The Music of Bruce W. Stevenson and Friends

This meeting again is not just an ordinary meeting after a long time – it’s a meeting after her death.

A totally fictional story about a girl realizing her guy was acting like he was in love- just with someone else!

Written at the height of the Covid crisis, I was perhaps a little too optimistic about when it would end. Nevertheless, it is indeed a song about the elation of coming through any crisis, and the gratitude we should feel. The only response to that feeling of gratitude for me is to love life and everyone I meet.

Ro and I have been together since we were seventeen. She is my rock. We don’t have that gushy, showy PDA kind of love, but we feel deeply grateful for each other – loving me is not easy, so I’m the truly lucky one!

I came up with this Zeppelin-like riff and because we were writing songs for the album that paid tribute to the bands we covered when we were touring, I thought it would be nice to try to make something that sounded like the instrumental Zeppelin (who could replicate Robert Plant’s singing anyway?!). The drum solo is not great, but it is a LIVE solo, unedited. I haven’t done a live solo in nearly forty years, so it is the best I could do and be authentic.

Danny heard me do this one solo (with me singing all the parts) and suggested that we try to include our younger brother Hal and make it a “Three Brothers” song. The song is light-hearted and fun, and the idea of us singing together for the first time ever was fun, too. It is a fitting legacy work – and those who have done recording know how TRUE the lyrics are!

When we were a local teenage rock band, Hereafter was well known and did a few original songs mixed in secretly with our cover songs. Bruce pulled this song out of the old recordings and revamped it with some better drumming and added Mike Fowler on lead (Mike had toured with us when we turned pro in 1974). Steve Guyer’s son, Gabe, does the “old man” voice in the song that was his father’s part in the song when we played it live. Steve had recently passed away when this album was being recorded. Gabe sounds EXACTLY like Steve did back then. What a great gift to us all!

This song throws the kitchen sink at the idea of Fear as a weapon. The King Crimson quote (licensed for use) is from “Epitaph” on the In the Court of the Crimson King album (ca 1969).

This guy is truly delusional – and the comedy keeps coming. The song begins with some funny lines from movies, continues with a ridiculous series of gaffs, and includes a rock rendition of the love theme from Tchaikowsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” – it’s all just crazy fun.