BY WHAT SONG should I know you?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE RIVER, WHERE SHE SLEEPS (Dave Carter)
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:44 PM

Wow, Spud, I am glad you started this as a new thread. Some of my earliest and favourite childhood memories are of my dad singing When the Works All Done This Fall to us kids, that and Billy Venero, as well as the Zebra Dun, Little Joe the Wrangler, Strawberry Roan, Rosin the Beau..oh...geez...he is making a new cowboy songs homemade tape, if you'd like when he gets it done, I'd be happy to send you one.

He loved the time he spent in Alaska, when he was on Amchitka in the oilfields. Had quite a rep for himself, packing his fiddle and banjo back and forth on the airlines when he'd come home to Colorado for a short spell. Ebbie, I'd love to see the whole lyrics to pass on to dad.

Phoaks around here who hear me in Paltalk would probably say you'd know me by Prairie Lullaby, because it's another childhood song I love to sing. There is a fairly new song that I think idealises what I would like to be known by and that is The River, Where She Sleeps by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammar. It's got a great, catchy tune and I'd like it to be heard at my wake:

THE RIVER, WHERE SHE SLEEPS
(Dave Carter

she's a walkin talkin breathin new age wonder, old time heathens
don't know what to make of Mary Jane
cause she ain't tryin to be no swami, she ain't mad at dad and mommy
she don't curse the storm clouds when it rains

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she make everything look fine
she got moon in her eyes, crescent windows on the skies
and the rain comes down in sheets on the people in the streets
and it carries all the secrets that they keep to the river where she sleeps

she comes to me when i'm dejected, leaves her soul out unprotected
tells me that the truth can make me free
and she don't need what she ain't got, she reads me books by Alan Watts
speakin words o' wisdom: let it be

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she take thunder for a sign
she got stars in her head, supernovas in her bed
and it rains most every day, but i like it fine that way
'cause the waters run so marvelous and deep in the river where she sleeps

Mary ain't inclined to drinkin, still she stumbles without thinkin
anywhere she gets the urge to stray
and everybody knows about her, they don't want to change or doubt her
they just grin when she comes out to play

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she be movin down the line
she got bells on her toes, generations in her clothes
and she sings without a sound as the evenin rolls around
and she dances as the twilight shadows creep down the river where she sleeps

professor come to burst my bubble, says that girl is bound for trouble
serves me solace in a paper cup
but it looks a bit like agent orange and when he leaves he slams the door and
just about that time she phones me up

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she just ain't the worryin kind
she got dogs, she got cats, she keeps rabbits in her hats
and the people that she sees, they're all buddhas or police
and the banks rise high and perilous and steep by the river where she sleeps

now one dismayed December dawn i wake to find my Mary's gone
and no one knows when she'll come back again
and all the silent temple bells from Styx to Glenn to Hazel Dell
are mournin all the nights that might have been

when the sun refuse to shine she don't mind, she just leave this world behind
she got wheels in her smile, she can coast along for miles
me i'm walkin all alone, feelin soulful to the bone
till i stop and i hang my head and weep by the river where she sleeps

© 1995 Dave Carter - BMI

Subject: RE: BS: BY WHAT SONG should I know you?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:33 PM

As far as I can tell Spud, the threads are entirely different, no need to apologize, one asks the question about finishing a musical set, yours is entirely more philosophical, a song approprite for ones life.

Hmmmm......and a lot harder to answer.........I'll have to think about this one for awhile.

Subject: RE: BS: BY WHAT SONG should I know you?
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:03 PM

Thread Creep Alert!

Spud, have you heard Robin Hopper's 'I'VE BEEN EVERYWHERE IN ALASKA'? She's a professional musician/songwriter who lives in Chugiak. This song is very popular at the Alaska Folk Festival, as you might imagine. It starts out- (I don't have a copy in front of me so I could be off on a few words):

"Well, I was totin' my pack along the Glen tryin' to catch a ride
When along came a tour bus with a hundred tourists stuffed inside
If you're goin' down to Anchorage, with us you can ride.
And so I climbed into the bus and when I settled down inside
They asked me if I'd seen a road with so much glacier sand
And I said, "Listen, guys, I've traveled every road in this here land.

I've been everywhere, man
Breathe that mountain air,
Tundra flats and bear, man,
skeeters, I've had my share
Yeah, up here in Alaska, I've been everywhere.

I've been to Anchorage, Egigik, Elmendorf, Chignik,
Turnagin, Crow Creek, North Pole, Summit, Knik,
Nikolai, Glen Highway, Porter Glacier, Cold Bay,
Peters Creek, Selewik, Wasilla, Anaktovik,
Cooper Landing, Northway, Valdez, Seward, Icy Bay,
Nancy Lake, Chilitna, Susitna..."

There are 3 or 4 more verses with well over a hundred names of towns and villages. She says it took her two years to write it and two months to learn to sing it. If you'd like to have it, I'll dig it up from my files.

Ebbie

Subject: Lyr Add: CREEP (from Radiohead)
From: Matt_R
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:21 PM

Creep, by Radiohead.

When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so f***ing special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here...

I don't care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
You're so f***ing special
I wish I was special

She's running out again
She's running out again
Run, run, run, ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun
Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnn

Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so f***ing special
I wish I was special...

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here
I don't belong here...

Subject: RE: BS: BY WHAT SONG should I know you?
From: Spud Murphy
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:50 PM

I can't believe I could do anything that stupid. i never saw that thread about songs to finish with. I drive that same way most of the time.

Sorry.

Spud

Subject: BY WHAT SONG should I know you?
From: Spud Murphy
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:41 PM

Asking myself that question, the first song that popped into my head was 'I was Born Almost Ten Thousand Years Ago.' I had to forgo that choice, however, even though it was a perfect fit for my age, when I noticed that the DigiTrad was several verses short of a full song and they were the ones I would have needed to substantiate my claim. They're some of the best ones, too. I am referring to:

I saw Satan when he looked the garden o'er,
And Adam and Eve get shuffled out the door,
And while from the bushes peepin,
Saw the apple they wuz eatin,
And I'll swear thet I'm the guy thet et the core.

Queen Elizabeth, she fell in love with me.
We were maried in Milwaukee secretly.
But I upped and forsook 'er,
And went with General Hooker,
To shoot mosquitos down in Tennesee.

And there are many,many more. But I felt I couldn't claim that song, because my memory is fading, and I am not sure whether that was Hooker or Meade I was with.

So moving along, the nexxt song i came up with was 'I've Been Everywhere.' No dice. I had to rule that one out too, because I'm pretty sure I missed Ombilika and dead certain I never made it to Baranquilla. The reason I know that is becuz we blew a tire on that long down grade there and then right at the bottom of the grade on a sharp right hand curve you cudn't see around, the road was washed out. And by the way (BTW)I should probably let you know that Chatanika has only one T in it. You'll find it (the town, that is, not the T) just a few miles north of Fox on the Steese Highway. We're talkin Alaska here, folks.

And so, we come to the final choice I settled on to give you a better notion of what I am about. If I knew how to make a clickity I'd hide my choice behind it so it would be more of a surprise. You've probably already guessed it, anyway. The song is 'When The Work's All Done This Fall.' One reason: the work IS done, my part of it, all that I'm ever goin to do of it, anyway. What's left is play. And second: That song was one of the very first my Dad ever taught me, not the very first, but one of the first. I made ten bucks and change in tips for singing it at the county picnic they always had at Nick's Lone Acre after the fall cattle drive from summer range in the high mountains back to the home ranches in the Mother Lode.

What's your song?