughty words.

This and the following two were quasi-released on a demo tape in mid-1997. However, I believe they are currently [floating around] as MP3's, since the sad fact of not having a label should not prevent the listener on the street from having the opportunity to hear the stuff.

—Joe Nolte
...
Anybody Else (Joe Nolte, Aug 27, 1994)

You ask me why I'm always on my own
At every party sitting all alone
You point girls out you think I oughtta know
I shake my head and stagger home
And I say it's not loneliness made me this way
Oh I've never been desperate that way
And I thought you could tell - I've got no time for anybody else

I walk down streets you wouldn't wanna know
And see your face everywhere I go
I try to hide - it's tearing me in two
Pretending that I'm not in love with you
And I try every place that I go
Getting high so that no one will know - and I lie
Yeah I lie to myself - I've got no heart for anybody else - YEAH

I know it's not any reason that you said
It's only me - it's only in my head
It doesn't change the state I'm in
It doesn't change the way it should have been
'Cause it's true - you're in everything I say and do
And I know if I can't get to you, then I'll hang with myself
I just can't hang with anybody else

And I thought you could tell
I'm not in love with anybody else
....

Also from the tape, this was written for "J", but just missed getting on Gin & Innuendoes. A good example of "the Beatles get pissed", or something. I like it a lot, in spite of the fact that the last part of the verse is pretty much stolen from "Book" from the Confession album. I have decided, however, not to sue myself.

Lyrically, as with most songs from this era, it's a true story.

I am contemplating slowing it way down and doing a version of it Everly Brothers style.

—Joe Nolte
...
Take Care of Her (Joe Nolte, July 1995)

And when I look at her, I see everything you see
And in a perfect world, you know where I would be
But you've got her and all I wanna do is die
You know the world just got too real for me
The world will make you cry

Walking the streets, yeah, hiding in the gutter
I was out of my head then, oh yeah
Walking insane, I should have found another
But I was in pain, man, oh yeah

Fallin' into empty streets I don't believe I lived
Screamin' out in silence, man, something had to give
Gone is my head right through a sieve, oh yeah
Oh yeah!

Take care of her, 'cause I could not get through
No matter what I do, she'll always be with you
Take care of her, you don't know what's inside
You know the world is full of sorrow, it will make you cry

Tanked out on a street, yeah, you heard it all before
I was looking for something, oh yeah
I saw those eyes, I could have closed the door
It wasn't anything I planned but… ah yeah

Everything that happens has a reason like she said
I will go on wondering what until the day I'm dead
Now I hear voices in my head, oh yeah

Take care of her, you got to look inside
To where the shadow's lie with all the things she hides
Take care of her, don't let it pass you by
You know the world is full of sorrow, it will make you cry

Now I'd die for anything and I don't mean nothing
I stand where I stand and, oh yeah
I am the fear, you see it in the corner, man
I am the spoiler, oh yeah

I was born into a world I wish I never were
Living is a waste of time if I can't be with her
I had a vision and now it's blurred, oh yeah
Take care of her, you get to find the way
To do what I can't do and say what I can't say
Take care of her, and me, my heart just died
You know the world is full of sorrow, it will make you cry
....

The only song written for "M2". Musically, it's me doing Descendents doing me. Lyrically, it was a true story that was happening as I was writing it, a true story that ended rather horribly and is responsible both for the loss of the SST era musicians as well as the catatonic seclusion in which I have remained ever since.

To be continued...

—Joe Nolte
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