Tony LEVIN


Resonator

(2006)



1. Break It Down 7'02
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
2. Places To Go 5'47
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
3. Throw The God A Bone 5'26
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
4. Utopia 6'21
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
5. Beyond My Reach 5'17
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
6. Shadowland 4'58
(Tony Levin / Larry Fast / Jesse Gress / Pete Levin / Jerry Marotta)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP) / SEMICONDUCTOR MUSIC (ASCAP) / JESILU MUSIC (BMI) / Pete LEVIN MUSIC (ASCAP) / BIG BOY UNDERPANTS (ASCAP)
7. Crisis Of Faith 2'11
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
8. What Would Jimi Do ? 4'34
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
9. Sabre Dance 5'08
(Aram Khachaturian)
Copyright ©1947 (Renewed) by G. SCHIRMER, Inc. (ASCAP)
10. Fragile As A Song 4'31
(Tony Levin)
Published by T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)

Total Time: 51:15


  • Tony Levin - Bass (1-6, 8, 10), Chapman Stick (1, 9), Keyboards (5), Piano (10), Cello (7), Vocals (1-5, 7, 8, 10)
  • Larry Fast - Synth (1, 4, 6, 9)
  • Jesse Gress - Guitar (1, 6, 8, 9), Background Vocals (3)
  • Pete Levin - Organ (1, 3, 8), Piano (4, 6), Synth (9)
  • Jerry Marotta - Drums (1-9), Background Vocals (1-3, 8)

    Guests:

  • Adrian Belew - Guitar on "Throw The God A Bone"
  • Steve Lukather - Guitar on "Utopia"
  • Andi Turco-Levin, Maggie Levin, Robbie Dupree, Lilly the dog - Background Vocals on "Throw The God A Bone"

    Produced by Tony Levin
    Engineered by Tony, but with profound assistance from Robert Frazza, Roman Klun. Richard Evans and Larry DeVivo

    Jerry Marotta's Drums and Vocals Recorded @ JERSVILLE STUDIO by Roman Klun
    except Drums on "Utopia" and "Places To Go" Recorded by Robert Frazza
    Jesse Gress Guitars Recorded @
    FRAZZA's STUDIO by Robert Frazza
    Adrian Belew's Guitars Recorded @
    STUDIOBELEW by Ken Latchney
    Steve Lukathers Guitars Recorded @
    PHANTOM RECORDING by Simon Phillips
    Pete Levin's Hammond Organ Recorded @
    SONART RECORDING STUDIO by Pete
    Larry Fast's Synths Recorded @
    SYNERGY STUDIOS by Larry
    Vocal Tweaking by Richard Evans

    Track Cleaning by Robert Frazza
    Mixed by Tony @
    UPTOWN SOUND, Kingston NY
    Mastered by David Torn @
    CELL LABS
    Bass Recorded with AMPEG Amp. JDI Radial d.i.
    Art Direction by Chris Verespej
    Cover and dog x-ray Photos by
    DIGITAL VISION / GETTY IMAGES
    Artist Photography by Dion Ogust
    Ape hand Photo by Tony
    Funk Finger hand X-ray Photo by Mark Josefski
    Stingray Bass x-ray Photo by Junschi Iwawaki

    All Compositions by Tony Levin
    Published by
    T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP)
    Except:

    "Shadowland"
    Written by Tony Levin, Larry Fast, Jesse Gress, Pete Levin and Jerry Marotta
    Published by
    T-LEV MUSIC (ASCAP) / SEMICONDUCTOR MUSIC (ASCAP)
    JESILU MUSIC (BMI) / Pete LEVIN MUSIC (ASCAP) / BIG BOY UNDERPANTS (ASCAP)

    "Sabre Dance"
    Written by Aram Khachaturian
    Copyright ©1947 (Renewed) by
    G. SCHIRMER, Inc. (ASCAP)

    Adrian Belew appears courtesy of SANCLUARY RECORDS GROUP
    Steve Lukather appears courtesy of
    FRONTIERS RECORDS

    Thanks To:
    Andi Turco-Levin, Marc Silag, Jerry Marotta, Robbie Dupree, Mark & Lee Swidler for their constant support (and to Robbie for the song title "Shadowland");
    Rich Denhart and NARADA RECORDS for patience and understanding through the long process of songwriting;
    Sterling, Brian, Dudley and Greg @ Ernie BALL / MUSIC MAN and especially to Brian Ball for turning me onto the Stealth Bongo Bass;
    Emmett and Yuta Chapman @ STICK ENTERPRISES, Ned Steinberger @ NS DESIGN, Ted Kornblum @ AMPEG Amps, Peter Janis @ JDI Radial Equipment, Paul Froula @ BEYERDYNAMIC;
    Howard Givens @ TRUE SYSTEMS MIC Preamps;
    Erik Bailey and the remarkable JPL team for inspiration on Mars as well as technical details for "Places To Go";
    Robert Frazza and Roman Klun for generous help with my fledgling engineering;
    my band, Jerry, Jesse, Larry, Pete and Robert doing sound, for hitting the road full speed, full heart, whether it pays or not;
    the SWIDLER BROTHERS, Eric Wagner, Jeff and Penny Cherun, Bill Sawtell, Kevin Raymond - sounding boards for my musical experiments;
    Pete Caigan for scratch Track Engineering;
    Jeff Bohnhoff @ APPLE for help with Logic, on which the album was Recorded.

    Management - Marc Silag,
    RIGHT SIDE MANAGEMENT, NYC, NY

    www.tonylevin.com

    www.narada.com





    1. Break It Down

      Analyzing - we're hardwired to keep digging into the mechanism of our world,
      but maybe not of ourselves.

      So it goes
      When science keeps disproving things that
      everybody knows
      Got to find a place to hide your faith
      Build a thicker wall

      Deeper in
      It takes you to a darker place where doubts and
      shouts begin
      Got to try to solve the mysteries
      The theory of it all
    Chorus:

    Break it down break it down
    The fundamental physics of the thing is what we

    try to find
    Break it down break it down
    Try to see what lurks behind
      We've adored
      Those kits and bits of soldering a circuit board
      The heat, the smell awakes in us
      Connection to the core

      Makes us laugh
      The flash and splash of bringing up a photograph
      See the silver oxide work for us
      Revealing ever more
    Chorus:

    Break it down break it down
    Elemental building blocks are there lo move around
    Break it down break it down
    Look and see what we have found

      Far above, where we look to find reflections of our
      deepest love
      There's no need to subdivide the heart
      Or to tear it apart, break it down

      Space and time
      A captivating jungle gym for every boy to climb
      The thrill's about discovering
      An answer for the day

      Not their trip
      The passion to examine one's relationship
      That's a game for someone else to play
      A chromosome away
    Chorus

    2. Places To Go

      Hello Mars, it's good to be back I^^H
      Gee we left here in a hurry, didn't even bother to pack
      It was way back three - four billion years ago
      We didn't mean to be a stranger but we had a lot of places to go

      It's a beautiful planet you've got here, lovely shade of pink
      It seemed bigger when we lived here, but we were just spores then I think
      Then one thing led to another, as they say in science 101
      And just look at us now. oh I tell you evoloution can be fun
    Chorus:

    Hey. as a matter of fact this looks like home to me
    Seems like the kind of place I always wanted to be
    I'm gonna kick off my Reeboks. sit back and light up a smile
    Cause it feels like home and baby i might stay a while

      Hello Boston, it's good to be back
      We haven't played this little club since it was just a rundown shack
      Yeah, the dressing room's still dingy and the manager's stiil stingy, that may be
      But it's the people who come here that make it fee! special to me

      I used to live in this town until I left to go out on the road
      Didn't take me too long before I forgot my own area code
      Always meant to come back here and visit all the people I know
      But that road stretches long and I had a lot of places to go
    Chorus
      Hello Grandma it's good to see you again
      I have missed you a lot since you left us all way back when
      And this new place you've been staying all the music they are playing is on strings
      It seems the people are nice and I'm noticing that some of them have wings

      Hey, is that Grandpa I see running round and not using his walker
      I had some trouble getting in here. say. those entrance rules are a shocker
      Guess I should have called ahead and made a reservation, I know
      But I was just too busy and I had a lot of places to go
    Chorus
      Panspermta - the theory
      that life came to the
      cooling earth from
      elsewhere. Observed and
      shared was the excitement
      about reaching and
      exploring Mars - could it
      have been homecoming ?
      We who travel a lot are
      sensitive to re-discovering
      old homes, and this song is
      about three of them: Mars Boston. Heaven.

    3. Throw The God A Bone

      Gods - we look up, then looking down we see our pets look up to us, adoring us as gods.
      They so want to please us, but do they misbehave ?
      Sure, and feel real bad - sound familiar ?
      Soon enough we'll create new life forms which we will program to play by our rules ...
      or maybe they won't.

      My dog Lilly thinks that I am a god
      My dog Lilly thinks that I am a god
      I think that she suspects I am not perfect
      But we both know she doesn't really care
      Cause she believes her food appears by magic
      And she notices that I'm the one who's there

      My dog Lilly .... My dog Lilly

      My dog Lilly thinks that I am a god
      My dog Lilly thinks that I am a god
      I took her to our local doggie school
      And she quickly mastered every trick they had
      But once we got home she'd break every rule
      Look up at me, and feel real bad

      Throw the god a bone
      If you can reach him on his cell phone
      Cut that god some slack
      If you expect to ever have him call you back
      Give that dude a break
      Before you tell him that he's made some big mistake
      And you do not have to feel so all alone
      Everybody sometimes has to wind it up and
      Throw that god a bone

      My dog Lilly thinks that I am a god
      Say, every dog thinks that we all arc gods
      They can see we all know how to drive a car
      And we've just about built condos on the moon
      That we might create life's not so bizarre
      If not already it might happen soon

      Being a god's not always great
      Remember this before you start to celebrate
      And gods have come and gone before
      Sometimes it seems the sky is one revolving door
      There are some godly fundamentals
      Up on Mt. Olympus you can't buy
      It's only rentals

      My dog Lilly thinks that I am a god
      Every dog thinks that we all are gods
      And if one day we create some new species
      Then we'll be quick to teach them how to pray
      But you can be sure they will test their leashes
      And do just what they want to anyway

      Throw the god a bone
      If you can reach him on his cell phone
      Cut that god some slack
      If you expect to ever have him call you back
      Give that dude a break
      Before you tell him that he's made some big mistake
      And you do not have to feel so all alone
      Everybody sometimes has to wind it up and

      Throw the god a bone
      If you can reach her on her cell phone
      Cut that god some slack
      If you expect to ever have her call you back
      Give that babe a break
      Before you tell her that she's made some kind of
      Great big huge mistake
      And you do not have to feel so all alone
      Everybody sometimes has to wind it up and
      Throw that god a bone

    4. Utopia

    Connections - all around us, awaiting our attention.

      They say that heaven's just for some
      The ones who have the right connections
      But in this world of ours you find
      Connections of so many kinds

      The smile a mother gives her child
      The hand that reaches out to lift us up
      The eyes that see the one they love
      Inside them gleam reflections of
      Utopia

      And when the music's almost done
      The fading echoes of the last guitar
      Reverberate inside the mind
      Releasing all the dreams they find

      If I could hold my father's hand again
      If I could be once more the boy I was
      If I could dream again those dreams
      Now I know they're windows to
      Utopia

      Child, a smile alights his face
      Lifts us to a higher place
      Love inside
      You can see it there, see reflections of
      Utopia

      In mind reside
      All the dreams inside all the dreams they find

      I'd hold my father's hand again
      The boy I was, remember when
      I'd dream, dream those dreams
      Now I know they're true, they're the windows to
      Utopia

    5. Beyond My Reach

    Loss - it comes to us all sooner or later, and we all struggle to deal with it.

      The orange sun that warmed our day
      Becomes an oval as it sinks into the bay
      We used to marvel at how fast it slips away
      Without a fight, so comes the night

      So come the waves across the sand
      So came the tides of time
      Erasing what we'd planned
      And now the wind tugs at these letters in my hand
      The ones held tight against the night

      Against the future looming like a cliff above me
      Against the memories colliding below
      The hardest lesson that this tide is washing over me
      Comes a time in life the only peace we'll know
      Is letting go

      And so this day gives in to night
      Across the bay the clouds go scudding out of sight
      Like us the sky clings to it's memories ot light
      But carries on when light is gone

      I've scanned these words for what they teach
      And now I close my eyes to see behind the speech
      And let your letters fly like seagulls from the beach
      They float away, beyond the bay
      Beyond my reach

    6. Shadowland

      (instrumental)

    7. Crisis Of Faith

    This still-new storm-shaken century: collisions between knowledge hurtling forward, civilization retreating - collisions are good matter for poetry, and there are more than enough crises of faith to go around.

      What would you do
      Tell me what would you do

      Oh

      Hypertext markup in price of revelation in the ice,
      generation that is frozen in its tracks frozen in its tracks, chosen is not facts it's cinematic syntax it's a fax floating forward
      to nuclear reactory the twenty first century body building atrophy the hyper-modern
      biblical frozen in its tracks and now underneath the aegis of a popular front
      we find a secular collection believers don't know how to punt and after the fact after the arty
      hearty artifact a hyper-modern a full and out crisis of faith

      Oh

      Tellmewhatwouldyou tellmewhatwouldyou do ?%

      You booked a window a hyper-space shuttle got an orchestra seat to see the cosmic
      kerfuffle cosmic kerfuffle, what would you do who puld you sue then again how
      could you Google the question the answer isn't there it's in the hyper-vent icicle
      language of debabelizing canalizing secrets in speeches we're sold and then
      underneath the aegis of a secular front we find politicos egregious obeisance
      joining in the hunt and up on the beach did we collfrol-z a species it's a rising crisis
      a sinking stone fuzzy tone to the bone crisis of faith

    8. What Would Jimi Do ?

    Jimi Hendrix - so moving, so unique - the everlasting inspiration to approach our own music with open options.

      Lately I've been digging back into my salad days
      Ennui creeping in from the past like some kind of purple haze

      Thought we had a generation that talked about peace and wanted to
      live it too
      But I read the news today and I ask myself
      Tell me what would Jimi do ?

      Just today, picked up my guitar and try to make it burn
      Ain't no way I can break out beyond the things I've learned

      Where you look for inspiration; the shoulders of giants, and baby
      it matters who
      But 1 hear the radio today, and I ask you now
      Tell me what would Jimi do?

      Lord, but the man could play
      Ain't nobody
      Ain't nobody doing it
      Like that today
      Nothin like that today
      Try to find that child inside of you
      You gotta find the child and let it through
      Another view
      With something new
      Out of the blue
      You might
      Right
      Give it
      Now
      Some
      Hit it
      And show me what would Jimi do

    9. Sabre Dance

    The Khachaturian piece was always a favorite - who doesn't like it ? And shuffle feel vs. even eighths; a happy tension.

      (instrumental)

    10. Fragile As A Song

    Panbaneesha - the song's not about a woman, but an ape. A few years ago Peter Gabriel called from Atlanta to ask if I'd join him there in playing music with Bonobo apes. They were stars of a language research facility, and were amazing at communicating and understanding language (and. for beginners, not bad keyboard players). Processing the magic of that day - that new kind of connection - took me a long time, but how better to process than with a song.

      What makes one day unlike another?
      Along our way the winds of change begin to blow
      They scatter what we know like pages of our
      scripted play
      Blown away

      I took a flight down to Atlanta
      Another day of travel, of sharing space with strangers
      Seldom re-arranges the way I know the world to be
      From what I see

      I saw you and you saw me
      How music passed between us is a mystery
      But there was a connection and it took me by surprise
      A look of understanding in your eyes

      I saw you and you saw me
      What makes a little song become a symphony?
      One heart finds its melody, another sings along
      And all the walls between us are as fragile as a song

      It's not the notes you play it's the ones left out
      Not the words you say that speak what you're about
      Spill the insides out, and give the world a chance
      to share
      The magic there

      And so I reach for my guitar
      And with my ape-like fingers commence to strum along
      Attempt to find a song, express the things that came
      my way
      On that day

      I saw you and you saw me
      How music passed between us is a mystery
      But there was a connection and it took me by surprise
      A look of understanding in your eyes

      I touched you and you touched me
      What made our little song become a symphony ?
      One heart finds its melody, another sings along
      And all the walls between us are as fragile as a song