ELECTRIC EARL
Holiday On Mars (1988)

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1.	Mr. Spaceman   (5:46)				MP3		lyrics	chords
2.	A Well Regulated Militia   (5:16)				MP3		lyrics	chords
3.	A Day With You   (2:52)				MP3		lyrics	chords
4.	O.K.   (3:30)				MP3		lyrics	chords
5.	Rejection Is My Friend   (1:58)				MP3		lyrics	chords
6.	Cosmic Weather   (2:55)				MP3		lyrics	chords
7.	We Still Love You   (3:42)				MP3		lyrics	chords
8.	Comparison   (2:45)				MP3		lyrics	chords
9.	Saturation   (3:56)				MP3		lyrics	chords
10.	They Can't Hear Anymore   (4:40) (Lyrics are from the poem Plantation Road by Barbara Fritchie.)				MP3		lyrics	chords
11.	The Vandal   (2:58)				MP3		lyrics	chords
12.	Blind Date   (3:46)				MP3		lyrics	chords
13.	You Need A Villain [new recording]   (3:05)				MP3		lyrics	chords
14.	Crowded Street   (4:32)				MP3		lyrics	chords
15.	Prism Face   (5:49)				MP3		lyrics	chords
	BONUS TRACKS:
16.	We Still Love You (instrumental version)   (3:47)				MP3
17.	Waiting For Breasts to Appear   (4:37)				MP3		lyrics	-
18.	Comparison [solo demo]   (2:57)				MP3		lyrics	chords

Total time:   69:37

CREDITS

#	title	musicians / singers
1.	Mr. Spaceman	EARL: vocal, guitar, bass STEVE LANDON: lead guitar MEREDITH CHINN: flute, piccolo JAMES FOGLE: drums JEANA ESSER: backup vocal LIZ MURRY: backup vocal TANI LEGLEU: backup vocal An allegory about the US space program. I've yet to hear a good reason for spending money on a mission to Mars, not while we have more pressing concerns here on Earth. The title has nothing to do with the Byrds song of the same name. What I had in mind was "The Honeymooners," where Alice would sarcastically put down Ralph's harebrained schemes by saying something like, "Okay, mister oil tycoon, look what you've done now!"
2.	A Well Regulated Militia	EARL: vocals, guitar, bass JOHN SYMPSON: lead guitar MEREDITH CHINN: flute DAVID DAYRIES: drums JEANA ESSER: backup vocal (and recitation) LIZ MURRY: backup vocal TANI LEGLEU: backup vocal This was my take on the Second Amendment and the misinterpretation thereof. (If you disagree with me, don't send me any e-mails about it. Write your own damn song.) "Be all that you can be," paraphrased at the end of the song, was an ad slogan in army recruiting commercials.
3.	A Day With You	EARL: vocal, guitar, keyboard, bass JEFF GETTY FREEMAN: saxophone STEVE LANDON: guitar solo JEANA ESSER: backup vocal LIZ MURRY: backup vocal TANI LEGLEU: backup vocal
4.	O.K.	EARL: vocal, guitar, keyboard, bass, drum machine
5.	Rejection Is My Friend	EARL: vocals, guitar, keyboard [and bass?]
6.	Cosmic Weather	EARL: vocal, guitar, bass JAMES FOGLE: drums I was watching the weather report on CNN with the sound turned down, and as the weathergirl pointed out things on the map I noticed that she looked like an art professor discussing a painting. So the lyrics were like a reimagined audio track for the weather broadcast, kind of like what Woody Allen did with What's Up, Tiger Lily?
7.	We Still Love You	EARL: vocal, guitar, keyboard, bass Written after the 1988 Olympic misfortunes of figure skater Debi Thomas, who had a bad day and could only manage third place. I had seen her win the National Sports Festival (US Olympic Festival) in Baton Rouge three years earlier. I always thought of this song as the flip side of "We Are the Champions," a song for the crowd to sing when the home team loses after a valiant effort. The upbeat instrumental section is directly inspired by figure skating, where there is often a tempo change for part of the program.
8.	Comparison	EARL: vocals, guitar, keyboard, bass JAMES FOGLE: drums LIZ MURRY: backup vocal TANI LEGLEU: backup vocal Based on Søren Kierkegaard's famous quote: "Comparison is the source of all unhappiness."
9.	Saturation	EARL: vocals, guitar, keyboard, bass I had read an article in the New York Times about how advertising was infiltrating every aspect of daily life, with one company even putting ads in public bathroom stalls. The article mentioned the concept of "saturation," which is what happens when there is so much advertising that it becomes like wallpaper, and people don't notice the ads anymore. The opening chord changes were somewhat inspired by a Janis Ian song called "42nd Street Psycho Blues." I liked her gently rising chord progression. To make mine different, I made my chord changes gently descending. This song contains a lot of chords that have complicated names but are actually easy to play. Because of the non-standard finger positions that I used, I made chord charts for the benefit for anyone else who wants to try to play it. I was surprised to see that it's got 27 chords in all.
10.	They Can't Hear Anymore	EARL: vocals, guitar, keyboard, bass The lyrics are from Barbara Fritchie's poem Plantation Road. There is an interesting version of this song on Secret Songs (1989) which includes Barbara reciting her poem.
11.	The Vandal	EARL: vocal, guitar, keyboard, bass JAMES FOGLE: drums
12.	Blind Date	EARL: vocal, guitar, bass
13.	You Need A Villain	EARL: vocals, guitar, bass There was a bar in downtown Baton Rouge called The Industry, where they used to have punk and New Wave bands. I even played there myself a few times. And outside on the sidewalk, there would be these religious nuts waving Bibles at the clientel and warning of eternal damnation. I believe the ringleader was Rev. David Diamond, trying to make a name for himself. (Based on the few results that a Web search turns up, he never succeeded.) Leaders using "enemies" - real or imagined - to advance their own agendas is something that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn talked about in his books. A solo version of this song appeared previously on Cold Facts (1983).
14.	Crowded Street	EARL: vocals, guitar, keyboard, bass An allegory about conflict in the Middle East.
15.	Prism Face	EARL: vocal, guitar, keyboard, bass
16.	We Still Love You (instrumental version)	EARL: guitar, keyboard, bass
17.	Waiting For Breasts to Appear	EARL: vocal, guitar There was a guest on the "Donahue" program (12/22/1987) who had written an article for Spy magazine about her experiences wearing large falsies, and how people treated her differently from when she was her normal flat-chested self. Oddly, I still have a tape of the show, but never did see the magazine. I believe it was the first issue, and Baton Rouge newsstands didn't start carrying Spy until later.
18.	Comparison [solo demo]	EARL: vocal, guitar
Engineered and mixed by Electric Earl. Tracks #4, 5, 7, 10, and 13-16 were recorded in May 1988, and released as O.K.. Eight more songs were recorded in October and November 1988 - tracks #1-3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12. All of these songs were then combined in Holiday On Mars, except that the instrumental version of "We Still Love You" was omitted so that the program would fit on a 60-minute cassette. Tracks #17-18 were recorded on 8/12/1988. The original cassette version of this album had track #1-8 on side one, and #9-15 on side two. All words and music by Earl P. Reinhalter, except: Lyrics for "They Can't Hear Anymore" are from Barbara Fritchie's poem Plantation Road.