My version of the timeless classic “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in honor of our American Veterans and those serving in the Armed Forces on Veterans Day. The musical execution could be improved by a better-equipped performer, but it is offered with deep gratitude and sincerity.
As has been often said, we are home of the free because of the brave. Thank you, Veterans.
Battle Hymn of the Republic | Lyrics by Julia Ward Howe
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword His truth is marching on.
Chorus: Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps His day is marching on.
Chorus
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel, “As ye deal with my contemnors, so with you my grace shall deal;” Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel Since God is marching on.
Chorus
He has sounded from the trumpet that shall never call retreat He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.
Chorus
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.
Chorus
Sean Coons is the author of Body: or, How Hope Confronts Her Shadow and Calls the Flutter Girl to Flight, a faith-based comedy exploring body image, intuitive eating, and spiritual living. Body is available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sandpiper Books. SeanCoons.com. Twitter: @seancoons. Facebook: @seancoonswriter. Instagram: @seanmcoons.
A long time ago in a bizarre land far, far away called Hollywood, I played bass in a band called Santí — Latin rock with a blend of Spanish and English lyrics. The band was fronted by actor-turned-singer Santiago Douglas (a.k.a. Santí). Santí got us a lot of fun gigs in LA nightclubs and a couple on television. He even landed one of our tunes in a movie, Freezerburn. I don’t know if the movie was good (pretty sure it wasn’t) — Santi and I skipped out of the premiere after about a half-hour, but we stayed long enough to hear the tune, which was playing on a transistor radio in a scene taking place in a short-order kitchen. Now that’s what I call making it to the big time!
Patrick Butler
To prepare for my participation in this band, my musical mentor, jazz/rock/funk/Celtic guitarist Patrick Butler, led me through a crash course in Latin folk music. I learned some of the basic chord structures and scales, and Butler took me on a field trip to see legendary conguero and bandleader Pancho Sanchez perform.
During this time, I composed three songs with the hope of getting my goods onto the Santí setlist. I did not succeed in this grande goal, but one of these tunes, which had the working title “El Canción,” always seemed to have potential to me. My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) thought the main Gypsy Kingesque lick was pretty slick and I liked the lyrics. A mere sixteen or seventeen years after I composed the initial version of the song, I brought the tune to my band, The Möbius Trip, and we knocked it out, complete with the new title, “El Velo.” I made the controversial decision to sing lead on this one. We could have gone with Aaron Baker, the band’s vocally gifted singer, but I thought it was finally time to dazzle the world with my .75 octave range. Aaron generously sang harmony, adding the multidimensional mellifluicity our fans have come to expect over the years.
I have written before about a powerful musical portal called the Space Station. It has been described, by me, as a “euphoria factory” producing “psychedelic, frenetic, angelic exhalations.” As you might remember, Butler loaned this pedal to me years ago. I supposedly “abused” said pedal while it was in my custody — so much so that the expression pedal produced an irritating squeak whenever it was depressed. Well, as destiny would have it, Butler’s abused Space Station is now my Space Station, squeaks and all. The first thing I did when we were reunited was lay down a couple tracks on “El Velo.”
. . .
In the early 1980s, music fans hungered for a video from rock legends Van Halen. Finally, the band released its first offering for the MTV generation with “Jump.” Fans were not disappointed. The Möbius Trip found itself in exactly the same situation and decided we need to join the modern times (of the 1980s at least). (Yes, I am comparing us to Van Halen. Tune in next week when I’ll be comparing us to The Beatles.) For this momentous creation, we called in our children to co-star in the video and enlisted Aaron’s wife, and my friend, Noel, to be our cinematographer.
So, here she is, folks. We hope you enjoy “El Velo.”
Sean Coons is the author of Body: or, How Hope Confronts Her Shadow and Calls the Flutter Girl to Flight, a faith-based comedy exploring body image, intuitive eating, and spiritual living. Body is available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sandpiper Books. SeanCoons.com. Twitter: @seancoons. Facebook: @seancoonswriter. Instagram: @seanmcoons.
STUDIO LOG: Notes about “One Day,” a tune I produced for my friend, B.T.S. Agnomen (nom de plume of Brent Taylor Stenhouse) . . .
I’d produced two songs for Brent at this point in our collaboration, “He’s a Cowboy” and “Love with a Love,” and we both were pleased with how they turned out.
We were working in my home studio, which was a back porch operation. The porch had been walled in years before, and other than the floor’s slight downward tilt toward the ocean, it was adequate for our musical needs. We didn’t quite have the highest end gear–I was working with a now defunct laptop, a Line 6 Guitar Port, a Target-purchased Yamaha keyboard, and an AKG C1000S mic. On this particular cut, I used a borrowed Hofner Beatle bass knock-off made by Rogue. The intonation was so far off, I had to play the bassline in two parts–one take with notes below the 10th fret and one take with notes above the 10th fret–because the bass had to be re-tuned depending on which fret the notes were being played. It was still worth it to go with this bass over my P-Bass to get that particularly pleasing punchy tone only the Hofner style bass (knock-off or not) produces.
On all of the tunes we’ve worked on together over the years, Brent sings and plays piano; I play guitar and bass. (The one exception is “He’s a Cowboy,” in which Brent plays acoustic rhythm guitar–my man nailed his scratch track, so we kept it!) On our first two collaborations, I put the drums together literally one piece at a time. I had a CD given to me by a friend that had all of the individual sounds a drum kit can make. It wasn’t MIDI; these were actual sound recordings of a kick, snare, closed hi-hat, open hi-hat, choked hi-hat, ride, couple crashes, couple toms. I’m not saying I didn’t copy and paste a bit here and there once I started constructing the beat, but this method, even with a few shortcuts, took forever.
So, on “One Day,” we had an idea… Let’s have Brent’s drummer friend, Tony, play on the track. Unfortunately, we couldn’t have him play a full kit in my tiny studio. Plus, I only had the one AKG mic, so unless we were gonna go for that 50’s every instrument in the room with one overhead mic vibe, that wasn’t an option. So, we asked Tony to recreate a drum kit sound using a cajon and a hi-hat. And he did exactly that. Did the cajon in one take and the hi-hat in another. Then overdubbed tambourine and hand claps. Boom–an authentic acoustic rhythm section!
I hope you enjoy the song. Brent’s melody and harmonies are rich, and as always, there are layers in his lyrics which offer greater satisfaction the deeper you dig. So dig…
Sean Coons is a writer, musician, and educator in Redondo Beach, California. His novel, Body, is scheduled for release November 21, 2019 and is available for pre-order today.
One of my great joys is writing and recording music with the band, The Möbius Trip. You can check out our recordings here.
I recorded a piece of music years ago, but I never liked the lyrics or vocal melody. It was called “Why?” If you heard this original recording, you’d think “Why?” was short for “Why did you record this?”
Though the song was missing something in the vocal melody department, I thought the underlying music had potential. I took it to my fellow Möbius Tripper, Aaron, and asked if he could breathe fresh life into it. He took the raw instrumental tracks and began constructing a completely new vocal melody. This new melody was what the instrumental music had been waiting for all these years.
Next steps: Split up the lyrics, track the vox, and bam! Here you go . . . I hope you enjoy “You Give Much More Than You Take.”
You Give Much More Than You Take
Gazing out at the world through your window
Wondering what you’re wondering about
I can show you what I have learned
While you show me what I forgot
I gave you life and now you show me living
You never cease from giving
You bring me joy and laughter, tears and heartache
But you give much more than you take
Staring at stars on your ceiling
Music bending into our ears
You say “Daddy, why are we here?”
We’re here to love
Sean Coons is a writer, musician, and educator in Redondo Beach, California. His novel, Body, is scheduled for release November 21, 2019 and is available for pre-order today.
I love Mozart and birds, so this was pretty much a guaranteed winner. Beautiful exploration of music, man, and nature — and the transcendent intersection of the three.
Sean Coons is a writer, musician, and educator in Redondo Beach, California. His novel, Body, is scheduled for release November 21, 2019 and is available for pre-order today.
Apocalyptic post-rock country. Not sure what my subconscious was going through when this idea first arose in my mind. I think it might have been a premonition of the underrated film, The Book of Eli (2010), starring Denzel Washington. (The Möbius Trip completed the song in 2012, but it was conceived years before.) A New Testament world judged with Old Testament grit.
The guitar solo on this cut is taken from my original demo for the tune. It all started many years ago . . . cue harp arpeggios and blurring field of vision . . .
My friend, guitar virtuoso Patrick Butler, had recently loaned me his DigiTech Space Station XP 300 Guitar Effect Pedal. This pedal is like a Pandora’s Box of mellifluicity. Turn it on and delightfully schizoid sounds start pouring out, almost on their own. Butler’s one request: “You can hang onto this for a while, just don’t use the expression pedal, guy. You won’t really need that anyway, and I don’t want it wearing out.”
“Sure. No problem, Butler.”
I waved goodbye to Butler from my porch. His 80’s era Chevy van hadn’t even turned the corner before I started rocking that thing — foot firmly planted on the expression pedal.
I worked that Space Station over non-stop. Played it for fun. Played it for friends. Played it on recordings. It was like the first time you discover distortion: Everything you bash out on your guitar will be caked in thick, muddy fuzz far into the future. I was in love.
By the way, the expression pedal is the coolest part of the Space Station. It lets you shape all these otherworldly sounds, like mid-era Radiohead crammed through a euphoria factory — psychedelic, frenetic, angelic exhalations. I would link you to some cats demonstrating the pedal on YouTube, but no offense, they haven’t figured it out yet. You gotta get obsessed. You gotta go mad scientist in the wee hours of night and early moments of dawn. You gotta call in sick to work the next day because money can’t compensate for the tasty, multi-dimensional sonic syrup oozing out of your amp. You gotta follow the lead of this unhinged beast and see where it leads. It could get scary, but the Space Station’s not for the faint of heart.
About a year after my relationship with the Space Station began, Butler remembered that I still had it, and he wanted it back. I stalled for awhile: “Bro, you might as well let me keep the Space Station. I put my fingerprints all over that thang. It’s a signature sound issue now. And the signature is mine.” He wasn’t buying it. Butler’s from Jersey, and he was on my porch flexing that East Coast vibe on me — it was time to pay the fiddler. The Space Station was confiscated, out of my life just as quickly as she entered it. I was heartbroken.
I got a call later that night. “The pedal’s squeaking! You wore this thing out. I warned you, Coons!”
Oops.
By the way, for the curious, the Space Station was discontinued years ago. You can find a used, broken unit on eBay for about two hundy. I haven’t touched a Space Station since that fateful day in the mid-2000’s, though I recently signed a petition to help bring this musical miracle back into production.
But, before that joy machine left my clutches, I had the privilege of dropping a few tracks with it.
. . . cue harp arpeggios and blurring field of vision . . .
One of those recipients of the Space Station magic is “Moonshine,” starring the artist recently dubbed “Super Being” (by our drummer’s son) — Aaron Baker — on lead vocals and barn burning slide. (I questionably convinced him to let me share the mic on choruses for this one.) If you hear celestial sounds on the guitar solo (including mischievous arpeggio trails in the background) and like it, thank Butler for letting me borrow his Space Station.
To Butler, I’m sorry I abused your pedal. To musical posterity, dig . . .
Words and Music by Sean Coons and Aaron Baker
You got the world on a grid, Locked down and electrified And your pill-pushin’ priestess Televised suckin’ minds, oh my I got my hand in the air, hope you Read between the lines . . . Reach for that moonshine, so fine Distilled for your soul It’s got you runnin’ ’round crazy Diggin’ graves n’ pokin’ holes Your Brave New World’s the same old lie No “I”
Before you high five, You better read me my rights Seven temple tablets Falling from the sky don’t lie Better read Read between those lines . . .
Reach for your moonshine, so fine Distilled for your soul It’s got you runnin’ ’round crazy Sick and stoned Your Brave New World’s the same old lie And I . . .
Suck down that moonshine, so fine Distilled for your soul It’s got you runnin’ ’round crazy Sick and stoned Your Brave New World’s the same old lie And I’m . . .
. . . waiting for you He will destroy you I’m ready for you You’ve been warned You better find the light!
Sean Coons is a writer, musician, and educator living in Idaho’s Treasure Valley with his wife and son. Sean’s novel, FIREFLY, is a comedic middle grade adventure. He is also the author ofBODY, an inspirational-fiction comedy exploring body image and intuitive eating. Read Sean’s full bio here.
I recorded my version of the timeless classic “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in honor of our American Veterans and those serving in the Armed Forces on this Veterans Day. The musical execution could be improved by a better equipped performer, but it is offered with deep gratitude and sincerity.
If you want to hear the most powerful version of the tune in existence, check out this arresting performance by Judy Garland, sung for a 1963 television special honoring the recently slain John F. Kennedy.
Note the ascending key movements. Chills and tears.
As has been often said, we are home of the free because of the brave. Thank you, Veterans.
Battle Hymn of the Republic | Lyrics by Julia Ward Howe
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.
Chorus:
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on.
Chorus
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,
“As ye deal with my contemnors, so with you my grace shall deal;”
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on.
Chorus
He has sounded from the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Chorus
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Chorus
Sean Coons is a writer, musician, and educator in Redondo Beach, California. His novel, Body, is scheduled for release November 21, 2019 and is available for pre-order today.
If you haven’t done so, check out Bob Dylan’s early work. “In My Time of Dyin’,”Man of Constant Sorrow,” “House of the Risin’ Sun,” “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” Headphones in place. Darkish room. Eyes closed. You will be transported to another time and place.
And, his book Chronicles, Volume One, is an amazing read. He got some grief for plagiarism, but the stories are expertly told, insightful, transcendent, and fun to read (whether some other writers may have unknowingly contributed to them or not).
Of course, he’s in the news this week for winning the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, the first musician to ever receive the prize, and for failing to respond publicly to the announcement of his award. A Nobel academy member called him “impolite” and “arrogant” for daring not to respond to such an esteemed honor. I think I read somewhere that it’s not a good idea to be a pleaser of men. I don’t know if that’s what Mr. Dylan has in mind in choosing not to acknowledge the not so noble Nobel givers, nor the prize, which has its roots in the invention of a powerful explosive, but I’m pretty sure he’s not losing any sleep over this petty man’s view of him regardless.
. . .
I took a road trip to Texas in ’97 with two friends. We stayed in Austin at a young woman’s home. We were told she had some issues with mania. She wasn’t at her home, but as you walked through the apartment, there was writing, in Sharpie, everywhere. Walls. Appliances. Mirrors. Ceiling. Toilet Seat. Everywhere. We were told by her friend and our host that she asks everyone who visits to leave words behind, and we were expected to do the same. I remember being surprised that I had no hesitation when it was time for me to leave my message. I drew a picture of the Earth with an umbilical cord leading to a preborn baby. In a circle around my “art” I wrote the words: “He not busy being born is busy dying.” I’m always hopeful the woman enjoyed my offering when she returned home, and more importantly, that her mind is well. Dig this live version of the song from which I plagiarized my aphorism — and MAY YOU BE BUSY BEING BORN…
Sean Coons is a writer, musician, and educator in Redondo Beach, California. His novel, Body, is scheduled for release November 21, 2019 and is available for pre-order today.
I seem only to know one speed and it’s fast – oh yeah But I can only seem to come in one place: last – very last Running round in circles you’re blindsided by yourself Bouncing off the walls and knocking memories off the shelf
Back; Can never go back; Just keep it on track; and never move on
Belted in a rocking chair that’s bolted to the past – what a blast Trapped inside a dream within a dream where I’m about to crash – holdin’ fast Holding out for signs that won’t reveal themselves to me Holding in and holding on to who I used to be
Stay; Can never get away hung up one more day
Trapped in self latched cages Paid in self set wages Are we afraid to be free With something new to see? Time keeps turning pages
I’m caught slippin’ in a prefab comfort case – what a waste From where I’m sittin’ I don’t think I’ll win this race – anyway If I stopped to look around I’d reevaluate But it’s so easy just to hide behind my gate
Stuck A rusted up truck And run out of luck
We can free ourselves from here We can see ourselves appear We can free ourselves from here We can see ourselves so clear
Rolling on a coaster flying through the ups and downs – to the ground Popping like a toaster Burning out and breaking down – all around Running from the sound of who I think I used to be
Run before you’re undone and forgone the sun
Sean Coons is a writer, musician, and educator in Redondo Beach, California. His novel, Body, is scheduled for release November 21, 2019 and is available for pre-order today.
this pedal to me years ago. I supposedly “abused” said pedal while it was in my custody — so much so that the expression pedal produced an irritating squeak whenever it was depressed. Well, as destiny would have it, Butler’s abused Space Station is now my Space Station, squeaks and all. The first thing I did when we were reunited was lay down a couple tracks on “El Velo.” 
