Lyr Add: How Can I Keep from Moving?

Subject: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 30 May 03 - 12:26 AM

This was triggered by the title of another thread ("How can you keep on moving"), and was posted there, but I thought I'd collect more flak by posting it here as well. Apologies to Mary Garvey, who hates parodies. But, hey, I'm trying to get back into songwriting after a ten-year drought, so I'll take whatever comes. The tune is, of course, How Can I Keep From Singing? (And it's not autobiographical.)

Aloha,
Mark

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM MOVING?
words by Mark Cohen, tune trad "How Can I Keep From Singing?"

My life flows on in endless rows
Of cardboard boxes standing
The moving men will stop and rest
Upon the seventh landing
The waiting van, the crates, the bags
Somehow I find them soothing
I'm at my best when wrapping plates
How can I keep from moving?

What though the newsprint and the tape
Are strewn across the kitchen
What though the thirty crates of books
Have movers all a-bitchin'
A box well-packed makes me most calm
While tape to me is clinging
I hear the call of towns unknown
How can I keep from moving?

While others tremble, sick with fear
At thoughts of packing cartons
While friends all moan, I nod and smile
And neatly fold the curtains
Another house will soon be home
But joy that needs no proving
Is mine whenever movers come
How can I keep from moving?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Barbara
Date: 30 May 03 - 12:29 AM

Nice, Mark. Are you moving again? why not find someplace in Hawaii big enough to hold everyone who wants to visit you at the same time?
Start a music school/camp or something.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 30 May 03 - 12:57 AM

No, I'm not moving in the foreseeable future. I'd love to have a big place again, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Still, I like my new job, and I'm playing music and writing and I'm happy, and that's worth a whole lot of square feet! And I still have an extra bedroom for one or two visitors at a time...

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: GUEST,amergin
Date: 30 May 03 - 03:21 AM

dangit, mark...i was thinking along the same lines...and you beat me to it.....grrrr.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 May 03 - 09:09 AM

Mark, this is the best song I've seen on this subject since "Moving Day." I'm gonna pass it along to Naemanson who's packing off for his foray to Guam.

However, do consider adding one or two more verses. Somewhere inside my head, after everything is neatly packed and appropriately labeled, a small voice says "Where's Fifi?" I'm not sure who or what "Fifi" is but this may be important.

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter, not to be confused with Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 30 May 03 - 11:51 AM

Mark,

I needed to hear this one! I'm moving at the end of June from the house that held my marriage & 21 years of child-rearing. That's a lot of accumulation to sort through! I need a positive perspective.

Thanks!

bbc

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Naemanson
Date: 30 May 03 - 12:23 PM

I'm gonna print this and sing it at my going away party this weekend. I am on my way to your hemisphere, Mark. Maybe we can sing it together sometime soon.

Actually I have boxes that are still packed from moves I made years ago! I could probably throw them away now but... Naw, they might be important.

Barbara! You've got a tough job ahead of you, sorting out stuff and boxing it all up. Good luck with the move. Sorry I won't be able to see the new place. But then, I never saw the old place...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: hesperis
Date: 30 May 03 - 04:32 PM

This is great! I wish I felt this way about moving... *g*

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: bbc
Date: 30 May 03 - 06:30 PM

Ah, Brett, you never know when & where we may meet. Regardless, I appreciate the times we've had together already. Here's to you, Maine, Chocolate Church & one of my very few public appearances!
Good moving to you, too!

love,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Deckman
Date: 30 May 03 - 06:35 PM

Mark ... obviously this song came from a very moving experience. (that's for you, John Dwyer!). CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 May 03 - 01:48 AM

Oh...just realized: switch "bags" and "crates" in verse 1, line 5. Never turn down a free rhyme!

Bob, John probably would have continued by hoping my stuff didn't get van-dalized, and suggesting that while packing I should play wrap music. He'd then finish off with a rousing chorus of "U-Haul away, U-Haul away, Joe!"

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 03 - 02:40 AM

Love it, Mark...scary, but I almost feel that way!

Naes, you take care!

{{{{{{bbc}}}}}} it will feel so good when you get through it all!

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 31 May 03 - 03:44 AM

The Flying Fish Sailors, in Texas, have recorded, among other off-the-wall shanties, a moving shanty, the chorus of which, inevitably one fears, is "Haul, U-Haul, Haul."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 May 03 - 03:50 AM

That's wonderful... and I know exactly that feeling when looking at a box or crate of breakables that you just know is going to arrive at the other end in one piece (not one thing broke during our move, but the cat was sick on a journey of 500 yards). Such a lovely warm feeling, a job well done, makes you want to do it all over.....

You beat us by 5 boxes of books though, we only had 15 last time we moved. Should we ever do so again (like when the lottery numbers come up) I suspect it will be considerably more!

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 May 03 - 04:24 AM

Hmmm...maybe I should send them my Bowling Shanty!

Liz, the song may be true for some people, but not for me. I've moved 23 times since I started college in 1970...and I've never enjoyed it!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Amos
Date: 31 May 03 - 12:06 PM

Great job, Mark!


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: GUEST,amergin
Date: 31 May 03 - 12:11 PM

hey mark...i think I'll have to sing that bowling shanty for my mom...she is on one of the local bowling teams...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: hesperis
Date: 31 May 03 - 04:28 PM

I've moved so many times in the last 24 years that I've lost count... last count I'm sure of was 32.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: GUEST,Jeri
Date: 31 May 03 - 05:01 PM

And now I've lived here four good years
It's home, if not a mansion
My stuff now fills up every space
With no room for expansion
But the boxes sit and there's no room
Left for any new thing
Though they're prepared to go, I'm not -
How can I keep from moving

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: GUEST,Jeri
Date: 31 May 03 - 05:09 PM

If there are any JoeClones with cookies left and you should feel inclined to delete the previous 'oopsie' (and possibly this section of this post, I'd be grateful. Joe doesn't know I make mistakes!

---

The only way to fight parodies is with parodies. (And yes, I've been tempted to parody my own songs, but very few people know the original to start off with.) Anyhow, I've never counted how many times I've moved. The Air Force tended to send me places every so often. I felt organized when the packers had all my stuff crammed into boxes and it was the only way I ever got rid of anything because there was a weight limit. The problem is, I've ALWAYS unpacked to the point where there was no room to unpack to, and the rest of the stuff just stayed in boxes. Got a basement full of 'em now.

And now I've lived here four good years
It's home, if not a mansion
My stuff now fills up every space
With no room for expansion
But the boxes sit and there's no room
Left for any new thing
Though they're prepared to go, I'm not -
How can I keep from moving

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Barbara
Date: 31 May 03 - 06:38 PM

As for your bowling chanty, I thought it was going to be:
Go down, you last two pins-Oh
Go down.
Blessings,
Barbara,
who is getting her mudcat fix in while she still can.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: GUEST,Guest -- Linda Goodman
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 09:12 PM

Facing my fourth house-move since 1999 I really enjoyed your song! Even though this time it's only going to be from #308 to #409 (in the same building) and four storage-lockers --still.

Though I think I'd rather be living in Hawaii!

Cheers,
--Linda

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Jun 03 - 09:34 PM

I have moved twice in two years. Next time I will simply flea market everything and walk out the door with my cats. And some CDs. And some LPs. And some

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Susan of DT
Date: 07 Jun 03 - 10:10 AM

(dick greenhaus here)

Two moves equals one flood

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 06:06 AM

Can't move any more. Too many bloody books.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: How Can I Keep From Moving?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 08:22 AM

As I mentioned in Brett's Guam thread, his moving crew finished packing up his apartment only to face his basement locker stuffed to the joists with old boxes of books. Not only did they have to haul them out of there, but they had to repack them in new boxes first. What joy!

Maybe Mark should work up a new verse about the moving crew flipping a Bud after shifting another pallet of book boxes, a parody of "Let's Have Another Cup of Tea."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble