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HERE WITH YOU
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IF YOU COULD BE ANYWHERE, WHERE’D IT BE? ME? I WANT TO BE ON THE SAME WEBPAGE WITH 300 MILLION AMERICAN SPIRITS RESTORING EVERYONE’S AMERICAN DREAM WITH AN OVERNIGHT PLAN CALLED REDEEM THE DREAM NOW. ADD YOUR NAME AND TELL EVERYONE RTDNOW.COM

Where do we all go to be together? That’s right, nowhere. Where do we all go to exchange ideas to understand different point of views to understand each other? That’s right, nowhere. Where to we all go to move to a higher level of thinking, so we can work out and arrive at elegant solutions (simple, low cost, and benefits all) to our problems? That’s right, nowhere.

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And that’s where we all find ourselves 300 million as 1, abandoned by our government, on our own, without a system or mechanism in place to work things out so we can move forward as a people.

 

Welcome to RTDNOW.COM, the place where 300 million citizens will come to renew their American spirit. Where 300 million American spirits will come together to envision and then create the land, and government, of their dreams. Where EVERY citizen is treated equally. Where EVERY citizen matters again. Where EVERY citizen has a name. Where EVERY citizen has the ability to restore their, and EVERYONE’S American dream OVERNIGHT by adding their name at RTDNOW.COM. And as EVERYONE subscribes for just $1.00 per month, we will have the funding to create the RTDNOW Citizens Continental Congress, which will be the voice of all citizens in activist government and accomplish the above.

 

Ready to transform America and the world overnight like we did in 1776? You should be, we are bankrupt as a nation with 150 million citizens poorer than they should be and we all know it. Add your name, subscribe for just $1.00 per month and TELL EVERYONE RTDNOW.COM

HERE WITH YOU, ALL 300 MILLION OF YOU, IN CERTAINTY AND TRUST, IN A REFUGE FOR THE AMERICAN SPIRIT, CALLED RTDNOW.COM

 

Sunrise from Saddle Mountain, Oregon, Labor Day, 9/2/17. Every day is a glorious new day, and new opportunity to renew America and Redeem Everyone's American Dream. Add your name and tell everyone RTDNOW.COM

studio

Tim Ellis adds guitar

IN THE STUDIO WITH ADRIAN

Making of the Song "Here With You"

A LOVE SONG?

 

That was the reaction to this song as Dean Baskerville listened to it in post production about to add Michele Van Kleefe’s background vocals. They both stared at me. Don’t you like it I asked with a questioning look? They both said, yeah, it’s a really cool song! But what’s a love song doing in a Rock Opera to Save America? I then said, “All 100 songs are love songs for America. Some tough-love, some soft-love like this. It’s about coming together 300 million as 1 to take care of each other.” While I’d been living the details of writing the website and podcasts to create the REDEEM THE DREAM Movement, which tell the details of what this is all about, they’d just heard song by song and were viewing this all through a musical ‘song’ lens, versus creating a movement. Yes this is a love song to all my countrymen and women out there across America. Truth be told, the essence of this song originated out of my lips over coffee the morning after I knew I found a soul mate. Heidi said “When did you write that? It’s beautiful.” I said, “I just did.” Pulled out my iPhone and started writing what had just popped out of my lips. And so it goes. I told her it would have to go into the opera because to restore everyone’s American dream OVERNIGHT, we all had to become soul mates, at least online.

 

“WHAT A COOL MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT!” And: MADE ON-THE-SPOT SONGS

 

Yes it is. That was the mastery of my producer and guitarist Tim Ellis who plays all the guitars on this. It was pure joy for me, after I previewed and had him green-light a new song I’d written for production. You see even though I was paying for it all, and was the customer, Tim didn’t want to waste his time making substandard music. So it had to pass his test. This was a made-on-the-spot song. That always gave me a lot of joy. Imagine making a complete new baby after dreaming of it and leaving with it breathing, in just 3 hours! We’d work through my melody lines, chart it, nail down the timing, then he’d pull out one of his guitars and mic up. First, the rhythm guitar track. Then the bass line, then the lead guitar, then the acoustic flamenco guitar. Then he’d say “want to put on a scratch vocal?” My answer was always “Sure!” After a few weeks of listening to Tim’s beautiful guitars, I said what I always say, “I need more”. He looked at me. I said how about some Pink Floyd type ambient electric guitars on the outro. I want the crowd to groove and sing along. He smiled and put them in.

 

SINGING A WHOLE NEW SONG

 

When a new musical arrangement is put on a song, it almost becomes a whole new song. If you’re the vocalist that is. Example, Bob Dylan’s, All Along the Watchtower song. One of the greatest songs of all time. Jimi Hendrix did an electric guitar version that was so outstanding, everybody thought he wrote the song. It wasn’t until I read something Frank Sinatra wrote about how he tackled vocalizing to a new arrangement that I understood why I felt awkward 75% of the time singing to a new arrangement, and only nailed it on the first pass 25% of the time. For example, I did Jack the Ripper vocals with the band in studio live the first time I heard the arrangement. My song, Who Am I? vocals were done on the spot song with Tim Ellis’s guitars, the band was added later. Here’s what “Old Blue Eyes” as they called Frank Sinatra wrote: “…when the band leader gives me a new arrangement, I take it home and think through how I want to phrase and emphasize every word….”  It would have been nice to know that on the first song not the 50’th I did vocals on, but that’s what they call a ‘learning curve’.

 

FINDING MY VOICE

 

I was a man on a mission. Not a trained or experienced vocalist. As mentioned, 25% of the time the new arrangement, which I’d hear as the band played it for the first time (even though we discussed it, it wasn’t made yet) fell into my comfort zone and the musical arrangement inspired me, so I dug in and just ran with it. Very exhilarating when it all comes together like that. 75% of the time however, I had to adjust quite a bit to the new musical arrangement. The tempo was usually was slower. So I had to enunciate differently to hit downbeats, shortening or lengthening words. Which could play havoc with the lyrical melody until I smoothed it out. Sometimes it meant speaking a song I had sung in creation. Other times, it meant lyric edits to match the space better. I also had to re-decide how to differentiate versus and choruses. For example, my song Declare Independence Again on album 5 really changed in arrangement and took a year of coming back to, to get right. While I may have rocked it up on my acoustic guitar when I wrote it, it was a whole different ballgame when Tim Ellis turned it into a Queen type Bohemian Rhapsody. But I’m glad he did! He never backed off of what he thought I could ‘get to’ as a vocalist with a lot of work. You just gotta love a guy who believes in you like that!

 

DON’T SIT DOWN: STAND UP

 

Tim Ellis was not a vocal coach. On vocalizing he was more like my old Culver City High School football coach, Warren Flannigan. A lovable, kindly, disciplinarian. He just let me run it again, and again, and again, until I found my way in my storytelling vocalizing. What all that work did was break my fear of the mic and made me love it after two years. It also taught me to sing standing up. Sounds funny and it is. I’d spent 15 years sitting on a nice leather couch and ottoman from 9:00 PM – Midnight in my living room after the kids were in bed developing my songwriting and crafting and singing hundreds of songs. While I was a workout buff, singing is a different story and different muscles. So to vocalize comfortably when I rolled into the studio: I had to sit down low. Also, I had a career in the real world for 35 years 9-5 mostly sitting behind a desk. Sitting, sitting, sitting. I ran marathons and climbed mountains, but from age 30-50 as my day job career took off and business streamed in the door, I had to keep sitting. That was before stand up desks and treadmill desks, which I have now. Now I can’t think of sitting down to sing.

 

FORGET PERRY COMO!

 

My Father was my musical inspiration. He could really carry a tune and WAS the car radio throughout my upbringing. He always had a song on his lips. Everybody loved him for that and his wonderful disposition. At home he and my Mom played Mario Lanza records. Lanza was an opera singer, and Robert Goulet and Perry Como among others, what my generation called ‘Crooners’. Crooners hung on notes too long for the sound of their voice to resonate and sang slow ballads like such classis as Sunrise, Sunset that still unfortunately plays in my head as I write this line. That’s what got pounded into my young brain from 1-12 years old.

 

Fast forward 38 years, my journey into the studio only happened because everywhere I turned, when people overheard my home garage band vocals on a nylon string guitar, people who didn’t know me, they all said the same exact thing, “that Johnny Cash you’re listening to? Love that guy!” But being Johnny Cash with a band is a WHOLE different story. I described the challenge of being just thrown into new musical arrangements, which I later came to enjoy. While I can plan things forever, I LOVE being put on the spot, in the moment, and thrive on it.

 

But when I met Tim Ellis, I was crooning so much he said “Forget Perry Como!” We had a few talks. The basic message, “do what you did at home when you sang to the wall. Relax, and just tell the story.” When I lost my fear of behind the mic performance I finally did start to relax and emote. I’m still on that journey. The vocals for this song were done about June 2017 two years after the song was tracked and after I’d sung on close to 100 of my songs in some type of studio recording. So after five years of practice I just rolled in like Sinatra is storied to have done, and nailed it on the first take. I was finally starting to vocalize well.

 

AS I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH? REALLY? And: ‘FOLLOW THE MUSE’

 

Dean Baskerville, a fine songwriter, questioned that lyric on the start of the tail end of this song, on what we call an outro. I said it fits. He said it didn’t fit a love song. I acquiesced and I know it made it a better song. He also challenged me on verse two, line two, “do that crazy thing you do, it makes me feel brand new” which was real and I liked. He said think about it and write something really original. I said, “Dean, Tim said that and I wrote and made 70 more songs than I started out to. I’ll just come in, get behind the mic and let the muse guide me. He was a real songwriter used to finely crafting songs word by word. I was speaking from the heart with a purpose. Some of my songs seem finely crafted (which happened in my subconscious and just poured out) others are more of a dialogue with the American people, which is what’ I’m having. So I roll into Dean’s basement studio and he says “what did you come up with?” I said I didn’t spend much time on it, and they’re all bad, just turn on the mic and let’s see what comes out of my brain.” I get behind the mic and drift and just come up with on the first take “once we were two, now that times, all through.” It’s hard to get Dean Baskerville excited in the studio, at least for me. He’s worked with greats like Cheryl Crow. But he lit up like a Christmas tree. “Wow! That was great.” Just follow the muse.

WE SEEM UNABLE TO COME TOGETHER AS A PEOPLE TO SAVE OURSELVES: SO I MADE US A SONG TO REMIND US HOW

 

I met several old wise men in my life. Yes they were old, two had short white hair, and one was bald. One was a former teacher and one was an insurance salesman, one was a music producer. The first one when I was about 20 said the secret to life, was to ‘just be’. And the insurance salesman said, “when you learn to do something well that really helps everybody, life becomes a joy.” The third wise man said, “say what you gotta say and get to it! America needs saving!” Put that all together and you get this song, Here With You (at RTDNOW.COM).

 

So what’s this all have to do with the real American dream? And restoring EVERYONE’S American dream OVERNIGHT? Well, as a people we haven’t had a way to come together as American spirits free of old dogma and bias’s pounding into our brains holding us back to the point as a people we are lemmings either blindly running off one cliff or the other called political parties, or staying in our burrows we call homes: opting out.

ABOUT ADRIAN'S SONG
Here with You

Example, at the last house I lived in for over 15 years, it took an EXPLOSION to meet all my neighbors up and down the street and get to know and like each other. The street power box blew up and we all came running out. That’s not as odd as you think. I talk to a lot of people with similar experiences. Most Americans have burrowed in. Why? We are ALL working longer hours than EVER BEFORE, before we had labor laws. We have 1, 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet. So many of us are exhausted just meeting obligations and making kids soccer games and then angry we have to pay for trophies for them just breathing. We used to get no-cost certificates. But today kids are rewarded for just showing up. I will say that showing up is 80% of the battle and that is the purpose of this opera. You gotta show up! And for 50 years when it comes to participating in our own government, voicing our opinions on the rules that will govern our lives and our prosperity or lack thereof, we all stayed home. We burrowed. And we got saddled with runaway government, $25 TRILLION in debt and no way forward.

 

So what if you could stay in your burrow, but still actively participate in the new era of 100% activism to chart the future of America, of your American dream? I’m creating the new era of 100% citizen activism, with your help, at RTDNOW.COM, with 100 original songs I wrote and made telling our story of the birth, loss and redemption of OUR American dream. I know you already know that, but who has ever gone to this much effort to bring us all together? My point is everybody has put out tons of effort to do the opposite. That’s how we are controlled as a people. Wake up and stop arguing about things that don’t matter as we devolve into economic disaster and social chaos.

 

WHY DOES IT ALWAYS TAKE TOTAL DISASTER TO SEE REAL AMERICAN SPIRITS?

 

We are more polarized and torn apart than since the start of the civil war. And it took a DISASTER like the EXPLOSION on my old street, to get us to show our true colors as a people, to all show our American spirit. It took Hurricane Harvey wiping out much of Houston, Texas, with a flood to see people of all races and creeds and colors run to lend a hand. You see, we all want each other to thrive. I know that and I believe that. And when it comes to real disasters we all respond in our highest American ideals. Everybody’s also chipping in relief money when we buy at stores. Wow, this is the America I want to live in: EVERY SINGLE DAY!

 

So why is that our American spirit shows up only when a massive disaster hits? Why isn’t it all the time? It should be. It’s in our blood AND THAT SHOULD BE OUR CULTURE! That’s what the new era of 100% citizen activism we are creating at RTDNOW.COM is about. To spend just $1.00 a month per person, to have a REDEEM THE DREAM NOW movement that creates an online space where we show our American spirit effortlessly. To pay $1.00 per month to end runaway government by putting it in the palm of your hand like the iPhone did 1,000 songs.

 

In this case the disaster WE ARE ALL IN THE MIDDLE OF is happening in SUPER-SLOW-MOTION. So its hard to see: that’s why there’s 100 songs to make sure everyone sees it clearly. Our government is paralyzed FOR DECADES and our economy is imploding and will completely crash in 10-20 short years staying on the path we are on. 300 million American dreams are dead or dying. Every year we all get less. Less health care, less wages, less education, less good jobs. This is not the United Less States of America for God’s sake! These are all signs of no leadership and a dead ship heading downward. And we all know it.

 

The questions or answer to all this has always been “how do we fix it?” Or, “what can little ol me do that makes ANY difference?” Or “I’m informed, I do participate, but it just keeps getting worse each decade!” This type of thinking has made our whole nation APATHETIC. I hate to tell you, as a population, we’ve almost all given up. We’re all adrift waiting for an out of control system of government and economics that robs us all blind and that have decimated the American dream over the last 50 years to crash and burn.

 

Many voters in the 2016 Presidential election told me they want the crash and burn to happen faster so they voted for the totally unqualified candidate. We all feel that there’s no way to escape our runaway government. Oh, but there is. The same way our founders did. But without the violence, because we are in the Internet age, we all have Smartphone’s, and we can all read and add these days.

 

IT’S TIME TO START BELIEVING IN YOURSELF AGAIN

 

I’ve been accused of being overconfident many times, my whole life. But I think that is because the people who question my belief in what I’m doing, don’t really believe in themselves. My Dad taught me to figure out things. My Mom taught me not to quit. Put those two together and you can roll into a bankrupt bank and turn it around OVERNIGHT, like I did. You just have to figure out HOW.

 

We are ALL so used to the world, government and events driving our lives we have forgotten how to drive our own lives. That’s why album 4 is named, DRIVE. It’s what we as a people need to do 300 million as 1, to restore everyone’s American dream. We drive by using our minds to figure things out, then our voices to go get it. But there has been false news for decades confusing people and there hasn’t been a constructive way to use our voices, let alone ALL our voices as 1. Spending endless amounts on other people’s political parties or campaigns doesn’t get anything done: that’s proven. And that’s why I’ve gone to all this trouble to figure out a way forward for us as a people. Having protests in the Roman Empire, that’s what we are today, but in decline, doesn’t even make a dent. It just slows abusive and oppressive governmental policies. Anything the people get, they circle back and change them after you’ve gone home and the protests have stopped. I’ve stopped small donations to any political candidates because they have NO affect, and they have NO new thinking. They have NO solutions. They have NO way to restore your American dream. They are posers all like ER doctors trying to put tourniquets on every bleeding part of our American dream to just keep it alive! And they want to get re-elected endlessly for that. You must be tired of watching that horror movie every week in American life. I am. We need new thinking here and we all know it.

 

THE NEW THINKING HERE AT RTDNOW.COM

to restore everyone’s american dream overnight!

 

So you see, nobody, I mean nobody, but you, 300 million you’s are coming to save us and all our American dreams individually and collectively. It’s up to us, all of us. Nobody in politics can get anything done anymore but spend our money and hand us all the bill. THAT’S NOT LEADERSHIP. THAT’S NOT SOLUTIONS. That’s Sulley Sullenberger crash landing a plane called our economy where all the engines have gone out and trying to minimize casualties, corporate casualties that is. That’s ‘class’ driven compassion, NOT leadership. So as our economy is on final glide path for total implosion at $40 trillion in debt with no way to recover: we all better rush the cockpit, online that is.  For the American dream plane, being Sully our American hero of skill, professionalism and bravery under duress, doesn’t cut it. WE NEED TO JUMPSTART THE AMERICAN DREAM ENGINES, ALL OF THEM ACROSS THE COUTNRY OVERNIGHT. We all have to learn how to fly together, or crash together.

 

How do you fly? You have to REALLY believe, you matter. You have to believe you have the power to make the world you want to live in. I’m just doing all this to inspire you and all of us to our greatness: together. We need all of us to overcome a corrupt system of government flooded by corporate money in politics. Like in Hurricane Harvey’s aftermath, we proved we can band together across this nation. So let’s repeat that and all immediately drop our bias’s, and just focus on saving each others future with me. Saving ALL our American dreams together. If we don’t, we may not have a country left in 10-20 years that even speaks of an American dream. Futurists see America breaking apart into regions based upon resources. Surprise, resources have always directed the focus of nations, nation states and wars. See the former USSR, see Japan 1930, etc.

 

But wait a minute, before we all give up and say it’s inevitable, that the plane called American government and the American economy is going to crash and burn with 300 million American dreams, because our earning power as a nation is gone, with all the good jobs, and we’re TRILLIONS in debt we can’t repay, and money in politics siphons all our money to Wall St. and the Defense industry, hold on a minute. We forgot our secret weapon.

 

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’S SECRET WEAPON:

ALL OF US USING OUR AMERICAN SPIRIT

 

Our secret weapon as a people is to come together, to band together, to row together to get to the shore of the new future we all want. We all did it in 1776. We all did it in 1939 to win World War 2. It’s in our blood, and this is our time to invoke OUR secret weapon: THE POWER OF US. All of us. The website rtdnow.com is the way we activate and use it as we activate 300 million american spirits that want their american dream back right now.

 

My friends, American spirits, American ingenuity, American guts, united and unleashed, is the most transformation power the world, this planet, has ever seen. And its time to do it again in a simple movement and plan called REDEEM THE DREAM NOW. Add your name and tell everyone RTDNOW.COM to help activate our secret weapon to stop runaway government and we will almost effortlessly, almost free, (that’s American ingenuity) make government respond to the needs of 300 million ordinary hard working citizens. We will end runaway government, because 300 million as 1, we will now control it. We will restart the American dream engine in every person, on every street in every town OVERNIGHT and we will all fly again. And as we all add our names we fire our secret weapon that changes the world EVERY TIME: ALL OF US.

 

So this song, Here With You (at RTDNOW.COM) tells you of my longing to be with you on the same webpage in a 300 million as 1 movement of the American people to restore everyone’s American dream OVERNIGHT. We’ve had 50 years of decline with no end in sight. If you have a better solution, let’s hear it. If not, grab a paddle and start rowing with me and all your countrymen and women. And very quickly we will reach the shore of our new future: Everyone’s American dream restored. Read the RTDNOW Plan of how we will do it, online at RTDNOW.COM. It was written to restore every single Americans dream. It’s time. Redeem the American dream with me. As we all add our names, I will be Here With You every step of the way, at RTDNOW.COM

about
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • What is Adrian singing about? (Hint: effortless uniting 300 million as 1, at RTDNOW.COM to restore everyone’s American dream OVERNIGHT)

  • How can that be possible? (Hint: Read the RTDNOW Plan Adrian drafted, and start to believe!)

  • What do I have to do? (Hint: hear a free song daily at RTDNOW.COM to inspire you. Add your name, subscribe for $1.00 per month, and tell everyone rtdnow.com)

  • Is this for real? (Hint: reality stole your American dream, this is action in daily motion to get it back OVERNIGHT by creating the new era of 100% citizen activism at RTDNOW.COM)

  • What is the American peoples ‘Secret Weapon’? (Hint: using all our American spirits together…it’s unstoppable. You activate it by adding your name at RTDNOW.COM)

discussion
lyrics
LYRICS: HERE WITH YOU

Words and Music by ADRIAN

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There's a thirst, across our land

Among our people, for a brand new day

 

I just want to be with you, nothing else I want to do

Hold me in your arms, it makes me feel young again

 

I'm so thirsty, just take me to the water

Nothing more I need to know

It makes us strong, I will follow

I just want to be with you, here with you

Here with you, here with you

 

I just want to be with you, nothing else I want to do

Once we were two, now that times all through

 

Just take me to the water now

Take me on the sea, we'll be free

We all know what to do, that's why 

I just want to be with you, here with you

Here with you, here with you

 

And now we’re all here, all together

Like a big family, and that’s the way it should be

 

Here with you

 

One nation, under a shining sun

To redeem the American dream, for everyone

And so it shall be, this blessed day

 

Here with you

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