Way II Be

(Dismalhead "Way II Be" and "Way to Be")

We have had these informal jam sessions and relying for content from my giganormous binder of music, which contains just about every cover I've tried to work on for at least the past 7 years or so plus some from older than that. My conceit is that the info for each song be on two facing pages. That way a musician doesn't have to worry about flipping pages during a song (I hated that in full-on sheet music).

The two main problems with giga-binder are: #1 All the singers and musicians are looking over each other's shoulders, and #2 The binder itself around 2/3 of which is something probably not suitable for a garage jam session.

I decided to put together a simple song book for our most common tunes along with some blasts from the past, but what to call it?

I happened to be listening to Sick Rick's old CD of music he put together way back in 2012 when our friend and singer/guitarist Stumpy Pete was moving back to Cali from Colorado. Sick Rick's faux band (every instrument was performed by Sicky over the thump of an Alesis drum machine) he called "Dismalhead" and titled the CD "Way to Be" (an old 70s exclamation of positivity related to "way to go" which was a sarcastic counterpart).

I thought that this songbook, from my perspective, was similar in idea to Sick Rick's CD - a group of material encouraging our small band of players to adopt some material.

The new songbook, dubbed "Way II Be" and reflecting our various influences plus a few originals, contains the following:

“Adam Raised a Cane” Bruce Springsteen, “After Dark” Tito & Tarantula, “Ballad of Dwight Fry” Alice Cooper, “Blowin' In the Wind” Bob Dylan, “Comfortably Numb” Pink Floyd, “Creep” Radiohead, “Dead Flowers” The Rolling Stones, “Dominance & Submission” Blue Oyster Cult, “Down by the River” Neil Young, “Factory” Bruce Springsteen, “Farewell Ride” Beck, “For the Turnstiles” Neil Young, “God's Gonna Cut You Down” Traditional, “Heaven” Talking Heads, “Helpless” Neil Young, “House of the Rising Sun” Traditional, “Hurt” Trent Rezner, “Institutionalized” Suicidal Tendencies, “Jackhammer” Stumpy Pete, “Knockin' On Heaven's Door” Bob Dylan, “Lucky Man” ELP, “Mad World” Gary Juyles, “Malicious Hallucinations” Stumpy Pete,  “Nebraska” Bruce Springsteen, “Powderfinger” Neil Young, “Rats” Pearl Jam, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” Sick Rick, “Right Down the Line” Gerry Rafferty, “Save Tonight” Eagle Eye Cherry, “Sedan Delivery” Neil Young, “Submission” Sex Pistols, “Sweet Leaf" Black Sabboth, “Sympathy for the Devil” The Rolling Stones, “Tangled Up In Blue” Bob Dylan, “Then Came the Last Days of May” Blue Oyster Cult, “Time” Pink Floyd, “Wild World” Cat Stevens, “You're A Big Girl Now” Bob Dylan, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” Flaming Lips.