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PO Box 3201
Martinsville, VA 24115
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Stephen H. Provost is an author of paranormal adventures and historical non-fiction. “Memortality” is his debut novel on Pace Press, set for release Feb. 1, 2017.
An editor and columnist with more than 30 years of experience as a journalist, he has written on subjects as diverse as history, religion, politics and language and has served as an editor for fiction and non-fiction projects. His book “Fresno Growing Up,” a history of Fresno, California, during the postwar years, is available on Craven Street Books. His next non-fiction work, “Highway 99: The History of California’s Main Street,” is scheduled for release in June.
For the past two years, the editor has served as managing editor for an award-winning weekly, The Cambrian, and is also a columnist for The Tribune in San Luis Obispo.
He lives on the California coast with his wife, stepson and cats Tyrion Fluffybutt and Allie Twinkletail.
Ruminations and provocations.
Filtering by Tag: heavy metal
Tokyo Motor Fist’s sound is about as close to Hysteria-era DL as you can get. The vocal mix is uncannily similar. But TMF is not a ripoff. Anything but. The tunes are 100 percent original, and they’re better in their own right than almost anything from the heyday of melodic metal back in the ’80s.
Read MoreBored out of your skull because you’re stuck at home with nothing to do during the coronavirus pandemic? Yeah, me too. So, having nothing better to do, I decided to assemble a personal COVID-19 playlist to help fellow stuck-at-home virus-haters pass the time.
My music of choice tends to be rock, so this is a rock playlist. If you want to listen to Adele or Garth Brooks or Tupac or Kanye West or Taylor Swift, uh … sorry.
1983, Pyromania
Key lyric: “All I’ve got is a photograph. I want to touch you.” Great song if you’re separated from your significant other and lamenting how much social distancing sucks.
1974, Phenomenon
Key lyric: “She walked up to me and really stole my heart. And then she started to take my body apart.” This is why you don’t date during a pandemic. (Not to be confused with the Robert Palmer tune. This one rocks harder, which is why it made my list.
1992, Cereal Killer
Key lyric: “Little pig, little pig, let me in. Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.” And that, my friend, is how you keep people from invading your space. (And if that doesn’t work, the lyrics suggest your next step: call Rambo).
1988, New Jersey
Key lyric: “There ain't no doctor that can cure my disease.” Yeah, I know, this is one of those songs comparing love/infatuation with an incurable sickness. But I had to include it because the title fit Donald Trump’s idiotic ideas about injecting bleach and prescribing untested medicine (hydroxychloroquine) all too well.
2015, Immortalized
Key lyric: “And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people, maybe more: people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening…” Because everything’s virtual now. This is, of course, a cover of the classic Simon & Garfunkel track, but somehow, Disturbed did it better. The sound of silence can now be heard in arenas and stadiums all across the country.
1992, Poetic Justice
Key lyric: “No matter what you are, I will always be with you.” Another cover. This one was originally done (well) by Badfinger, but this more-metal version kicks Axe. How many of us don’t want to “knock down the old gray wall” and “be a part of it all” in the middle of this crisis?
1977, News of the World
Key lyric: “You gotta fight from the inside.” That’s what most of us are doing these days. “You think that out in the streets is all free.” But being out in the streets isn’t such a good idea with that virus floating around. This hard-rocking deep cut’s a hidden gem off one of Queen’s best releases.
1982, Blackout (title track)
Key lyric: “I got lost in a deep black hole. Don't want to find out. Just want to cut out.” Sound familiar?
1992, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Key lyric: “All I want is a remedy.” A vaccine would be nice, too.
1990, The Real Thing
Key lyric: “You want it all, but you can’t have it. It’s in your face, but you can’t grab it.” No, you can’t. You’ve gotta stay inside. Sucks to be you.
1993, Get a Grip
Key lyric: “There's somethin' wrong with the world today, I don't know what it is… Tell me what you think about your situation: Complication, aggravation is getting to you.” Sounds about right. If a pandemic doesn’t put you on edge (and on THE edge) what will?
1991, Use Your Illusion I
Key lyric: “There were always ample warnings. There were always subtle signs. And you would have seen it coming. But we gave you too much time.” (U.S. government response?) Also: “All I needed was clarity, and someone to tell me what the fuck is going on. Goddamn it.” My favorite cut from the Gn’R catalog, an epic 10-minute cut that describes a coma from the patient’s point of view.
2009, Metamorphosis
Key lyric: “Are you sick of just getting by? … Change or die!” Pretty much what we have to do. Ironically, it’s what the virus has to do, too. It’s got to mutate fast enough to stay ahead of any treatment we might develop. The album title, Metamorphosis, says it all.
2020, single
Key lyric: “We're afraid of everyone. Afraid of the sun. Isolation.” This collaboration from the guitar legend and Captain Jack Sparrow was actually released during the crisis, but it was written by John Lennon back in the 1970s. It may be hard to imagine, but (with apologies to the Beatle genius), the Beck-Depp version is better. Said Beck: “Given all the hard days and true ‘isolation’ that people are going through in these challenging times, we decided now might be the right time to let you all hear it.” Can’t argue with that.
1990, Heartbreak Station
Key lyric: “Sick for the cure on this roller coaster ride… I just wanna be free, free like the wind.” With all the projections, daily updates, encouragement tempered by words of warning, it sure has been a roller coaster ride. Wanna be free again? Don’t we all!
2017, Virus (title track)
Key lyric: “This poison fills my lungs, but I won't let it fill my soul… You’re just a virus, and I didn’t come here to die.” The kind of defiant anthem for those who have dealt with the virus on a personal level: “When I fight, I remember why I'm still alive. I'm holding onto what is left inside.”
1976, Rocks
Key lyric: “Sick as a dog. What’s your story? Sick as a dog. Cat got your tongue. Sick as a dog. You’ll be sorry. ’Cause you really ain’t that young.” Yeah, if you’re over 60, you’d better watch out. Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton wrote this long before the pandemic, and it has nothing to do with the coronavirus, but it sure as hell seems to fit.
2000, The Sickness
Key lyric: “I can see inside you, the sickness is rising. Don't try to deny what you feel. (Will you give in to me?)… It seems you're having some trouble in dealing with these changes, living with these changes (oh no). The world is a scary place.” It sure is. “You feel that? Ah, shit.” Singer David Draiman even sounds like he’s going to cough up a lung. A little too close to home, but still a great cut.
1994, Pawn Shop Guitars
Key lyric: “Cure me. Or Kill me. But don't leave me here for dead. Again.” Feel like you’re stuck in limbo because of this damned virus? If so, this the perfect cut to rock out to. For the uninitiated, Gilby Clarke replaced Izzy Stradlin in Guns N’ Roses before the band imploded. Then he put out a solo album with this as the lead single. More than a quarter-century later, it’s note-perfect.
2014, Epidemic EP (title track)
Key lyric: “We are infected and no one is protected … There's no cure for what's in us … Now there's poison on our tongues. This epidemic's gonna kill us all.” The song’s really about cynicism and judgmentalism. It’s perfect in describing both the COVID-19 crisis and the political idiocy and finger-pointing that persists in spite of the fact we’re all fighting for our lives.
I’m sure I’ve missed some, but those are my favorites. Feel free to contact me with any you think should be on the list.
Rock on and stay safe.
