Willi Brown

Blog

  • Independence Day

    Well future stepped into my field…


    Uke version Dechen Dancehall Wimberley, TX 16apr22

    Independence Day written by Vic Chesnutt

    From the album “Little” produced by Michael Stipe.

    For a long time I thought in the last verse the line was “untouchable as the undocumented self”

  • Elvis Came Home Today

    Elvis Came Home Today

    Inspired by this Elvis Frankenstein image mashup

    so this was a bit unrehearsed 
         and seriously
    had spent most of the day
            on housework
    with a brief 
              swimmin' pool brek

    Credits: SomaFM Heavyweight Reggae (background music), quotes from Dylan (“Isis”), Withers (“Ain’t No”) and a Willi Brown tune called “Elvis X2” which can be found …. here!

  • Genuine Heart of Sadness

    Genuine Heart of Sadness

    Elvis Came Home Today Word Jazz Dub Tribute

    a few years ago 2013 to be frank
    in San Francisco fall weather is like summer
    and thinking about the state of things
    culture environment
    and surfing the web late one night
    mashing up things on photoshop
    he emerged…
    thrust hips on his toes
    the abandon of the arms
    his serious face

    So this weekend it felt like time to print and frame. Enjoy!

    Prints are available: $66 for 12×24, $99 for 24×36.

  • Pass Me By

    Words and Music Willi Brown 


    Acoustic Demo version from Seattle

    Moving on leaving all your books behind
    pages falling from what I need
    Forgot whatever I wanted to find,
    won’t remember what I once believed

    Willi Brown in straw hat holding up a joker playing card.

    I’ll create my own confusion
    get my legend with room to spare
    I pray for patience and something old
    to help me driver to get back there

    *Pass me by I’ve forgotten the way
    Go on ahead, you know the night will stay
    No one can help me – don’t even try
    Go on ahead and pass me by

    No comfort of familiar nightmares
    can hold my wishes back down inside
    Tell my story for me… after I’m gone
    Those questions of right and wrong … let ’em ride

    I’ll take this the wrong way
    It’s happened before (“I didn’t touch a thing”)
    I’m always hopin’ the night will stay
    Like a bird of prey with a broken wing

    Surrender all my expressions of love… with my pride
    A gift to leave back down by the gate of our lives

    *Pass me by I’ve forgotten the way
    Go on ahead, you know the night will stay
    No one can help me – don’t even try
    Go on ahead and pass me by

  • Double Dub

    Double Dub avec beatz

    Seems everybody is just too stunned to look back
    And the look-ahead holds just a mountain of graveyard black
    Yet my watch tells me I got an appointment in the morning
    I don’t need a needle to tell me – morning may never come

    When this year started I said the ’19 can go to hell
    Something didn’t die but it would’ve been just as well
    I got the penalty box for riding out there into harm’s way
    …pain’s easier to face with an option to look away

    *
    They say it always gets better baby
    but I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub (2020) and…
    tattoo my ass

    There was friendship for days and a mountain of golden sunshine
    People coming together singing “Time’s up!“ all down the line
    But then the Suits with the news, they started dumping their shares
    Controlling the story so the people would be unawares

    So we had a paranoid spring and summer confusion kicked in
    And the rich got so richer and casualties kept pouring in
    Yeah the West Coast was burning and cops kept murdering black men
    Yeah the west kept burning and cops kept murdering black women

    *
    They say it always gets better
    but baby I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub
    And tattoo my ass

    Tired of surviving dog eat dogging all day?
    Consumer cellular Netflix those thoughts all away
    Comfort is killer, sugar always comes with a price
    It’s time to take two the hard way first let me add us some spice

    *
    They say it always gets better
    but baby I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub
    And tattoo my ass

    It can always get worse
    I can’t breathe … the past
    Don’t call it 2020
    I can’t see through all this ash

    They say it always gets better
    but baby I think I’ll just pass
    You can take double dub
    And tattoo my ass … goodbye 👋

    Double Dub spoke.word

  • Sliding on Vinyl

    Another insertion

    This time a cab from Newark

    I can’t see a badge but the accent is African

    The sky could be any season

    The air, any industry, sweat and petrol

    I bounce in the back

    Of this yellow Ford

    Generic black interior

    Without breakfast or sleep having

    lost much more than three hours

    Cause certainly my dinner

    in the Sierra foothills

    was half a day ago

    And now sliding on vinyl

    I recognize NewYork approaching me

    First the tool booth cutie

    Do-rag, yellow safety vest, mirror aviators

    Big lips do a little kiss/sniff/purse move

    As we pull away and she

    prepares For the next encounter

    And the cabbie’s sad dixie cup rattles

    with pens and straw

    As my phone charger cord snakes back

    from his lighter plug

    Juicing back to connected life

    For one more day

    And we then dip

    Holland Tunnel US 1 & 9-Truck

    Through the alien wonders of Jersey City

    Why humans spend so much to crowd

    Is now somewhat beyond me

    Cab 91 (dispatched by Patricia Canty)

    Bears me east into MnHaddn

    His garmin promising an arrival time

    Odds averaged against the crowd

    Every passenger a poem, a progress

    We <3 ny

  • Beg forgiveness

    It’s no time to complicate

    To arrange or communicate

    Add more layers to the dress

    Consider angles of load and stress

    Master techniques, straighten lines

    Research approaches, estimate times

    Prepare the process or perfect the plan

    Apologize or repay the man

    No time to add another flock of words

    Just time to vanish like Imagined birds

    No time to worry about what happens so

    Just close your eyes and let them go

  • Controlled Burn

    Majestic forest Northern
    California summer crunch
    each step dry cracking 
    Deadfall 
    Overhead widow makers
    everywhere blow downs and 
    knock downs
    Tinder really
    Dead 
    Wood
    my thoughts also crunchy 
    Fire Fear
    Armageddon too!
    I think I want it to just be over 
    So much pain
    In the news
    more pain
    in the forest, the streets, families
    PAIN
    Even sex seems painful now
    Poetry too!

    I brought a small notebook
    Out to this wood 
    on retreat 
    But forgot to remind myself 
    “bring a pen”
    Then found one and it’s out of ink
    So much pain
    So I’m typing a phone note
    By the flicker of an led tea light
    Instead of a candle
    Because…
    Fire

     

    27 jun 19

  • easter peeps

    one wonderful thing

    about spring

  • under ball

    life’s strange now / packing for australya /

    drather head for yosemite / get lost frost bite /

    sigh white privilege packs / startup biz trip /

    like disney / strange acid tools /

    all corporate now / rollerball 3000 /

    suck it and see /