Track #1
One time I was singing, “It’s going down, I’m yellin’ timber!” and I asked Melanie, who sings that song. She said, I think its Kesha and I replied, “nope, I think it’s Pitbull.” I gave it a Google and saw that the song is called “Timber” featuring Pitbull and Kesha. That’s when the Kesha/Pitbull paradox was born. We realized that a lot of time people are arguing and they are both arguing a point that is entirely accurate but fail to really hear the other person’s point because they are so fixated on their own point being right. This song, “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by Cannonball Adderley emphasizes the need to dial it down, have mercy, and perhaps seek to understand the other person’s perspective.
Track #2
In the John Prine song called “That’s The Way The World Goes Round” the chorus goes:
That’s the way that the world goes ’round
You’re up one day, the next you’re down
It’s half an inch of water, and you think you’re gonna drown
That’s the way that the world goes ’round
My God this has been true. There are things that terrified me as a kid, like coming home with a bad report card. Things that terrified me as an adult, getting divorced or getting laid off. There are all these everyday stressors always passing through you like Neutrinos, I remember my father booking fishing trips and as the fishing trip approached, I got stressed thinking “work is too busy, I might get in trouble for taking off”. Today, I can only remember the fishing trips and have no idea what was stressing me at work those times.
One last late edition to this song, it comes from the comments on the YouTube page, “When I gave up my athletic scholarship to a US university and wasn’t sure how I would ever get over the disappointment and embarrassment of what I saw at the time as having failed at something I had worked so hard for, my Dad put this song on as we pulled away from campus; I will never forget that or how this song made me think, in that moment – maybe this isn’t the end of the world, after all? Thank you, John – I’ll always love you for that”
Track #3
“It is only when one is under extreme duress that one’s true character is revealed.” It’s easy to say a person is a real shithead for stealing, getting high, or repeatedly making bad decisions, especially when you’re riding high and living a balanced and healthy life. But adversity can really open your eyes, if life has decided to become particularly merciless, you start to explore solutions which may not reflect the acme of your character. In college, I had way too much time on my hands and had the bandwidth to contemplate if there is a God and the terrible reality of death. I spent weeks thinking about these things, lost a lot of sleep, but I figured out my philosophy and now Guapo Grande is going to share it with you to save you from an existential crisis. As it relates to God and afterlife, you might argue if neither exists, you could just go crazy, be destructive, and care less about the consequences. If there is a God and afterlife, you want to be super good so you can go to heaven and be well positioned to reap the benefits of good behavior. I did a bit of game theory on this one and concluded, if everyone just acted a fool because no one believed in anything, the world would be a horrible place to live. So, I decided that whether or not there is a God, I’m going to just make the world a better place and try to be nice, helpful, and productive. The death quandary was a lot harder. The bottom line is that it sucks, but I developed a “pie-chart” proposition. Your life equals one pie-chart and it doesn’t really matter if it is 5 years, 50, years or 100 years, what really matters is what the slices represent. You could have 90% of your slices dedicated to worry and 10% of living a full life or you flip it around. As Bob Dylan said, “That he not busy born is busy dying.”
Track #4
I always loved the song, “Last of My Kind” by Jason Isbell, a song about not fitting in, the world sort of being on a different wavelength, but at the end of the day, it’s because you’re hanging onto something deeper and more true to yourself. I think this song wrestles with conforming or choosing not to. You’re faced with these decisions in school, work, and even with your friends. I’d rather someone be the last of their kind vs. a duplicate in a crowd. Jack Kerouac said, “[…]the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”
Track #5
My father had a saying, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”. The saying always resonated with me because he basically gave you the freedom to do stupid shit, but you better not complain when you have to deal with the consequences. I’m not sure where I fall on the master rankings of all-time parenting, but I tend to apply this approach to my kids, I’m not going to tell you what to do and make you do it, but I’m going to tell you what both options look like and allow you to figure it out. The problem is we make really stupid decisions, the bigger problem is I’ve learned my best lessons from the mistakes I’ve made.
Track #6
Sometimes people ask, “What’s your favorite band?” That’s a tough question, but I think the way Ol’ Guapo interprets it is what’s a band you love more than the average person. So that keeps you away from the standard answers of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Ray Charles, etc. One of my absolute favorites (let’s say top 5 that are special to me) is the band Luna. They had a bit of a run in the 1990s and never really got on MTV or the radio because they just didn’t fit into a genre. It’s like they were Wilco before there was Wilco. I have a handwritten song sheet from their lead singer (Dean Wareham) of the song Chinatown. It’s based off a true story, they had this guy who signed them to their record company, Terry Tolkin. He was a wild man who rented limos, took them out at fancy dinners, and partied like a rock star (you’re out all night chasing girlies, late for work, leaving earlies). Not surprising if you listen to the lyrics, but Terry was ultimately released by the record label, bounced around from job to job, pumping gas and tried to make ends meet. At one point, he lived on a boat but had to sell it to pay for the docking fees that accumulated, eventually ending up in a shelter. Luna’s lead singer would try to stay in touch and in 2020 Luna raised money by selling albums to help Terry with medical costs, but in January 2021 he ultimately passed away at the age of 62 in New Orleans. I’m not sure what his pie-chart looked like, but I will say this, and it inspires me to write, Terry has an incredible song about him and his “work” as a young man in New York City. I’d say it’s also a reminder that if you have the job of your dreams, don’t fuck it up.
Track #7
Relationships are complicated. My mother always drilled home the Golden Rule, treating others how you want to be treated. Seems so simple, but after 5000+ years of civilization, doesn’t seem like we have figured it out. I’ll tell you something that took me way too long to figure out, a person can be mad at you and still love you. I have told my kids that and Melanie has told it to me 🙂 This song asks if you can get do a better job of reciprocating, especially if you may have disappointed them in the past.
Track #8
Get some sleep and before you say something stupid, don’t say it. Early in my work career, I was obsessed with being right. I think I drove a ton of people insane by telling them why their ideas weren’t correct or how they can be approved. I used to debate things endlessly until people finally gave into my idea, we ended up having a consultant come in, her name was Rayona Sharpnack, possibly just to intervene with me. She drove a point home with me that changed my life at work, “You don’t always have to agree, but perhaps you can align”. For whatever reason, I have found myself being way more open to aligning to a decent idea vs saying I agree with it. Sometimes I wish I could let things go more easily, but I know one thing, arguing is almost never productive at work. Simon Sinek speaks about people much preferring to work with people they trust vs someone being extremely competent. If you were very competent but people do not trust you will not undermine them or foil their ideas with arguments, they will never ever hire you or promote you.
Track #9
I feel like every human at some point in their life will date an asshole. Your friends can see it, your family can see it, but you are just blinded by love. There’s nothing I can say or do to prevent this from happening, but I will say two things about recovering from it: 1. Start investing the time you spent with that knucklehead into something you love doing 2. Walk a dog or exercise. Trust me, they work. Spotify does not have the extended version of the song Bad Girl by Lee Moses, but YouTube does (below). If you managed to own this original pressing on vinyl, you could easily sell it for $1,000. This is a tasty treat for record collectors around the world, once you hear it, you’ll understand why.
Track #10
I don’t get runners high, but I definitely get hikers high. Once I’m set loose on a trail, I just cannot wait to see what’s around the bend. It probably has something to do with being tethered to a computer all day and texted when I’m away from my computer, so when I can get out into the wilderness and get as far away from humans as possible, I’m a happy camper. One of my favorite things is hiking in the mountains while it is snowing, the snow erases all sound, it’s the most peaceful experience imaginable. One time I was hiking in Quebec Run in Pennsylvania and it was snowing a lot more than I anticipated. I started the hike near a giant wind turbine. If you ever get close to one of those wind turbines, they are absolutely huge and terrifyingly loud, each blade is the size of a huge airplane wing. Anyways, I started hiking away from the wind turbine, trekking through the snow. The snow was too deep to know where the trail was but I figured I could follow my footprints back if I ended up getting lost. After hiking for a couple hours, I decided that I could just walk towards the sound of the wind turbine instead of the long trip following my footsteps back. Unfortunately, I ended up walking to a completely different wind turbine then the one I started at. They look so close together when you are driving along a highway, but they are really not that close at all and there were many to the left of me and many to the right. I guessed right and walked about a quarter mile to the next wind turbine and found my car. Still an incredible trip and cleared all the files in my mind from the work week before.
Track #11
This song is about a woman who said she would love him for the rest of time, but that didn’t really work out and he says, “Funny How Time Slips Away”. Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan really are masters at the subtle digs. Nothing to add to this song, true and funny on many levels.
Track #12
I just love this song penned by Bob Dylan, he also performed it, but The Band does it better. This song is a masterpiece about yearning to create a masterpiece. So perhaps don’t wait to work on your website, don’t put off writing, practicing guitar, or painting, you might end up creating something special in the process.
Track #13
Here’s a piece of advice I wish I learned when I was much younger, listen. I mean listen for the sake of listening. Hear their words to feel them, interpret them, check in to see if you are hearing them the right way. I have spent so much time listening with the intent to respond and it just is not nearly as productive as listening with the intent to understand. I still need to work on it, but it’s very rewarding when you do it well.