WANTED
Jeff Gladstone & The Bad Ideas
featuring Bonnie Northgraves
Buff Allen – Arnt Arntzen – Steve Charles – Mike WT Allen
WANTED
- How Big Is Your Heart?
- Red Wine
- Whale In The Zoo
- I Never Say No
- If
- Forgiveness As A Last Resort
- The Smokin Gun
- Finger In The Air
- Afterthoughts
All songs by Jeff Gladstone ©2017 SOCAN
Jeff Gladstone: Upright & Electric Bass, Vocals
Bonnie Northgraves: Trumpet, Piano, Vocals
Buff Allen: Drums
Steve Charles: Guitar & Accordion
Arnt Arntzen: Banjo & Guitar
Mike WT Allen: Baritone & Tenor Saxophones
Kathleen Nisbet: Violin
Bonnie, Kathleen, Steve, Jeff & Ben Elliot: Vocals
Design: Emma Segal
Photography: Jonathan Dy
Recorded at CREW Studios on December 12,13 2016 & March 11 2017
Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Andrew Spindor
RED WINE
The opening growls of Jeff Gladstone’s “Wanted” shudder out of a crap pair of speakers and ripple across a freshly-poured glass of Kentucky Straight Bourbon set down on a borrowed table in a rented town. This is steamy, backroom stuff that deserves a better brand than I can afford. It’s like sitting down with an old friend I’ve just met. Bourbon is the perfect flavor for this conversation: It’ll burn a bit and leave me walking funny.
By the end of it I’m inclined to leave a little something extra for the bartender, because he’s got a loose pour and I know I’ll be back. Gladstone poses the thesis of each tune and his “Bad Ideas” kick it around for a few minutes in a classic take on old medicine. I was privy to some rough-cuts and have been sneaking it when I need to feel that all is right with the world. In these dark times a little of what Gladstone calls “Cowboy Noir” is just what we need.
Outlaws and gunslingers, fingers in the air, smoking guns, late nights and later mornings. This is an album of group-shouts and stomp-alongs, melodies to hum in hangover showers, beautiful wails of vocals and horns, rolling banjos that dig into places left unexpectedly unexplored, shattering drums that speak to the primal… this is a modern tale wrapped in the time-tested.
Turn it up.
Give it a bit of space on the couch and find yourself settling in at the bottom of a glass. Drink it with your earholes and leave the bartender a good tip because you’ll be back to pick up right where you left off.
-Bruce Horak
“Gladstone knows how to make a song theatrical, from the country-inflected “weatherman” to the introspective piano ballad “two birds” and his musical range touches on folk, jazz and blues… Gladstone’s lyrics are often as memorable as his melodies”
-Kathleen Oliver, The Georgia Straight
“Leonard Cohen meets Nick Cave meets Johnny Cash meets Jonathan Richman.”
–Jane Avery producer
“Jeff Gladstone is a pretty amazing performer and artist. He’s a fantastic improvisor, a terrific actor, a musician and he’s known for being a bit of a flirt.”
-Sarabynoe.com
“Moments of quiet beauty were juxtaposed with raucous celebration, all of it held together by the wit, lyricism and musicality of Jeff’s songs…a weirdly wonderful cabaret-from-hell feel to the whole proceedings.”
-Peter Anderson, award winning actor and playwright
ABOUT JEFF: Jeff Gladstone started writing music on a trip to Europe & the Middle East, and playing gigs in Calgary in the 1990’s. Since moving to Vancouver he’s established himself as an actor and teacher with Vancouver TheatreSports League and Bard on the Beach, and performing in theatre and music festivals from Vancouver Island to New York. Jeff’s first album Hell of a Girl was recorded by Terra Hazelton featuring a cast of well-known Toronto jazz musicians. Since then, Jeff Gladstone has been developing his songwriting and signature ‘cowboy-noir’ sound. The self-released EP gained traction in Vancouver’s rEvolver Festival as a live theatrical opera staged by his brother Ryan’s company Monster Theatre. After being featured with glowing reviews in the Vancouver Sun, The Georgia Straight and other online publications, Jeff decided to carry on the project to other stages, sharing the spotlight with some of Vancouver’s legendary jazz performers. Earning a strong fan base performing regularly in Vancouver over the past couple years led to a successful Kickstarter campaign for WANTED: a live off the floor recording that encapsulates stories of dangerous love, red wine, lonely whales, dying soldiers, a gun-wielding femme fatale, flipping the bird and bittersweet afterthoughts.
Media Inquires:
Jeff Gladstone
email thebadideasband@gmail.com
LYRICS
HOW BIG IS YOUR HEART?
Could a guy like me and a girl like you
Ever be friends
In a world where suspicion makes a little white nest
In the hearts of the people we love
I’m not gonna ask you to give up your bed
Or sentence yourself to my whims
I just want to ask you one little white question
Could we ever be friends
How big is your heart?
Does it run from the ocean to your little white wrist?
How big is your heart?
Does it stand like a lighthouse in the little white mist?
Or does it balance itself on your boyfriend
And settle when the little white pill goes away
Or is it as big as a rainstorm
If I turned around would you stay?
Just til the morning makes day
I’m restless and I’m reckless
And I should be arrested
For a friendship we just shouldn’t start
Are you free and can I see ya
It’s a big bad idea
But baby how big is your heart?
How big is your heart?
Does it run from the mountain to your little white neck?
How big is your heart?
Do you think it could captain this little white wreck?
Or does it balance itself on your boyfriend
And settle when the little white pill goes away
Or is it as big as a rainstorm
If I turned around would you stay?
Just til the morning makes day
RED WINE
First had it as a baby, mama rubbed it on my lips
To send me off to dreamland and so she could turn her tricks
Red wine red wine
She loves me in the morning she keeps me up all night
She never lets me catch my breath she holds me awful tight
Red wine
She always been a devil and I’ve always been a fool
If she ever leave me god knows what I will do
Red wine
Some say the devil’s bourbon some say he lives in gin
But that devil is a kitten to the demon that is in
Red wine Red Wine
I’ve had my trouble brother I’ve seen my twisted road
I’ve been to hell in hong kong and jail in Singapore
Red wine
She always been a devil I’ve always been a fool
If I ever leave god knows what she may do
Red wine
And the years swim by and by and by
Every dollar goes to buy and buy and buy
Red wine
One day I met my true love, she had golden hair
But red wine she got jealous and she helped her down the stair
Red wine Red wine
Red wine is my lover Red wine’s my only friend
The only colour I can see from here until the end
Red Wine
I’ll always be a devil and I’ll always be a fool
I pray to god she’ll kill me I don’t know what to do
Red wine
Now I sit me down in darkness, my throat is mighty dry
Everybody leaves you and we pretend we don’t know why
The stomach is a liar A brain will fool you some
But when lips like the taste of poison you’ve nowhere left to run
Who knows if I may find peace below or up above
I ponder as the red wine starts to mingle with the blood
Red Wine
I NEVER SAY NO
I’m not going call her
Oh I’m not going call her
No I’m not going call her
But baby I could never say no
I’m not going to see her
Oh I’m not going see her
No I’m not going see her
But baby I could never say no
I’m not going to kiss her
Oh I’m not going kiss her
No I’m not going kiss her
But she just walked away
I’m not going to miss her
Oh I’m not going miss her
No I’m not going miss her
But baby I could never say no
WHALE IN THE ZOO
Well I’m lonesome can you tell
Its all over my breath
So I won’t disappoint you its true
Hope you’re happy hope you’re swell
Hope you’re on crystal meth
Cuz I feel like a whale in the zoo
You’re a tricker you’re a saint
You’re a flicker at midnight
You’re away and I’m all out of booze
I’m so sorry no I aint
For it feelin so damn right
But I don’t make my mistakes in twos
I spent up all my kisses
On the pulltabs of your eyes
Til my heart was all wet and my lips was capsized
You done told me no promises I done told you no lies
Now im fitted for a grave
On the side of Mount Baldy
And I’m not good at riddles its true
So just tell me who saves all the sinners
Why won’t you just help me why can’t you just save me
I’m as lonesome
As a whale in the Zoo
IF
If I came stumbling to your cabin
While the moon began to rise
If I was bleeding on your doorstep
Would you look into my eyes
If I was a soldier on a black horse
While the war raged on outside
If I was noble and a good man
Would you lay down at my side
If I could make it til the morning
While the sun made us blind
If I could tell you what you wanted
Would you listen and be kind
If I was a sailor and a husband
A tattered sail, a broken oar
If I was dying in your arms dear
Would you take me to the shore
Would you kiss me once On my forehead
And drop your mercy like a stone
And tell the children I’m gone a’ hunting
And I’ll see them when they’re grown
I know you’re strong
And you don’t need me
But If I was a sailor
If I was a soldier
If I was a good man
Would you forgive me
And then forget me
As you send me
Out to sea
FORGIVENESS AS A LAST RESORT
Girl/Boy you done me wrong I only want to get along so baby I
What’s that thing about
Take the log out of your own eye
Before you stick a needle in mine
Cross my heart I hope you die
I thought you were my friend
Or at least not an enemy
But now I know what you say when I’m not around
I’m not that tough it really hurt my feelings
It can take all of one’s courage
To not react
We all can learn a thing or two
About the power of a negative thought
So I guess this song is a passive aggressive way of saying I forgive you
You treated me so wrong
You took me for a song But baby I forgive you
You made it all a game
You’re the only one to blame Baby I forgive you
Even though everything’s your fault
And you got arrested for assault Baby I forgive you
You’re hell bent on destroying me
But I don’t want to be free So baby I forgive you
You could stab me in the heart
You could leave me in the dark But baby I’d forgive you
You make me so ashamed
I will never be the same But baby I forgive you
Though by god I’ve had my fill
I’m not dying on this hill So I forgive you.
Even Jesus would never forgive what you’ve done
But baby I forgive you
THE SMOKIN GUN
A wooden match sits so still on your stomach
As I hand you the box and you lie on the bed
The sulfur burns as it touches your cigarette
Your lips how they pull, the cherry how red
Blue smoke rises to the ceiling
The blinds they cut out the sun
You and I burn so brightly
Cuz we so love the smoking gun
A single bullet sits so still on your neck bone
As I hand you the pistol and you rise from the bed
You cock the hammer as you step in your black boots
Your lip how it curls and your nails painted red
A cigarette that burns so brightly
Turns to ash when its done
You and I burn so brightly
Cuz we so love the smoking gun
He was just a lonesome stranger
We just had a little fun
You and I burn so brightly
Cuz we so love the smoking gun
FINGER IN THE AIR
You were my whole world my sun and my moon
We fit together like the dish and the spoon
If we were so happy why was I blue?
I thought those days were over now I’m runnin into you
After you’d gone
I started to think I was the crazy one
Now seeing you baby after all those years
Brings me to something and it ain’t quite tears
So you stop for a little candid conversation
I ask for a light
You say there’s something still between us but baby read between the lines
The sky it isn’t crying I’m just taking something out of its eye
I got a finger in the air but baby I’m just waving goodbye
They say no man’s an island
But I’m sailing from your shore
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder
But it just made my little heart go wander, wander
Finger in the air but baby I’m just waving goodbye
The sky it isnt’ crying I’m just taking something out of it’s eye
You ask about the weather I’ll just take the temperature of the sky
It’s right next to the index look it up it says goodbye
Finger in the air but baby I’m just waving goodbye…
AFTERTHOUGHTS
So I’m at this party
This girls talkin to me and its goin really well
And she says what are you doing after?
I said after what?
After the afterthought After the backwards glance
After the afterparty after we dance
After that little dress after Ive touched your hips
After I stumble as we smoke and I fall into your lips
After the stone cold stares after it all goes south
After I fall asleep inside your mouth
After the tylenol after the smoke alarm
After I write my number in blood on your arm
After this? After all?
After the aftermath after the veil is torn
After he yells at you and cries til morn
After you pack your rings, that little dress
After you come to me, we’re both a mess
After we fall in love after we find a place
After I can’t read the expression that is written on your face
After go all in after we go all out
After we stick it out together through flood and drought
After this? After all?
After the aftermath after the veil is torn
After I yell at you and we cry til morn
After you pack your rings, that little dress
After you don’t come home, we’re both a mess
After the towels dry After the moneys spent
After your battery is always at 1 percent
After the quiet nights After the time alone
After the stupid fights After you lose your phone
After me, After you
After us, What will we do?
Baby, After all?