Subject: Lyr Add: PEARLY (Gordon Bok)
From:
Mark Cohen
Date: 31 Oct 05 - 12:38 AM
It's in Gordon's new songbook, "One to Sing, One to Haul," which is wonderful.
PEARLY
(c)1983 Gordon Bok BMI
Down in the dark and the doom of the city,
There's a monstrous old gathering hall
And a man there making a windy long speech
To the lords and ladies all
Fifteen thousand, twenty thousand people
Milling and murmuring there
And this ain't the place, says I to myself
For a fellow that needs the fresh air
So I asked for directions to get me outside
And I followed them all for sure
And I ended up down, ten floors underground
And I never saw an exit door
The first live sould I saw was a policeman
He was long, he was leaning on a rail
I says, I'll get to him before he sees me
And ferries me off to the jail
So I ease myself up on his starboard quarter
I says, Excuse me, your honor, for sure
But if you've got a minute and nothing to do
Could you head me out toward the air?
Well, he pointed his finger back over my shoulder
And I peered away through the gloom
And there, sure enough, was an exit sign
Bright as the crack of doom
Well, I thanked him as nicely as ever I knew
And I eased my way toward the door
But he fell into step with me, right along side
I could hear his heels on the floor
Well he smiled like the sharks out off Little Green Island
He had teeth all over his face
He says, You know there's folks 'd give an arm and a leg
Just to get into this place
Oh boy! thinks I, I've got my foot in it now
I never should have come to this town
And I don't know what I'm doin' here now
But I'm sure I'm doin' it wrong
He says, There's people travel all over the country
Just to come and see this thing
But if I know your type, you'd rather sit around home
And listen to Little Red sing
Little Red, I said, I'll be damned! I said
I got a friend by that name back home
And he smiles and says, Look, in this crazy world
You got to call them like they come
And I can tell a Maine man any damn where
I can tell him by his tongue
And you ain't that far from the exit door
But you're a damn long way from home
Well, he laughs till the echoes laugh again
He says, OK, hold out your paws
So I closed my eyes, and I held out my hands
Like my fingers were breaking the laws
And there was blueberries, blackberries
Tumbled into my hand
Rosehips bright with the smell of the night
From off of the summer land
He says, little sister stayed home on the island
She visits us now and again
Brings us all she can pick from the hills
And it sure does taste like home
Well, we stood in the darkness chomping them berries
Eating them out of our hand
And my heart went away to the rocks and the bays
And my friends in that lonesome land
He says, Tell me, speaking of our mutual friend
How that tough little fast picking fool
Can find his way through the brambles and rocks
Of a homesick Maine man's soul
Ah, but I guess he knows when the days get too long
And the morning comes too soon
There's nothing will know off the edge of your troubles
Like picking an old-time tune
Well, he stowed the empty bag away in his pocket
Turned on his heel to go
And says, Well, good luck, and if you see Little Red
Tell him Pearly says hello
Gordon's note on this song is wonderful:
"This was a very vivid dream that hauled me out of the sack at about 4:00 AM one morning. I wrote it down on a huge piece of wrapping paper and it kept me going right through breakfast.
Like most dreams, it exposes a fellow's neuroses -- in this case, authority, crowded places, claustrophobia, and the thought that you might never get-back-home.
Little Red was the name the cop used, and we both know we were talking about Dave Mallet, though his real name never came up in the dream. At one of our all-too-infrequent meetings, I asked Dave if the name "Little Red" meant anything to him. He said, "How could you know that? That's the name my older brothers used to call me when we were kids." I forgot to ask him if he ever knew a Pearly...
I finally met Pearly, but not until years later, when he was Police Chief in Rockport. A good man, wise and kind, as you'd expect from the song.
I noticed that, as I was writing this, a certain Mallet-style was creeping into it, hence the use of the old traditional tune, "The Blue Skirt Waltz" that I used to play with Capt. Hawkins back on the schooners."
Aloha,
Mark
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