BAND: American Zen
ALBUM: Memorial Day Album
American Zen was founded in 1992 when Coyote moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior bands included The Rich and Coyote in a Graveyard rock opera. Coyote is also Buddha Zhen who records Tai Chi and Kung Fu music. Shaolin Records is releasing the acoustic solo recordings of The Coyote under the new band name, THC The Hippy Coyote, although his last gig at the Tribal Cafe, Los Angeles, in 2013 was billed as "Kung Fu Cowboy," not American Zen.
Check out the 2014 American Zen MEDIA KIT about the End of the Line album
All songs, lyrics and poetry written by Richard Del Connor, The Hippy Coyote.
Song List: Memorial Day Album album by American Zen
All songs, lyrics and poetry written by Richard Del Connor, The Hippy Coyote.
Album available from Shaolin Records at:
- product page: Memorial Day Album ALBUM at shaolincom.com (Shaolin Communications)
- product page: Memorial Day Album ALBUM at shaolinrecords.com
Songs (in album order)
0. Homepage of ALBUM WEBSITE - Memorial Day Album
- homepage: americanzen.org
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com
- DESCRIPTION: Small website within www.americanzen.org with webpage for each lyric of the album, Memorial Day Album by American Zen. All songs were written by Richard Del Connor "The Hippy Coyote" on Memorial Day 2014. All songs written in one day plus the 10-minute poem, "Father to Son." The entire album was recorded during the next week with Coyote performing all the instruments in his 1996 Toyota Tacoma truck with a purple shell on the back. The kick drum is Coyote stomping his feet on the truck floorboards and recording them with his condensor microphone held between his legs...
- Author COMMENTS: The weirdest part of this amazing experience, was when I got a chance to record the vocals in a better environment, I couldn't do it. All the rough vocals are the final vocals. I was barely aware of what the melody even was. These were the "songwriter" versions of the original songs... that became the master recordings. I was singing "in their voices." Almost all of these songs were visions and inspirations outside of my reality or history. It was like watching a movie, the songs just happened before my eyes--within my mind.
1. War Sucks! (Instrumental Version)
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related book: Rainbow in the Shade poetry book by Coyote
- DESCRIPTION: Instrumental version of song with a couple chord changes differring from "War Sucks!" recording with vocals at the end of this Memorial Day Album by American Zen. This anti-war anthem sounds like the rock group KISS, with lyrics by John Lennon.
- Author COMMENTS: Of all the songs on this Memorial Day Album record, "War Sucks!" is probably... well, now that I think about it... I remember seeing college kids and megaphones... Wow! This song may not even be inspired by me. I think I was on a college campus viewing an anti-war demonstration against Vietname. Wow.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
2. Friendly Fire
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- DESCRIPTION: Powerful, dramatic, moving, and shocking song about a soldier killing a comrade in the heat of a battle.
- Author COMMENTS: This song made me cry many times. I will never perform the songs on this album in public. Not even "War Sucks!" This album was made so that these voices could speak their stories. They have spoken.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
3. Camp Tehr Ohr
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- DESCRIPTION: Another powerful dramatic rock song from a James Bond type movie.
- Author COMMENTS: These visions were all from the last decade--I guess.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
4. Every Breath I Breathe
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- DESCRIPTION: Bouncy rock song with unique riff and strong melody despite it being first song melody inspired by a Lakota spirit.
- Author COMMENTS: I can still see this guy in my mind. When I sang, he was singing, and he didn't know how to sing. We were stumbling along. I was shocked to realize this melody discovery recording was the final vocal. He was/is Lakota Sioux and I was speaking in his voice with his words.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
5. Pictures of Home
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related book: Sid's Place novel by Coyote
- DESCRIPTION: Another tear jerker for Coyote as he felt the passion, longing, desire, and frustrations of this soldier. This is a strong song that doesn't speak against war or for war. This song innocently portrays the desire of a soldier to be with his family for Christmas.
- Author COMMENTS: I love this song, because every time I sang this song or played it, I felt the hope of this soldier.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
6. Memorial Day
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "Chinese Cutlery page 1"
- DESCRIPTION: Coyote's personal song about his personal life at the time this album was written on Memorial Day 2014.
- Author COMMENTS: I'm not even gonna ever sing this song either. I don't want to revisit this period of my life any more. I've spent too much time being homeless and poor already.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
7. Bags On Their Heads
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "About American Zen"
- DESCRIPTION: This song may be a personal statement by Coyote.
- Author COMMENTS: I've been complaining that all the policemen being hired are all mercenaries and ex-soldiers. We are creating an abusive army to subjugate ourselves with. Hitler did the same thing before he began WWII.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
8. Bombs from God
9. Father to Son (Poem)
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "About Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 1"
- DESCRIPTION: This poem was written as Coyote went to bed. He couldn't sleep, it was after midnight and he sat up in the back of his truck, turned on his flashlight, and wrote this poem. When Coyote awoke on Memorial Day morning, he had all the other songs in his head.
- Author COMMENTS: I think I was trying to imagine myself writing this to my son Rory, but it was actually some other father talking to his son, perhaps 30 or 40 years ago.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
10. War Sucks! (with vocals)
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "BZ Monk Spade"
- DESCRIPTION: Hard rock ANTI-WAR ANTHEM.
- Author COMMENTS: I thought I'd get to come back and cut this vocal again. Maybe I should've tried, but I gave up after trying to seek several other songs from this record.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
All songs, lyrics and poetry written by Richard Del Connor, The Hippy Coyote.
Album available from Shaolin Records at:
Songs (in album order)
1. Use Me
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "American Zen"
- DESCRIPTION: Rock blues song with a slow bounce to it.
- Author COMMENTS: Written April 24, 2012. This song starts the album and my new life without a family. After being a Mr. Mom since 1991, I was unable to support myself financially. When I moved to Las Vegas to start a Shaolin Kung Fu school, I ended up being used and told to, "hit the road," after performing a couple months of Chinese Lion Dances for the existing Vegas school of my Kung Fu brother. I ran into some "seedy characters" and with my bald head and "Buddha Zhen" name being my primary Vegas identity... people started confessing to me. I heard things I'm still trying to forget. This horrible environment, abandonment, and near starvation... was a scary life in a city where I didn't have a single friend or relative. For the first time in my life, I feared death on a daily basis...
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
2. High School Graduation Reunion
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "Concerts"
- DESCRIPTION: British blues classic rock style of Coyote who used to play The Yardbirds, Cream, and Beatles...
- Author COMMENTS: I wrote this for my upcoming 40-year high school reunion of Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, California. The reunion was not what I'd hoped for as I was also soliciting everyone for Kung Fu and Tai Chi classes... for their kids... But I actually graduated from Prince of Wales Collegiate in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1971. I was exiled from the USA in 1970 for drug trafficking. When I returned to San Diego in 1972 to attend the June graduation ceremony of Patrick Henry, I had completed a year of Memorial University of Newfoundland "MUN" and hitchhiked home across Canada and down the Pacific Coast.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
3. Scorpion Resurrection
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "Cool Stuff"
- DESCRIPTION: Light-hearted rock'n'roll with Coyote's autobiography of becoming the "Kung Fu Cowboy."
- Author COMMENTS: In February of 2013 Scott Karahadian and I completed the 4th draft of Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 1 screenplay. Although there were 21 songs of mine in the movie, none of them had been written "for the movie." So I decided to write a song for the movie and this is what I wrote, "Scorpion Resurrection." Now can I win an Oscar?
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
4. Secret Asian Girl
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "About Buddha Kung Fu"
- DESCRIPTION: "Secret Asian Girl" was written for Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 2. Classic rock blues style of the sixties is reminiscent of "Secret Agent Man" and "Taxman" by The Beatles.
- Author COMMENTS: I was truly in love with Secret Asian Girl when I wrote this song. Having completed the Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 1 screenplay, my creativity sought the continuing saga and the answers to many questions... like, "Do ghosts exist... and how?" These questions are answered in ways that surprised me, so I know the audience will be surprised also.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
5. Rock Me Hard
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "Chinese Cutlery page 2"
- DESCRIPTION: Fifties style rock'n'roll like Eddie Cochran or "Rock Around the Clock" by the happy hippie, The Hippy Coyote.
- Author COMMENTS: I was really horny, and happy, yet somehow almost starving... eating a can of fish, a grapefruit and cereal... but I was happy. I'm not as happy now as I write this, one year later. I'm in my daughter Caitlin O'Connor's apartment. Almost everything has been cleared out to their new townhouse in Sylmar, California. Caitlin keeps telling me, "You don't have any strings attached dad. You're free. You can go where you want and do what you want. You don't realize how lucky you are."
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
6. Kung Fu Cowboy 2
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "Chinese Cutlery page 1"
- DESCRIPTION: I had a zillion lyrics for this song. I tested them on Rory and friends until I narrowed it down to these lyrics... which fit together beautifully.
- Author COMMENTS: I had a zillion lyrics for this song. I tested them on Rory and friends until I narrowed it down to these lyrics... which fit together beautifully in a logical final manner. There are some lyrics that I don't think have ever been aired on American radio, "...rooted to the ground in a horse stance."
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
7. Take Me Apart
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "About American Zen"
- DESCRIPTION: Romantic ballad with up-beat verses written to Secret Asian Girl. In the movie, Coyote will perform the song live on a Chinese pipa.
- Author COMMENTS: Passionate song I wish I'd written to a real person... who could reciprocate my love... This song will be really romantic in the Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 2.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
8. End of the Line
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "Samples of American Zen"
- DESCRIPTION: Vicious song about self-destruction and repeating the same mistakes over and over and over...
- Author COMMENTS: This song may have a generic angst to it--but it was inspired by a guy and a girl I knew in 2013 who were their worst enemies. You have to scream at people like them, because otherwise they don't take your seriously. But they've been screamed at and beaten down their entire life, so although they seem indestructible, they are ready to implode with just a little agitation.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
9. Honor and Obey, Cherish and Protect
10. Black Hills Ride
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "BZ Monk Spade"
- DESCRIPTION: Cook BTO Bachman Turner Overdrive, Lynard Skynard southern rock song about driving a chopper motorcycle through the windy mountain roads of the Black Hills.
- Author COMMENTS: I've got a strong hankering for a chopper the past couple years.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
11. Starting Over Again
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: KungFuCowboy.com "Movie Samples"
- DESCRIPTION: Flute solo song by The Hippy Coyote. Written during the lusty summer of 2013 as Coyote walked through his neighborhood playing his flute.
- Author COMMENTS: I'm not happy with the album song. The bass got knocked out of tune and I didn't realize it until I'd put the 1957 Rickenbacker 4000 back in storage. I look forward to cutting this song again while performing in concert. I'll play it even better and...
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
12. End of the Line - Scott Mix
- lyrics: americanzen.org
- lyrics: shaolinmusic.com
- related website: youtube.com "Peace of Mind #2" by Scott Karahadian
- DESCRIPTION: A preliminary mix of the song as Scott packed up the last of his stuff in the Van Nuys office/apartment on Gault Street of Kung Fu Cowboy Rock & Roll Movie 1 LLC. Scott hurriedly mixed the song and put some neat effects on the vocal.
- Author COMMENTS: The mix of mine of "End of the Line" on this album has zero vocal effects. Maybe compression. I barely mixed a few elements of the song before I got locked out of the rap studio I was mixing in. They were having "trouble keeping the lights on." So this album, End of the Line, is hardly finished. There isn't a final mix on the album and only a slight bit of mastering using Scott's Logic program to adjust the volumes of the various songs together onto the album.
- Song used in OTHER PRODUCTS:
Check out the 2014 American Zen MEDIA KIT about the End of the Line album
About Shaolin Records
Shaolin Records was launched in 1984, releasing vinyl records and cassette tapes of Kung Fu music from Santa Monica, California. With its' origins in Shaolin Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism, Shaolin Records strives to 'enlighten and entertain™.'
Media Contact:
Richard Del Connor
Producer, Shaolin Records
www.shaolinRECORDS.com
About American Zen
American Zen is led by The Hippy Coyote who fronts the band on flute and acoustic guitar. Coyote is a renaissance man who writes all the music, lyrics, and poetry. The Christ Killer album cover is a self-portrait by Coyote near the tomb of Rudolph Valentino.
Media Contact:
The Hippy Coyote
The Happy Hippie of American Zen
www.americanZEN.org
Artists of Shaolin Records
1974 - Lotus
1978 - The Rich
1985 - Coyote in a Graveyard
1989 - Coyote Graveyard
1992 - American Zen
1994 - Buddha Zhen
2003 - THC The Hippy Coyote
2009 - Kung Fu Cowboy
2013 - Buddha Z
Shaolin Records Press Room