"Fate's Accomplice" is not a band. It's some middle-aged guy (me), with a home studio and an affection for a wide variety of music, from jazz, rock and pop to electronica, to progressive rock and metal, but without the chops to play for money. Or the discipline. Or the theory. Let's just say I never quit my day job. If you're here, then, it's probably because you know me already. If not, hi. I'm Dave. Nice to meet you.
I play all the guitars and basses on these songs, and do all the vocals, recording, production, mastering, etc. Unless otherwise noted, all the keyboards and drums are programmed note-by-note - I don't use prefab loops, or ever (EVER) AI. A few of the songs are covers intended as karaoke tracks; most are my own originals.
Listen to the songs below with the embedded player, or with alternate players on a few songs; you can also right-click the title and select "save as" to download to your device.
I play all the guitars and basses on these songs, and do all the vocals, recording, production, mastering, etc. Unless otherwise noted, all the keyboards and drums are programmed note-by-note - I don't use prefab loops, or ever (EVER) AI. A few of the songs are covers intended as karaoke tracks; most are my own originals.
Listen to the songs below with the embedded player, or with alternate players on a few songs; you can also right-click the title and select "save as" to download to your device.
ORIGINAL SONGS
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Guitar, bass, vocals, PC-based drums, keys and amplification
Lyrics (click to show/hide)
Well I'm type A positive
I'll speak in the accusative
'Case you don't
bulimia
Don't mind if you get over....
weight
a minute
is all you need to win it
unless you sit it out without the yen to begin it
You're only in this state
Because you're great
If you're late for every date, I will always wait.
'Cause you propagate love in a place of hate
while gazing in the face
of the meanest machinations of fate.
Think logically
Act magically
To miss the magic is to miss the mark tragically
awakening to the lateness of the date in eight or ten years
the magic disappears
if you leave it in arrears.
Allow me to elucidate:
Now I'm type A major
I don't minor..reminer a kinder five is finer
than a maligner nine or a ten iiiiin
fine designer wear.
Nor do I care
if you repair to where...ever you go
It'll mo...tivate me to ruminate
cogitate
...contemplate
.....await my fate
And that's where all of the great
bullshit of the world comes from anyway.
[solo]
You're only in despair
Because you care
It's so rare that someone's there who can still bear to share
when there's barely a single thing there to spare.
You're beyond com...prehension
I've a happy apprehension
Your intention to win shall
send ya there
Think magically
Act logically
To lose the logic is to botch it pedagogically
To dodge a constraint on autonomy
Treat depleted reserves with economy
Ain't gonna logi-complaint
If you ain't got the time or the energy
to expend on me
You're in disrepair
And still you're there
I wouldn't dare to resent
when you're spent 'cause you went on
an expedition
into the cruelest conditions
malicious munitions
pernicious perditions
of dastardly, bastardly fate
Think magically
(to miss the magic is to miss the mark tragically)
Act logically
(to dis the magic is the badge-a cold sophistry)
Act physically
(to botch the logic is to piss on my philosophy)
Think locally
(to be a rock is to be present geologically)
Speak vocally
(to hang the language is to tangle in your tapestry)
Act morally
(I don't mean to bug you entomologically)
Speak orally
(my shocks adjust magnetorheologically)
I'll speak in the accusative
'Case you don't
bulimia
Don't mind if you get over....
weight
a minute
is all you need to win it
unless you sit it out without the yen to begin it
You're only in this state
Because you're great
If you're late for every date, I will always wait.
'Cause you propagate love in a place of hate
while gazing in the face
of the meanest machinations of fate.
Think logically
Act magically
To miss the magic is to miss the mark tragically
awakening to the lateness of the date in eight or ten years
the magic disappears
if you leave it in arrears.
Allow me to elucidate:
Now I'm type A major
I don't minor..reminer a kinder five is finer
than a maligner nine or a ten iiiiin
fine designer wear.
Nor do I care
if you repair to where...ever you go
It'll mo...tivate me to ruminate
cogitate
...contemplate
.....await my fate
And that's where all of the great
bullshit of the world comes from anyway.
[solo]
You're only in despair
Because you care
It's so rare that someone's there who can still bear to share
when there's barely a single thing there to spare.
You're beyond com...prehension
I've a happy apprehension
Your intention to win shall
send ya there
Think magically
Act logically
To lose the logic is to botch it pedagogically
To dodge a constraint on autonomy
Treat depleted reserves with economy
Ain't gonna logi-complaint
If you ain't got the time or the energy
to expend on me
You're in disrepair
And still you're there
I wouldn't dare to resent
when you're spent 'cause you went on
an expedition
into the cruelest conditions
malicious munitions
pernicious perditions
of dastardly, bastardly fate
Think magically
(to miss the magic is to miss the mark tragically)
Act logically
(to dis the magic is the badge-a cold sophistry)
Act physically
(to botch the logic is to piss on my philosophy)
Think locally
(to be a rock is to be present geologically)
Speak vocally
(to hang the language is to tangle in your tapestry)
Act morally
(I don't mean to bug you entomologically)
Speak orally
(my shocks adjust magnetorheologically)
I've always been a prog-rock and metal fan, but I've always liked a lot of pop, too. I'd been listening to a lot of Ben Folds, Michael Franti, and especially Jason Mraz, and wanted to do something in that direction, maybe with more emphasis on wordplay than on ... well, making sense. Lyrically, it turned out to be an outpouring of reassurance and encouragement. Musically, it sorta spiraled out of control and went hilariously over the top. Started in about 2018; finally dragged across the finish line in the summer of 2026.
Guitar, bass, vocals, PC-based drums, keys and amplification
Lyrics (click to show/hide)
Left her home, went walking one clear summer night
To avoid a fight
I just needed time apart
Lately it just wasn't working
that's when I saw you dancing all alone
Looking like a fairy from a children's book
I just had to look
Though I wasn't free for more.
The way you moved was just like magic
There I stood, frozen like a stone
Dancing in
(that) August starlight
Dressed in white
Illuminating my soul
Shimmering
Almost too bright
It took all my might
not to approach
I tore away
It would not have been right
It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
Years went by, I found myself alone and free
Wasn't meant to be
She had struck out on her own.
Moved my sights; lost myself in working
Then one day they hired someone new.
I turned around and you were there
lovelier than all those years before
I don't know what I said,
I just know it led
to ferris wheels and candlelight
top down on a moonlit night
and once again, you wearing white
and the rest, as they say ....
[BREAKDOWN]
You're still the girl you were that night
Lovelier with every year gone by
Looking back I think of how my life has gone
Feel I've truly won
if you measure life in love.
Decades passed
And here we are together
Laughing more than ever
Underneath the summer sky
We'll go out, you and I
Dancing in
(that) August starlight
Holding tight
never letting you go.
transcendent
From the first night
Now in fine twilight
We'll be forever
Dancing in
August starlight
To avoid a fight
I just needed time apart
Lately it just wasn't working
that's when I saw you dancing all alone
Looking like a fairy from a children's book
I just had to look
Though I wasn't free for more.
The way you moved was just like magic
There I stood, frozen like a stone
Dancing in
(that) August starlight
Dressed in white
Illuminating my soul
Shimmering
Almost too bright
It took all my might
not to approach
I tore away
It would not have been right
It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
Years went by, I found myself alone and free
Wasn't meant to be
She had struck out on her own.
Moved my sights; lost myself in working
Then one day they hired someone new.
I turned around and you were there
lovelier than all those years before
I don't know what I said,
I just know it led
to ferris wheels and candlelight
top down on a moonlit night
and once again, you wearing white
and the rest, as they say ....
[BREAKDOWN]
You're still the girl you were that night
Lovelier with every year gone by
Looking back I think of how my life has gone
Feel I've truly won
if you measure life in love.
Decades passed
And here we are together
Laughing more than ever
Underneath the summer sky
We'll go out, you and I
Dancing in
(that) August starlight
Holding tight
never letting you go.
transcendent
From the first night
Now in fine twilight
We'll be forever
Dancing in
August starlight
My girlfriend became my fiance in the spring of 2022, and that fall, my fiance became my wife. When we were picking the music for our wedding reception, we kept adding more disco songs, and it reminded us how much disco we really liked (I mean, come on - I hated disco like everyone else, but it hasn't been 1980 for a while now). I've always liked writing lots of different kinds of music, so why not? What do you mean, "the vocals?" Wait, the Barry Gibb falsetto never came back in style? NOW you tell me. The lyrics sort of tell the story of how we met, only with most of the details changed to be way more disco-y.
Guitar, bass, vocals, PC-based drums, keys and amplification
Lyrics (click to show/hide)
When you avoid my eye
So I won’t see you cry
I know you feel you’re failing
(nobody sees it but you)
Adrift, alone and bailing
(lost on an ocean of blue)
But though you think you’re flailing
I see you just sailing on
When the sky falls down and the rain comes in
When the lights go out and the walls close in
When things break and you take the fall again
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh WHOA oh
You make it look easy.
If you could only see
(you never never let ‘em let ‘em getcha getcha getcha)
the way you look to me
(you make it, take it, make it, take it, never never fake it)
that when your world is breakin’
(and friends abandoning you)
I see the strides you’re makin’
(I see the good that you do)
I know you’re never fakin’
The troubles you’re takin’ on
When your life blows up and the lines go down
When the ground breaks up and the walls fall down
When you understand what it’s like to drown
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh WHOA oh
You make it look easy.
Life doesn’t go like you planned
Rockets blow up in your hand
And diamonds crumble to sand
When you don’t think you can stand
another day
you find a way
(when the sky falls down and the rain comes in)
you find a way
(ground breaks up and the walls fall down)
you find a way
(lights go out and the walls close in)
You always find a way
You make it look easy.
So I won’t see you cry
I know you feel you’re failing
(nobody sees it but you)
Adrift, alone and bailing
(lost on an ocean of blue)
But though you think you’re flailing
I see you just sailing on
When the sky falls down and the rain comes in
When the lights go out and the walls close in
When things break and you take the fall again
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh WHOA oh
You make it look easy.
If you could only see
(you never never let ‘em let ‘em getcha getcha getcha)
the way you look to me
(you make it, take it, make it, take it, never never fake it)
that when your world is breakin’
(and friends abandoning you)
I see the strides you’re makin’
(I see the good that you do)
I know you’re never fakin’
The troubles you’re takin’ on
When your life blows up and the lines go down
When the ground breaks up and the walls fall down
When you understand what it’s like to drown
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh WHOA oh
You make it look easy.
Life doesn’t go like you planned
Rockets blow up in your hand
And diamonds crumble to sand
When you don’t think you can stand
another day
you find a way
(when the sky falls down and the rain comes in)
you find a way
(ground breaks up and the walls fall down)
you find a way
(lights go out and the walls close in)
You always find a way
You make it look easy.
Had the place to myself one night and, all unbidden, this little melody popped into my head, fully arranged as a sort of '80s-ish pop song. Nowhere near the studio at the time, I scoured my phone for some kind of sound recorder. Nothing. Humming the little melody on loop, I hurried to the app store, found a recorder. Hummed. Downloaded, installed, launched, hit record, hummed, and like a year later, I had this. Like Think Magically..., above, with which it grew up as a slightly older sibling, it's an anthem of compassion and encouragement. Musically, it sounds exactly like it always did in my head (and it's super fun to play on bass).
Guitar, bass, PC-based drums, keys and amplification
Having made the leap to using VST instruments in my workstation software (rather than outboard keyboards and drum machines), I took the next logical step and dove into PC-based guitar and bass amp sims, too. I wrote this to put a variety of different tones from Guitar Rig 3 through their paces.
I also made a video.
Guitar, bass, vocals, PC-based drums, keys and amplification
Lyrics (click to show/hide)
It never used to bother me
to see a “great society”
perpetuate inequity (yeah!)
We were just beasts
in a zoo of our making
Taking a life was just our right.
Only the strong survive.
I’ve changed a bit; I think that it’s
because so much has come my way.
I’ve got a happy life
a pretty wife
a house, two kids who bring me joy each day.
It used to be so easy not to give a damn.
(I don’t mind what I won’t see)
But what I was was so much less than what I am.
(What does this have to do with me?)
Dobson over Darwin in the classroom.
And so we fall behind.
Belief betrays the mind.
Sentencing our kids to die for madmen.
The one percent don’t care.
We’re forced to pay their share.
The happier I get within my own life
the more all this injustice makes me ANGRY.
I don’t mind it when I find
a mind that’s of a different kind.
A different drummer’s needed for a different beat.
But when you vow to tell me how
to live and raise my children, now
your holier-than-thou bullshit must meet defeat.
Prison terms for hurting no one
Immunity if you made the gun
The sound of innocents at play
while evil strengthens by the day
And nothing I can do or say
will make the problem go away
I’m helpless and frustrated and I’m ANGRY
I can’t help but worry for the future
Kids grow up so fast
and good guys finish last
The world we’re in sets such a bad example
We dissipate our rights
and feed the mouth that bites
The brighter fickle fortune shines upon me
The more my life is trouble-free
The more it seems to trouble me
The harder it becomes for me (And I become so bitterly)
to sit and watch it quietly (Ferociously destructively)
ANGRY
to see a “great society”
perpetuate inequity (yeah!)
We were just beasts
in a zoo of our making
Taking a life was just our right.
Only the strong survive.
I’ve changed a bit; I think that it’s
because so much has come my way.
I’ve got a happy life
a pretty wife
a house, two kids who bring me joy each day.
It used to be so easy not to give a damn.
(I don’t mind what I won’t see)
But what I was was so much less than what I am.
(What does this have to do with me?)
Dobson over Darwin in the classroom.
And so we fall behind.
Belief betrays the mind.
Sentencing our kids to die for madmen.
The one percent don’t care.
We’re forced to pay their share.
The happier I get within my own life
the more all this injustice makes me ANGRY.
I don’t mind it when I find
a mind that’s of a different kind.
A different drummer’s needed for a different beat.
But when you vow to tell me how
to live and raise my children, now
your holier-than-thou bullshit must meet defeat.
Prison terms for hurting no one
Immunity if you made the gun
The sound of innocents at play
while evil strengthens by the day
And nothing I can do or say
will make the problem go away
I’m helpless and frustrated and I’m ANGRY
I can’t help but worry for the future
Kids grow up so fast
and good guys finish last
The world we’re in sets such a bad example
We dissipate our rights
and feed the mouth that bites
The brighter fickle fortune shines upon me
The more my life is trouble-free
The more it seems to trouble me
The harder it becomes for me (And I become so bitterly)
to sit and watch it quietly (Ferociously destructively)
ANGRY
I wrote this in about 2005, and finished it a couple years later. It's about the fact that the more happiness I had in my life, the more it made me care how the world was being run (or ruined), so the happier I was, the angrier I got. I've got different sources of happiness now, and I'm mad about (sort of) different things, but the basic idea holds true a couple decades later. I wanted to write something more stripped-down and raw - more angry - than I'd been doing. Then this funk section sort of descends from nowhere. But it's angry funk.
Guitar, vocals, PC-based drums, keys and amplification
Lyrics (click to show/hide)
I’ve been told that what I do
is not my deed at all.
That fate takes over
tips the dice
to fall where they may fall.
But even falling cubes will bend
to laws that write their course.
Where I’m concerned I am the law
and I’ll exert the force.
I am
the pilot of my life.
Tell me where to go and what to see.
Take a survey, show what’s right for me.
I will be the man I want to be
and I will be free.
You’ll see.
My life’s not a fait accompli
ruled by man or deity.
Fate appears in the form of chance
but I am Fate’s Accomplice
is not my deed at all.
That fate takes over
tips the dice
to fall where they may fall.
But even falling cubes will bend
to laws that write their course.
Where I’m concerned I am the law
and I’ll exert the force.
I am
the pilot of my life.
Tell me where to go and what to see.
Take a survey, show what’s right for me.
I will be the man I want to be
and I will be free.
You’ll see.
My life’s not a fait accompli
ruled by man or deity.
Fate appears in the form of chance
but I am Fate’s Accomplice
I wrote this in the late '80s, in my 20s when I knew everything. It's about self-determination; the concept that yeah, fate happens, but we still have a lot of control over our lives. Get it? Fate's accomplice? Aaanyway, I recorded the first version in about 1988, with an acquaintance and his Minimoog, and a standalone drum machine, then did this version in 2010 with "virtual" drums and keyboards, including the keyboard bass part like the original, now on a Minimoog emulator. Unusually for me, the newer version is actually better.
Guitar, bass, vocals, PC-based drums, keys and amplification
Lyrics (click to show/hide)
Snow falls in the higher elevations
Time crawls, adding to our aggravations
We break walls, while controlling expectations
And despite our separation we talk about time.
A long way from the desert to the prairie
I must say I’ve come to see it’s necessary
to rendezvous with you, though I’m tryin’ to be wary
and January’s just so very far from where we are.
Leaves fall in quiet resignation
You call and we share our desperation
Best of all we get to choose our destination
Pick the best location for our big getaway
Meanwhile we wait for time to find us
We smile over words and how they bind us
Every mile is a beacon to remind us
Behind us is the easy part; we’ve so far to go
This time apart
is hard on my heart
The space between us is an ocean
This notion that we
can finally be
together fills me
with shining seas of pure emotion
So long ‘til we can be together
Play this song and remark about the weather
We’ll be strong, as though our hearts were made of leather
The tether that ties our hearts together is long
And so as winter shrouds the city
Although the snow is very pretty
Time’s slow, with no remorse or pity
This ditty gives me one more connection to you
This time apart
weighs on my heart
You know how mad I am about you
Without you I drag
I sloop and I sag
I suffer from lag
But know my heart will never doubt you.
This time apart
is breaking my heart
I spend my days in hibernation
Vacation with you
will show if it’s true
the best we can do
is live our lives in combination
Time crawls, adding to our aggravations
We break walls, while controlling expectations
And despite our separation we talk about time.
A long way from the desert to the prairie
I must say I’ve come to see it’s necessary
to rendezvous with you, though I’m tryin’ to be wary
and January’s just so very far from where we are.
Leaves fall in quiet resignation
You call and we share our desperation
Best of all we get to choose our destination
Pick the best location for our big getaway
Meanwhile we wait for time to find us
We smile over words and how they bind us
Every mile is a beacon to remind us
Behind us is the easy part; we’ve so far to go
This time apart
is hard on my heart
The space between us is an ocean
This notion that we
can finally be
together fills me
with shining seas of pure emotion
So long ‘til we can be together
Play this song and remark about the weather
We’ll be strong, as though our hearts were made of leather
The tether that ties our hearts together is long
And so as winter shrouds the city
Although the snow is very pretty
Time’s slow, with no remorse or pity
This ditty gives me one more connection to you
This time apart
weighs on my heart
You know how mad I am about you
Without you I drag
I sloop and I sag
I suffer from lag
But know my heart will never doubt you.
This time apart
is breaking my heart
I spend my days in hibernation
Vacation with you
will show if it’s true
the best we can do
is live our lives in combination
I wrote this in a past life, when I was about to meet someone I'd met online in person for the first time. Originally it was mostly electronic and synth-y; I later redid it to sound like a band playing "unplugged" in a small club, but kept the sorta reggae-esque rhythm.
Guitar, bass, vocals, Korg Trinity-based drums, keys
Lyrics (click to show/hide)
Saturday, an early fall day, I wake up with a smile.
Nine o'clock's our flight, tonight we'll finally be in New York.
Coffee and a cab ride, my bride-to-be waits by the curb.
She is looking great, by 8:15 we're ready to fly.
On the plane, above the rain, we plan details of our stay.
Gonna go take in a show at the Palace Sunday night.
Monday to the zoo and MOMA, then late dinner downtown.
Then the day I say what I've been waiting six years to say.
Amy's Dad's some kind of chef on the hundred-seventh floor
- famous place called Windows on the World.
I called him up a week ago, told him that we'd be in town
and I planned to pop the question there.
He told me, "you can use the room early Tuesday if you want -
amazing place to ask her for her hand.
Ya gotta get there early, though.
'Cause we'll have a crowd by nine.
But 'til then you'll have it to yourselves."
How could I possibly know, speeding through the sky,
Amy's Dad would die while waiting there
for his daughter and me, he wouldn't have a prayer,
and he'd never know why?
As we circled to land and excitement welled in my heart,
high on things we had planned,
I couldn't wait to start my new life, live with my wife by me
Waiting on the plane, we couldn't know that Monday night
a fight outside of our cafe would leave a man without an eye.
We would stay with him until we knew he'd be all right.
The doctors saying he'd be okay,
well after dawn we'd say goodbye.
And fly across town, late for our date in the sky
As we sipped champagne and danced in our room
I could not foresee the end.
Up the subway stairs at Cortlandt Street,
she'd call her Dad, "we're almost there.
"I can't hear you, Dad, just wait until this plane goes by."
Tuesday, at her father's mosque I'd pray.
And Saturday would stay the best day of my life.
Nine o'clock's our flight, tonight we'll finally be in New York.
Coffee and a cab ride, my bride-to-be waits by the curb.
She is looking great, by 8:15 we're ready to fly.
On the plane, above the rain, we plan details of our stay.
Gonna go take in a show at the Palace Sunday night.
Monday to the zoo and MOMA, then late dinner downtown.
Then the day I say what I've been waiting six years to say.
Amy's Dad's some kind of chef on the hundred-seventh floor
- famous place called Windows on the World.
I called him up a week ago, told him that we'd be in town
and I planned to pop the question there.
He told me, "you can use the room early Tuesday if you want -
amazing place to ask her for her hand.
Ya gotta get there early, though.
'Cause we'll have a crowd by nine.
But 'til then you'll have it to yourselves."
How could I possibly know, speeding through the sky,
Amy's Dad would die while waiting there
for his daughter and me, he wouldn't have a prayer,
and he'd never know why?
As we circled to land and excitement welled in my heart,
high on things we had planned,
I couldn't wait to start my new life, live with my wife by me
Waiting on the plane, we couldn't know that Monday night
a fight outside of our cafe would leave a man without an eye.
We would stay with him until we knew he'd be all right.
The doctors saying he'd be okay,
well after dawn we'd say goodbye.
And fly across town, late for our date in the sky
As we sipped champagne and danced in our room
I could not foresee the end.
Up the subway stairs at Cortlandt Street,
she'd call her Dad, "we're almost there.
"I can't hear you, Dad, just wait until this plane goes by."
Tuesday, at her father's mosque I'd pray.
And Saturday would stay the best day of my life.
On Saturday, September 8, 2001, I got this riff in my head. I didn't have much of a direction to go with it, until three days later, when the world changed over the course of a morning. It didn't occur to me until later that the main riff was in 9/8 time, and I started it on 9/8. So it's about a young couple with big plans in New York City for that Tuesday morning, told from the perspective of the Saturday before. Musically, it's the prog-metal epic I'd always wanted to write, at least as close as I could get with the chops and equipment I had at the time.
Guitar, bass, Alesis HR-16 drum machine, Ensoniq ESQ-1, Kawai K-1 II
I wrote and recorded this in 1995, on 4-track cassette tape, a couple of years before getting my first computer, and a year or so before getting my first digital recorder, the Korg Trinity DRS/HDR synth workstation. I've always had a bit of "jazz envy" - if I could write and play Actual Jazz(TM), I would. When I tried in the mid-'90s, this is what came out. It's one of my wife's favorite songs of mine, and one of my favorite to play, so I try to keep at least a little bit in practice with it. I may even re-record it one of these days. But it's still not jazz.
