great lyrics thread

shaldag

shaldag

Joined
Jun 17, 2004
Messages
8,436
A few folks have posted great lyrics from (mostly forgotten) songs in various threads, and I think that we need a great lyrics thread. I'll start with one that I hadn't heard for quite awhile till tody, when I heard it on the MIT radio station:

My wife thinks you're dead, by Junior Brown

It's good to see you baby it's been a long long while
We're both a whole lot older and seen a lot of miles
But thing are different now since the good ol days
And youve been in some trouble
Since we went our separate ways
Well have to say hello maybe some other time instead
Cause youre wanted by the police
And my wife thinks youre dead.

Somebody spread the rumor that you had lost your life
Least thats the way I heard it and what I told my wife
Now here youre showing up again and talk is getting round
And I can see that one of us will have to leave this town
If you think that I want trouble
Than youre crazy in your head
Cause youre wanted by the police
And my wife thinks youre dead.

You never called or wrote me just up and disappeared
Nobody knew what happened
Where you been for all these years
Now troubles what youre lookin like
Cause troubles where you been
And I can see the kind of trouble you could get me in
You better pay attention to every word I said
Cause youre wanted by the police
And my wife thinks youre dead.

So goodbye to you baby Im glad weve got to talk
But Im faithful to my wife and I dont ever break the law
I dont know where youre headed for
But I know where you been
Were reminisced now lets just go our separate ways again
Go find another ex-sweetheart to hang around instead
Because youre wanted by the police
And my wife thinks youre dead.

Now, if someone else will please step up......:D
 
good idea,

this is called "forever" by As I lay dying

Forever

Forever your eyes will hold the memory
I saw your heart as it overtook me
we tried so hard to understand and reason
but in that one moment
I gave my heart away
I give my heart away
I give my heart away
I gave my heart away

What perfect breath where my mind lay beside me
and all i knew was what had overtaken me
with no explanation i am comforted by inability to understand

Forever your eyes will hold the memory
I saw your heart as it overtook me
we tried so hard to understand and reason
but in that one moment
I gave my heart away
I give my heart away
I give my heart away
I gave my heart away

Forever your eyes will hold the memory
Forever your eyes will hold the memory
Forever your eyes will hold the memory

When i wake from this dream
Will your smile still open my heart and leave me transparent
When i wake from this dream
Will your smile still open my heart
 
Iceman, Iceman
I've got the coldest ice in town.
Iceman, Iceman
Women like it better by the pound.
The lady living over there across the street
She gets one piece and it lasts a whole week.
Now I'm the best iceman in these blocks
I'll give you a good piece just open your box.
I'm telling you this mamma and I'm telling you up front
You get the right size piece, it'll last a whole month
I've got some of the hardest ice you ever felt
When I put in your box it ain't gonna melt.
The lady in the house that's painted green
Has a good box but she won't keep it clean
When it's a hot summer day and you cant stand the heat
You can get a piece and it will cool your meat.
Now you know the lady with the big cat you know miss Tootsie
I dropped a piece and it fell on her pussy
The lady over there with the beach sun tan
She wants in her box but I want to put in her can.
The milkman delivers his milk in a gleaming white suit
But the ladies love the iceman because I've got the longest Route.
 
I love this one!!!

Arlo Guthrie
The City of New Orleans

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin' trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

CHORUS:
Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car.
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score.
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor.
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.
Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

CHORUS

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.
Half way home, we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea.
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.

Good night, America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
 
L6Steel,
that is indeed a great song. However, Arlo did not write it. Steve Goodman (RIP) is the man. Sorry to be a nitpicker, but let's give credit to the right guy.
 
This one has a very haunting quality to it when you hear it sung by Keelaghan. Based on a true incident and a very interesting story. Wag Dodge, 33, survived the fire but died in a hospital just a few years later from cancer. Google "Mann Gluch Fire" if interested. KV probably knows about it.

Cold Missouri Waters
(Words & music James Keelaghan)

My name is Dodge, but then you know that
It's written on the chart there at the foot end of the bed
They think I'm blind, I can't read it
I've read it every word, and every word it says is death
So, Confession - is that the reason that you came
Get it off my chest before I check out of the game
Since you mention it, well there's thirteen things I'll name
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters

August 'Forty-Nine, north Montana
The hottest day on record, the forest tinder dry
Lightning strikes in the mountains
I was crew chief at the jump base, I prepared the boys to fly
Pick the drop zone, C-47 comes in low
Feel the tap upon your leg that tells you go
See the circle of the fire down below
Fifteen of us dropped above the cold Missouri waters

Gauged the fire, I'd seen bigger
So I ordered them to sidehill and we'd fight it from below
We'd have our backs to the river
We'd have it licked by morning even if we took it slow
But the fire crowned, jumped the valley just ahead
There was no way down, headed for the ridge instead
Too big to fight it, we'd have to fight that slope instead
Flames one step behind above the cold Missouri waters

Sky had turned red, smoke was boiling
Two hundred yards to safety, death was fifty yards behind
I don't know why I just thought it
I struck a match to waist high grass running out of time
Tried to tell them, Step into this fire I set
We can't make it, this is the only chance you'll get
But they cursed me, ran for the rocks above instead
I lay face down and prayed above the cold Missouri waters

And when I rose, like the phoenix
In that world reduced to ashes there were none but two survived
I stayed that night and one day after
Carried bodies to the river, wonder how I stayed alive
Thirteen stations of the cross to mark to their fall
I've had my say, I'll confess to nothing more
I'll join them now, because they left me long before
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri shore
 
Great thread, this one can go on forever. This song gave me goose-bumps the first time I heard it. Has to be experienced in a dark room, preferably with a good buzz on.

Mickey Newbury "Just Dropped In" from the album "Nights when I am sane"

Woke up this morning the sun shinnin' in
I found my broken mind in a brown paper bag of zen
Tripped on a cloud I fell eight miles high
Tore my mind upon a jagged sky
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

Pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and followed it in
Met myself crawling out as I was crawling in
I woke up so tight I said I never will unwind
Saw too much I broke my mind
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

Somebody painted April Fool in big black letters on a dead-end sign
I had my foot in the gas when I left the road and blew out my mind
Eight miles out of Memphis Lord I got no spare
Eight miles straight up downtown somewhere
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

I highly recommend y'all seek out this album. It totally kicks butt.
 
L6steel said:
I love this one!!!

[...]

Good night, America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
Click to expand...

I love that song, too. I had to sing along with the words.
Can't sing one without the other ...

---

The Wayward Wind

Oh, the wayward wind is a restless wind
A restless wind that yearns to wander
And I was born the next of kin
The next of kin to the wayward wind

In a lonely shack by a railroad track
I spent my younger days
And I guess the sound of the outward bound
Made me a slave to my wand'ring ways

And the wayward wind is a restless wind
A restless wind that yearns to wander
And I was born the next of kin
The next of kin to the wayward wind

Oh I met a girl in a border town
I vowed we'd never part
Tho' I tried my best to settle down
She's now alone with a broken heart

And the wayward wind is a restless wind
A restless wind that yearns to wander
And I was born the next of kin
The next of kin to the wayward wind
The next of kin to the wayward wind
 
Aesop Rock - Basic Cable

television, all hail grand pixelated god of
fantasy, murder scape and perspective
fuck a sore channel changed digit
I sit with a nasty network intervenes plan
with a stable diet of my cable pirate
yo, the doctor is in, the doctor is on
born the bastard son of static radiance cloned to welcome in every home
lead a blue screen, bruised dream canope
victim of the cursed nursed Technicolor drunk support team
ooh, I love all advertisements
though accused by robot news casters who capture and pollute
spoon fed hazardous fog to joy luck catholic squad
please take me, please calm me, please make me a zombie
please I want to donate my brain to the monstrous Panasonic profit
now, twenty first century plagued
dispersed to wide eyed glamour addict patients
telecast patrons
blue be the propaganda banners, well, sure I'll be a Marine
with a clean sword and blue uniform, it only takes a dollar and a dream
and I abide great idiot box power supply, fuzz vapor,
black out of New York, hey honey, get the generator
I'm in a doom, doom generation, pacin', ancient electric secret
never sleepin' to miss the AM oasis
my name is a wired heart, sloppy obligation
turn my stilt into my guilt and have a chatter box blame frame adjacent station
make reality scrambled and suck the life out of a hidden vandal
and loving every minute of the gimmick, change the channel

plug it in, turn it on, prop me up against the couch
lights out, I ain't ever gonna have to leave my house
satellite dish, get up on my wish list, turn me to a tyrant
let my clean spirit dissolve through the appliance

plug it in, turn it on, be my mother when she's gone, great
wipe the spittle off my chinny-chin during the breaks
if I gotta go blind I'mma do it for the love of all television kind
and that's fine, and that's fine...

make me a star, I wanna touch gold
hold me suspended in a dream, mearly inches from the screen
deleted passions sacrificed to one electron monster
crucify my little future to the monitor
damn it feels good, turn on, tune in
zoom in to hug the bug up in your family function
but the children seem to love it
yes mother, me and wild discovery
and heard the static flock to where I sleep
by the glow of that magic box big speaker
stereo mastered often kill the freak seekers, eyes spiraling
tangled in the star spangled wiring
I can turn from toxicated visuals
and all the kings horses abort the loyalty to royalty
fuck the fortress
riddle me with glee, hoist the end all telepromter above my sleeping head
I'll be dead by morning anyway
color my values with mundane humor in thirty minute tickets
to feel the magnetic seal picket censorship
I want commercials twenty four-seven
I wanna shop from my bed and set an
example for all my overworked, underpaid brethren
I bond with a sick string of correspondent
and lurking circuitry circus
with allegiance pledged beyond the glass surface
adamant students within the fine school of possessed graduate catalysts
channel zero addict, immaculate
it goes- big screen, little screen, any screen'll do
just let me hold the controller and I won't have to murder you

plug it in, turn it on, let my little eyes glaze
twenty screens lined up along the borders of the maze
I wanna see the five day forecast, fourteen days in advance
so I can get my two weeks notice every time the sun dance

plug it in, turn it on, silent fix better than nothing
let a once divine soul feel the functions of the hypnotist
the viciousness, ridiculous, peaking a dummy's interest
touch the power button meet your maker, ain't that something?

plug it in, turn it on, say goodbye to Sunday afternoon
fix the antenna, sit back and let disaster bloom
it's a beautiful sight, with a most ugly intention
but I taste it everyday and bathe inside the consequences

plug it in, turn it on, never once have you talked back to me
your majesty, I love you, I despise you
my everyday is sitcom, soaps, news, bad dramatization
come along with me, my friend for the most glorious sensation
 
Aesop Rock - 6B Panorama

I was sitting on my fire escape and I saw...
sturdy bridges, decorated with dirty pigeons
a vagabond begging for three pennies and a princess
a junkie tourniquet surgeon urging the needle in
a batty senior citizen flashing that awful teethless grin
I saw a corner store merchant rest on a milk crate with a stog'
a pierced nose, a model with a stalker, cheap hooker, jay walkers
a table on a sidewalk with four old men slappin' dominos down
a city, a village, a neighborhood, a ghost town
I saw vandals catching tags and Puerto Rican flags
I saw a pregnant woman on the verge of bursting (boom)
I saw a blind man with a dog screaming "someday I'll see it all"
and then he sat down with his hammer and saw
business men with multi-colored ties, cashmere checks
a nazi with tattoos on his neck, a Vietnam war vet
a Caucasian man with a limp and a cane, a pimp with his names
a thug circus, a pack of shook tourists hugging their purses
I saw freaks with rainbow streaks in dayglo hair
a mother smackin' the grin off her child, replaced it with a stare
a pothole, a storefront with a broken open sign
a hole in the wall bar kicking drunks to the gutter, it's closing time
I see a fuck up, a bum knuckle up with a taxi driver
a squatter, a grandfather, an angry right-to-lifer
I can see the roof garden on the apartment across the street
and kick myself because somewhere along the way I lost my seeds
I see a rat, a roach, a bat approach, a happy student
a black man with a horn and a will to make you sit and listen to it
I see a little girl on the corner with bubbles, braids and barrettes
I see a teen mother with similak pacifier and regrets
oh, a day turned stale, a hammer with a rusty nail, a failed marriage
a universe of brick buildings slightly off balance
a challenge, I see a chance to add real colors to my favorite palette
raise my mighty mallet towards the gods and swing my talons
I see a crack in the sidewalk
a slide show of six civilians gripping bottles of gideon
sitting inside bent meridian
there's a fun house ooh, a sun spout
spraying yellow beams above yellow back dreams
and children in the hydrants
tyrants(?), I see sirens
the wall to the glamor standard
a dead bird, a bent curb
a bus stop of commuters waiting to have their souls towed off to work
I seen the slap dash habits of bike messengers paws
and hug that good leaf on the way to damaged packages, dependence
oh my lord, I see bandwagons, all aboard
a carnival amusement park where a heart is a luxury
I see a gas galaxy huddled behind those pearly doors
maybe I should sit up on my fire escape a little more
 
Mongo said:
Great thread, this one can go on forever. This song gave me goose-bumps the first time I heard it. Has to be experienced in a dark room, preferably with a good buzz on.

Mickey Newbury "Just Dropped In" from the album "Nights when I am sane"

Woke up this morning the sun shinnin' in
I found my broken mind in a brown paper bag of zen
Tripped on a cloud I fell eight miles high
Tore my mind upon a jagged sky
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

Pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and followed it in
Met myself crawling out as I was crawling in
I woke up so tight I said I never will unwind
Saw too much I broke my mind
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

Somebody painted April Fool in big black letters on a dead-end sign
I had my foot in the gas when I left the road and blew out my mind
Eight miles out of Memphis Lord I got no spare
Eight miles straight up downtown somewhere
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in

I highly recommend y'all seek out this album. It totally kicks butt.
Click to expand...

Mongo,
You have to come to the Gathering next year in Austin! I'm serious!

Here is another Newbury song...

Close your eyes and let the sky fall softly down
All around the light

Let yourself be swept into the silent
Ever-healing arms of the night
Leave this precious moment to the child behind your eyes
Let him touch the things he lost along the way
I believe in his wisdom
God set aside this time
To let us all go home to yesterday

So close your eyes and let the sky fall softly down
All around the light​
 
Someday... someday. I'd dearly love to spend about 2-3 months in Texas, soaking in the music scene. It's about all I listen to anymore.
 
Mongo said:
Someday... someday. I'd dearly love to spend about 2-3 months in Texas, soaking in the music scene. It's about all I listen to anymore.
Click to expand...

You know, in the song, "Just Dropped In", there is a reference to Townes Van Zandt, don't you?

Why not make "someday" into next July?

Craig
 
OK, Mr. Wilkins--
you can't call up Townes' name without posting some lyrics.
What were you thinkin? :D

Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
That's the way it goes

All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
Out of kindness I suppose

Lefty he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows

All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

The poets tell how Pancho fell
Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
So the story ends we're told
Pancho needs your prayers it's true,
But save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do
Now he's growing old

A few gray federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness I suppose
 
Probably my favorite Warren Zevon song, "The Vast Indifference of Heaven."

Time marches on
Time stands still
Time on my hands
Time to kill
Blood on my hands
And my hands in the till
Down at the 7-11
Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven

The past seems realer than the present to me now
I've got memories to last me
When the sky is gray
The way it is today
I remember the times when I was happy

Same old sun
Same old moon
It's the same old story
Same old tune
They all say
Someday soon
My sins will all be forgiven
Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven

They say "Everything's all right"
They say "Better days are near"
They tell us "These are the good times"
But they don't live around here
Billy and Christie don't--
Bruce and Patti don't--
They don't live around here

I had a girl
Now she's gone
She left town
Town burned down
Nothing left
But the sound
Of the front door closing forever

Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven
 
I am extraordinarily fond of Kris Kristofferson and here are two of my favorites of his:

Billy Dee
Billy Dee was seventeen when he turned twenty-one
Fooling with some foolish things he could've left alone
But he had to try to satisfy a thirst he couldn't name
Driven towards the darkness by the devils in his veins
All around the honky tonks, searching for a sign
Gettin' by on gettin' high on women, words and wine
Some folks called him crazy, Lord, and others called him free
But we just called us lucky for the love of Billy Dee

Busy goin' his own way and speakin' his own words
Facin' and forgettin' every warnin' that he heard
Makin' friends and takin' any crazy chance he could
Gettin' busted for the bad times and believin' in the good
Billy took a beatin' from a world he meant no harm
The score was written in the scars up on his arm
Some felt he was payin' for the life he tried to lead
But all we felt was sorry for our good friend Billy Dee

It may be his soul bigger than a body's oughta be
Singin' songs and bringin' laughter to the likes of you and me
Cause the world he saw was sadder than the one he hoped to find
But it wasn't near as lonesome as the one he left behind
Yesterday they found him on the floor of his hotel
Reachin' toward the needle, Lord, that drove him down to hell
Some folks called it suicide, others blame the speed
We just called it crucified when Billy Dee O-D'd


THE SILVER TOUNGED DEVIL AND I

I took myself down to the Tally Ho Tavern
To buy me a bottle of beer
I sat myself down by a tender young maiden
Who's eyes were as dark as her hair
And while I was searching from bottle to bottle
For something un-foolish to say
That silver tounged devil just slipped from the shadows
And smilingly stole her away

chorus: I said girl don't you know he's a devil
He's everything that I ain't
Hiding intentions of evil under the smile of a saint
All he's good for is getting in trouble
And slipping his share of the blame
And some people swear he's my double
And some even say we're the same
But the silver-tounged devil's got nothing to lose
And I'll only live 'till I die
We take our own chances and pay our own dues
The silver tounged devil and I

Like all the young ladies who've laid down beside him
She knew in her heart that he lied
But nothing that I could have said could have saved her
No matter how hard that I tried
'Cause she'll offer her soul up to darkness and danger
Of a world that she's never known
And open her arms at the smile of a stranger
Who'll love her and leave her alone

Repeat chorus
 
This is a really cool thread. :thumbup: There are some great lyrics here. It also caused me to remember songs i thought i forgot.

This one seems to be my favorite. It is by Bob Dylan (aka Bobby Zimmerman who i think lived on my block when i was about 6 yrs old). I can't remember the title though.

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez and its Easter time too and you're gravity fails and negativity dont pull you through. Dont put on any airs when you're down on Rue Marc Avenue they got some hungry women there and they really make a mess out of you.

Sweet Malinda the peasants call her the goddess of gloom. She speaks good english and she invites you up into her room and you're so kind a careful not to go to her to soon. And she takes you're voice and leaves you howling at the moon.

If you see Saint Annie please tell her thanks a lot I cannot move and my fingers are all in a knot. And I dont have the nerve to get up and take another shot.

Now all the athorities just sit around and boast about how they bribed the seargeant at arms into leaving his post. And picking up Angel who just arrived here from the coast. Who looked so fine at first but left looking just like a ghost.

I started out on burgandy but soon hit the harder stuff. Everybody said they would stand behind me when going gets rough, but there was nobody even there to bluff. I'm going back to New York City I do believe I've had enough.

This one i sent to a girlfriend in Nam. It is by U-2

Trip Through Your Wires

In the distance she saw me coming down
I was calling out
I was calling out
Still shaking - still in pain
You put me back together again
I was cold and you clothed me honey
I was down and you lifted me honey

Angel - angel or devil
I was thirsty and you wet my lips
You, I'm waiting for you
You, you set my desire
I trip through your wires

I was broken, bent out of shape
I was naked in the clothes you made
My lips were dry - throat like rust
You gave me shelter from the heat and the dust
There's no more water in the well
No more water, water

Angel - angel or devil [etc repeated]

Thunder, thunder on the mountain
There's a rain cloud in the desert sky
In the distance she saw me coming down
I was calling out
I was calling out
 
Thomason said:
This one has a very haunting quality to it when you hear it sung by Keelaghan. Based on a true incident and a very interesting story. Wag Dodge, 33, survived the fire but died in a hospital just a few years later from cancer. Google "Mann Gluch Fire" if interested. KV probably knows about it.

Cold Missouri Waters
(Words & music James Keelaghan)

My name is Dodge, but then you know that
It's written on the chart there at the foot end of the bed
They think I'm blind, I can't read it
I've read it every word, and every word it says is death
So, Confession - is that the reason that you came
Get it off my chest before I check out of the game
Since you mention it, well there's thirteen things I'll name
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters

August 'Forty-Nine, north Montana
The hottest day on record, the forest tinder dry
Lightning strikes in the mountains
I was crew chief at the jump base, I prepared the boys to fly
Pick the drop zone, C-47 comes in low
Feel the tap upon your leg that tells you go
See the circle of the fire down below
Fifteen of us dropped above the cold Missouri waters

Gauged the fire, I'd seen bigger
So I ordered them to sidehill and we'd fight it from below
We'd have our backs to the river
We'd have it licked by morning even if we took it slow
But the fire crowned, jumped the valley just ahead
There was no way down, headed for the ridge instead
Too big to fight it, we'd have to fight that slope instead
Flames one step behind above the cold Missouri waters

Sky had turned red, smoke was boiling
Two hundred yards to safety, death was fifty yards behind
I don't know why I just thought it
I struck a match to waist high grass running out of time
Tried to tell them, Step into this fire I set
We can't make it, this is the only chance you'll get
But they cursed me, ran for the rocks above instead
I lay face down and prayed above the cold Missouri waters

And when I rose, like the phoenix
In that world reduced to ashes there were none but two survived
I stayed that night and one day after
Carried bodies to the river, wonder how I stayed alive
Thirteen stations of the cross to mark to their fall
I've had my say, I'll confess to nothing more
I'll join them now, because they left me long before
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri waters
Thirteen crosses high above the cold Missouri shore
Click to expand...

WOW :thumbup: And about a Hundred Imaginary "Greenies" coming at you for this one my friend. Amazing song. The version by "Cry Cry Cry" w/ Richard Shindell singing will make all of your hair stand on end.

And since we're talking Townes:

Tecumseh Valley

The name she gave was Caroline
The daughter of a miner
And her ways were free and it seemed to me
The sunshine walked beside her

She come from Spencer 'cross the hill
She said her Pa had sent her
'Cause the coal was low and soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter

Well she said she'd come to look for work
She was not seeking favors
For a dime a day and a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor

The times were hard Lord and jobs were few
All through Tecumseh Valley
But she asked around and a job she found
Tending bar for Gypsy Sally

She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied her Pa had died
The word came down from Spencer

She turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
It was many a man returned again
To lay himself beside her

Well they found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sally's
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well Tecumseh Valley
 
David & David's Boomtown

epitomized the "scene" in the 80's in L.A.

Ms. Cristina drives a nine four four
Satisfaction oozes from her pores
She keeps rings on her fingers
Marble on her floor
Cocaine on her dresser
Bars on her doors
She keeps her back against the wall
She keeps her back against the wall

So I say
I say welcome, welcome to the boomtown
Pick a habit
We got plenty to go around
Welcome, welcome to the boomtown
All that money makes such a succulent sound
Welcome to the boomtown

Handsome Kevin got a little off track
Took a year off of college
And he never went back
Now he smokes much too much
He's got a permanent hack
Deals dope out of Denny's
Keeps a table in the back
He always listens to the ground
Always listens to the ground

So I say
I say welcome, welcome to the boomtown
Pick a habit
We got plenty to go around
Welcome, welcome to the boomtown
All that money makes such a succulent sound
Welcome to the boomtown

Well the ambulance arrived too late
I guess she didn't want to wait
 
I never saw the morning 'til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine 'til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody, until I needed a song.

I never saw the white line, 'til I was leaving you behind
I never knew I needed you 'til I was caught up in a bind
I never spoke 'I love you' 'til I cursed you in vain,
I never felt my heartstrings until I nearly went insane.

I never saw the east coast 'til I move to the west
I never saw the moonlight until it shone off your breast
I never saw your heart 'til someone tried to steal,
tried to steal it away
I never saw your tears until they rolled down your face.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top