Here are the original liner notes to JLK's NMTSTW.

If you have heard these songs - this background information may be of interest to you....

Friend Among Friends
In a not too distant future, when the people with money can afford life-extending drugs and genetically engineered children, parenting will begin with a catalogue; picking and choosing genetic information to custom build the child of your choice. DNA from historical figures and, more expensively, celebrities, will be on offer with many parents opting for a winning combination. Of course, just the DNA won't be enough to come up with the goods - for the real deal the kids will have to be subjected to whatever hardships and challenges their gene sponsors went through in their lives, making for some very interesting, to say the least, child rearing techniques. Not to mention a generation of truly disturbed kids, swelling the ranks of the world's economic elite. Hooray for genetic engineering! Hooray for cloning!

Keys - David Lane. Backing Vocals - Abby Dobson, Margot Smith, David Lane. Lead Acoustic Guitar - Jeremy Butterworth.

Bon Nuit Robert
Every year hordes of drunken backpackers descend on my hometown of Bondi Beach to revel and pillage and generally act as wonderful emissaries for the international community. One hazy summer night, whilst living next door to a thriving Hostel, a drunken brawl took place outside my very window. Which is par for the course in these parts but in my delicate state of mind it prohibited me from making my way to the girl I was seeing two doors down. I eventually picked up the courage and left this song as a note to my flatmate, whom had a penchence for speaking in broken French for some reason.
Keys - David Lane. Wind-On Guitar - Phillip Nunn. Backing Vocal Effects - Craig Kamber, Hannah Hilliard.

Rehash
Has there actually been a remake of a song, band, cartoon, comic or book that is actually better than the original? It seems people are willing to plunder even the most obscure things to try to reap some cash. Have we really become so bereft of new ideas? Personally however, I find these excursions in nostalgia immeasurably enjoyable. Since they are already covering familiar territory, I have no fear of coming across something new which I may not like. I'm particularly looking forward to the soon-to-be-in-production Wacky Races live action flick with a soundtrack by the reformed (original) Banana Splits. Now there was a band with talent…
Once Drooper gets out of rehab those guys are gonna rock!

Backing Vocals - Abby Dobson, Blips + Bleeps - Russell P. Kilbey, Flute - Sandy Klose

Stranger Things
This is one of those dreams that stays with you forever. Although I don't quite know why … probably because I wrote this song about it.
I couldn't believe (in the dream) that all my friends at this party were so enthralled with this evil man, when I was there to entertain them! His magick was greater than my natural charm and not even chanting would cut the metaphysical mustard. In frustration, and using all of my inner reserves I shook my girlfriend and managed to vibrate her out of her delusion and into mine. By this stage the thought of saving anyone else was too much. So we left and are still living happily in the world of dreams somewhere. What else could we do?
Keys - David Lane Backing Vocal - Margot Smith.

Spinning Off the Karmic Wheel
The great wheel of Karma turns oblivious to the lives of us mere mortals, with every one of our actions jamming our figurative fingers deeper into the spokes. Even those amongst you whom consider Karma an archaic Eastern notion, diluted by the deluded, or worse, a crock of cockadoodie, will agree that we humans are in a bit of a pickle. My personal suggestion, distilled from all great spiritual leaders, is to generate some bonus cookie points by trying to be as kind and considerate to those around you as you can. It's an outrageous and some might add foolish idea, I know, but imagine if it was just crazy enough to catch on.
Keys - David Lane, Backing Vocal - Margot Smith

Travelling Karma
The events in this song played out in real life and wrote themselves in my memory as they happened. I was feeling intoxicated and delirious and wanted to help the unwitting heroine of the tale in a spontaneous fit of compassion and empathy. I walked her to her Hostel, which seemed unfit for such seeming innocence, and left her there promising me she would call out if she found it wasn't to her liking. I caught the bus home and had a run in with the conductors. Just because they are in uniform doesn't mean they have to be rude does it? I made a stand against authority and the arrogance of the English speaking world right there on the 380! That night I kept an ear out in case the first girl took me up on my offer but she never did. Not that I can blame her really, you really can't be too careful when talking to strangers…
Keys - David Lane, Washboard - Anthony Shorte.

Under a Lid
This is one of three of my friends' songs that I have appropriated in my own way for this record. I changed a few of the words and wrote the second verse but by and large it is the work of one Andy Gordon, gods bless his immortal soul. I guess it really clicked with me on a very real level, being as I am, as emotionally stunted and shut down as most men I know. If you think I am being overdramatic take a look at our world leaders or take a look at the man you're with. Well balanced, mentally, emotionally and spiritually? Yeah right.
Acoustic Guitar - Andy Gordon, Jeremy Butterworth, Matt Clyde.

I Want Your Body (to Satisfy Me).
This song is was originally written with one of the students at the Sounds of the Street course I am involved in. The guy I was writing it with skipped town before we finished it so I took the liberty…
It is written from the point of view of your favourite drug; be it legal or illegal. Maybe the relationship is one of mutual dependence, like an unhealthy partnership. I imagine the sultry substance singing softly to itself as you carry it in for some quality time at home. It seems so happy you are devoting so much time and energy to your relationship with it. Listen closely…I think it may even whisper your name in a chemically induced fit of passion.
Backing Vocals - Abby Dobson

I Hoped That You Would Look Like Her.
I knew a guy who had the spurious job of changing the photos in the trash-weekly magazines. The editors would send down a photo of a celebrity jogging or such with instructions like, "Increase thighs by 10%, sag breasts by 15%, stretch ass by 17.5%, increase logo on shoes by 30%" and so on. Then they would make up the story to go with the new picture. "Unsightly Superstar sags and jiggles more than jogs on set of new film." If they liked them, they might reduce the sags and wrinkles to make them even more glamorous and interesting.
He reckoned every photo in the mag was altered thusly.
I, of course, wondered what he or the editor thought when they went home to their partner? Did they secretly wish they could touch them up digitally? Increase or decrease this or that to suit themselves?

Journeys to the Underworld
Humans are arrogant creatures don't you think? Especially now - we are so sure that there are no mysteries left. Only hoaxes and scams. We fool ourselves that we really know what's going on. Once, for example, the Moon was revered and respected. People made up all sorts of stories that enriched or explained their lives in some way. Mythology and such. Now we like to shine our electric lights hard into the face of the mysterious. We still make up stories to explain what we find, only now we call it science. The Moon is a worthless ball of dust and rock and the faeries at the bottom of the garden have packed up and pissed off to more receptive climes. As the great Charles Fort put it - "I conceive of nothing, in religion, science or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while."

Not Waiting
This one is a simple love song.
Ah, sort of...
The "you" I am not waiting isn't really anyone specific, more likely the notion of someone specific.
Backing Vocal - Hannah Jean Hilliard. Ocean - Elizabeth Beach.

Before I Say Goodbye
I must credit this song mainly to one Matt Clyde. I coerced him into letting me sing over his lovely music. May the Good Gods smile on him and his family, and his family's family and so on. It's about life and death and waving.
Back to the life and death part - it is of course deemed morose to ponder on our mortality, which seems ridiculous to me, being as it is, the one thing we can count on. When I was younger and pathetically optimistic, I really did think I would crack the one thirty mark. Now I am much more realistic and am resigned to a moderate one twenty four. In my youth proper, I was sure I would be gone by my thirty third birthday. Sure all of us would for that matter.
Mental note to self - try not to worry so much.
Acoustic Guitar - Matt Clyde, Andy Gordon, Jeremy Butterworth.

Goodbye
This loquacious lament is blessed with magnificent music by Jeremy Butterworth. All praise his guitar driven wonder!
In Korea they have several distinctions between their goodbyes. One goodbye is for leaving and one for staying, a farewell to the departing. The last song is the former, this is the latter.
And now, it's time for you to go.
Acoustic Guitar - Jeremy Butterworth, Backing Vocal - Abby Dobson