For this song, I only know part of the story. "Fear and Deception" was written by Greg Magnuson shortly before I started playing music with him, and became one of the early staples in Magnuson's set. This song took on a life of its own and I like to think that my contributions to it are largely responsible. It was one of the 2-3 most popular songs off Magnuson's debut album. The song, as the title suggests, is one of the many Magnuson songs that address the state of the world and the polital overtones and undertones that govern our lives. This particular songs delves into the band's mutual distrust for governing bodies in general, and how the use "Fear and Deception" to rule the world, as the song states. It also contains a tinge of Greg's religious beliefs, as all his songs do, but not nearly enough to be considered preaching, and they only enhance the mood of the song. It also mentions a "chip in your hand", which refers to upcoming technology that would place a universal identification and RFID tracking chip into humans. Our government has looked very seriously into implementing this technology, but has settled, for now, for RFID identification cards that all citizens will be required to carry and which are capable of tracking your location at all times. I'm not making this up, folks. But that is a story for another time...


Fear and Deception
I'm feeling a bit scared today.
My clothes are tearing, full of new patches, everything's crumbling away.
Can I survive? Will it all go down as planned?
But with chaotic theories and absolute queries, I'm sure things will get out of hand because…

Fear. Fear and Deception rule the world.

I know it's all been said before.
This way or that way I'll turn cause you know I'm a whore.
She is coming soon, but I won't let her in.
And so it begins, so it begins and I'm falling down, down, down…
Why do…

Fear. Fear and Deception rule the world.

There is a hope. I have it. I am wretched I'll grab it and try even though you laugh
It's just a fairytale but we'll see. On that you know we agree.
But just please remember when there's nothing to eat, and there's nothing to buy
Unless a chip in your hand decides and there's no where to run. There's no where to hide.
Then just fall on your knees, beggin' please save me Jesus.

My contributions to this song are on guitar. I play the melody line during the opening and choruses using an Ebow, which is a device that uses an electromagnet rapidly alternating polarity to cause a string to vibrate at high frequencies, thus producing a very cool effect on guitar. During the first verse, I contributed the harmonic melody that is played over the rythm guitar. During the second verse, the harmonic melody is reprised but with standard notes that give a distinct "dark western", or "dark surf" feel. This is one of the handful of songs on the album that Greg played the guitar solo on, so don't be looking for one of my solos here.

Note to remaining members of Magnuson: If you'd prefer I not have the song posted here, let me know and I'll remove it.

Album is available on CDBaby and iTunes.