The cover image for the Booze Monkey album, the New Mythology E.P.
The cover image for the Booze Monkey album, the New Mythology E.P.
"Appalachian Swamp Rock steeped with a hoodoo bag full of imagery."
Album protagonist and deceased guitar legend, Johnny Rocket, describes the New Mythology E.P. as “Appalachian swamp rock steeped with a hoodoo bag full of imagery.”
It is the last Booze Monkey album with Blue proclaiming a general fondness for the six-album Booze Monkey discography as well as a desire to simplify branding moving forward.
the New Mythology E.P. features six songs, all thematically and lyrically intertwined.
It’s an organic and gritty endeavor layered with varied instrumentation such as: steel drums, xylophone, and lap steel.
Listen to the New Mythology E.P. online:
Animated Lyric Videos
Johnny Rocket Animated Lyric Video
Pet My Dog Animated Lyric Video
Countdown - 10 - 1
Johnny lost two fingers in an after show dust up
wanted knuckle tats of “love” & “hate” but ended up with “Fuck Up”
He loved to watch the chickies shake their titties in the front row
As the drummer pounds us forward at the rock & roll show
Chorus:
Can’t you feel the simmer
that bottom bump biology
that rockabilly back beat
is part of our pathology
Barkeep booty babe
a master of mixology
All hail Johnny Rocket
& the new mythology
The air is getting thinner , can’t you feel the heat
an underlying tremor a musky kind of sweet
Did you see the glimmer? I thought I caught a peak
a flutter or a shimmer - too mesmerized to speak
Chorus
Solo
Some say Johnny died stealing petrol for the band van
Some say he was sleeping when his wife bashed his head in
8 fingered Johnny & his hollow bodied rocket show
his legend’s getting fuzzy but that’s the way that legends go
Chorus
Words and music by Blue Ajay
© ℗ 2014 Sanity Check Musec, Inc. ASCAP
Lyrics reprinted with permission
I need myself a moment
just a bit of peace
Open up the pressure valve
I need a release
The machine will have to churn a bit
without me as a cog
If anybody needs me
I’ll be petting my dog
Maybe play some frisbee
maybe toss a ball
always up for eating
and maybe then a walk
Maybe we’ll just lie around
& stretch & groan & yawn
Before we even know it
the whole morning is gone
I need myself a moment
just a bit of peace
Open up the pressure valve
I need a release
The machine will have to churn a bit
without me as a cog
If anybody needs me
I’ll be petting my dog
Got another bill to pay
more paperwork to file
The telephone is ringing
The mail goes on the pile
Seems like I’ve been hustlin’
ever since the dawn
Before we even know it
the afternoon is gone
I need myself a moment
just a bit of peace
Open up the pressure valve
I need a release
The machine will have to churn a bit
without me as a cog
If anybody needs me
I’ll be petting my dog
Maybe play some frisbee
maybe toss a ball
always up for eating
and maybe then a walk
Maybe we’ll just lie around
& stretch & groan & yawn
Before we even know it
the whole damned day is gone
I need myself a moment
just a bit of peace
Open up the pressure valve
I need a release
The machine will have to churn a bit
without me as a cog
If anybody needs me
I’ll be petting my dog
If anybody needs me
I’ll be petting my dog
If anybody needs me
I’ll be petting my dog
Words and music by Blue Ajay
© ℗ 2014 Sanity Check Musec, Inc. ASCAP
Lyrics reprinted with permission
I woke up this morning and I found myself dead
murdered while I slumbered she’d bashed in my head
I never shoulda brought that woman home with me
I never shoulda brought that woman home with me
I woke up this morning and I found myself dead
killed while I was sleeping I died in my bed
I never shoulda brought that woman home with me
I never shoulda brought that woman home with me
I woke up this morning and I found myself dead
six years tomorrow since the day that we were wed
I never shoulda brought that woman home with me
I never shoulda brought that woman home with me
Words by Blue Ajay
Music by Kahle Magalis and Blue Ajay
© ℗ 2014 Sanity Check Musec, Inc. ASCAP
Lyrics reprinted with permission
I’ve traded blows with satan
took jesus out in two
I’ve railed at god for a title bout
he’s too chicken shit he’ll lose
There’s no silver to my lining
There’s no twinkle to my eye
my tongue is nowhere near my cheek
I’m just waiting here to die
For the most part baby it’s clear enough
I’m just waiting here to die
I danced with a voodoo priestess
on a thick and murky night
we were listening to swampy blues
and rutting in the moon light
I’ve beaten back so many demons
Hell hound now guards my door
I got this ring from a Flathead shaman
who I then paid to sweep my floor
There’s no silver…
solo section
I’ve been stalked by the darkest clouds
as well as the fluffy & white
been struck by lightning 13 times
strike me down if I’m telling a lie
I’ve met parasites & preachers
their soldiers & their teachers
back around biting reachers
all sorts of leaches
There’s no silver to my lining
there’s no twinkle to my eye
my tongue is nowhere near my cheek
I’m just waiting here to die
There’s no silver to my lining
I’m just waiting here to die
There’s no silver to my lining
I’m just waiting here to die
Words and music by Blue Ajay
© ℗ 2014 Sanity Check Musec, Inc. ASCAP
Lyrics reprinted with permission
I danced with a voodoo priestess
on a thick and murky night
we were listening to swampy blues
and ruttin’ in the moonlight
she gave me a heady tea to drink
steeped with a hoodoo bag full of imagery
I lost sight of the sounds for a while
and I’m not sure if the ground was under me
I came around to the present again
with the warmth of her body on mine
I found myself then tied by the fire
with my torso covered in lines
shapes & runes, symbols & letters
from a language to which I do not think I’m privy
I tried to scream but my tongue was numb
and I was feeling rather dizzy
I saw her take a swig from a jug then
& spew fire to nearly blind me
I twisted this way and I twisted that
against all of the ties that binded (sic) me
By then I could feel this strange sensation
coming from the very core of me
like the burning awareness of a thousand souls
sharing torment in perfect harmony
I watch gen-again-eration of voodoo priestesses
dance & rut & brew & serve their men tea
steeped with a hoodoo bag full of imagery
my centuries pass in harmonic torment
steeped with a hoodoo bag full of imagery
I heard jesus snicker still mad about that bout
by all accounts he always was a sore loser
I sent him a drink and then flashed him a grin
and said, “I’m glad my torment does amuse ya.”
I saw Johnny Rocket jammin’ with Jimi
in the afterlife Winterland
I could still see the blood stain on Johnny’s hollow-body
from where his wife bashed his head in
I saw Freedom & Complicity & Hope & Love
and all their lives they flitter by within a stanza
I saw Skye and Raine and Joy
and all their lives they flitter by within a stanza
I saw my hell hound, Sparky,
chase a phoenix through the embers
and all their lives they flitter by within a stanza
steeped with a hoodoo bag full of imagery
This is not how I imagined my fate
suffering through time ever endless
eternally trapped in a hoodoo tea
brewed by voodoo priestess
I’d imagined myself on the crests of the Blue Ridge
telling tales of Appalachian swamp rock
with the Daughter of the Stars in the valley below
as glimpsed from a favored spot
I’d imagined love & beauty & health &
a very different form of harmony
I’d imagined my caging & dying in a blizzard of bullets
and a few ways even less charming
I’d imagined growing old with the love of my life
and drinking fine Booze along with the cheap stuff
I’d imagined playing frisbee and petting my dog
the sort of thing of which there’s never enough
but I never imagined a fate such as this
a far cry from fine Booze by fire light
and thus be warned of the cost my friend
of swampy blues and ruttin’ in moonlight
Words and music by Blue Ajay
© ℗ 2014 Sanity Check Musec, Inc. ASCAP
Lyrics reprinted with permission
His black market bride
whom he called, Complicity
was known to stir her cocktails with a fork
He never missed the chance to be
seen standing next to her
His pride was of the ordinary sort
They were driven from the road one day
by a tired sober driver
who’d risen early and was on her way to church
Complicity was thrown
right through the windshield
and she bled out by the roadside in the dirt
Was that a fiery phoenix or a salmon-colored herring?
We passed the bodies on our way back home.
The truth it is obscured by all the flapping and the flailing.
We will know more once the buzzards leave the bones
We will know more once the buzzards leave the bones
He named his daughter, Freedom
and then sold her to the parasites
Had my druthers I would
haul him under keel
People praise the Emperor’s duds
but I can clearly see his willy
some sits & thinks while others
only sits and feel
Freedom went by Edie
ground her teeth when she was sleeping
had her tubes cut when she was only twenty-three
She never really lived and all she ever had was stolen and
She hung her self by pantyhose and tree
Was that a fiery phoenix or a salmon-colored herring?
We passed the bodies on our way back home.
The truth it is obscured by all the flapping and the flailing.
We will know more once the buzzards leave the bones
We will know more once the buzzards leave the bones
I got no dog in this race
I got no horse in this fight
I danced right passed this disgrace
Put it to bed, there, nighty night
I know my place; I got no place
You’re standing there on skinny ice
That egg ain’t on my face
So you may please keep your advice
History forgets so much more than it remembers
Learn ignore forget tune in and then repeat
The ticks and leeches swell while
turning phrase for each new massacre
Ignore forget tune in and then repeat
They’re mighty mighty bloated
but they tell us that we need ’em
Learn ignore forget tune in and then repeat
They swell before our eyes
and yet they tell us that we need ’em
Ignore forget tune in and then repeat
How big they gonna get? I can’t
believe they haven’t popped yet
Ignore forget tune in and then repeat
Ignore forget tune in and then repeat
Learn ignore forget tune in and then repeat
Was that a fiery phoenix or a salmon-colored herring?
We passed the bodies on our way back home.
The truth it is obscured by all the flapping and the flailing.
We will know more once the buzzards leave the bones
We will know more once the buzzards leave the bones
My thoughts drift to Freedom
and then to Complicity
their lives they flitter by within a stanza
delusions of safety, service,
protection & prevention and
their lives they flitter by within a stanza
sold with bluster each and every
merchant with a purchase and
their lives they flitter by within a stanza
they named their daughters Hope & Love and
Skye and Raine and Joy and all
their lives they flitter by within a stanza
all their lives they flitter by within a stanza
all their lives they flitter by within a stanza
Words and music by Blue Ajay
© ℗ 2014 Sanity Check Musec, Inc. ASCAP
Lyrics reprinted with permission
Reprinted from the original CD packaging:
the New Mythology E.P.
Album released 9 September 2014 - Blue's 48th birthday.
Final liner notes: 6 August 2014
Credits:
All songs written, performed, recorded & mastered by Blue Ajay at the Naked Acre Compound Studio except as noted.
"Woke Up Dead" words by Blue Ajay
music by Kahle Magalis & Blue Ajay.
Lani Urreta - Harmony vocals on all songs.
Kahle Magalis - Harmony vocals on "Johnny Rocket" & "Woke Up Dead".
Brooke Magalis - Guitar on "Pet My Dog".
© ℗ 2014 Sanity Check Musec, Inc. ASCAP
Lyrics reprinted with permission