The Premiere Album From Go Ahead Punk

Way back, at the end of 2013, I decided I wanted to write in the Modern Punk rock genre. The genre always spoke to me and seemed to have the least boundaries, open for unbridled shenanigans, unlimited fun and boundless expression. And it started with the concept of “Nah Nah Nah” and the fact that I always had wanted to write a song with “Nah-Nah’s” in it, and maybe some La-La’s too!

It was a time when I also was observing “counterpoint” (“the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour“) and had the desire to incorporate more of that technique into all of my works.

Already having been writing for over 20 years, I hammered out the first “Nah-Nah” in “Figure-Figure, Figuring” and followed up with “Hurt Is Done” with its “sha-la-lah” counterpoint in the choruses. Those songs would lay dormant for 8 years before working their way into the current project rotation, starting in late 2021 after the passing of my mother, a turning point for my life direction.

Whining and Pining is a collection of songs that were both my first-written punk songs, as well as songs I wrote that were converted and arranged to the modern punk genre. Starting with the first song I ever wrote that I considered “hit-worthy” in “The Rain” (1992) and progressing with “I Do” (2002), “Pagan Love Song” (2022) and “I Hate That I Fucking Love You” (2022), all of which were originally written as ballads, I took to converting them to the up-tempo style and breathing life into them and making them fun!

Originally entitled “Oohs, Ahhs and Nah-Nah-Nah’s” (now the title of my fifth album demo), this album was the product of an overspill, exceeding its original plan of 12 songs, totaling, at completion, well over 25 in quantity, making it a classic “double album set”, something which I intended on releasing, with part 1 to be songs what were “whining” and part 2 to be songs that “pined”.

As songs spilled over onto that second (and even a third) record compilation, while more songs were being written on a near-daily frequency, more rhyme and reason was given to the compilations as to content and theme, and the double-album set idea was scrapped, as was the original album title.

Now conforming to the 12-song plan, “Whining and Pining” features a collection of angsty, modern punk songs, (some old, some new), the first half of which could be thematically considered “whining” and the second half “pining” with, appropriately, the song “Hurt Is Done” representing the the dividing line, perfectly splitting the two concepts. All culminating in a bold statement of what I (as represented by the Punkly caricature) had to say as an opening outpour of emotion in the modern, pop-punk spirit, in a carefully chosen order, to tell the story leading from whining to pining.

The Album Demo Recording and Lyrics

Here is a master player with lyrics below it. Press “Play” and then scroll to read the lyrics in order.

Song Lyrics by Track

Press play on the player above and scroll through the lyric compilation, in order, below.

Tornadoes to Hurricanes

From the plains of Kansas
to the everglades
where sunshine rams us
with its scorching rays
that penetrate your Midwest vibe
Frying pan behind you
into fire of the states you drive through
Trade another stormy climate
just to get out alive

To the sea from rolling plains
from rainy wind to the windy rain
You blew the town and you stormed away
with nothing lost or gained

From tornadoes to hurricanes,
you made your way but only traded
one by land for two by sea
You traveled far away
from tornadoes to hurricanes

Headed south of nowhere
bearing just northwest of
getting somewhere that
is more appealing than
a boring Midwest life
Nothing left in question
back there where you know
everyone’s destined
to stay in the cellar,
go chase storms
or run and hide

Land-locked tight or in open sea,
Violent winds blowing violently
They’ll blow you down and far astray
and it all blows the same

From tornadoes to hurricanes,
You made your way but only traded
one by land for two by sea
you traveled far away…

Wind blows down your neck
that you can’t escape from
‘cause it’s not over yet
when the wind and rain come

From tornadoes to hurricanes,
you made your way but only traded
one by land for two by sea
You traveled far away…

From tornadoes to hurricanes,
you made your way but only traded
one by land for two by sea
You traveled far away
from tornadoes to hurricanes,
from tornadoes to hurricanes

The Rain

In my room all day
with these open shades
watching all this rain
that sought me out, then found me

I swear, I’ve never seen
a downpour so extreme
I knew it had to mean
some metaphoric thing about me

Still, it hurts me to say that I know that I’m to blame,
for my lack of words and that face you made
And, now that cloudy day, it storms my life,
from miles away, and miles away
Now I keep far away from the rain

We left the club so late
but it was not a date
Want to tell you straight
what I’ve been keeping from you

Then you looked at me
and fumbled with your keys
I knew it had to be a sign,
but now this rain reminds me,

how it hurts me to say that I know that I’m to blame,
for my lack of words and that face you made
And, now that cloudy day, it storms my life,
from miles away, and miles away
Now I keep far away from the rain

I recall the sky that night was clear,
so why does rain bring this to mind?
‘Cause every time it rains it feels
the same as never sayin’ what I feel
and there’s no way I’d ever find

And, don’t you find it strange
something like this could change
a clear night into rain?
Hope it won’t rain forever…

It storms my life…
Now, I keep far away
from the rain…

Taking Down Christmas

(Not a Christmas song!)

The lights shine bright but never fade
but just shut off the second they
experience depression we go through
the second we bring to an end
the many days and weeks we spend
to celebrate our season, me and you

Little did I know or comprehend
we were coming to our season’s end,
You don’t know how I wish I knew…

that I would freaking miss us,
like when I take down Christmas
December twenty-six crushed
my spirit as I pack it all away
Should it hurt this much,
worse than taking down Christmas?
Will take me the next six months
to pack away our lifelong Holiday
that took me down
Until next Christmas comes around,
maybe, by then, I might rebound

Packing boxes I consolidate
memories that I un-decorate
these festive walls that I have clung onto
Just like I wish I could suspend
a season that comes to an end
Avoid the fateful day it’s building to

How high we go only to be let down
packing in the attic safe and sound,
surprised that in just one short day…

Fa-lah, fa-fa-lah-lah-lah,
fa-lah, fa-lah-lah-lah,
fa-lah, fa-lah-lah-lah,
fa-lah-lah-lah-lah!
Fa-lah, fa-lah-lah-lah,
fa-lah, fa-lah-lah-lah,
fa-lah, fa-lah-lah-lah,
fa-lah-lah-lah-lah!

and I still freaking miss us,
like when I take down Christmas
December twenty-six crushed
my spirit as I pack it all away
Should it hurt this much,
worse than taking down Christmas?
Will take me the next six months
to pack away our lifelong Holiday
that took me down
Until next Christmas comes around,
maybe, by then, I might rebound!

I Hate That I Fucking Love You

La-la-la-la-love you
La-la-la-la-love you
La-la-la-la-love you
La-la-la-la-la-la-love you…

How many times did I say under my breath,
“she’s such a dick sometimes”
and has no respect?
And whenever I’d say it direct to you,
you’d laugh out loud
and say it’s correct and true
And I hate it to explain it, but I’ll say it,
can’t delay it or belate it,
so I’ll state it over and over again

I hate that I fucking love you
It pains me to hate that I love you
Now I’ve fucking told you,
sayin’ it over and over again,
I hate that I fucking love you
I fucking love you, yes, I do

Trying to get all your memories to sink
“out of sight out of mind”,
but I still see and think
Wherever your remnants
will show themselves,
it enters my mind
that it’s some kind of casted spell
that I’m under, far asunder
have to wonder if it’s a blunder
I can’t get out from under,
Can’t get over It ever again

I hate that I fucking love you
It pains me to hate that I love you
Now I’ve fucking told you,
sayin’ it over and over again…

And I’m hopeless, can’t let go of this
Didn’t you notice?
How can’t you know it’s
the way that I broke this to you
over and over again?

I hate that I fucking love you
It pains me to hate that I love you
Now I’ve fucking told you,
sayin’ it over and over again,

I hate that I fucking love you
It pains me to hate that I love you
You know I fucking told you,
sayin’ it over and over again,
I hate that I fucking love you
I fucking love you
Fucking love you

Think It Through

I think I had things all wrong,
when I’m looking back on it all
All the things that I would say
and the things you’d do, oh, no way
Did I even have a clue
when it came down to me and you?
In my bliss and ignorance,
I’d bask in this delusion,
’til it shattered down at last

Just like when the children ask,

“How much can I get with this many dollars?”
how naive was I to be with you?
My worst tantrum yet, why did I bother
to harp on this mistake and just plain
forget to think it through?

Irrational thinking’s done
Guess I took a bullet on this one
Such a clean getaway
By now you’re halfway down the freeway
Doesn’t it bother you that
it bothers me but doesn’t bother you?
My pretended innocence
all masked up in confusion
’til it crumbled down so fast

Like when Dr Evil asks,

“Ransom set, one hundred billion dollars!”
how naive was I to stay with you?
Did you half expect I’d scream and holler
and harp on this mistake and just plain
never think it through?

Have I ever thought things through
in the best and worst of you?
I lose my head and I don’t think things through
I don’t bother
Never think it through
Never think it through,
oh, when it comes to you

Figure-Figure Figuring

Are we in this for keeps
or are you keeping me down?
‘Cause you’re losing sleep
and I’m really sleeping sound
You’re reading too deep
into things that I say
I feel I can’t speak
lest you take things a different way

Stop force-feeding me
all the words in your head
Such heart-bleeding words
I never would have said

Figure-figure, figuring
All you do ’bout everything
My head hurts and my ears ring
from all your figuring!

I choose my words
carefully in my head
’cause the things overheard
won’t be what I really said
It figures that you’d
try to figure me out
And, when you start fights
there’s nothing to fight about

Stop force-feeding me
all the words in your head
Such heart-bleeding words
I never would have said

Figure-figure, figuring
All you do ’bout everything
My head hurts and my ears ring
from all your figuring!
Figure-figure, figuring
Analyzing everything
Why can’t you just let me be
and stop your figuring?

Figure-figure everything
and every word I say
But you still haven’t figured out
who I am anyway

My head hurts and my ears ring
from all your figure-figuring

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah
All your figuring

Hurt Is Done

In the dark, I strove to find
my way around the room
to find some shred of evidence
that you were once there too
but something’s taken you away
and all the traces too, of you

I woke up today in such a better way,
it was so cumbersome, but this hurt is done
Oh, those endless days, all that time I’d waste,
feeling all undone, but the hurt is done

There are times when I realize that,
worry as I do, I can’t pretend
that time we spent,
it wasn’t hurting you
I think I now know and feel
what I just put you through (I do)

I woke up today in such a better way,
It was so cumbersome, but this hurt is done
Oh, those endless days, all that time I’d waste,
feeling all undone, but the hurt is done

Didn’t think I’d comprehend it
unless you would end it
so I feel like you do (I do)

I woke up today in such a better way,
It was so cumbersome, but this hurt is done
Oh, those endless days, all that time I’d waste,
feeling all undone, but the hurt is done

I woke up today in such a better way,
It was so cumbersome, but this hurt is done
Oh, those endless days, all that time I’d waste,
feeling all undone, but the hurt is done
hurt is done

Pagan Love Song

I just couldn’t watch you
when I knew you’d crash and burn
so I tried not to
while I harbored my concern
I stood by waiting,
patient I would get my turn
and walked away clean,
faithful someday I would learn
that your broken pieces
scattered all about
would make you turn to me
and you’d let it all out
And I’d hold the pan
whilst we swept it away
even when your tears
didn’t have nothin’ to say
I knew it was better
than fighting to be
as far as I could from you
until you see
the far reaches
of all that’s inside of me
when I’d believed so long

in our pagan love song
that says you belong with me
This pagan love song,
oh, it will always be
our pagan love song,
our story, you and me
Would it be so wrong
to surrender and let this be
our pagan love song?

I dampened my ardor
and held all of it in
though religionists judged it
as a hell that’s made from sin
Holding out for far more
than all what we had been
to each other before
and until that one time when,
oh, I knew he hurt you,
that son of a bitch,
and leave you for dead
like a deer in the ditch
And, when he ran you over,
I hated to be so right about
all of the things I’d foreseen
But that doesn’t matter,
you reached out to say
you regret you ignored me
and could I find a way
to forgive and forget
and to pick up each piece
of your heart
that had hope yet

for our pagan love song
that says you belong with me
This pagan love song,
oh, it will always be
our pagan love song,
our story, you and me
Would it be so wrong
to surrender and let this be?

(You) put your head on my shoulder
as my closest friend
with your arms around me
as we lay on the bed
And, the ceiling was watching
as we closed our eyes
while between us a closeness
that lasted all night

Yeah, there went our friendship just slipping away
as you nestled your head holding tighter to me
And, we trembled wondering “is this happening?”
when we’d waited so long

for our pagan love song
that says you belong with me
Oh, it will always be
our pagan love song,
our story for always,
this will be our pagan love song
our pagan love song

I Do

Now that we’re here in this place and time
and we know we belong and it’s right
And, when this world sees everlasting peace,
don’t wonder who wants to be there with you
‘cause I will say

I do
oh, can’t you see, I do,
in everything I do?
You, know if you’d just
ask me if I sit and pine for you,
I’ll say I do

I’ve accepted a life that I know is right
and you’ve done the same, which is why
that now here we stand and I have your hand
and you’ll ask me do I promise this to you?
And, I will say

I do
I did, I will, I do,
in all the things I do
You, know if you’d just
ask me if I want to be with you
I’ll say I do

Ending the dream and starting this life
Taking a stand, stand side-by-side
Just these two words make it come alive

I do
I do
I do

‘cause I will say

I do
oh, can’t you see, I do,
in everything I do?
You, know if you’d just
ask me if I sit and pine for you…

I’ll say I do
I did, I will, I do
in all the things I do
You, know if you’d just
ask me if I want to be with you…

I really do
yeah, can’t you feel it too?
Can I make it land with you,
if I could appeal to
get you to see from my point of view
and know I do?
I really do
I’ll make you feel it too
and show you that I do!

Before California

I’m drivin’ home,
six o’clock in the morning
Sun’s barely up
and it’s warning me
that tonight
I should be with you again
Finding no peace
until I can hold you,
kiss you, repeat what I told you
See, tonight we’ll
do everything we can
Before too long
I will miss you, girl
It’s just so wrong
not to kiss you, girl
Before too long,
you’ll be long gone, so,

Before California,
let me give you
something you can keep
Before California
I’ll make you want to
come home back to me

Couldn’t get to sleep,
I just want to call you
to hear your voice
Please do all you can
to bring me back
to be with you again
Finding it hard
to concentrate on
what I’m doing
It’s barely five hours since
when you and me
spent hours spending
what time we can
Before too long
I won’t see your face
Will your love still be strong
in a different place?
Before too long,
you’ll be long gone, so,

Before California,
let me give you
something you can keep
Before California
I’ll make you want to
come home back to me

We’re so poor on time
until you’re on your way
so, let’s spend it right
before it fades away
We’ll ignore the stars and the sunrise
It’s you and me tonight
I’ll make up for the time we’ll lose
and take up all this time with you, so,

Before California,
let me give you
something you can keep
Before California
I’ll make you want to
come home back to me
Before California

Yeah, before California
Yeah, before California
Yeah, before California
Yeah, before California
Yeah, before California

With You

Well, I don’t care about the circumstance
that made you look, then step away,
because, you see I think that we are right
for each other and for ourselves

Forever has become cliche
and light years seem so far away
A trillion years, and here I am with you…

You dropped me off and it was raining then
and then I turned as you drove away
And, as I walked up to my door that night,
all I could think of was how we belong,
together now and…

Forever has become cliche
and light years seem so far away
A trillion years, and here I am with you
If I were smart then I’d seize the day,
now before you slip away
Maybe give forever
one more day with you

And if I failed and this fell through,
would you never try again to make it?
And if we met, some better time,
maybe we could try it then?

For now, I’ll keep it in my heart for you,
a place you may never think to look,
because I think that you and I deserve
to be together when the time is right,
together now and…

Forever has become cliche
Light years seem so far away
A trillion years, and here I am with you
If I were smart then I’d seize the day,
now before you slip away
and maybe give forever
one more day with you

Forever has become cliche
light years seem so far away
A trillion years, here I am with you
I think I’m gonna seize the day
Never let you slip away
Maybe give
forever one more day
with you
with you
with you
with you…

Driven, Unsung Champion

I rise before the radio breaks my sleep
always thinking too early while the world counts sheep
Restless, lie there I’m thinking ‘bout what to do
when my wheels hit the tarmac and
race toward you and feel this drive

Somehow knew it was not the last time we’d meet
It felt more like I’m beginning a winning streak
Maybe I was taken already per se
but I’m so taken with you
it changed my game in record time

I’ve gotten nowhere fast, come in dead last,
been told a win just can’t be done
But I will race, be your first place,
be your driven unsung champion
Driven unsung champion

I drove to a place that unbeknownst to me
I would walk in the door and then there you’d be
another familiar person would introduce
and make another acquaintance of me to you
It’s no surprise

I’ve gotten nowhere fast, come in dead last,
been told a win just can’t be done
But I will race, be your first place,
be your driven unsung champion
Driven unsung champion

Driven at the starting line
when we were introduced
I won the race at record pace,
but would I win with you?

Track record speed,
it fuels this need
to be in the lead with you…

(Solo)

I’ve gotten nowhere fast, come in dead last,
been told a win just can’t be done
But I will race, be your first place
be your driven unsung champion

I’ve gotten nowhere fast, come in dead last,
been told a win just can’t be done
But I will race, be your first place
be your driven unsung champion
unsung champion
driven unsung champion