This song describes four or five different individuals (including myself!) conflated into one. Yes and it addresses the fact that I don't act anymore or even play out. Also, the only gambling I do now is in the studio, and the only audience I entertain is my wife. So at first I was calling this song "All That Remains," until the engineer recording my bare-bones guitar and vocal (Ariel Shafir at Dreamland) said, "No man, you gotta call it: 'All The Rage!'"...Evidently he was right. Next I added Dan Hickey on drums but Tony Levin was on tour so I brought in a new cohort, Jeff Keithline, who helped work out a very cool double bass part, though I still wasn't sure the song would fly. Then the lead singer was killed by blow-dart at the end of the Rave-Up. And that definitely helped. Finally I sent RAGE to Daniel A Weiss who added keyboards (including a fantastic psuedo-slide guitar solo) and we were victorious at last. Dan was also supposed to help with a Lennon/McCartney harmony but he left his voice in San Francisco. Me? I don't travel and assiduously cleave to Greta's tiny carbon footprint plan. Too bad it ain't ALL THE RAGE!
lyrics
All The Rage Words and Music by Tad Wise
You're repellant and irresistible.
How'd you manage that?
You Mephisto you...
Taunting contradiction in the dark...
How is it you tenderize my heart?
Why I should ask this I can't explain.
Because it is and is not a game.
And why it should be...all that remains.
Of my life on the stage--all the rage.
All The Rage.
You can't sell it but you're irreplaceable.
No one can tell you why.
At least not to your face, no sir.
Haunting contradiction in the dark...
And still you have tenderized this heart.
Why I confess this I can't explain
Because it is and is not a game.
And why it should be...all that remains
Of my life on the stage--all the rage.
All The Rage.
Solo
You're the last tentacle of the octopus.
Eight arms once held me fast--
Escape quite impossible.
Courting contradiction in the dark...
Don't you ever tire of the part?!
Why I should ask this is finally plain.
Because it is and is not a game.
And so it must be...all that remains
Of us charging 'round youth's stage--
All the vain pain.
All The Rage.
("Two, Three, And...")
All the rage... All the rage.
Do you remember when, remember when
We were all the rage, babe?
All the rage! All the--all the--all the rage.
'Feeling, we were feeling. We were feeling...
All The Rage.
We were feeling, we were feeling. We were feeling...
ALL THE RAGE!
Grand Adventure Music
BMI 2023
credits
from The TakeAway,
released November 18, 2023
Tad Wise: guitars and vocals
Jeff Keithline: 1st & 2nd bass
Dan Hickey: drums
Daniel A Weiss: keyboards (including pseudo-slide guitar)
Original tracks recorded at Dreamland Studio by Ariel Shafir
Additional tracks engineered and mixed until mastered by Mark Dann
at Mark Dann Studios.
Produced by Tad Wise
Tad Wise started writing songs at ten, while raking Bob Dylan’s leaves. He was discovered by John Hall in 2000 who promptly
produced Wise’s first CD. Twenty years later Wise returned. First with "For The Record," with Tony Levin & Jerry Marotta. Then with "Mind's Eye." In 2023 he'll release
"The TakeAway," starting with the title track...right now....more
