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-- Liner notes to The Arpaia Sound III --


Hauntingly Memorable

About the compositions:

The music to "Merrily ... Happily ..." was written in Vandalia, Michigan. The lyrics were written a week later while the composer was staying overnight in the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago, which since has been torn down. He wrote them on the back of a Newsweek magazine. He writes first the melody, then the lyrics; and as any songwriter will tell you, this is the hard way.

Since all of his music is personal, "On That Hill," "Under The Truant Moon," and "I Am In Your Spell" speak for themselves. "They Won't Go Away" takes him back to the two years he spent in Italy during World War II among jeers, cheers and fears -- Where life was a guessing game and where the bitter reality of war loomed ominously, constantly and devastatingly.

"Here, On This Life's Lonely Road" reflects a piece of his homemade philosophy, which he lives and practices on a day-to-day basis.

"The Tiger King March" is the seventh march he wrote. It was premiered in Chicago on August 1, 1973, under the baton of Paul Barber and a 40-piece band. It was the seventh composition to be played among a program of 21. It was received with acclaim and stood toe-to-toe with the big names in music, including John Philip Sousa. It is presented here in sort of a swing style, with only six instruments.

The following are a few of the composers quotable quips:

  • There are those who love and those who love to hate what you love.

  • In today's society, for a man to act like a gentleman and for a woman to act like a lady puts both of them out of context.

  • To discover is what Columbus did.

  • to explore is what we are doing.

  • You will not find marshmallows in the same establishment where you can buy bullets.

  • You would be better off on a merry-go-round than to be at the bottom of a well without a ladder.

  • When you change your ways and do not change your mind you are still in trouble

  • Life is a cinema in which some of us never get to play the leading role.

  • The law of supply and demand is still the law, and this is why pornography is rampant.

  • When you feel that you are standing on the edge of the world and staring down into an abyss of frustration, confusion and desperation -- this is exactly when you do not need a drink.

  • Some become more mellow with age and some become more rotten.

  • The solution to your problem could be that you do not have a problem. Sadne$ befits some people more so than happiness and it is by being sad that they are happy.

  • We cannot learn how to die, but we can learn how we should live before we do die.

  • What is humdrum today will be nostalgic tomorrow.

  • To do willingly and readily what you must do, but do not like to do, is what makes a front-runner.

  • The best and the worst of what could and might happen to us is potentially at hand until the very day we die.

  • To lay low and calculate is better than to lunge out and speculate.

  • When an unpleasant incident in your past pops into your mind, counteract it immediately with another incident in your past that made you laugh until yoursides split. Without ingenuity, necessity will not invent anything.

  • It is still better to be half alive than to be 100% dead.

  • You can dream yourself to a standstill or you can think yourself to the top of the hill.

  • The wheel that squeaks can also be taken out of service.

  • A gandy-dancer is not what the words imply.

  • The worst possible punishment you could give a left-wing hippy would be to compel him to read the complete works of Horatio Alger.

  • If you believe in ghosts, one day you will see and hear them.

  • Hard work is better than hard liquor, and soft lips are better than soft drinks.

  • When the ball won't bounce, it could be due to a soft arm rather than a soft ball.

  • In 1918, it was the real swine flu, but in 1977 it was the swine flu hullabaloo.


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    Discography ©2004 Phil Milstein