Lyr Req: songs about Bleecker Street

Subject: bleeker street
From: GUEST,schneid
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 07:26 PM

I would like to know some folk songs with Bleeker Street in the lyrics. I know a version of "Freight Train" and one with the chorus "Oh you New York girls sure can dance the polka"

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: mousethief
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 07:30 PM

There is Bleecker Street by Paul Simon:

Bleecker Street

(this has space-spaced chords and I don't have time to do "clean-up" on it; that's why I'm not posting it here)

Alex

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 07:48 PM

Hi, Schneid - search for both bleecker and bleeker with our Digitrad and Forum search, and you'll find at least a couple of Tom Paxton songs that mention the street (with various spellings).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: Benjamin
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 07:50 PM

The tab to Paul Simon's Bleeker Street as well as lots of other great Simon and Garfunkel tabs can be found on the Simon and Garfunkel Home Page!!

Subject: Lyr Add: RAINING DOWN ON BLEECKER STREET
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 08:49 PM

The late Fred Neil had one titled 'Bleecker and MacDougal' about wanting to go home to Coconut Grove.

Not folk either, but there is a beaut song by rock group Devonsquare. I picked up the CD in a record store cheapie bin years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly, particularly 'Raining Down on Bleecker Street':

RAINING DOWN ON BLEECKER STREET
(Tom Dean, Alana MacDonald, Herb Ludwig)

Here they come
Walking to the beat of each other
All leather and mystery
Stepping from the street

Soul for soul and roll for roll
They're together again
The midnight seekers, the ghosts of Bleecker
At the Bitter End
Thought it would never end

Birds of a feather
Twisting on a wire
Trying their wings together
Who can fly higher

Two step singing 'bout Kerouac
Sing a little louder
You might bring him back
Ghost of the ages, tryin' to turn the pages
But its raining down on Bleecker Street
Down on Bleecker Street

Pick another star from the sky
Kick another stone
Don't ever ask why
If you're scared to be alone

Roll another cigarette
Turn another phrase
Slide it up another fret
Smoke another day

I must admit the record skips
But I don't really care
There's dust on the needle
And rust on the wall
But I was never there

Two step singing 'bout Kerouac
Sing a little louder
You might bring him back
Ghost of the ages, tryin' to turn the pages
But its raining down on Bleecker Street
Down on Bleecker Street

Raining down on Bleecker Street
'I saw the greatest minds of our generation
Listening to the crack of doom
On the hydrogen jukebox'

You know those cats
They could really howl
Raining down on Bleecker Street

Source: Devonsquare 'Bye Bye Route 66' Atlantic CD 7567-82343-2

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: TIN ANGEL (Joni Mitchell)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 09:44 PM

From Joni Mitchell's first album, "Clouds", the song "Tin Angel":

Varnished weeds in window jars
Tarnished beads on tapestries
Kept in satin boxes are
Reflections of love's memories

Letters from across the seas
Roses dipped in sealing wax
Valentines and maple leaves
Tucked into a paperback

Guess I'll throw them all away
I found someone to love today

Dark with darker moods is he
Not a golden prince who's come
Through columbines and wizardry
To talk of castles in the sun

Still I'll take a chance and say
I found someone to love today

There's a sorrow in his eyes
Like the angel made of tin
What would happen if I tried
To place another heart in him?

In a Bleecker Street cafe
I found someone to love today

Hey, I haven't thought of that in a while...it's nice to recall her early work, and bring back those memories. Thanks, scheid!

It's not surprising, by the way, that an area that was important to so many musicians (Greenwich Village) would find its way into a number of songs.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 09:47 PM

Oops, I think it may be "What will happen if I try" -- and it is schneid, not scheid. Too slow the proofread, to quick the submit.

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: Tedham Porterhouse
Date: 24 Jul 01 - 09:59 PM

from Tom Paxton's "Cindy's Cryin":

"Cindy's cryin and it ain't no use/Got a habit and she can't loose/Stoppin' each and every man she meet/Gonna be a hooker on Bleecker Street."

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: GUEST,erica
Date: 25 Jul 01 - 09:50 AM

okay, just one joniophile moment -- that first album was "song to a seagull," remember? (alternately just "joni mitchell;" the scholars are still duking that one out.)

that song has "cactus tree" on it, which i love.

my current favorite bleecker street song was written by an East Village scenester, Joie Dead Blonde Girlfriend. He prefaces the song by saying it "tells a story about a scene and a street that was once cool. Now the street is just a tourist trap . . . "

I tend to agree, although the Bitter End still has its good moments. And Cafe Reggio is still on Macdougal!

Listen to Joie's song; you'll like it, or at least find it interesting. he sounds just like a revved up, punk Woody Guthrie:

Click here

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 11:00 PM

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: khandu
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 11:02 PM

Nice input, Swap!

khanduh

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 28 Jul 01 - 12:21 AM

It's funny, erica, I'd assumed for years that "Song to a Seagull" (scholars be damned, we know what it's called!) was her first album, then recently someone told me, no, "Clouds" was first. All my albums are packed away in boxes, so I can't check, but I hope you're right, because that means I was! A few months ago on a drive to the other side of the island I sang the whole "Clouds" album from memory. Of course, considering the state of my memory these days, I'd have to say I think I did!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: bleeker street
From: Peg
Date: 28 Jul 01 - 01:28 AM

I am pretty sure Clouds was after Seagull...

peg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about Bleecker Street
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 18 - 02:08 PM

Does anyone else think Bleecker Street by Simon and Garfunkel sounds like this? Especially the part where they say "Fills the alleys where men sleep" and "I saw a shadow touch a shadow's hand" i.e. the third line of every verse. A version of Freight Train has "Bleecker Street" instead of "Chestnut Street", so they may be alluding to it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about Bleecker Street
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 29 Sep 18 - 04:47 PM

Burl Ives.

1968 – Song to a Seagull, Reprise Records, LP, RS6293 (stereo,) R6293 (mono.)
1969 – Clouds, Reprise Reords, LP, RS 6341, R6341

And:
Kitty's Back, Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, 1973
What Do You Know About Love?, Lloyd Cole, 1990

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about Bleecker Street
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 29 Sep 18 - 06:51 PM

There is a vague similarity between Freight Train and Bleecker Street in that third line, now you mention it, although depending on whether he composed the melody around the chord progression or the chords around the melody, there is not much variation in tune you can have when moving from E7 to F. The first line of The Boxer is also very similar to Whiskey in the Jar, but I doubt if we need another thread about the big names in music who have at some stage pinched bits off others - so did Debussy, Vaughn Williams and Prokokiev, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs about Bleecker Street
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Sep 18 - 02:22 PM

See Eric Andersen's song "The Street Was Always There".

The CD of the same name ain't bad either.