If you don’t want to listen to the new song (it’s hard rock/metal) about the new abnormal, you can simply enjoy the photo of the sliver moon and Venus hanging out together in the clouds last night.
While I was cleaning out my address book of people who have died or simply disappeared over the past three years, I realized that outside of my family and work, I have only a few real, in-the-flesh friends in town who I rarely see. I started thinking about how my physical world has grown so small, how the powers that be work hard to keep the world in turmoil, and while their mouthpieces and talking heads in the popular press speak of the “new normal” it’s really the “new abnormal” that is being shoved down our throats. For better or worse, it inspired a new song.
New Abnormal
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
[verse]
I’ve watched my world as it’s grown so small
I sit, I stare, as I listen to The Wall
I would like to break bottles in the hall
But plastic bottles won’t break at all.
I’m feeling spastic I’m all alone
My world is dreary no one’s home
[Chorus]
Will we ever be normal again?
Can we say what normal has been?
The new abnormal is tearing us asunder
They divide us up as they plunder.
[verse]
The hand of doom it pleases me
Mother Mary, can you set me free?
“Man, oh man, you sinned indeed!
Maybe that’s why you can’t see!”
I may be blind my cross-eyed Mary
But the world I see is desolate and scary
[Chorus]
Will we ever be normal again?
Can we say what normal has been?
The new abnormal is tearing us asunder
They divide us up as they plunder.
[Bridge]
All my friends have disappeared
Pandemic lockdowns made us weird
Thinking each other is deranged
Now we are ideologically estranged
Isolation made us rage
We took it in, we felt the pain
Masked like bandits, identities were lost
Now we’re strangers. Was it worth the cost?
[Outro]
Will we ever be normal again?
They said our norms were mortal sins
Their new abnormal will save us any bother
They divide us up
Will we ever be normal again?
They said our norms were mortal sins
Their new abnormal will save us any bother
They divide us up.
They send us off to slaughter
Off Center & Not Even 
The moon and Venus are gorgeous, Tim. It will be too cloudy up here to see them tonight.
Listening now. The music and lyrics are very good. Vocal tracks too Thumbs up!
The moon, Venus, and the clouds were really pretty last night. We got cuatro gotas of rain this afternoon. Thanks, Lavinia. I’m happy you like the song.
Your song puts words to what a lot of people have been feeling. A beautiful night sky!
Thanks, Rebecca.
I agree with Rebecca that the song says what people I know are feeling/saying.
And I also interpreted your words in a very personal way.
It speaks a sad truth (I am not ready to put a capital T on that yet). 🤔
I think you know exactly what I mean. Ad it is a sad truth for many. Thanks, Susan.
You get any air time on the local stations? Tour coming up soon? I liked the night photo too.
No air time, ad especially no tours! I’m just a one man band who forgets how to play what I recorded not long after recording it. Thanks, Brad.
C’mon, a little Tom Petty, a little Van Halen, who wouldn’t like that?!
I would be on “Top Of The world” “Running Down A Dream” if ya know what I mean?
Or Runnin’ With the Devil.
“You Really Got Me” since I have been called the Antichrist! And “I Won’t Back Down!”
That’s the way uh-huh uh-huh I like it
“Yer So Bad” and I “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love” either.
That term “new normal” has always rubbed me the wrong way.
It’s grating as it rubs the wrong way. Thanks, Liz.
Agreed. You’re welcome, Tim.
Great song love the guitar! The picture of the moon is amazing
Thanks, Becky.
I’m very moved by this Timothy. It’s sad and true.
Thanks, Holly.
Thank you!
You DID it. Wonderful song Timothy and the guitar is perfect. Picture is perfect too.
Picture perfect. That’s what I like.
Oh yes. But your pictures are enver less.
Only good thing about this “New Abnormal” is that it inspired this song!
That meat grinder has been working overtime… on both sides.
Love your nightsky.
As much as I’ve been listenting to the wall and watching the video of “Another Brick In The Wall”, it didn’t occur to me to use meat grinder. It would have been prefect. Thanks, Marina.
That scene…
it couldn’t be more timely.
Good morning Timothy…I like both the wild music and the calm image….and agree 100% with your comment….We are living in the new abnormal…We must try not to succumb.
Absolutely. Thanks, Janet.
Great song and great lyrics! It has a touch of Lou Reed from the ’70’s. I loved the story behind the song and it made me think about friends and family that disappeared in my life.
Always nice to get a R&R jumpstart and a rainy and cold morning…
Thanks, Herman. Still dry here. The clouds spit on us last night, but nothing measurable. We’ve had zero precipitation in April so far. Clear and cold this morning.
Spot-on. Especially the bridge lyrics. This is how I feel too – “new normal” was such a bad term. Like why should we be normalizing any of this! Great song!
Exactly. Normalization of aberrant activity is wrong. Even if the aberrant think they are right, history is not on their side. Thanks, JYP.
Oh wow, yes, this is so relatable Tim, you nailed it! I love the guitar in this piece!
Thanks, Tiffany. I’m not happy you can relate, because none of should have to relate to the new abnormal. I’m very happy you like the guitar.
I can unfortunately relate to the new abnormal as well, Tim. A timely subject for a song, and I think this is my favorite to-date. Music and lyrics are spot-on.
As I mentioned to Tiffany, it is unfortunate we all can relate to the song. I wish there were more protest songs out there, but there seems to be few these days. Thanks, Bruce.
Thank you for the beautiful picture that counters that song that makes me so sad. The lyrics the music – perfectly matched. I agree with Bruce, my favourite to date. Covid really did bring out that alienation. Agree with Liz, too. I hate the term “new normal”.
Excellent, my friend.
We live in sad times. I just saw a news piece this morning where the “new normal” was mentioned. Ugh! The media hammers it in. Thanks, Dale.
We do. I was looking for a Northern Exposure clip (of course did not find the one I wanted…) However, I did find this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS2N4VWIbCI
It says so much, doesn’t it?
New Normal and dystopian. Cannot say why I loathe that last one, too.
Easy to say why you loathe Dystopia, too:
1. A place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.
2. A work describing such a place or state.
3. Malposition; dislocation.
I can’t stand the sound of it and even less its meaning!
The clip is right on!
To think that was 1993…
I think I saw that date.
I’m sure you did at the very beginning 🙂
“If we can go back to the pre-COVID days” replaced “If we can go back to the pre-9/11 days.”
“Well, step into my time-machine, my friend, and we’ll go back to those earlier, easier days.” There’s a song there. (A country song, with Vince Gill.)
I don’t want to be living in the pioneer days. Faith Hill, the singer, said in a presser for “1883,” a show on Paramount streaming, she could handle living the pioneer days well. I thought, “No you can’t. You’re living in a fucking movie-set trailer while shooting a TV show. Sam Elliott, your co-star, probably could live in those days.” Sam Elliott loves the cowboy way of life. Plus, Faith would have fewer friends … probably no friends living on the frontier. No nice clothes, no red carpet. Your dog, he’s fed first
Amanda can take you out on the range of the JN Ranch and show you how life hasn’t changed much since the 1880s. Except that you’re not carrying. The rifle is in your truck. At least it’s not an 1860s Springfield rifle. Fire once, eject your spent cartridge, insert new round and fire again. Your sidearm was a modified Navy Colt .45 revolver. And, you don’t have a dugout where you make Last Stand. (It’s called a cellar these days.) In the original North Ranch homestead, dig around in the dugout under the house, you’ll find some spent Springfield rifle cartridges and spent .45 cartridges. Yes, they made a few last stands. The law, in COS, two days ride away, riding at full gallop. That was their “normal.”
I prefer my “normal.”
And, oh, the stew you’re having for supper, you give a bowl to your dog too. He eats what you eat. So does the cat. “Boy, give ’em a little more meat.”
???? I really got you going on this one.
I love my world; it’s my normal. Living part of the past, living part of the now, living part of tomorrow. What I dislike about all the “new normal” shit is my normal is different from yours. My normal is different from Elizabeth’s and Tara’s. The one thing we, us three girls, share is our love for where we’re at, physically at North Ranch, the lives we’re leading. We’re very comfortable with who we are. The one who can really sound off on “normal, abnormal” is Elizabeth. When you hear her, you’re hearing our dad. They are very connected in this respect. You’re also hearing a bit of Amanda too.
BTW, does E dislike this some as much as you?
I’d say more. The Faith Hill comment, we heard it on CBS Mornings, during breakfast, when Faith was doing the promotion for ‘1883’. Elizabeth almost choked on her hot cocoa. It was like “The bitch doesn’t get it. It was a different time. You had to work to keep your house together for your man. If you didn’t, he saddles up and he’s gone. He’s not giving you a second chance. And, he isn’t coming back.”
As previously said, when you hear Elizabeth talk about “normal, abnormal”, you’re hearing our dad nearly word for word. “What you make of your world, what works, what doesn’t, you’re the decider. What’s normal, what’s abnormal, you’re the decider. You live your own life. Not the way I think it should be, what mom thinks, what Laurie thinks. It’s what you think.”
Tara, our most learned reader, says this is what the Thomas Wolfe novel, You Can’t Go Home Again was all about. Normal, abnormal, it is pretty much what she said two years ago:
I hope E recovered from her choking.
She did, but did take a few minutes to clear up.
Maybe you all should have simply enjoyed the photo.
Then we would be talking about “… the Moon, the stars, and New York City …” the Christopher Cross song.
If one can see the moon and stars in New York City.
I was thinking that what I would appreciate from you instead had analogies about rifles and choking on hot cocoa is your honest opinion of the song and the music. You obviously disagree with the premiss. But if you think my lyrics suck. I’m a bad guitarist, abysmal bass player and can’t put a decent drum track together just say it. It’s much more constructive.
That was the question, “Can we say what normal has been?” Your argument about an outdated normal is similar my argument when people say English needs to be the “Official Language” of the US of A. I ask, “Which English? Before 1066 and all that when English became more French than Germanic? Or pre-600, Beowulf and all that?
You can be okay with the post-9/11, post-COVID as your normal, I’m okay with English being a mixed language. I also I have a much longer history of “new normals” to pick and choose from. One doesn’t go back to the 1800s for side arms, the 600s for English or Galan for medicine.
I know all about single-action rifles, lever-action rifles, and Colt 45s. I’ve had them all. I like AK-47s.
This is the third around for me. Don and I listed to her song and read the lyrics again this morning. What was especially poignant to us was these words:
“Will we ever be normal again?
Can we say what normal has been?”
Have we come to a place where we don’t remember what was. It felt like we were in a surrealistic dream to me. What I know for certain was that our blogging community continued to create, to write, to learn, to reach out to each other. And that gave me and continues to give me great comfort.
Thank you Tim for creating a space that welcomes us all.
Younger generations have a different sense of normal that older generations. Based on Deborah’s comments and talking to my young data analyst about normals and whether universal truths exist. People can definitely have issues with the norms that have existed and exist, I certainly do, but at the same time I think we need to challenge all changes to what is considered normalcy to determine if the change is worthwhile. That’s where honest voting comes in. What I think is right, the majority might not think is right, but that majority should be given the opportunity to say I’m not right and how they think it should be. Thanks, Rebecca.
Well said, Tim. It is easy to look back and make judgment pronouncement. It is quite a different thing to navigate the complexities and uncertainties of the “now.” I love how your communicate within our community.
Love the hard rock and your words so right on Tim. Scary times and sad when there are just a few left. Sad to say goodbye. The normal has gotten scary. Love your song always.. wouldn’t ever miss it and the picture is as awesome as your lyrics❣️ Will you please tell me what normal is neemore?
I’ve forgotten what normal is. Thanks, Cindy.
I so agree Tim.. welcome!~ ❣️
Did you write this now, Tim, or during the pandemic?
I wrote the lyrics thee weeks or so ago after cleaning up my address book, as I mentioned. I recorded the song two weeks ago.
Bravo, Timothy! Your inspired lyrics are poignant, and the last line is chilling.
Thanks, Michele.
Excellent song, music, poetry, photo, and video! I concur with your thoughts. I have few known relatives still alive, and some I don’t want to associate with anyway. People have so much baggage nowadays; I’m careful who I befriend. As a nurse, I never bought into the whole COVID pandemic hysteria. I saw it as more politics than medical reality, as did many of my cohorts. And I have fifteen years of experience working in mental health. Mental illness and criminality are being passed off as “normal,” which they are not. It’s tearing our country apart and undermining our quality of life. Remember the old saying: “The pathway to Hell is paved with good intentions,” although political manipulation is probably more motivated by evil intentions than good.
Very well put, Dawn. And it’s frustrating that so many people advocating for criminals don’t want to deal with mental illness. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
That first shot is quite psychedelic.
I really like this song.
Do you get the comments when I leave them on Soundcloud?
So, a new song every Monday?
Yes I do and I replied to them. Maybe next Monday. I don’t have that many new songs. Thanks, Resa.
Lol! I have to go to SC and look!
The words are amazing. It’s Something I couldn’t have said better myself!
Thanks, Diamonds or Light.
You are now officially only the second person that has been able to successfully use asunder in a song – the other one I believe is going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year so you might have a good chance on the next ballot. Just remember, they are only relevant and profitable when they keep us divided.
Absolutely. Thanks, Brian.
New music to start the week is dope
???
Oh sorry I thought you did it every week from the title 🤦🏿♂️ my bad
Only occasionally. Thanks, chaz.