Rory Walck

I'm an Analog Man in a Digital World - Release Date October 7, 2025

I’m an Analog Man in a Digital World – This has been my typical response to my wife when I can’t figure out some new tech challenge.  Then one day Jim Cramer started talking about the Metaverse – an imaginary virtual world where people spend real money to buy imaginary real estate to be neighbors with some imaginary celebrity.  Yeah, right.

How Many Yesterdays? – I wrote this song for a long-term friend and former business partner when he was hospitalized in intensive care.  It chronicles our shared experiences of growing up in the 60s with the prospect of being sent to fight in Vietnam, starting work and ultimately leaving to join a startup.  The title refers to all the past decisions we all make that take us down our individual paths.

The Wisdom of a Japanese Elder – On one of my business trips to Japan, I saw a very old man, thin and stooped over, walking in the Ginza.  I drew upon some of the concerns of an old friend in Tokyo to flesh out what the elderly man might have been thinking as he walked among the young people immersed in their smartphones..

Boomer Remover – I wrote this during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to the college students who were having COVID parties and calling the virus the “boomer remover” that would accelerate their inheritances.  Just for fun, I tacked that onto a hypothetical millennial who failed to launch. It's dark and snarky.

When the Last Ship Sails – My Dad had a stroke when he was in his mid 90s.  He was having trouble verbalizing, and we didn’t know how long he would be around.  I wrote this song to let him know that despite our differences over the years, I would be there if he needed me.

A Veteran’s Song – My Dad served in WWII in France, Belgium and Germany.  He never liked to talk about that experience.  I visited him over Memorial Day weekend a few months before he died and wrote this song to thank him and all of our veterans for the sacrifices they make to ensure our freedom.  An advance contribution of royalties from this song has been made to the Honor Flight Network to honor our veterans.  See www.honorflight.org. 

Lifeline – I was one of the early COVID sufferers, having gotten it at the end of 2019 in Portugal.  I knew something was wrong when I was having difficulty breathing, though I was able to avoid hospitalization.  I imagined what it would have been like to be intubated in a hospital ward, not knowing what was going on and whether I would survive, and penned this as a thank you to all the doctors and nurses who risked their lives to keep their patients alive.

A Song for David – David was a long-term friend who came over for dinner most Sundays.  He was quite a character, with a quick wit and sarcasm that rivaled Robin Williams.  When he became the county chair for one of the political parties (it doesn’t matter which one), he cut ties with anyone not firmly on his “team.” I was a casualty of that.  I wrote this as a post-mortem plea for reconciliation.

Ten Minutes to Say Goodbye – My wife’s favorite aunt contracted COVID while in a care facility for Alzheimer’s disease.  The facility gave her daughter ten minutes to stand several feet apart, outside in a Michigan winter, to say goodbye. I wrote this song to reflect her frustration and pain.

O.E.M. – Seeing many of my friends have knee replacements, hip replacements and similar work, it struck me that I have escaped all of that.  This song is a humorous poke at some of the things that my friends in their 70s are enduring (and that I may have in my future).

Ashes and Embers – My wife and I spend a couple of hours each morning walking the local shopping mall to get our exercise knocked out.  During COVID, we saw more and more of the stores closing.  Superimpose that onto what was going on nationally in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.  I used a shift from E Minor to E Major to bookend the flashback to earlier times - the “Leave it to Beaver" days of Eisenhower, the winning of the cold war and fall of the Berlin Wall during the Reagan-Bush years, the balanced budget days and ”workfare," rather than welfare, under Clinton - with a reversion to the minor key as it comes back to today.

I Ain’t Woke – Does this really need any explanation?