songwriting

With apologies to John Prine and Don Ho….
A somewhat cute 10 minute wonder.

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I ain’t never goin to Hawaii
To learn to dance the Hula
Thought a time or two I’d do it
But now I just say screw it

Ain’t gonna make it to Lihue
Man there just ain’t no way
Don’t wanna’ be just a stinkin haole
So I’ll stay right here in LA

But I can see my feet
In the golden sand
I’d become a slack key
One man Band
You would be
My Biggest fan
My oh my
Wouldn’t it be grand
But I guess I gotta’ find me
A different plan….

Aint’ never goin’ to Hawaii
N catch me a mahi mahi
You could be my wahini nani
God these rhymes come so damn eas-ay

So I’ll drive home to Encino
Blow my paycheck out in Reno
Rope a philly at the casino
so much for my big dreamo

But I can see my feet
In the golden sand
I’d become a ukulele
slinging man
You would be
My Biggest fan
My oh my
Wouldn’t life be grand
But I guess I gotta’ find me
A different plan….

I ain’t never goin to Hawaii
To learn to dance the Hula
Thought a time or two I’d do it
But now I just say screw it

Ain’t gonna make it to Lihue
Man there just ain’t no way
Don’t wanna’ be just a stinkin haole
So I’ll stay right here in LA

After posting “Visions of Johanna” and mentioning it was one of my top 10 ‘best’ songs ever written/recorded. I started to think. Could I actually come up with an honest to God top 10 list? So I tried. Not in any particular order and just off the top of my head right now. Subject to change.

Stardust - Hoagy Carmichael/Mitchell Parish
Visions of Johanna - Bob Dylan
If I Needed You - Townes Van Zandt
The Soul of a Man - Blind Willie Johnson
My Old Friend the Blues - Steve Earle
Wildwood Flower -Carter Family (?)
Never Let Me Go - Johnny Ace
You are My Sunshine - Jimmie Davis
I’d Rather Be the Devil - Skip James
Blueberry Hill - Rose/Lewis/Stock

“Name me someone who’s not a parasite, and I’ll go out and say a prayer for him”

Well I don’t know if it’s the best song, but it’s in my top 10. The production is so damn sparse and perfect. Robbie Robertson’s guitar just walks around the song with quivering imperfection.

It’s an old song I wrote for “nobody.” At least I thought so at the time. This morning as I picked up the guitar, it came back to haunt me. Hurt my hands to play it. Just had to suffer through the couple of bar chords.

old mp3—> Lovin’ You

Lovin’ you
is sweepin’ leaves on a windy day
cause every time I get close to you
it all just blows away
I’ve waited half a lifetime
to find someone so true
but sometimes a dream’s further out of reach
when it’s standing right in front of you

honey
people don’t last forever
no matter what you say or do
n’ if you stand around this world long enough
someone might make a believer
even out of you

darlin’ you
burn the ice right off of my heart
on the coldest day
in the deep of night
you fire up my dark
but it’s a world of apprehension
with more fears than the fallin’ snow
n’ there’s an ocean of tears
with more shipwrecked hearts
than anyone can ever know

but I can’t wait forever
pretty soon I’ll pass right through
but if you stand next to me long enough
i could make a believer
even out of you

Damn I almost hate him for writing one so good:

“But I’d trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday
To be holding Bobby’s body next to mine.”

The sun is just about set on my little beach town. The beach bars just below my window are starting to mill with the tourists, locals and disenfranchised. I can hear the laughter of highballs clanging off the stucco walls. I was walking back up to the neighborhood earlier and started writing a song in my head. Of course like an idiot, I can’t remember one single part of the melody or lyrics. It was a little jazzy, odd for me, almost a standard feel to it. The idea is based on the concept that when you miss someone and think about them all the time, you look for them everywhere you go. You look at every face, hoping it is theirs, and everyone else’s face just disappoints. I love the idea, but how to do it without it coming out like Billy Holidays “Loverman” or even better, Edith Piaf “Tu Es Partout.” With bad bablefish translation:

We loved each other tenderly
Like we loved all lovers
Then when day you left me
Ever since I’ve been desperate
I see you everywhere in the sky
I see you everywhere on the earth
You are my joy and my sun
My nights, my days, my clear dawns

(CHORUS)

You are everywhere because you are in my heart
You are everywhere because you are my happiness
Everything that is around me
Even life does not represent you
Sometimes I dream that I am in your arms
And you speak softly in my ear
You tell me things that make me close my eyes
And I find that marvellous

Maybe one day you will return
I know that my heart waits for you
You can not forget
The past days we spent together
My eyes never stop searching for you
Listen well, my heart calls you
We can love each other again
And you’ll see life would be beautiful

(CHORUS)

Of course it’s much more heart-wrenching in French.

I think it’s the hook. Wish it was mine. Link below the lyrics to the vid from “Don’t look Back” with Joan Baez singing “Percy’s Song” and “Love is Just a Four Letter Word” while Dylan types on the typewriter in a hotel room.

“Love is Just a Four Letter Word”

Seems like only yesterday

I left my mind behind

Down in the Gypsy Cafe

With a friend of a friend of mine

She sat with a baby heavy on her knee

Yet spoke of life most free from slavery

With eyes that showed no trace of misery

A phrase in connection first with she I heard

That love is just a four-letter word

Outside a rambling store-front window

Cats meowed to the break of day

Me, I kept my mouth shut, too

To you I had no words to say

My experience was limited and underfed

You were talking while I hid

To the one who was the father of your kid

You probably didn’t think I did, but I heard

You say that love is just a four-letter word

I said goodbye unnoticed

Pushed towards things in my own games

Drifting in and out of lifetimes

Unmentionable by name

Searching for my double, looking for

Complete evaporation to the core

Though I tried and failed at finding any door

I must have thought that there was nothing more

Absurd than that love is just a four-letter word

Though I never knew just what you meant

When you were speaking to your man

I can only think in terms of me

And now I understand

After waking enough times to think I see

The Holy Kiss that’s supposed to last eternity

Blow up in smoke, its destiny

Falls on strangers, travels free

Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me

And I do not really need to be

Assured that love is just a four-letter word

Every record she puts out just keeps getting better and better. And her songs always speak to my heart. “Are You Alright” is really talking to me in the last few days. Funny how songs can do that. Like they were written just for you. Well, everyones songs but my own. haha.. Lyrics and link to the video below.

Are you all right?

All of a sudden you went away

Are you all right?

I hope you come back around someday.

Are you all right?

I haven’t seen you in a real long time.

Are you all right?

Could you give me some kind of sign?

Are you all right?

I looked around me and you were gone.

Are you all right?

I feel like there must be something wrong.

Are you all right?

Cause it seems like you disappeared.

Are you all right?

Cause I’ve been feeling a little scared.

Are you all right?

Are you sleeping through the night?

Do you have someone to hold you tight?

Do you have someone to hang out with?

Do you have someone to hug & kiss you?

Hug & kiss you

Hug & kiss you

Are you all right?

Are you all right?

Is there something been bothering you?

Are you all right?

I wish you’d give me a little clue.

Are you all right?

Is there something you want to say?

Are you all right?

Just tell me that you’re OK.

Are you all right?

Cause you took off without a word.

Are you all right?

You flew away like a little bird.

Are you all right?

Is there anything I can do?

Are you all right?

Cause I need to hear from you.

Are you all right?

Are you sleeping through the night?

Do you have someone to hold you tight?

Do you have someone to hang out with?

Do you have someone to hug & kiss you?

Hug & kiss you

Hug & kiss you

Are you all right?

Are you all right?

Are you all right?

I watched the Wim Wenders directed film for the Martin Scorsese blues series again a couple of nights ago. “The Soul of a Man” is loosely based around the lives of Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James and JB Lenoir, and it’s voiced from the perspective of Blind Willie Johnson. Johnson has always been one musical figure that I’ve gotten just a ton of inspiration and joy from. After those recordings he pretty much gave up on “music” and spent his life preaching the gospel. This man who wrote a song that is literally on a one way trip out of the solar system, died of pneumonia sleeping in his burned out shack, shivering under wet newspapers gazing at he stars. Johnson’s music has inspired generations of musicians. Skip James and JB Lenior were two of the most brilliant songwriters in the history of the blues, and their work would stand up against anything and everything written today. How did Johnson put everything down and walk awy? Did it continue to live in him and eat him alive or was he really able to quench the beast and not look back. “As far as I can understand, it’s nothing but a burning light.”

I appear to still be holding a moratorium on songwriting. It’s nothing intentional, at least I don’t believe it’s intentional. As I said before, I just don’t see much point in it. When it comes to writing a song, you pretty much have to have a reason to do it, even if it’s purely selfish. For some songwriter that still believes he or she can change the world through political means, they can go write some political diatribe. If it’s a love song you’re after, then sling the arrows in that direction. You’re either writing for Jesus, or politics or your lover or sailing or jumping out of airplanes or war or whatever. I just can’t seem to find a reason to write. And it’s not like I’m searching for one, I just don’t really care. Maybe this is a good place to be. But if it is, why do I keep thinking about it?.

I got to talking with these 2 guys I see fishing on the beach every once and a while. So I get to shooting the shit with them and they are “old time” Fort Lauderdale guys. One of them was in my graduating class of Fort Lauderdale High. I don’t remember him, but to tell you the truth, I don’t remember much about those years. We did get to talking about some other folks we knew from “back in the day” and it’s surprising how many of them are dead. What an uplifting thought. One guy got his head bashed in in front of Shooters, another one OD’d.

My daughter is away at UCLA this week attending a a summer camp thing for high school students interested in film making. So far she hates it. I’ll be heading out there in a few days to meet her and spend a couple of days breathing the smog. I’ll also get a chance to spend some time with one of my oldest and dearest friends. That will be good. I can’t think now. There are too many annoying people in Starbucks.