Trespassers '88

The music linked on this page was recorded on May 8, 1988, in West Haven, Connecticut. Performers include Mike Posser on drums, Joe McKenna on bass, and Chuck Evans on guitar and vocals. All songs are original and were written by Chuck Evans (all are copyright © 1988 Chuck Evans, all rights reserved) except as noted below. If I remember correctly, the recording setup was a number of microphones running into a Peavey PA mixer board, then stereo out into a decent cassette deck. Digital remastering took place on November 16, 2009, in Snohomish, Washington. The original cassette was recorded straight into a Windows PC using Audacity software and then exported to MP3 format.

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The Songs

Memory and Desire
The phrase "Memory and Desire" is taken from T.S. Eliot, the poet, and in particular, his epic poem, "Four Quartets". In the first part, "Burnt Norton" Eliot makes the observation, "What might have been and what has been/Point to one end, which is always present." I turned it a bit to mean that what remember of our lives, added to what we wish it will be in the future, add up to what we think it is in the present.

It Doesn't Bother Me
One of my Apocalyptic songs, where I describe what it's like in my head, living with the ever-present threat of nuclear anihilation. These days, it's not really a fear, but back in the mid-1980's, it still was a very real fear. The line, "Think you'll make Vermont by 91?" is a reference to the published nuclear evacuation plans for Connecticut which had us all packing into our cars and driving north on I-91 until we got to Vermont, where hopefully the fallout wouldn't be so bad.

Bird Jaguar
In the 1980s, scientists were just starting to crack the Mayan hieroglyphics. There was a boy-scientist phenom (I forget his name) who had lived with the glyphs his entire life (his father was also an archeologist) and he had just started to make sense of the symbols. In particular, he had been able to decipher the name of one of the Mayan kings, who was called Bird Jaguar.

War Is Coming
This song is not predictive of the First Gulf War (1991) no matter how much I'd like to say it is. Instead, the war it speaks of is an internal one that I felt coming on. I had basically been wasting the 1980s away, and I was soon to take steps to break out of that existence.

The Bridge
A song about writing songs. Writing the bridge (middle) is always the hardest part, but if you get it right, the song can be great. The other imagery in the song is about a recurring dream I've had my whole life: I'm on a road that leads to a bridge over a river. Though the bridge is very large (something like the Brooklyn Bridge) when I get to the middle of the bridge, it is incomplete, and I'm forced to crawl across a very thin, wooden plank between the two halves of the bridge.

Siren Tune
I wrote this song directly after the news of two "rock and roll" deaths in December of 1985: Ricky Nelson had died in a plane crash, and D. Boone (of The Minutemen) had died in a car (van) accident. (Phil Lynot, of Thin Lizzy, died on January 4th of 1986, but I had written the song by then.) I always loved this song, but it never got a good crowd response. It's got a ton of diminished chord changes in it.s

Let Me Down
Not much to say about this song. The lyrics were always unfinished and what you hear on the recording is half written and half improvised.

The Blood Brain Barrier
I was a medical book production editor in the late 1980s (the guy in charge of making sure the book got through the printing process). I had learned about something called "the blood-brain barrier". Evidently, it is an actual membrane that divides the brain from the blood and fluids surrounding it in the skull. Nothing crosses the blood-brain barrier. That got me thinking about other perceived barriers or dividing lines, such as between the road and the rain, or, more symbolically, the punch and the pain.

4 Corners
A song I wrote in 1985 as part of a conceived EP of four songs. I had the song title long before I had any words.

Iron Lung
In 1986 I had a very bad case of pneumonia. I could barely breath, and with every breath, I could hear the rails in my lungs. That got the song going, but the kicker is in the last verse, where I spoke a fear that, ultimately, came true: I was afraid that Ronald Reagan would die and not have to see the full repercussions of the actions he took as president. Well, he didn't die, but his brain did.

Gig Violins
In 1985, while I was a member of a band named Earl's Watch, we did a gig at a dive in Bridgeport, Connecticut, called "Sal D's". I was out front when some guy pulled a knife (I don't think on me, but I was in the vicinity). The rest of the song has to do with "suffering for your music". You can complain (play the violin) or accept the danger.

Destructo Love
My hit song. The lyrics came to me one day in 1985 while I was at work (I was a proofreader, uggh). The music came quickly that evening. Everyone that's heard this song likes it. Unfortunately, I wrote it AFTER the Subdueds had begun recording its one and only EP, so it didn't make the session list. In hindsight, we should have recorded this song and put it on the record. We may have had a chance, then.

Cowpunk In The Sand
This song is a take on Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand". As such, the song is Copyright Neil Young, not me. But this is the Trespassers' version. I can't remember whether this is the first time we ever played it this fast, but the recording seems to suggest that. It starts "slow" but because Mike does not come in on the drums quick enough, I kicked it up into quadruple time. I like it.

Terms of Service

First Point: These terms are in plain English, and are meant to be understood as such. All of the music on this site (chucke.com) is Copyright © Charles F. Evans. All rights are reserved. I (CHUCK EVANS) OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE MUSIC AVAILABLE ON THIS PAGE (AND ELSEWHERE ON CHUCKE.COM). BY MAKING THESE FILES AVAILABLE HERE, I DO NOT TRANSFER THESE RIGHTS TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. NOT EVEN FOR A SECOND. I OWN THE COPYRIGHT ON ALL OF THESE MUSICAL PIECES, AND RETAIN ALL PUBLISHING AND DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS, AS WELL AS ANY AND ALL ROYALTY RIGHTS.

Second Point: I grant YOU, the person reading these terms, the absolutely narrowly defined permission to download and listen to my music. That's it. Period. You can store these recordings on your computer. You can transfer them to a personal music player that you yourself own. You can burn them to a CD or transfer them to a cassette tape to play on a music system that you, yourself own. HOWEVER, YOU MAY NOT COPY THESE FILES TO DISTRIBUTE TO OTHER PEOPLE. YOU MAY NOT UPLOAD THESE FILES TO OTHER MUSIC SHARING SERVICES (LEGAL OR ILLEGAL). YOU MAY NOT SELL OR RENT THESE FILES IN ANY WAY, OR IN ANY WAY MAKE A PROFIT FROM THEIR USE. IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT SOMEONE YOU KNOW WANTS A COPY OF ONE OF THESE SONGS, TELL THEM TO COME TO THIS WEB PAGE AND DOWNLOAD THE FILE THEMSELVES.

Third Point: If you own or work for a music distribution service (not limited to, but including radio stations, satellite stations, internet radio stations, or any other type of entity that broadcasts music) and for some insane reason you decide you want to play any of these songs over your medium, then YOU MUST SEND ME AN EMAIL NOTIFYING ME OF YOUR INTENTION TO PLAY THE SONG(S).

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