Passion Play by George Wallace

Own Mind: Written after reading Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas years ago. Thanks for the inspiration, Hunter S. Thompson...I trust you're in a better place now.

Winds of Change: This song was just music and a title until last year when a book I'd been reading, Buddhism Without Beliefs, by Stephen Batchelor, helped to shed some light on the subject of living in the moment, which is something that doesn't always come easily to me.

Be This True Love: I wanted to write a very real love song about a very real relationship, and I wanted it to be perfect. If it's not perfect, it's as close as I'm humanly able to get it. The music came to me while I was sitting in church one day, which kind of figures.

Hands of Heaven: I borrowed a character from an older song of mine, an old wretch, and gave him the starring role in this one. I wonder if a person can more easily find God by looking inward, not outward. Is it also possible to have a relationship with the Divine without the guilt and shame we so often attach?

Hooray for US: "Tell a lie long enough, and loud enough, and eventually the people will believe it." -Adolph Hitler. "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time." -Abraham Lincoln

Hamburger Man: Hey kids!!! We're all going to the CIRCUS!!! I have this recurring vision that Ronald McDonald and that creepy little "Chuckie" doll were found to be first cousins. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Say Goodbye NY: I actually got to visit St. Tropez last year for a lovely, romantic three days. The song, however, was written many years before about my disenchantment with the Record Biz. The post-9/11 rewrite has given it a larger and deeper dimension. Forever the optimist, I remain convinced that indeed, Somewhere Is Love...

Forget To Remember: This is one of those songs I'm not sure there's a meaning to. There are several possibilities, each weaving in and out of the other: 1) the old "life is but a dream" concept, 2) what goes around comes around, 3) paradox is all around us.

Take your pick, and be assured there are no wrong answers.

George's flair for composing and playing first appeared when he began classical piano and theory lessons at age eight in Philadelphia, PA. At 13 he encountered the absolute coolness of the electric guitar. He soon threw himself into a series of late'60s-influenced bands (with names like Dark Side, Soul Society, Mass Confusion) as bass player, vocalist, keyboardist, and writer. At Berklee College of Music in Boston, he majored in composition and arranging and played with other groups, settling in with "Fate", a busy, successful club act headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts. During this time, he was initiated into multitrack recording. The group recorded a string of singles, all written and/or produced by George.

He left the group after six years to pursue a solo recording career in New York City. After signing a major multi-album deal with CBS/Epic Records and a publishing agreement with Screen Gems, his two albums under that label were: "Heroes like You and Me" in 1980 and "What It Is" in 1982. Virtually all parts were sung or played by George himself. Both albums enjoyed enviable critical acclaim by numerous industry publications such as the Gavin Report, High Fidelity, Record World, Trouser Press, and Billboard.

According to one reporter, George had created a "high-level synthesis of style and influences...yet with something indefinably original about it, possessed of its own quirky energy... a real thing" according to Matt Damsker of the Philadelphia Bulletin (April 26, 1981).

In 1983 George left New York for Bucks County, PA, where he was free to explore the finer subtleties of his maturing songwriter's persona. He wrote and recorded over an increasingly wide range of dynamic and lyric styles. He occasionally produced other acts and produced several planetarium show soundtracks. For a little while longer, he continued writing "crash-boom-bang" material for Screen Gems; several songs from this period received airplay through cover versions from such artists as Ted Nugent, Pat Travers, and Joan Jett, as well as some European artists generally unknown in the American mainstream.

His subject matter expanded into compositions more introspective and spiritual. In 1985 George formed his own new studio and production company, AirBorn Music, and produced three landmark instrumental works: "Sacred Earth" (1985), "Communion" (1988), and "Frontiers" (1993). All three AirBorn releases were soon taken to heart by radio audiences for whom unique new music is the norm. He was a featured artist on Philadelphia-produced shows Diaspar and Star's End, and nationally recognized on widely syndicated shows like Echoes, Hearts of Space, and Musical Starstreams. He found himself in good radio company; the compositions of Kate Bush, Tangerine Dream, Steve Roach, Richard Burmer, Andreas Vollenweider, and Philip Glass were apt to be heard before or after a George Wallace cut had been played.

In 1997 he spent a year and a half in Japan, where he wrote a wealth of new material, both instrumental and vocal. The potpourri of new instrumentals took on the title If "I Had A Ship..." The song collection found its own title, "Set Free." After his return to America, George finished and mixed both projects almost simultaneously. In the spring of 2000, George reconnected with his first love from many years before. Ultimately he moved out to Alaska to be with her, and there he now resides. From this new studio amidst the mountains was Passion Play recorded.

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