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The Big Picture

by Bachelors Anonymous

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1.
LYRICS So what’s this feeling? this falling feeling? Is it love? that’s got me reeling? or is it just a sinking feeling? You’re just someone someone who broke in You’re just someone I don’t know you don’t even know you I can’t show you don’t even know you Chorus So what’s this feeling? this falling feeling? Is it love? that keeps me reeling? or is it just a sinking feeling? Friends are one thing please don’t explain it I won’t believe it friends are one thing You’ve got something you’ve just got something (x 2) Chorus Can’t stop falling won’t stop falling I like this feeling need this feeling What’s the point? the point of no return? I can feel it I can feel it[’s] here I can’t see you I can’t see you out there nowhere Chorus Keep the promise you never made me Who will save me? Keep the promise You say nothing you promise nothing (x 2) Chorus So tell me what’s this feeling? Can you tell me is it love? [somewhere near the end] You’re just someone someone who broke in underneath my skin you’re just someone I don’t know you don’t even know you I don’t know you don’t even know you Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
2.
LYRICS (for Andrea Jean) In another place, In another time, With another face, With another rhyme I might have done this so well. I might have fooled you, Might have fooled you, Might’ve fooled myself. I might have pulled it, Might have pulled it, Might have pulled it off. In an awkward space, Your body next to mine. This accident of Grace— Accident Malign. O happy Fault, happy Hell, I keep my cool— My kind of cruelty— I cut you with my shell. Your passion fuels, Take up your tools To sculpt a human man. In another place, In another time, I’d welcome your embrace, I’d give you mine. We’ve been miscast in this spell Of glittered gloom, Bride and groom. I thought I could not be compelled— Well, wreck this room! Start a rumor. Start by using me. Every single day… Every single night… Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
3.
Our Creation 04:14
LYRICS In the dust of a man I went looking for knowledge Through the gates of a garden littered with earthly delights As the embers cooled and our love became clotted Like the snake sheds its skin the strangers within us rotted Chorus We had no future, the future was now You cry for no reason, I don’t know how A signal on the screen and a shadow ’cross the sky I want what you want, does that mean goodbye? We’d both come from a place where we’d known good and evil And from a second-rate hell we created our own paradise If in the end it became just one more obligation Well then what was the power we held over our creation? Chorus We created this thing just to say we had somethin’ And we put it together only to tear it apart It was our greatest fear, that we’d get what we wanted So we struck flint to stone and burned down the home that we’d haunted Chorus x 2 Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
4.
Seriously 04:57
LYRICS I can take you seriously. The strength in my own arm is enough— The strength in this frail limb— To take you seriously, now. Chorus Those horns! It’s a glandular sort of thing. The people mourn me; Give them a dirge to sing. I’m not—ain’t been—not been reborn; No swaddling bandaging. The people warn me, But who’m I slandering? I can take you seriously, I want to be disturbed, I want to eat your food, And hear what you have heard. If I can let you help me Conjugate the verb. Chorus With a scarlet tide in one hand, Redemption in the other, We could woo our sleeping beauty Into banding with our brother And our sister and our father, Into binding with our mother, Into sounding with our lover Chorus Those horns! The walls are crumbling. They mourn me, But I’m not stumbling. And I’m not reborn; / These horns! I hear the people grumbling. They warn me, But I’m busy tumbling. Chorus Those horns! It’s a glandular sort of thing. The people mourn me; Give them a dirge to sing. And I’m not reborn / These horns! I’m busy tumbling. Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
5.
LYRICS I know you’re trying Can’t keep from crying Lost your soul, lost control Energy is dying You’re used to giving Your impetus for living Now the dark’s snuffed your spark Unfastened, unforgiving Chorus A And you won’t bother me No you don’t bother me Whatever else you do You don’t bother me You just can’t cool it Sit tight and fool it Comprehend, in the end You’ll never overrule it You’re here now being You’re keenly seeing I just can’t understand What you think you’re fleeing Chorus A Chorus B Instrumental I think you knew it You almost blew it Recollect and recognize Why you have to do it The door is open For what you’re hopin’ What’s the hitch, scratch that itch You’re just myopin’ Chorus A Chorus B So you do what you do And know what you know And I don’t have a clue And nothing to show You dig whenever Whoever and whatever Bon chance, laissez-faire It’s now or then or never You have to take it You cannot fake it Understand the ampersand Together we can make it Chorus A x 2 Chorus B x 1 Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
6.
Father's Day 04:38
LYRICS Hung up on this guy tonight No need to make it right Hung up with no regrets Like high school cigarettes Man to man If I could, well I guess I would I barely can Shake your hand, take your hand, barely No regrets, not tonight No words, though well we might No regrets for me these nights In Bombay Gin, red traffic lights For who I am With a shudder and shrug The son of a man Who can hold the world in his hand Chorus And break it slowly Bend and break Ache it slowly For goodness’s sake Drawn into the drama (treading the water) Walk on wire Drowning in the drama (tread on the water) Forget that it’s father Remember, it’s Father’s Day These things I want to keep To put this child to sleep Back talk, lines drawn with sticks Father’s belt and shaving nicks And here we stand If we could, well I guess we would Man to man Making plans, shaking hands, shaking Chorus Take it slowly Bend don’t break Fake it slowly For pity’s sake Drawn into the drama (keep treading water) Walk on fire Drawn into the drama (into the water) Exultate Domino Make it holy Make it so Drawn into the drama (treading the water) Don’t walk on by You belong in the drama (tread on the water) Forget that it’s father Remember, it’s Father’s Day Say an “Our Father” Remember, it’s Father’s Day Forget that it’s father Remember, it’s Father’s Day x3 Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
7.
LYRICS Lyrics available here: https://tomtomclub.com/discography/albums/7-1981-tom-tom-club#7 Demo chants: We’re here, we’re queer, We’re fabulous, don’t fuck with us Say it loud, say it clear: Immigrants are welcome here No justice, no peace No pipelines on stolen land ACT UP, fight back, fight AIDS I can’t breathe El pueblo unido jamás será vencido
8.
TEXT The first work of the revolutionary: to keep his own mind free. after the revolution there will be wine under the trees bread will be scarce and everyone will eat it when the revolution comes romance will be finished but what is begun when the revolution comes you will be standing at the prow and the salt wind blows in your face for hundreds of years you dreamt of the ocean now you are wet Cocteau has said that the revolutionary artist is first ignored, then scorned, and when these things do not work they try to suppress you by loading you down with honors. [T]he forces of repression can tolerate changes in lifestyle: the history of art, for instance, is the history of revolutions in style that are first rejected and then accepted. The fundamental revolution of culture is the liberation of the sexual pattern: the work of freeing ourselves from our enslavement to our masochistic-sadistic character. Only an alternative that is more effective than violence can achieve what the revolution is really all about. Violent action, violent revolution, changes things, but people remain what they are. If, as Gandhi says, capital engenders greediness and competitiveness as character traits, might anarcho-communism engender generosity and cooperation? The theory of the revolution is not based on the idea that human character is “good,” but that if we change the conditions in which we function, our character will change. Permanent Revolution! The turning of the wheel! The discovery of the wheel being the mechanical conquest of space, and the turning of the wheel, chakra, in the mind, in the spirit, being the psycho-conscious-mechanical conquest of stagnation. In the work I am doing now I am rebelling even against myself. Text taken from Julian Beck, The Life of the Theatre: The Relation of the Artist to the Struggle of the People (New York: Limelight Editions, 1986 [1972]), reprinted by permission

about

The Big Picture rounds out the Bachelors Anonymous catalog, with the 2021 single "What's This Feeling?" followed by seven more never-before-released songs.

For more on the album see:
bachelorsanonymous.band/2022/04/the-big-picture/

credits

released April 14, 2022

BACHELORS ANONYMOUS is
Rob Berg: Synth, Vocals
David Hughes: Drum Box, Vocals

All songs written and arranged by
Rob Berg & David Hughes
except “On, On, On, On…”
written by Belew, Frantz, and Weymouth
and “Exercise in Revolution”
text by Julian Beck, curated by Zack

Produced by
Bachelors Anonymous

Instruments recorded at
The Men’s Dept (¼” 4-track), Pasadena, 1987–1991
except for
Tabla by
John Lacques
Drumtime, 2021

Vocals recorded at
The Men’s Dept, Pasadena, 1987–1991
(“In Another Time,” “Our Creation,” “Seriously”)
The Men’s Dept, Denver, 2021
(“Exercise in Revolution”)
Architecture, Los Angeles, Scott Brian Fraser, 2022
(“Laissez-Faire,” “Father’s Day,” “On, On, On, On…”)

Digital transfers by
Tal Miller
Next Generation Audio, 2020

Mixed by
Bachelors Anonymous
The Men’s Dept, Pasadena, 1990
(“Our Creation”)
Adrian Alvarado
Alpha Sound, 2021
(“What’s This Feeling?”)
Scott Brian Fraser
Architecture, 2021, 2022
(all others)

Mastered by
Scott A. Jennings
Artistry in Sound, 2022

Thanks to
Bob Keane for vocal coaching
Jeff Rolka for vocal exercises

Album cover
Design by Rob Berg
Layout by David Hughes
Photographer unknown
New Year's Eve 1990

© ℗ 2022 Berg & Hughes
Celibataire Music (ASCAP)

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all rights reserved

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about

Bachelors Anonymous Los Angeles, California

Bachelors Anonymous (1984-92) is the creation of Los Angeles musicians Rob Berg and David Hughes, with a little help from our friends. B.A.'s work treads the boundaries of music, theater and art. The music featured here has been remastered in 2020-21 and consists of singles and albums, both released and unreleased. For more on the Bachelors visit our website. ... more

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