« Back to No Excuses main page
Song Info
Artist: Michael Park
Song: New Year Hero
Producer: Michael Park
Vocals, keys, programming: Michael Park
Words and music: Michael Park
New Year Hero is a fast, happy rocker that I wrote during a rather low time in my life. Channeling my inner 20-year-old cheered me up enormously - hope it does the same for you.
Lyrics
New Year Hero
It's a new year
It's a new year
It's a new year
Time to go
Get out of here
Time for clubs
Time for beer
Oh yeah, O yeah
Fly so high, ain't never coming down
It's a new year....
Lost my girl
Got no ride
But I don't care
'Cause tonight I glide
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Fly so high, ain't never coming down
Bridge:
The old year's dead, the old dreams too
Let's move on to something new
Let's hit all the danger zones
Before the buzzards pick our bones
It's a new year....
Gonna laugh
Gonna dance
Gonna get into
A new girl's pants
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Fly so high, ain't never coming down
Hap-(I need to) pee New Year
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought on line...
About Michael Park
Michael Park: Dyspeptic Yorkville Relic Speaks...
Long ago and far away, I used to be a serious musician. I played keyboards and sang in working rock bands in the late 1960's and '70's--the old Yorkville-Toronto scene. It was a good ride, but my commitment to music weakened when the excesses of band life began to take a serious toll. Two guys I knew died of drug overdoses. I became a weekend warrior, then a jam buddy, then a solo noodler, then a curator of unused dusty relics of a time that seems now more dream than reality. My creativity was channelled into writing prose, not songs.
A couple of years ago, I was at a party where some musicians were jamming. A keyboard was sitting in a corner, plugged in but unattended. Nervous, I sat in and found that while my hands were stiff and too slow to do a lot of what my brain told them to, I was still laying down some lines (no, not that kind) that really blazed. Those I was with had no idea that I could do this. I'd forgotten how good it felt.
So to get to the point: I began playing again--practicing, buying new gear, digging up old tunes, scribbling new ones, looking into computer-based recording. I discovered a sophisticated recording program called Sonar, upgraded my PC big-time and got lost in music creation again. For an old keyboard player like me, digital audio recording is an endlessly entertaining playground.
It's also a learning journey, one that I'm still mapping out. I've received some expert help along the way. The multi-talented inhabitants of The Other Place critiqued my early efforts and helped me improve the technical and artistic quality my tunes, for which I'm truly grateful.
My influences?
Songwriting: John Lennon, Don Henley, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Leonard Cohen (for the dyspepsia).
Keyboards: Garth Hudson, Peter Jermyn, Joey Chirowski, Michael Fonfara.
Singing: Tom Waits, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Rotten, Petty, the late Robert C. Smith.