Hi, I am Big Red and I am your host! Thanks for stopping in.
“The Modern Age” is a group of 22 rock songs compiled as an opera that provides a snapshot of these times we’re living in. This site is dedicated to the work, and provides the music as well as the lyrics and commentary on how and why these songs are thusly assembled.
What follows is a group of ideas on how these songs could be made into a stage production. In the place of acts there are two “sets”, of 11 songs each. (I have included a few extras as options to be added or substituted.) So it would be like going to a rock concert, where there is a “set break” in the middle. Each set has its own identity. And as in “rock”, the genre, the singer is clearly heard, delivering “take-home messages”, to the strong backbeat, and he/she is “echoed” by the “second voice” in the band, famously the electric guitar. A sax can do the work, and either of these musicians on the stage with the singers exhibits this relationship.
The first set of songs are tunes about personal themes of growing up and coming of age in these very challenging times. Themes like discovery and development, and loss of innocence. Of figuring out what is going on around you, and your place in it. On the stage for the first set I have recommended a cityscape of the modern age, with lights and signs and a few establishments. Signs and flashing lights. And surely a street lamp. Lots of symbolism available. The first five songs take place on the street and among the backdrop of establishments. Then four of the songs take place in a small pub. The last two are sung out front, where the cityscape is the backdrop.
A central character is “The Kid”, who more personally connects with the listener. He’s in his mid-to-late 20s. He is countered by a co-star I call “the muse”, who is a half-generation older, and wiser, and alerts the cast to certain messages and insights. Joining them for Set 1 are 4 “cohorts”, similar in age and situation as The Kid. Two girls and two young fellers, say. This would represent the minimum of actors to do the show.
The second set changes completely. This next group of 11 songs addresses issues of all of us as a people and a society. Gone from the stage is the cityscape, and for Set 2 a simplistic symbolic stage is proposed, perhaps with slide projections or other imagery. The modern age is all about imagery. The characters in the songs become archetypal. The cast from Set 1 would have to morph into these at set-break. You will find the songs to be about types of people, leaders and followers, heroes and goofballs. Achievement and function. And of course dysfunction.
On the site, the songs are presented with narration that I have provided as your gracious host. There is an introduction, a song plays, and I’m back, often quoting the song or talking about it as a modern age theme. Then the next song is introduced and plays. They are recordings we have made with our in-house stable of musicians, brothers and friends of mine. Back in 1996 we made a recording of the first 10 songs I wrote and the album was called “This Elite Band”. We did it in three weeks and it was real popular. People still say they listen to it. There are 5 songs from that recording that are on the opera here. Around the year 2000 we went in again and made an album called “Songs for The Modern Age”, the second set of 10 songs I wrote. Eight of them are in the opera.
The second album took 3 years and wore me out completely, and that was it for a while. But still songs would trickle out. It’s quite a sport and a challenge to write a song that is unique and stands on its own, and to actually like it yourself. I couldn’t help but write songs about the people and their plight in the modern age. Then around 2015 I got the idea of assembling them like this. We made demo-level recordings of 9 more songs, and when I got to around 22 I thought that was a good round number and was enough stuff. So I went in and did the narration thing, to make the argument for the opera, completely off the cuff, while noodling at the Korg SG-1D, an electric piano from 1990.
So then with the cityscape as the backdrop, and maybe after a prelude like in most rock operas, the kid, at the curb maybe, sings this song, called “Far As You Can See”. He shakes his head a little perhaps, seeing what’s happening out there, to himself and for sure to others.
“Far As You Can See”
Wasn’t just a simple walking in the park
Next thing I knew it I was lost and in the dark
Don’t know how I got so blind
Guess I was looking for another way
Some other kind of game to play
And I had it in my mind
That life was so unkind
Then a voice whispered in my ear
I had no business being there
And I didn’t need to see no more
Funny how it has to work sometime
Like a poem where the words don’t rhyme
And you can’t be sure
What you went there for
(Bridge) Sometimes with your eyes wide open
It’s just too much to take
Hopin’ I don’t make some kind of big mistake
On a road that passes by this way
They come and go as if to say, “it’s not up to me”
No surprises who’ll be on your side
For the hardest thing you ever try to do or be
Or go as far as you can see
After this somber intro, things liven up. The second song, the title track, is a march. The cast, the kid, the muse, the 4 cohorts, they’re up and running and singing this song together, with different members chiming in. The song wants to say, yeah, sure, it’s a big wild busy world out there that can sure make you feel small. You really see people trying to get their sense of it, their place, their share. To be, rather than not be.
“The Modern Age”
The early mornin’ sun looks like it’s havin’ fun
Got all the sky to play, don’t need me anyway
The time to fly is near, ain’t nothin’ happening’ here
You listen what I say, ‘won’t matter anyway’
To understand, the best you can, there is no plan, only arrows in the sand
Bad old days were here to stay, it’s just the way of
Arriving in the modern age
Arriving in the modern age
I need gasoline but my pocket’s clean
Don’t have no place to stay, hope I get by OK
The road ahead goes straight, don’t have no time to wait
Just hopin’ I don’t stray, ‘won’t matter anyway’
Who’s to save us from the pantomime when we don’t even want to know the lines
Just a pill to chase the blues away, will set the stage
For surviving in the modern age
For surviving in the modern age
There’s a sign ahead, remember what you said
About the time you lost, it came at such a cost
Now you look at one who’s out there having fun
The time to play is now, won’t you see somehow
Will you make it to the promised land if all the while crossing arrows in the sand
They’ll tell you when they turn the page, the price you paid
For living in the modern age
For living in the modern age
Hey good luck, you know? They’ll tell you when they turn the page, the price you paid for living in the modern age. With all it is and all it isn’t. Get slurped in it a little. Shook around. Gotta find the sweet spot, that’s all. The next song is also sung by several cast members, a tune called “Is This The Real Thing”. It’s a song about knowing and trying to identify authentic and useful and durable and inspiring “real things”. There’s a saying, ‘We’re all in sales’. Are you being sold something? Are you being fooled? Is it real? First round draft pick? Highly ‘touted” something? “Awzum!!”, really? In time, we’ll all see.
“Is This The Real Thing”
What it seems in the beginning to be on the side that’s winning
Turns up a loser every time
So if you’re waiting for that moment when
Everything goes good again, you better learn to look between the lines
When suddenly there’s nothing there
But an emptiness that fills the air
With one more to compare
(Chorus)
Is this the real thing
Can I believe what I’m seeing
When it’s here today, then gone away?
If this is the real thing
Then I’ll believe it ‘till the future brings
Us all around to the other way
Got a feeling as the hours passed
What’s the reason all I ask
For this lonely promenade
From in your face I though I’d seen
The kind of light I woulda never dreamed
Would offer this charade
Just a cross between a star of mine
And whatever was on your mind
When I caught you on a line
(Instrumental chorus)
An instant all that’s needed
For advice that goes unheeded
To shed some light on this insanity
Even walked for a while on down
A road we had simply found
On our way coming back to the sea
It isn’t always what you do
That sets you back just a step or two
When it all comes clear to you
(Chorus)
Is this the real thing
Can I believe what I’m seeing
When it’s here today, then gone away?
If this is the real thing
Believe it ’till the future brings
Us all around to the other way
The modern is age is full of real things, but also phonies and nonsense. And you get to decide which is which, so best of luck. Often, in an instant, perhaps a dramatic one, it dawns on you that disappointment is your lot. Oh well. Be a good sport about it and try to learn. Song number four is a wispy little tune about one of society’s role players, who has found his niche and is digging his routine. Each day he’s hitting rewind and doing whatever, all over again. Sure he’s a zombie, maybe hurrying or even hustling a little bit. Maybe he’s a king in his own universe. But is the modern age chewing him up, and gonna spit him out? The song is called “Another Time Around”. Sung to the audience by the Muse. While a goofball dances it up in the street.
“Another Time Around”
With the night still runnin’ from the break of day
And a street light shimmerin’ the same old way
It’s the odd man out in the cold all night
With a line in doubt and a time too tight
There’s a hand in a pocket ‘round a roll of green
And a flippin’ old top says it can’t be seen
From the crow’s nest beacon, it was hidden’ and seekin’
‘Cause a sail don’t know when a wind might blow.
Kept on thinkin’ it was out of time
Like a wrong new poem and a tired old rhyme
But your ears keep ringin’
From a fat chick singin’
When the lights go out
On the twist and shout
Can’t scream it any louder than that
Day trippin’ to the blue and black
It’s the same old story so don’t you worry
Just a postcard note from the sad and sorry
Nighttime echoes from the break of day
Where an all new piper found a note to play
And they’re linin’ ‘em up for the trip up town
Where the wheel go spin another time around
For that song maybe there’s a cohort or two skipping up the street, peeking in and out of …the modern age landscape. It’s a brief tune, and then the cast returns to sing this fifth song, called “So Far Gone”. Maybe you could have argued the integrated folks referenced in the last song were “so far gone” that they didn’t even know they were either in dysfunction or headed there directly. You will see friends around you as you get older just kind of go bad. Got a bad mate. Took the wrong drugs at the wrong doses. Or turned into conspiracy theorists and Googled themselves into oblivion, and just sort of dropped out of your life. Where do they end up?
This song could maybe be sung directly to the audience, or the cast could sing it to each other. There is a great opportunity for harmony in it, but there are some pointed comments. The Muse, The Kid, the cohorts, all these lines could be divvied up.
“So Far Gone”
A poor man knows he gets to have his way
He don’t really have a lot to say
And it ain’t like he knows what he’s been missin’
He didn’t even hear he wasn’t list’nin’
Cause he’s “so far gone” by now
Need to ask you what you meant by that
Did you really think it went like that?
And wasn’t it you who never asked why?
Were you afraid that you would just cry
‘Cause you’re so far gone by now
Never really mattered where the road had led
Nobody remembered what was really said
How they gonna hurt you with the fights you lose
When there’s always one more trick for you to use
Just another day come callin’
And once again the sky hasn’t fallen
You looked up and couldn’t believe your eyes
The only thing the night had told you was lies
‘Cause you’re so far gone by now
When you lost your way and you hadn’t a clue
The end of something came and then you knew
Every other game you get to pick and choose
But now there’s just a little too much for you to lose
Looking back it never seemed so bad
In the end it never seemed so sad
But did you ever get to where you were goin’?
Did you ever figure out what you were doin’?
And you’re so far gone by now
And where do you stand? You’re not down some rabbit hole with nary an inkling are you? Are you in denial about others, and whether they’re too far gone to get back? From something? Something unique to the modern age, a trap you fell in? Anyway, tough luck on all of that. It’s time to lighten things up a little with some heart-felt struggles of regular people. We slip into a small bar or pub easily at home in the modern age cityscape. There is an interaction between a guy and a girl, where, frustrated that this babe is not warming up to his performance or whatever, he openly complains that, in fact, her beauty is interfering with her ability to pick the cool guys in the crowd, like him for example. She tells him off, and he laments that he should have stayed at home on that particular night. Maybe he should work on his game. Tell pretty girls they’re pretty, for example, because so many don’t realize it. Then shut up, because a little silence can be golden. Chase the butterfly and it gets away, but ignore it and she just might land on you. The song, called “Hey Baby”, was originally called “Should’ve Stayed At Home”, but came to be known by its refrain.
“Hey Baby”
(Oh yeah yeah!) You know I don’t even know why I came here tonight
Guess I was hopin’ maybe something would turn out alright
I never needed to run into someone like you
And now I know that I shouldn’t do
What I’m about to do, oh no no!
(She said) ‘Why oh why are you picking on little old me
You know the fool is the one that you don’t see’
(I Said) ‘Why oh why did you have to look so fine
If that was all the farther it went
The pleasure’s surely mine
Hey Baby! I’d do ya the best I can
But I know that pretty girls
Have a hard time picking out a man
And I know all the losers
Will keep from going home alone
It makes me feel like
I should have stayed at home
Another drink to two is all I need to get me by
I’m gonna laugh but baby you may cry
But you won’t like it
It doesn’t matter what I say
You’re the, only, one who wants to be lonely, oh yeah yeah!
Hey Baby! I’d do ya the best I can
But I know that pretty girls
Can have a hard time picking out a man
I know all the losers,
Will keep from going home alone
It makes me feel like
I should’ve stayed at home
They say there are two kinds of songs, songs about love, and songs about unrequitted love. Unrequitted, there’s no one to blame but yourself. What more can you ask? We move quickly to another dysfunctional fellow, a disgruntled employee who’s quitting the job there, only to find the modern age doesn’t really care for him, or want him to work there, or be wherever he’s getting ready to run off to. If he’s not careful he’s going to end up living in his mom’s basement. The song is called “No Direction Home”, and it’s trying to say ultimately you have to figure a lot of key things out yourself, and that if you’re disgruntled and feel like no one is appreciating you, maybe you’re the problem. This thing called life, there’s no direction sometimes, but you’ve gotta learn from your mistakes, and get to that comfortable existence that makes sense for all of us.
So this employee (a cohort), in this bar, he throws down his apron, and sings this song, to no one in particular.
“No Direction Home”
Looks like I stayed around here too long
Nobody I’ll be missin’ when I’m gone
The sun was setting on the hill last night
Knew the time was gettin’ close to right
But when I jumped back on the road, the feeling wasn’t quite the same
Just another pair of feet put back on the street
By the flash of a picture frame
(Chorus) (Sung by another cohort, or two, or even the Muse)
Well, even though it’s jus a mile away
That didn’t mean you’d make there today
Turning back minutes passing time away
Looking for some new words to say
Ain’t no direction home
A long road that you walk alone
Like everyone that you’ve ever known
The other night it was a highway sign
But nobody wants to hear that same old line
But in a minute it was time to go
Already knew everything there was to know
When I came to I was sitting at the foot of another day
When a door flew open I was standing there hopin’
That somebody would show me the way
Well, even though it’s just a mile away
It didn’t mean you’d make it there today
Turning back minutes passing time away
Looking for some new words to say
Ain’t no direction home
A long road that you walk alone
Like everyone that you’ve ever known
We move quickly from this poor fool to the back of the establishment, to the kitchen maybe, where there is a woman, cleaning up, and knowing she’s trapped in the lower rungs of society. She’s working dead end jobs, and is surrounded by underachievers like her self. Wore out at all times, she’s getting the feeling, the realization, that she’s part of a lot of lost causes, and that she herself may be one. One thing you can bet on: she smokes.
The original name of the song was “The Light of the Night”, so it could end up out in the street of the cityscape, under a street lamp, looking up at it, while saying maybe that light was the only thing that was shining on her.
“Lost Causes”
For so long I’ve waited in the back of this town
For a handful of happiness to turn me around
Through too many years of working too hard
Believing in luck, building bridges too far
I’ve seen my share of lost causes I know
Went to work in the dark, with nothing to show
Puttin’ up a good fight, when all that’s shining is the light of the night
The clock and the calendar are playing their game
Been around so many times, nobody they blame
Breaking backs and dreams when they can
Reminding the winners just where they stand
They’ve seen their share of lost causes I know
All dressed up and no place they go
To carry on their plight, when all that’s shining is the light of the night
The lasting impression from all that I’ve seen
The tracks in the path, couldn’t see what they mean
Surrounded by fools I though surely would be
A help of some kind, oh, but alas, they were just like me
Just sharing lost causes I know
Throwing seeds where nothing would grow
And knowing something ain’t right
When all that’s shined on me, was the light of the night
So, for hotel maids, and Waffle House workers, and really so many of us, we’ve ended up where we’ve ended up. And maybe at some point we look back at it all, and sum it up, make sense of things. Who was helpful? And hurtful? Who turned up reliable? Who took energy instead of providing it? For those in the more menial jobs of our fine society, you can bet there were shortcomings of nurture, and the drag of lowlifes in their midsts. Hey, welcome to… surviving in the modern age.
We switch back now to the bar. We’ve seen the hit and miss romance in “Hey Baby”. Then the dysfunctional feller who’s quitting in “No Direction Home”, and then the reflections on life as a front line worker in “Lost Causes”. Then, in the next song, there’s the guy sitting at the end of the bar taking it all in. People watching. He sees it all from there, on a barstool. Great place to watch the world go by. This, the 8th song on this side, was the third tune to go here, and is the only one that I did not write. But my little brother Joe is a very good songwriter, and didn’t know until recently. When you hear them you think you’ve heard them before. This one’s a gem and fits in this slot. “On A Barstool”.
“On A Barstool”
I’m the guy at the edge where so many have sat
I know I’m easy to miss, I got used to that
Ain’t meeting nobody here, I ain’t watching’ the door
Nobody’s standing me up, that’s what the barstool’s for
Night in, night out, lights on, lights out
I’ve earned the right to steer,’cause I see the world from here
On a barstool
Keep your thoughts to yourself, I only come here for pay
And when I find my voice, I’m out of this place
And I got plenty of friends, I don’t need any more
Sit down before you fall, that’s what the barstool’s for
Night in, night out, lights on, lights out
I’ve earned the right to steer, ‘cause I see the world from here
On a barstool
We’re the boys in the band, and we’re begging for eyes
See the past prime princess, she’s gathering flies
There’s the boys in the jeans, with the painted-on dirt
She’s looking for him, he’s looking for work
Oh, night in, night out, lights on, lights out
I’ve earned the right to steer, ‘cause I see the world from here
On a barstool
Like so many brief chapters in life, the bar scene closes, and out pops the muse to sing to the cast this next tune, called “Vanity and Heartache”. Not to blame victims, or to pick on people for their plight, but if there’s one lesson we can all expect to learn the hard way, it’s that you make the bed you sleep in. If you want to be a serve-the-self individual, eventually disappointment and disaster of varying sizes will find you.
Sometimes it’s pitiful, and sometimes it plain flat self-destructive. So this tenth song on side A addresses this phenomenon with a number called “Vanity and Heartache”, where the always helpful muse wants to say, don’t be silly, you are not a tattoo or a piercing away from a substantive identity. Life is hard and not easy, and building your character takes work, and time, and being educable. Are you watching and listening?
“Vanity and Heartache”
In the cold and the darkness of night
Sure that everything is gonna be alright
Searching moments through and through
Holding out as once before
In another try at asking why go through an open door
Then a valley gives way to a rise
As hidden hollows take their turns at throwing out the lies
Secret messages again to speak their piece
To no avail the stranger fights emotion to release
(Chorus) Vanity and heartache all I see
Taking on the shades of hard reality
Looking for the truth to finally set you free
Again before us now at a familiar place in time
A paradise we’ve gained a bit from rays of lost sunshine
Asking for not much more than we really need
A fertile place to plant, the gift of sow and seed
Some happy, some sad, do the best they may
For them tomorrow waits for yet another day
Never knowing for sure what it all could really mean
To trip and fall so far back in the machine
Vanity and heartache all I see
Taking on the shades of hard reality
Looking for the truth to finally set you free
Some, they weep before the rights and wrongs of now
Explaining to themselves it all makes sense somehow
And so it goes, like no one knows, how paupers could be kings
If only they could find a way to let their soul to sing
But vanity and heartache all I see
Taking on the shades of hard reality
Looking for the truth to finally set you free
Then, to close out set one, the kid, alone, sings the eleventh tune to the world, about his sense of how to make your own dreams come true in the modern age. Hate to break it to you, but there’s really nobody there but you, to make your own dreams come true. Sure, some people can be very helpful. But if your biggest hopes and aspirations don’t come true, usually you have no one but yourself to blame. And that’s OK. But don’t go blaming somebody else for whatever. It’s the road to Hell, especially in the modern age. The third song I ever wrote, “Broken Promises”.
“Broken Promises”
Broken promises are only dreams someone’s taken away
But shadows of the night are often known to end up this way
When you believe in angels, and never hear a single word they say
(Refrain) There’s nobody there but you
To make your dreams come true
And who’ll care, whether life’s been fair or not to you?
You could climb a mountain, even if it’s higher the harder you try
And make it to the top, never knowing the reason why
But don’t lie awake and wonder, just close your eyes and leave this world aside
But there’s nobody there but you
To make your dreams come true
And who’ll care, whether life’s been fair or not to you?
It can seem like nobody understands
When you’re there with your face in your hands
Broken promises? Don’t let nobody take them away
Your visions of the night are what you need to show you the way
And you could be an angel, just by being there for the day
But there’s nobody there but you
To make your dreams come true
And who’ll care, whether life’s been fair or not to you?
So that concludes set one. A lot of bellyaching maybe, but we addressed the self, and now we’re moving on to group evaluation of players in this modern age. That is, of all of us, our subsets and ilks. Our archetypes. Our society, coming in set two.