Steve really should gather all his original songs up and make an album of them one day. The only things stopping him is time (consumed by family, a video company, band performances and projects) and marketing. Promoting oneself is a time consuming job that the mild-mannered, modest personality of Mr. Flynn is not cut out for. He is a composer. Maybe one day he will put his work up and out on the internet (if he gets enough requests, hint hint).
You will find many of Steve’s songs distinctively dramatic, soulful, and turbulent. Even if the lyrics are simple, the melody line undulates, swings, dips and is a little bit dark and humid.
Stories about characters, struggles we’ve all been through in one way or another, the roller coaster ride of feeling out of control. For and artist, writing a song is a way of gaining control of the emotional world. Steve’s songs are sexy. He’s a sexy man!
Song history notes and a little gossip
Laying my Life on the Line
I’m laying my life on the line for your love.
Darling please don’t let me down.
If you ever should go,
ever should leave me for some other man
My heart would brake, my life would end,
the stars would fall from the sky.
My world would end the minute you say good bye
. . .
(Sound file coming soon)
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One early summer evening in Seattle a big thunder storm moved in. It was very eerie and magnificent. That night Steve wrote a spooky song about extra terrestrials arriving. It made the hairs stand up on your neck and shoulders. It was so mysterious and beautiful. The song was called Music.
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Bringing the Love Back to Life
Another interesting song he wrote came about because of a friend and neighbor named Mary Ann Berden. All our kids were either babies or in preschool together. Her husband was working for an eccentric artist and local filmmaker by the name of Karl Krogstad. Mary Anne knew about a video they were making with Debra Winger. Apparently Karl wrote the script and shot it as an MTV-style music video, but they didn’t have the song or music yet (a somewhat backward approach to make the film and find the right music for it afterward). So, since Steve had the inside scoop on what they were shooting, along with the storyline, he wrote a song to fit the scenario and submitted it. Carl liked it a lot, but he explained he was looking for big money to go with it. He was trying to shop it to an already established recording artist and their record label. Last we heard Herby Handcock had been interested but nothing ever happened with it. Steve wrote a beautiful song. One of those typical soulful and mysterious Flynn songs you can’t get out of your head. All the kids in the neighborhood were humming it, too.
Living on the Edge
A delirious little song with an addictive chorus is “Living on the Edge.” Steve wrote and sang it with Jr Cadillac for a while but it’s been shelved in recent years. I don’t believe it was ever recorded in a studio. Enjoy them live at the Jr. Cadillac Cinema Multiplex
The doctor tells me that I’m not a healthy man
they say I’ll surly live a very short life span
But what do they know about the longitude or the latitude of my mind
My friends tell me that I really should come down
that my feet are never planted on the ground
I like to cruise up in the stratosphere
a forsaken fear
to fly . . .
Jumpin Out of My Skin
Another song with lyrics that might lead you to believe he was a little crazy is “Jumpin Out of My Skin.” Never recorded except on video. See the Jr. Cadillac Cinema Multiplex
Gotta heart full of love
gotta girl full of heat
gotta head full of dreams
and rhythm in my feet
gotta topped off load
I’m about to explode . . .
Can You Call the Angels Down
This song was inspired by the troubled times we are facing these days. The melody has a gospel choir sort of feeling to it. It’s very enthralling to hear Steve play and sing this song and it always puts me on the edge of sobbing. Not so much because of the lyrics as it is the melody and his playing. There is a depth and an immediacy to its message. It should be played in churches. It should be sung by the Seattle Girls Choir.
Slip Away
Slip Away was a favorite song of his that he played with Jr Cadillac, a song that was certainly Flynn. It was recorded on the “All Night Long” collection and the “Birthday Party Live”
I want you right now
I want you here
I wanna whisper sweet and low, in your little ear
Tomorrow may be too late, gotta Slip away.
It didn’t sound like a Jr Cadillac song. It was slow and sexy. A girl's song maybe. Men didn’t know how to dance to it. There is a signature to Steve’s music. Soul. . . and soul is the other woman if you ask me — Delilah.
Steve has done a lot of personal soul searching in his lifetime. Being born on the cusp between Libra and Scorpio may have something to do with it. His whole life has had a deep soul questing nature.
When the TV mini series adaptation of the book Lonesome Dove came out, Steve got a couple letters from people who were familiar with the “Tales of the Night Wind” recording saying they thought the instrumental song he wrote called “Angelita” should have been the theme song for the mini series. It must have been that soulful sound signature that is so much a part of a Steven Flynn original. There is an atmosphere to Angelita that does fit the open airiness of the Western Frontier combined with the beauty and soul in flight, like a dove. Fans have said they enjoy a drive or commute through beautiful countryside with Steve's instrumentals in the car CD player.
Steve has a sense for the rhythm cycles of the natural world and emotion, which suits well for creating songs, melodies, and soundscapes for just about any purpose or situation. A major motion picture soundtrack work should be in Steve’s future one of these days soon. Steve certainly possesses the depth of life and musical experience now, as well as the multi-faceted artistic finesse and cultural awareness to do it all.
The late Eddie Rabbit’s wife Janine Rabbit came out with an instructional bellydance video that was being promoted on all the national talk shows for a while. She used a song from Tales of the Night Wind to dance to on the programs. During the Regis and Kathy show, Carol Burnett (actually a very good belly dancer herself) danced to Steve's music.
Delilah performed a Turkish Dance to a song of Steve's called Orient Express on the International TV program Sabado Hegante about that same time. Dancer, Choreographer and Historian, Laurel Victoria Gray was using a lot of Steve's music in Choreographies in Germany, and Wendy Buenoventura (actress, dancer and author of “Serpent of the Nile”) used selections by Flynn in England.
In 1998, Steve was invited to play on three other artists’ albums:
• Ahsas, by Jeremiah Soto/Solace with special guest artists Steve Flynn, Harry Saroyan and Lydia Fortner .
• Shemah, by Ani Williams with special guest artists Steven Flynn, Armando Mafufo, Richard Williams, Robert Cory and Irene Tukufu.
• A Time of Peace, by Brothers of the Baladi. Steve is featured playing Silent Night on the ney.
• Steve wrote a song called Spin and Shout, featured on the “Welcome to the Dance” CD (written and recorded in 1992 and 1995). It showed up on a recording by Bassem Yasbek called Bassem And Noura (released in 2001). The recording was made in Lebanon and is relicensed in the US. Bassem sampled Steve’s song, augmented a little bit, titled it Serpent Dance and “forgot” to put the original musician and composer’s name on the recording. We were left with a strange set of emotional reactions upon hearing it. Sort of a compliment (I guess he at least liked the song enough to steal it). So Steve's music is enjoyed in Lebanon now too!
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