Not only did h&s’s summer/fall 2004 sessions yield two records, but six more songs as well. These are b.sides in the sense that they lay outside the songs of “signs.comets,” representing something different from those projects. Composition of the six spans the writing periods for both “Comets” and “Signs” – “After-Hours War belongs to ‘Signs,’ while the others are from the time of ‘Comets,’ and the writing of Bon Jovi spread out, bridging the two periods,” says howie. The signs.comets sessions yielded material that seemed to naturally coalesce into two albums and one companion volume – “b.sides” is that companion, offering a glimpse into what h&s has become and is becoming, and a chance to enjoy some of the band’s most freely imaginative work.
HYMN FOR OUR TECHNOLOGICAL MANIFEST DESTINY
Are there guardian angels writing down our every twist and touch?
Right along a person’s conscience, guarding one against his crutch?
Wright believed in guiding spirits, pushing life towards intellect
While I am between the pages, holding you upon your back, but
You can paint whatever pictures you want to
Now that you’re on your own
Your heavy breathing only now begins to change us through the knee
As we alter change itself from blood to electricity
Listen close but never know its only data, only numbers,
Only time when you and I decide between the torch or tinder…
We find each other
You can paint whatever pictures you want to
Now that you’re on your own
This we do with all intentions to
Raise the standards of our brothers
Suffer west under free discretion
Silicon and quantum flags
SNOW IN THE EAST
And when I go to Africa
Skip the mild midwestern summer
Learning from our distant brothers
Let you watch the kids in Kansas or
Run around the bonster’s in Columbus
And when I talk about my dad
Thinking what you’ve said before
Makes me with I knew him more and he knew me
I could never tell him that it’s snowing in the East
He could never complement me right
But I can see it’s not his fault, it’s mine
Out the window, on the street, looks like
Snowing in the East
Can you mourn a man you never knew?
Even when I see a living footprint,
An echo only real,
If I sit back and look at you
And when it comes to moving on
The oft-repeated sympathy song
I’ll sing for us a different line
About your love and loss and mine and
Run along with you across the land
You asked if you could show your father’s hands…
AFTER-HRS WAR
This letter said “you’re on, you’re on”
The lone poet vs. MSNBC
On war in terms of Hiroshima
This could be the falling-out, I’m sure
The atom bomb of metaphor
Ashen shadows, open doors,
Shattered windows, after-hours war
What truth or sanity can stand in face of
Words spoken from the prophet’s mouth? The media’s wealth?
This could be the falling-out, I’m sure
The atom bomb of metaphor
Ashen shadows, open doors,
Shattered windows, after-hours war
LULLABY
Morning to night
We’ll take it easy
We’ll let each other on top of it all
Just go to sleep
Dream your rock’n’roll dreams
I know you pray, keep God on your lips night and day
Mourning tonight
You will be safe
Next to you, I’m wide awake
Nothing on earth will drag me from being next to your heart while you’re sleeping
Morning/mourning to night/tonight/tonite
WAS I IN BON JOVI FOR A SECOND?
Heavy rhythm, pedal to the floor (and I’ll show you what)
Denim jacket running out the door (and I’ll show you what)
Every night the music calls my name (I’ll show you what)
Flashing lights on the stage and in my brain
The band’s a rock machine
As long as the road is calling, talking dirty to me
Was I in Bon Jovi for a second there?
Was I in Guns’n’Roses for a second there?
Was I in Poison for a second there?
So I’ve been out playing rock for so long
And after the show loving every thing that comes along
While you’ve had late nights and quiet phone lines
Empty rooms and no news of what’s happening this time
Was I in Bon Jovi for a second there?
Was I in Guns’n’Roses for a second there?
Was I in Poison for a second there?
Lay me down, for awhile and
Let me tell you a story my green-eyed child
About a boy and a rock’n’roll band
Long blond hair stuffed into tight leather pants
The road is long, but we have each other now
And there’s no need for missing anymore…
And I love you
I hear the crowd, and they call my name
The multitude so loud we’re left in pain
I can’t tell just where I’ve been
From ’82 til now escapes me
And there’s just one question in my mind
If you could answer me now
I know it’s hard babe, I know it’s hard, but
If we can –
If we could ever stand it,
Now is the moment
Now is the time, so
Was I in Bon Jovi for a second?