The Tears He Cried (a song I wrote and recorded in prison)
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Click above to listen to "The Tears He Cried."
I composed the song "The Tears He Cried" for a 2001 musical production I wrote and produced in prison. The play (entitled "Is This the King?") was a sympathetic portayal of Judas Iscariot, who I believe has gotten a bad rap as the so-called "betrayer of Christ" over the centuries. For those of you who believe Jesus' death is the source of your salvation, it seems foolish to call Peter (who would have kept it all from happening) a saint, while vilifying Judas, who helped make sure "God's will" was done.
Because of the limited access I had to recording equipment, and the rule allowing me only a cheap sequencer with no disk drive, it's a minor miracle that the sound quality is as good as it is...though it still leaves much to be desired. I arranged and recorded almost all the parts one at a time (thank goodness for overdubbing) on a 16-track Yamaha QY70 using Yamaha and Roland keyboards. Then my friend Tim Shaffer suggested and arranged James Bond-ish horn parts to finish the accompaniment.
The Chaplain (our theatre troupe's executive director) had talked me into playing the role of Jesus (no, the chapel roof didn't cave in!). And so, since I would be led away to my death right before this song was supposed to appear in the play, I gave the vocal to the character of Thomas, played by Jay Vernon.
I am preparing some of my newer and arguably better songs for a CD release, and I plan to make a few of them available on MySpace Music as soon as possible. Don't expect them all to be Christian (the best ones probably are not). The main reason I put "The Tears He Cried" on here at all is because it's the only one of my hundreds of songs that was already stored in an mp3 format.
I welcome your comments.
i love it *smiles*
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Thanks! (-;
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This song has a poignancy that is so haunting for me. The lyrics are excellent
and the music has such a minor key it reminds me of something I cannot quite describe. Very spiritual!! Let's hear
more of your songs. Here here!!
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When I first wrote it on just piano, I imagined it sung with a deep voice like the guy from Type O Negative, an octave lower than it is in this recording... but after I added the low range crunchy guitars and theatre organ (of which I became quite fond), I found that the lyrics became somewhat lost in the mix unless I raised the vocal an octave. To me, the lyrics are the biggest thing in musical theatre - because I always tried to have the songs TELL the story and not just comment on or fit into the story.
I'm glad you like it... and I plan to post more eventually, perhaps have a whole page showcasing my music. But it will take me a while.
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Beautiful. You did an excellent job with this song. I can imagine how incredible it would be if you were to redo it with good equipment! I look forward to more of your music being posted on your site. Love You!
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I can not believe what a beautiful voice you have. You are so talented. Didn't get it from me I hate to say.
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Haha! Everything good about me came from you! (-;
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I love this, John. I wonder if I can get it on my ipod.
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Thanks, Terese! I don't have an iPod and am not sure how it works, but I did post this song as a "Podcast." Here is the URL: http://media.podcastingmanager.com/110671-103426/Media/06%20Track%206.mp3. I hope it works for you. If not, I'll figure out something else. I'm honored that you'd actually want to listen to it more than once.
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i just saved it to itunes. right click on the link, select "save link as" and then save it to "my music" under "my documents". open itunes, go to "file" in the menu, and select "add file to library", then double click on the file name.
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Thanks MB! And John, I love all of your work. (though Mary Cheney might be my favorite.)
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Wow, it worked! That's awesome! K, now I want more.
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there's a reason that in john's blog "what kind of people do i attract?" geeks were the 2nd highest on my list, although i daresay both husbands would prefer the word nerd. hee hee
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you're welcome terese
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LOL... Thanks, Terese and mb!
While cleaning old video off my camera to make room for Bill Clinton a month or so ago, I discovered some old "outtakes" from recording "Mary Cheney" - screw ups and such (although the version I posted also has a couple of screw ups). Now they make me laugh. So perhaps I'll put them all together one day in a sort of bloopers video.
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now that would be worth the price of admission!
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Yes, Mary Cheney does have a way of popping up when you least expect her. And it always makes me laugh. Isn't that the video where John kinda rolls his eyes in the beginning? It's funny as hell! I'm gonna go look for it right now (even though I'm at work. Shhhh, they forgot to filter The Crisis Chronicles.)
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Evidently they won't let me watch the video. Probably a good thing cause there's a little person sitting next to me right now. He's busy with the Teletubbies. But I'd have been in some trouble if he started chanting "Mary Cheney, Mary Cheney, Mary Cheney..."during quiet time!
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I don't know which is more frightening - Mary Cheney or the Teletubbies.
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lol
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Well, what would be worse is if he mixed them up. "Tinky Winky, Tinky Winky, Tinky Winky workin' for Dick!"
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OMG... hahahaha!
Now that's a hit!
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...ok, dawg...here's the thing, ya know...*channeling my best Randy Jackson* -- you ROCK, baby!!! Look forward to more!!
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LOL... thank you so much, barbie. Well, I'm glad Randy likes it, and I doubt Paula would be too negative about it. But I'm rather afraid to hear what Simon Cowell might say... lol.
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Goodness your talented... you need to get some of these out on CD for sure.
Thanks for posting this...
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Thank you, Chris! One of these days I hope to do just that. Wish I had about 40 hours in each day... lol.
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WOW does this bring back memories for me. Here is a poem I wrote in 2004.
John. I believe this is the best song I have ever heard you sing. I hope you continue. For the circumstances EXCELLENT!!! Namaste.
Betrayal
Peter sat within the palace
saddened for what he'd done;
remembering Jesus was the Christ,
the only begotten Son.
A damsel come saying,
"thou wast with Jesus of Nazareth,"
Peter sat in a corner, quietly praying,
knowing it was the Christ he was betraying.
Then answered, "this man I do not know,
I never walked with him, nor talked with him,
this I must deny;" Then in the distance he heard
the third cock crow.
He began to cuss and swear;
"Do as you wish to this man,
my innocence I must declare."
This cross alone I must bear!
Copyright 2004 by shyloh
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Wow... thank you for sharing this, Shyloh! Have you ever considered setting your piece to music?
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Wow that was amazing...you have a really incredible voice..and that is a very good song. Let's hear some more...
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Thanks, Susan! I hope to eventually post some more.
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I really enjoyed it! Have you ever heard of Paul Todd? If not, you are more upbeat and bettet! APPLAUSE....APPLAUSE!!!!
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Wow, thanks, Kimberly! I haven't heard of him. But being "out of the loop" for 11 years, I've missed a few things... lol. Now I want to check Paul out.
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I'll try downloading some of Paul's stuff to my website tomorrow after work and you can check him out. Kind of looks like a really blonde Michael Bolton.
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Haha... cool... thanks!
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i have now listened to this 9 million and 1 times, and still love it.
your voice is powerful, the musical influences of maybe some blood, sweat and tears, or, dare i say, chicago are there, along with that ? and the mysterians organ sound.
the lyrics would fit in perfectly for a musical. i can't say for sure, since i didn't see it, but you accomplished your goal of having the song tell a story in itself.
and, i love that you can look at judas as being someone who had gotten a bad rap, that says a lot.
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Interesting how you characterized the organ.... I believe that sound on the keyboard was called "60s Crunch Organ" - which seems to fit with ? and the Mysterians. And of course I always dug Blood, Sweat and Tears - especially their first album (Child Is Father to the Man) with Al Kooper on organ (he also played on Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and Hendrix's Electric Ladyland).
I have another mp3 from that play - of Asante Matthews (who played Judas) singing "Judas' Ballad" (which I wrote, though I never came up with a good title for it). But he's singing over a cheesy early demo version of the accompaniment, which doesn't do the song justice. I would often do a quick demo accompaniment, using canned drum patterns et cetera, as soon as I wrote a song for one of our plays. That would give the singer something to rehearse and learn the song with, while I then went back and replaced the canned parts with my own drums, added and subtracted instruments and so on.... I don't have a copy of the final version of that song, however.
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does your search for perfection in your work prevent you from posting the unfinished piece?
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perhaps....
(I love alliteration... lol)
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precisely...
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