The Lyric: “Stolen Valentine” by Damon Wood’s Harmonious Junk

Tim Wenger | March 1, 2014 | 0 Comments

Featuring Damon Wood’s Harmonious Junk – Stolen Valentine

photo credit Jim Mimna

Damon Wood’s Harmonious Junk consists of Damon on Guitar and Vocals, Brian Efros on Bass and Rob Buehler on Drums, originally formed in December of 2001. When not performing music, Damon provides guitar and bass guitar lessons, Rob does carpet cleaning and care for his new baby and Brian has a company that sells knives and outdoor gear. The main musical influence on this tune was Tom Waits, in particular his song called “Hell Broke Luce.” Stolen Valentine is track 4 of an 11 song “Rock Opera” called Eddie The Maggot. The album in general was additionally influenced by Frank Zappa’s “Joes Garage,” Jethro Tull’s “A Passion Play,” as well as Muse’s “ The 2nd Law” and Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

I met with the Damon after a week of email exchanges in which he shared his thoughts on Stolen Valentine written in November of 2013. Damon communicated that he wrote the music, but that bassist Brian Efros played the bass on the demo. He further shares: “The music is notable because it changes key at the end of every verse. Each new key modulates to the 4^th, meaning the 4^th note of the scale becomes the new 1^st note. The song is actually in “every” key. It cycles back around at the end and ends in the same key that the intro ended in.” Damon suggests that even though he writes the songs, the other band members take what he has written and add their own ideas to flavor it.

As for the meaning of the song, Damon explains: “Well, the Catholic Church and its history of abusing young boys sexually would be the main focus of this tune. It starts out with a little jack-n-jill-esque nursery rhyme kind of feel that quickly turns dark as we are told to run from the bad man, the preacher. He gets a hold of you, does what he wants to you, and then ostracizes you like you did something wrong as he is the ‘respected pillar of society.’ We are told to fear God, but also treat the clergyman’s word with respect – even when he say’s don’t tell. It alludes to how dark a society becomes when secrets and abuses like these go unchecked.”

It is Damon’s feeling that when a society is that dark you begin to see the evil floating around not only with the preacher, but other people that lie and abuse like politicians, advertisers, salesmen, capitalists with no conscience. He compares pedophile priests abusing kids to unregulated industries where people are dying in factories due to horrible conditions. He relates unchecked capitalism to people buying their way out of trouble and into politics which only leads to more abuse of power, more cover ups and more scandal underneath the surface of a darker more negative society. Damon states that “A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, the documentary on Morton Downey Jr., Evocateur, Charles Bukowski and a bit of J.D. Salinger were influences.”

Damon ends with: “God declares that the preacher’s deeds will not go unpunished and casts him into some kind of limbo, where he is not saved and is not going to Heaven but will remain for eternity in this place to think about his actions. God is condemning those who have used His name for evil and cares not about how many prayers you made, or confessions, or sermons. He cares about how you treated and taught people. In the end he warns us: think about YOUR actions or YOU could be there with the preacher too.

These words are intended to support the little guy, the poor, the children, the elderly, the abused – the people in society who are most looked down on by the rich and the powerful.

The song leaves you shaking your head at societies mask. As Damon puts it, “I find it interesting that these individuals have this false sense of security about being accepted by God regardless of their actions on Earth – like they believe in Him so much, but not enough to think they can’t outsmart Him.”

Amongst other things, Damon just finished a book with Phil Carson, three years in the making about his seven years as the lead guitarist with James Brown (James Brown-Godfather of Soul 1999-2006) which is being shopped to publishers this week. The working title for the book is: Working for the Man, Playing in the Band, My Years with James Brown.

You can see Damon Woods and Harmonious Junk at their next performance dates:

Mar 14 Quixote’s True Blue

Mar 15-16 Dougherty’s Pub (St. Paddy’s Weekend) with 66 Days & Indigent Row

Mar 21 Jonny G’s in Frisco, CO (Upstairs)

Mar 29 Zio’s Alley Bar

April 3 Brendans Pub

Online: reverbnation.com/damonwoodsharmoniousjunk

Lyrics To “Stolen Valentine”:

CATHOLIC SCHOOL GHOST
You better run to the well
You better fetch a pail or two
You better run like hell
Don’t let the preacher get you
Cos’ he’ll get you one time
He’ll take you for his fancy
He’ll paddle your behind
And then he’ll call you Nancy

All the little girls laugh
They giggle and they tussle
But the boys chuckle not
About his monogrammed belt buckle
And the days pass by
And the children all get taught
By the pedo-preacher teachers
And the nun-ophile lot

And the sun comes down
On the saddest town around
And the clouds turn purple
As the buzzards start to circle
And the winds don’t blow
And the rains don’t snow
And the faces don’t show
What you’re not allowed to know

OLD PREACHER BROWN
With the grease and the grime
All the politician slime
All the carnival barkers
All the strikers and the stalkers
All the blood red wine
So sweet and so sublime
Drip, dripping from the vine
Of my stolen valentine

Is it my casting call
To wager for the reaper
What sin is mine to stall
Deliver thine to keeper
I weep for a way
To brighten up the day
But the sun rises true
For me and not for you

CATHOLIC SCHOOL GHOST
And there’s no one left now
To sanctify the town
Cos’ the Old Preacher Brown
Was the only one left around
He passed in his sleep
He lies now in pasture
With one eye open
For his beloved and vengeant master

GOD
I will strike down the day

You ever used my name
You will reap no more fame
For the souls that you have claimed

CATHOLIC SCHOOL GHOST
But that one last strike
Be delivered from Thy grace
So say almighty God

GOD
I condemn you to this place…

For you are the taker
The waster of youth
A hypocrite and a faker
And you challenge my truth
So suffer the meek and innocent
To a heart so foul
Their souls so divine
Yours just to devour

Who better could there ever be
To lay now to wretched waste
Than a rogue and scoundrel such as you
Condemned to such a fate
May this warning so ring true
To ones of similar state
A stolen valentine
Wins you and me a date