![FINE BY ME [1998]. New Zealand [kiwi] independent folk/singer/songwriter Daniel Gannaway.](/dg-assets/DG001-cover-200px.jpg) |
Tracklist:
01 - Are you a free man?
02 - Avenues (NY NY)
03 - WhenI was a schoolboy
04 - Fireescapes
05 - Fine by me
06 - Daisy
07 - Jetwash
08 - Cloak & dagger
09 - Radio songs
10 - We'll speak soon
11 - Zebra crossing
12 - Midnights gone
>> Hear it @ CD Baby or iTunes or...
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Originally released to friends. Now available at CD Baby.
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It was a given that Daniel would turn up in Sydney with a surfboard. He hadn't seen a beach in a few years and we knew he was hanging out to get in the ocean.
The guitar was a surprise. He called her 'Daisy' and it turned out he'd bought her a few months earlier, before leaving New York. With some mumbled words about having only learnt a chord or two, that was the last we heard about the it.
We didn't see much of Daisy, it was a new relationship of a different kind for Daniel and he was keeping it pretty low key. Over the next few months you'd sometimes hear the sound of a guitar being strummed late into the night, but, when asked about what he was playing, it would always be "Oh nothing..."
Finally, one humid Bondi night with the sweet scent of frangipanni hanging in the air, and following a good meal with plenty of wine, Daniel had sufficient confidence to ask us if we minded him playing a few simple tunes. Understated, as always, we should've realized the gravity of what we were about to experience.
Inexplicably, you feel so much whilst seeing Daniel play. So much of his usually quiet, eccentric genius is revealed - a bold, and no doubt very difficult thing for him to do.
The first song he sang us was a wandering tale from New York, called 'Avenues.' The tune quietly blew us away and remains a personal favorite to this day. We all sat in silence, mouths agape, with no awareness of anything else, just our friend, each note, each raw emotion, each lyric - unambiguous yet ethereal prose that any one of us could relate to. Daniel blended his own torment and success together with a passionately overwhelming delivery.
Simple huh? Well, in believing that life is about simple pleasures, whether it be surfing or music, it became a regular thing. A meal would get cooked for a few friends, and Daniel - being broke - would play for his dinner. Our guests would sit back, mellowed out after eating, and enjoy the show. It was on these kind of nights, with everybody singing along to a chorus with smiles and laughs, that someone would notice a new guest silent, completely stunned, as we had once been ourselves. Everyone would fall apart laughing because we'd neglected to even mention Daniel was going to perform. Needless to say, the dinners grew larger and the sets got longer.
'Fine By Me' is an album that contains songs we heard come to light over a Sydney summer. It's one of those albums you can put on and not think about, yet you might find yourself realizing the myriad of different aspects to each track throughout the album's course.
It's a great late-night-after-party album [it's also really good to clean up the house to] for those who appreciate stripped-down singer/songwriter stuff - hooky in a weird way, with great little stories that pull you in slowly until you know all the words. They’re lyrically intense personal political tracks like 'Fine By Me', the sad harmonica-inflected 'Radio songs,' or upbeat love and lost-love songs like 'Daisy' and 'When I Was A Schoolboy.' They're silly, humorous songs like 'Jetwash,' and then there's a song like 'Fireescapes' which seems to read as a straight-up confession of Daniel being scared to step-up and play his songs to people - to be himself - his fear taunting him through the chorus.
The album as a whole reads like a flat-out representation of Daniel facing exactly that fear. He made it for the people encouraging him and freely admits that playing "a few simple tunes" that fateful night was the best thing anyone could have done for him. It's a privilege to have witnessed the start of what is proving to be a humble and prodigious musical journey. His freedom in expressing what all of us are afraid to say is both refreshing and compelling.
On a final note, it should be added that one the quirky and coolest things about 'FINE BY ME' is that you really feel like he's somewhere in the room, strumming away a bunch of songs for you. Then, finally, as the album draws to a close, he yawns and says "Goodnight," and you go off to sleepyland 'with a crash and a boom....'
Richard Freeman
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Quotes:
"... Perhaps politics might actually catch on if Gannaway were doing the singing [OP-ED], instead of John Ashcroft's barbershop quartet. It's a thought. But until the Republican or Democratic National Convention is converted into a Broadway musical, we'll have to make do with Daniel. And that's going to be just fine for fans of indie folk pop with a message." - Indie-Music
"...The great aspect of the album [SUMMER STORM] is that each song's arrangement maintains a minimalistic nature, which shows a discipline and a depth of understanding on Gannaway's part. Underneath the ukulele, the cruising drums and harmonic supporting bass grooves provide an all around easy and easily recommendable listen..." - NZ Musician Magazine
"...Down to earth and laid back, it has none of the musical tension of trying too hard or the injection of false emotions. Suburban folky and bohemian chic, it [darling one year] ties up agreeably layered and distorted vocals into an angst-ridden, quirky pop as catchy as The Strokes but easily as mysteriously engaging as James Keenan Maynard..." - Indie-Music
"...[Bound and Suburban] like walking alone on the beach at night and seeing Jim Morrison and Jeff Buckley strumming and singing at the water’s edge..." - Indie-Music
"...Herein lies the essence of Bootlegged at the Temple: simply an audience, a musician, and a quiet venue... - no hype... In context with Daniel's previous two albums - FINE BY ME and flashback* - and subsequent release 'Bound and Suburban', 'Bootlegged' is a departure, which provides the listener a greater perspective on all of his work. Bootlegged is a great live album, which, over time, becomes as much a voyage of discovery and inspiration for the listener as for the musician himself." - Justin Walsh |
Track 01: Are you a free man? [letter to you friend]
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
I'm sending a present of someone I like
Music you should hear in the dark
Or lying on your back in a spacious place
Like the desert or a park
I thought you might like a wrist-watch
But why remind you of time?
We've talked enough of it running out
You of yours and me of mine
Quarter century quarter century
I try not to look and count
But I check the scoreboard
It's a quarter century
Hope you're near to knowing what you want
I'm out of here soon maybe days
I've seen a little and I've lived a lot
They've cut my contract they cannot sell me
They don't want to hear what I've got
So I won't play for them
I won't play for them
I will not play for them
I won't play for them
But I'll play for you
My flatmate left his steak on the floor
Lost himself in the night
He drags me into all manner of things
But I can't blame him for my part
Well I'm gonna take a break now
From microscopes and fakes
I'm gonna lock myself up in a room
Gonna sweat it out and listen to
What I won't play for them
I won't play for them
I will not play for them
I won't play
And maybe you'll hear me sometime
If I see you again
But don't ask for surprises
Because I'm empty of them
I'm empty of them
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Track 02: Avenues (NY NY)
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Avenues they speak my name
As I wander my merry way
And I don't know just where it is I'm walking to
Getting there maybe all I'll ever know
This man he said to me boy
You better find a direction soon
Well now show me your mind point it's knowledge in a line
And I'll follow it straight and true but just allow me
A little room to waver along the way
Only then sir can I follow you
I've given myself to the wind
With wind I will fly
Lady standing on a street corner
There's a plastic bag in her hand
She says I need this to carry my family jewels
And at night I see her hail a taxi cab
A taxi cab to the stars
I can see I can see we've shared similar scars
She's given herself to the wind
With wind she will fly
And Benny down at the drugstore
Tells me of all his memories
Tells me of snow this high
And goosebumps on his neck
I say hey Benny I'm too young man
Too young to have remembered that
he says son you're so much older than you look
He says old soul my young man
Now don't you forget just where you've been
I'm an old soul I'm still a young man
I cannot forget just where it is I been
Been
Did I tell you about my friend that died?
I watched him should have been the one that washed him clean
Spirit left his body and floated up in the sky
He waved goodbye last breath left his body with a sigh
He's given himself to the wind
With wind he will fly
These avenues they speak my name
As I wander my merry way
Sunlight reflects off mirrored windows
I can see I can see blue around the grey
[i love these avenues]
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Track 03: When I was a schoolboy
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Met her in Australia
She hailed from America
A native of the four cornered state of Arizona
She was sixteen going on twenty-five in the mind
And if distance equalled street sense
She'd have clocked a million miles
Well it was so typical of my life at the time
I gave her my heart but I did not say it was mine
Sixteen and blowing out my mind
Oh she did not ask me to act like all these other boys in line
But I cried out I was just a schoolboy
I reached out like there was candy in store
I found out the hard way
The store did not sell that candy anymore to me
To me
To me
Blue green and yellow eyes
If a cat could talk then you would know her voice
Once on heat we made love in a park
On a jungle gym and on the beach after dark
She was sixteen and matching anything in my mind
And if fate had loved me better
There would have been no good-byes
Sixteen and blowing out my mind
If fate had loved me better
There would have been no good-byes
Oh but I cried out I was just a schoolboy
I reached out like there was candy in store
I found out the hard way
The store did not sell that candy anymore to me
To me
To me
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Track 04: Fireescapes
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Since I met you
I've been standing in fire escapes
I've been screaming at the top of my lungs
Just to get it out
But all it does is bounce
Up ten floors and back down
Stops in front of me says hey! Daniel
Hey what is wrong?
Are you too scared to wear your face?
Are you too scared to use your voice?
Are you too scared to be yourself?
Are you too scared to be yourself?
Be myself
Be myself
Now when I walk out my door
Since I first had that little talk with you
It's been following me like another
In my head and upon my shoulder asking
Are you too scared to wear your face?
Are you too scared to use your voice?
Are you too scared to be yourself?
Are you too scared?
Are you too scared?
Well yes I'm scared
Are you gonna laugh and break my balls?
Yes I'm scared
But this corner’s getting too small
Yes I'm scared
‘cause I don't want to be your window shopping
You don't have to buy me
No you can leave me hanging
Hanging hanging hanging hanging
In fire escapes
Well yes I'm scared
Are you gonna laugh and break my balls?
Yes I'm scared
But this corner’s getting too small
Yes I'm scared
‘cause I don't want to be your window shopping
You don't have to buy me
No you can leave me hanging
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Track 05: Fine by me
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Jessie had the baby just last week
She's so overwhelmed and we can't hear ourselves speak
She says screaming's just another way to talk
Well I'm not one for babies and this noise makes me want to walk
But I've been saddled up like a substitute dad
I feel like an old man when I'm merely post-grad
We all know it takes two to make a party
But I can't find that guy so he can step outside with me
Mama says we're doing fine
Dad says we're doing fine
Jessie says we're fine
And I got to complete this
Mama says we're doing fine
Dad says we're doing fine
Jessie says we're fine
And I got to complete this
So why is it everyone here is so uptight?
Like a pack of angry dogs we're ready to fight
If we're so fine why are we chewing on each others shoes?
We're snapping at each others heels provoking abuse
You know I can't talk to my father
He can't talk to his wife
I can't talk to my mother
Jessie is all that she talks of
She tells me I'm so lucky to be this young man
God made it so easy now you understand
You understand
You understand why
Mama says we're doing fine
Dad says we're fine
Jessie says we're fine
And I got to complete this rhyme
Mama says we're doing fine
Dad says we're doing fine
Jessie says we're fine
And I got to complete this
I got to complete this rhyme
My life is a rhyme it's a fucking rhyme
It's just a rhyme my life is a rhyme
It's a fucking rhyme
It's a fucking rhyme
It's a fucking rhyme
Beauty of life is you can live undercover
Seeming to be one way when you're really the other
Everything is covert like an old cold war policy
But I'm one step ahead got no big brother watching me
My eyes are so bloodshot from smoking up behind their backs
They'd kill me knowing full well we are all hypocrites
I'm doing everything that they have done
I'm doing it sooner doing it better ‘cause I'm their prodigious son
Mama says we're doing fine
Dad says we're doing fine
Jessie says we're fine
And I got to complete this rhyme
Mama says we're doing fine
Dad says we're doing fine
Jessie says we're fine
And I got to complete this
I got to complete this rhyme
My life is a rhyme it's a fucking rhyme
It's just a rhyme my life is a rhyme
It's just a fucking rhyme
It's a fucking rhyme
It's a fucking rhyme
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Track 06: Daisy
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Hey Daisy you're my daisy chain
Wrap yourself around my neck again
Buttercup yellow you're so clean sheet white
Won't you roll on the grass with me tonight?
Hey Daisy do you care?
I'm just a normal man with fear
I get scared that you'll fall free
But I'm not scared for you no I'm scared for me
See I love you daisy
I love you daisy
I love you daisy
You drive me crazy
Daisy you’re my daisy chain yourself to me
Daisy you’re my daisy chain yourself to me
Yourself to me
Yourself to me
Yourself to me
Hey Daisy why do you laugh at my jokes
Am I funny? or am I just a dope?
Another simple insecurity
Should I believe you when you say you love me?
Love me Daisy
Love me Daisy
Love me Daisy
You drive me so crazy
Daisy you’re my daisy chain yourself to me
Daisy you’re my daisy chain yourself to me
Yourself to me
Yourself to me
Yourself to me
To me
To me
To me
Hey Daisy you wrap me up so
Cushion me from the world’s blows
When things don't work out
I run through fields of white and yellow to be with you
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Track 07: Jetwash
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
I drive bus or train
Out to these jet aeroplanes
Because practise makes perfect
Perfect for my day
I browse the magazine racks
Think about duty free
I shoulder my carry packed
With inflight necessities ‘cause
Anywhere from here is such a long way from home
Anywhere from here is such a long way to go
I never get through the gate
‘cause i've not yet bought my ticket
Security guard checks me out
For all the sleeping pills in my pocket
He asks hey what are these good for?
You know you're not flying anywhere
I say hey! practise makes perfect
I don't want nerves or pre-flight fear
Anywhere from here is such a long way from home
Anywhere from here is such a long way to go
Anywhere from here is such a long way from home
Anywhere from here is such a long way to go
Long way
Long way
Long way
Long way
Landing and departing
I've got my observers view
I love the shimmer of jet wash
And the smell of burnt jet fuel
Maybe I'll become a steward
Then I could have my home in the air
Maybe one day I'll be a captain
Wear a cap with dash and dare
Anywhere from here is such a long way from home
Anywhere from here is such a long way to go
Anywhere from here is such a long way from home
Anywhere from here is such a long way to go
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Track 08: Cloak & dagger
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
I've run out of ideas I'm escape free
I've got nothing left with which to feed my smoke screen
You're gonna find out the truth about me
Fact is I'm not at all what you think you have seen
So far yeah
So far yeah
Have you got a dollar? Have you got some spare change?
I could not find any in your secret place of hiding
You've been so kind nothing but charity
But these questions must be lurking in your mind about me
So far
So far
So far
So far
The truth is you see the truth is
I am not what you've seen
I am not what you've seen
I am not what you've seen
I am not what you've seen
So far
So far yeah
I've run out I'm escape free
Got nothing left with which to feed my smoke screen
You've found out the truth about me yeah
Fact is I'm not at all what you thought you had seen so far
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Track 09: Radio songs
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Mom and Dad have come home singing radio songs
I'm five and my sisters are six they sit play pick up sticks
And I always lose I've got hand me down shoes
Anything my cousin has got has got my name written on it
Because I'm a hand me down boy
With hand me down toys
I'm a hand me down boy
Hand me down boy
I don't think that they know or have the faintest clue
Because every thing's perfect when the radio is on
Come on let's all smile let's sing along
These secrets are not hard to keep
But this one runs too deep
I want to tell them just what they do
But they would hit me for telling untruths
I'm a hand me down boy
With hand me down toys
I'm a hand me down boy
Hand me down boy
My bike is 2 years old
It's been bashed around repaired and resold
But I can still pull one good wheelie
I bunny-hop my neighbours dog every morning
It's funny all of life's parallels
Gives you these mirrors and stories as well
You know I've only got hand me down clothes and toys
I get treated like a hand me down boy
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Track 10: We'll speak soon
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Black as night you are your body's cold now
Tar and concrete these motors ran beside you
And I cry I cry as you fall
Winters day you took me in from the ice and snow
I was so not there I was so not there
But you brought me back to where I should be
And when I fell you picked me up when I fell
Now my tears fall like you fall
You fall down
My tears fall like you fall
Falling down
I wrote you this year but you wrote nothing back to me
Now I have the answers now I have the answers
But the newspaper is not where I wanted them to be
I ask why? do you fall like you fall
Now my tears fall like you fall
You fall down
My tears fall like you fall
They fall down
Down
They fall down
They fall down
When I come back
I can see such empty days
When I sit down
In that favourite bar third avenue cafe
Conversations lost
Who knows what dimension we might have crossed
Remember them as you fall
For in the future we will speak of them all
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Track 11: Zebra crossing
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Eddie's old album's on the stereo my friend is at the stove
Food in the making we have returned in from Parisian cold
The sting in my hands feels like needles of joy
Warmth is telling me it's tale over a red bottle of wine
Candles in the corner won't you bare your flicker here?
My bread lies half eaten accompanied by my vacant stare
Here I am
Stumbling over my thoughts of you
My mind is elsewhere
Stumbling over my thoughts of you
My mind is elsewhere
My life in between one place and the other
Soon I return to finish replace it with another
I will sort through documents I will file away the hurt
I'll sign over ownership and I will leave without my heart
A period of my life is at end you know I'm a zebra crossing
Standing on the street edge I am ready to start walking
I'm stumbling over my thoughts of you
My mind is elsewhere
Stumbling over my thoughts of you
My mind is elsewhere
My mind is elsewhere
My mind is elsewhere
Cats and their colors leopards and their spots
And all the changes we don't think we're capable of
Well I was a boy in the Pacific yeah inside I think I still am
I'm speaking to the seagulls I am standing in the sand
Then there was no confusion with an ocean God as my sun
The whales passing in the night on their migratory run
Here I am
Stumbling over my thoughts of you
My mind is elsewhere
Stumbling over my thoughts of you
My mind is elsewhere
My mind is elsewhere
My mind is elsewhere
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Track 12: Midnights gone
Music & Lyrics by Daniel Gannaway/Apra © 1998
Midnight's gone and I'm still awake
I've a feeling this has happened to me before
Midnight's gone and left me behind
My duty seems to be to bring up the dawn
I'm losing sleep to a chemical
Watching the man swim in the moon
Trees trip up while lamposts walk
Gutters cluttered with the know of street talk
Midnight's gone and I'm still awake
And I'm still awake
Midnight's gone and I'm still awake
And I'm still awake
A word to Steven at 74
Lets me in on the premise I'll take the floor
So I spin a few with disordered pleasure
Yeah then I hit the lounge to play Mr Undercover
On Steven’s break we get on and off and out
The rooftop is the only place we can talk
He says he knows a girl who's perfect for me
Then we both laugh loud and hard ‘cause it ain't that easy
Midnight's gone and I'm still awake
And I'm still awake
Midnight's gone and I'm still awake
And I'm still awake
Midnight's gone
Midnight's gone
So I slide off down the fire escape
Feeling like I got on me a mask and cape
I want to fly this last floor but instead
I decide I don't need a grave for a bed just yet
Skipping along the boulevard
My destination's become that tall tower
I climb up and watch the beginning of light
You know the sun is gonna chase away the night
Next stop five and dimes lined up in a row
There's time for a snack before I head on my way home
Last stop before the sun is fully up
Last stop before my eyes seal shut
Last stop before the sun is fully up
Last stop before my eyes seal shut
Midnight's gone and I'm still awake
And I'm still awake
Midnight's gone and I'm still awake
And I'm still awake
Midnight's gone
Midnight's gone
My mouth is heavy with these tastes I bought
My mind in chain letters and unchained thought
Seems like too much to give up so soon
But sleep comes on with a crash and a boom |
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