Lyr Req: Pretty Mansions (Wayne Kemp)

02 Apr 99 - 02:41 PM (#67627)
Subject: Words to country tune - 'Pretty Mansions'(?)
From: [e-mail]

I have for years been trying to track down a tune whose chorus goes more or less like this:

Pretty mansions [I don't know what goes here], Big blue diamonds have no feelings at all, And a rich man has no friends to speak of But the statues that stand in the hall.

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06 Oct 02 - 03:30 PM (#797760)
Subject: RE: Words to country tune - 'Pretty Mansions'(?)
From: Armen Tanzerian

And I dredge up this more-than-three-years-old thread, which nobody answered, to report that dreams do come true: I found this tune, written and sung by Wayne Kemp, via a record collector on the Web. This ends a 30-year search. The chorus goes:


Pretty mansions weren't made to be loved in.

Big blue diamonds have no feelings at all.

And a rich man has no friends to speak of,

But the paintings that hang on his wall.


A great tune with an interesting theme: the singer conceals from his love that he is rich, then, unbeknownst to her, gives away all his possessions so she can love him for just who he is.

[I now use my actual name, Armen Tanzerian.]

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07 Oct 02 - 12:52 AM (#798103)
Subject: RE: Words to country tune - 'Pretty Mansions'(?)
From: George Seto - [e-mail]

Thanks for the update! Nice song it looks like.

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07 Oct 02 - 01:19 AM (#798109)
Subject: RE: Words to country tune - 'Pretty Mansions'(?)
From: Joe Offer

Hi, Armen - can you give us all the lyrics?
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

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08 Oct 02 - 10:54 AM (#798914)
Subject: Lyr Add: PRETTY MANSIONS (Wayne Kemp)
From: Armen Tanzerian

Yup.

1. Caught a plane from L.A. this morning.
Gave away everything that I own.
She'll be kissing a poor boy this evening,
Never missing those things she's never known.

Ch.Pretty mansions weren't made to be loved in.
Big blue diamonds have no feelings at all.
And a rich man has no friends to speak of,
But the paintings that hang on his wall.

2. I never told her that I was a rich man.
She won't know now, because it's all gone.
And she can love me for just who I am
And not for the things that I own.

I heard this tune on a jukebox in, I guess, 1973, and never forgot it. I remembered the chorus almost intact, and sang it for anyone I though might have heard it -- even for Dick Curless whom I mistakenly thought had recorded it -- but no luck. Then, recently, using Google, I found it on a collector's website and bought it for $7, including shipping. It's a great feeling when you finally track one down like that.

It is a song very much of its time. I believe the early 70s were the era of the Flying Burrito Brothers Sin City, when the joke used to be "If God doesn't destroy Los Angeles, he owes Sodom and Gommorah an apology."

But it's also timeless enough to still be a great tune.

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08 Oct 02 - 11:09 AM (#798921)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: country tune - 'Pretty Mansions'(?)
From: IanC

e-mail sent :-)

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08 Oct 02 - 12:01 PM (#798953)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: country tune - 'Pretty Mansions'(?)
From: Armen Tanzerian

Thanks guys. I guess I could have made it clearer that the original poster and Armen Tanzerian are both me. Mais merci bien quand même.

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