I first met Skye while working at The Sanctuary Studio, an old church in Vancouver that had been converted into a recording studio by engineer, David Jones. I was asked by David to come in and help get guitar sounds for a project on which he had been working.  When I got there I met this character who was unlike any human I had ever met.  I honestly couldn’t figure him out.  He wore a purple silk disco-shirt and a cheap cowboy hat. He talked Negro and seemed high.

During a break in the session Skye proceeded to tell me how he used to be kind of a jazz snob and then one day after breaking up with his girlfriend he heard the song "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. He said it was then he realized that whether it was Charlie Parker, Miles Davis or Kurt Cobain it all came from the same place.  From then on every time we hung out I listened to Skye lecture me about music.  He enjoyed sharing his insights.

Skye was a master at the theory of music and he loved learning as much as he loved teaching.  He took it very seriously. Skye’s approach to music and theory was completely different from what is taught in music schools and colleges. He discovered hidden music secrets through his own experimentation and desperately wanted to share them with anyone who had the ability to understand. Most musicians try to hide their secrets and pass them off as "black art". Skye though felt obligated to share them. "Music is free," he would say. His was no scarcity mentality.

After learning about this new approach to music my entire method for creating and listening to it changed .  I studied Charlie Parker and realized the secrets.  I studied Nirvana and Black Sabbath and J.S. Bach and realized the secrets.  According to Skye, Igor Stravinsky was the greatest.

It is somewhat tragic that for all his eagerness to learn and his extreme attention to detail Skye never found a way to put it all together for the world to hear. Instead he lived his life constantly experimenting and trying to take his discoveries to the next level.  Occasionally, he talked about "taking over the world" and "becoming famous" but I don’t think he ever really wanted to do that.  I think he just enjoyed making discoveries.

He spoke constantly about music and what he had learned.  There was the time when the band Yes had locked out the studio to write its album. Skye used to spend a lot of time bustling about on the streets downtown.  He had great rapport with the street community and less fortunate folks in general.  One day he came in off the street. He had been gone for 3 days and was dirty and on edge. Steve Howe, the guitarist for Yes and one of the world’s top guitar players gave Skye a condescending and disapproving look.   Oblivious, Skye took a classical guitar and started ripping "Confirmation" by Charlie Parker note for note. Steve Howe and Skye became friends after that.

There was also the time when Allan Holdsworth was in town. Back then a strong argument could be made that Holdsworth was the greatest guitar player in the world.  Skye began pointing out  mistakes that were in Holdworth’s book of transcriptions called "Reaching for the Uncommon Chord" which contained some of the most complex music ever written.  Even Holdsworth acknowledged the errors.

I am thankful that Skye chose me to be one to whom he revealed his music secrets. He left me with charts and recordings for pretty much every note he wrote.  He also left me with sheet music of classical pieces he thought I should learn and study. He especially thought that  "Cordoba" by Albeniz  was an important piece. I hope I will prove to be a worthy steward for this material.  Skye went out of his way to compliment me when he thought I had done something well. There was no political agenda behind his appraisal.  If he liked it, he said it.  He was very positive and he inspired me to work harder so that I could come up with something else he might like. His approval was a great reward. In closing I want to thank you Skye for the music, the inspiration, the encouragement, the positive words and the attitude. You were a true original and are a big part of every note I play.

It was on that lonely tree where I began to reflect on my life which, up to then, had been completely devoted to music. If that sounds like a noble thing, I can assure you it is not. My biggest mistake was trying to create music for the art of it. I realize now that music and art have nothing to do with each other. I have since checked my idealism at the door, along with my soul.

I got into music because I thought it would be a good way to express myself. I have always valued individuality. As a kid I constantly strived to express it. Recently though, I have come to the conclusion that musicians these days must essentially be characterless. Why try to create something new and original when it is so much easier, and the rewards are potentially so much greater, to copy something that has already been accepted?

I often become frustrated when I realize how many aspects of my life I have sacrificed in order to try to create something new and interesting only to show up to a gig and have some chick say, “Oh, he’s so cute.”

Fuck off.

“I like the way he makes that little pouty face.”

Fuck off.

“But I wish he would smile more.”

Fuck off.

“What’s with the hair?”

“That’s alright,” I tell myself. “One day there will be a beautiful princess who will get it. She’ll understand and appreciate the thought and dedication that has gone into doing what it is I do. She will be the one.”

But if there is one thing I learned during my recent conversations with God, who I affectionately refer to as the “Ol’ Cocksucker”, it is that I have been dreaming, and there is precious little space reserved in this world for dreamers.

On the lonely tree I thought about a girl I used to know. She was the most beautiful girl I ever saw. Not that I would ever tell her that. She knows. They all know, even the ugly ones. I imagine it must be somewhat disappointing to them when they first realize how simple men really are. I wonder why I never tried harder to get her. I’ve never been one to be afraid of girls and sometimes I actually find them to be quite amusing. Maybe I feared the disappointment that was sure to follow when I discovered that even the most beautiful girl in the world didn’t get it.

Sometimes I wonder what is so special about being human. Like monkeys we spend enormous amounts of time mimicking other monkeys we see on TV. If I was in charge of the world, which will probably never happen because you have to know the right people to get that job, and I wanted to control the other monkeys I’d make sure there were plenty of examples on TV for the other monkeys to follow.

I would reward psychotic behaviors of all kinds. I would feed the monkeys drugs then lock them up for being evil enough to use them. I would encourage the monkeys to fight each other over such stupid things as the color of their fur. If I was feeling especially energetic I would start a religion. I would say, “I know you’re a monkey, but pretend you’re not. Just sacrifice all your monkeying around in this life then in the next one you will have a hundred monkey-whores feeding you grapes.” Then, just when the monkeys were about to give up their hopes and dreams and their faith in the greatness of monkeykind, I would fake a Mars landing.

Paranoid monkeys have a fancy word for this type of thing, and it’s the paranoid monkeys who know what’s really going on. They call it “imprinting”. They say imprinting is used by the head monkeys in order to encourage certain types of behavior in lower class monkeys, like musicians. I dare say that if the whole idea of imprinting doesn’t deeply disturb you, it probably hasn’t dawned on you yet.

Just then I heard a concerned voice call from the top of the mountain. “Are you alright?”

“I don’t know yet,” I answered as I checked for broken bones. My right knee appeared to take the worst of it but my ego also took a bruise.

“Good thing you’re so cute cuz you’re dumb as shit.”

As I climbed down the lonely tree I began to understand why the Ol’ Cocksucker invented Jack Daniels. I started my gallant quest towards the top of the mountain but this time I was especially careful because just like art and music, gravity and Jack Daniels don’t mix.

Daylight, spotlight, Yukon midnight
This is how I feel oh
Lust for love but not for life
This is a mass appeal oh
Finished with that woman there oh
Take her if you please you’re

High enough and fly enough
You’ll find enough to help you see
My brain is buff with all this stuff
Prepared for mass appeal oh
Prepared for mass appeal oh

Midnight, bright light, skylight, pretty tight
There in her domain oh
Lust for love but not for life
This ain’t no fool’s parade no
Finished with that woman there oh
Take her if you please you’re

Hot for love but not for life
Not high enough, don’t fly enough
Not rough enough, fucked up enough
Enough for mass appeal oh
Enough for mass appeal oh

But you know your brains are fools
Now listen are you clear?
If I see you will destroy you
Satisfy my fear

Camera phone video for Eddy Bugnut’s acoustic “Song Will Never Change”. Featuring John Dean on organ, John Peer on Piano, and Robert Karasek on keyboards.

Remember when the days were long and
The radio played our favorite song
And we knew
Our time would come to be
Remember when we’d talk about the day
We’d leave our things and run away
Together you and me

And how we would stand so tall
And how we would never fall

Then the skies turn grey
All roads are strange
Just trying to find some way
Then the morning comes
And everything’s gone
Remember the song will never change

Remember when we had to say goodbye
To all those dark and endless nights
And find a different way
It’s funny how the things that we passed by
Seemed more then

Lyrics video for my song, “In Trouble With Delilah”.   The song features
Robert Karasek on keyboards and Sean Reynolds on drums.

Major Goodvibes features Chris Zorbakis on vocals and guitar, Eddy Bugnut
on guitar, Jay Wittur on bass and Thud Pumkin on drums. 

Eddy Bugnut’s song “Amazing” is set to the 1937 cartoon called Educated Fish. (Creative Commons License)

When Saviour comes he’ll blow them all away
When Saviour comes he’ll blow them all away

Everywhere I go
Everything I do
The freaks they come
Kill ‘em all
Everywhere I go
Everything I do
The freaks they come

If you’re trying to freak me out
Blow apart my undercover
I know it’s not my place to say
Could tell you but I’d have to kill you
The freaks come out at night you know
I wanna kill ‘em all you know

A: I think that the idea of moral universality after God is a bit of a joke.

B: Do you think that God is a bit of a joke?

A: God’s pretty serious. *makes serious face*

B: What about a moral universality…period?

A: Do I think it’s serious? No, of course not. I already said that.

B: I was just taking God completely out of the equation…I don’t really know what is meant by “after God”.

A: I mean after things are no longer for the sake of God. It’s usually associated with the rise of scientific thinking, so the last 3 or 4 hundred years I guess. Pretty over.

B: Do you you agree consciousness can’t precede existence?….that if there is consciousness there has to be something possessing that consciousness?

A: Precede in what sense? In time, then it would depend what time was. In formula, then it would depend on what consciousness is, and possibly on time as well.

B: I don’t really mean in a chronological sense. I mean that “there has to be something possessing that consciousness”…and by consciousness I mean awareness in an axiomatic sense. My point is that God is usually thought of as a universal consciousness without a metaphysical form…Descartes said, “I think therefore I am” and is that different than saying, ” I am therefore I think”? Some people ask, “What is the meaning of life”…maybe it is better to ask, “What is the meaning of MY life.?”

A: What’s the meaning of “life”? What’s the meaning of “my”? What’s the meaning of “is”? What’s the meaning of “meaning”? And, maybe more importantly, what’s the meaning of “ask”?

B: Part of the Wikipedia definition of life is “a process that distinguishes organisms from non-living objects, such as non-life, and dead organisms. Living organisms are capable of growth and reproduction, some can communicate and many can adapt to their environment through changes originating internally.” It also says that “there is no universal definition of life. To define life in unequivocal terms is still a challenge for scientists.” …but maybe we can define it enough to discuss it.

A: Maybe, but this kind of account of life is biological life, life as a determinately present scientific object, fixed in its structure. It’s unclear what relation that sense of life has to the sense of life I use when I say “My life”. Certainly I don’t mean something about biology, I’m probably talking about my experiences, my attitudes, my actions, in the past present and future. Right?

B: …aren’t your experiences, attitudes, actions…(consciousness?) dependent upon you existing biologically and also on the nature of your metaphysical being?…2 arms….no antlers…brain…thumbs…if you are paralyzed or not…etc.

A: Maybe, but I don’t see why we can assume that. We only know about biology because we were already conscious.