Hello In There

We had an apartment in the city,
Me and Loretta liked living there.
Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own left us alone.
John and Linda live in Omaha,
And Joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost Davy in the Korean war,
And I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore.
 
Chorus:
Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello."
 
Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more,
She sits and stares through the back door screen.
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen.
Someday I'll go and call up Rudy,
We worked together at the factory.
But what could I say if he asks "What's new?"
"Nothing, what's with you? Nothing much to do."
 
Repeat Chorus:
Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello."

So if you're walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
Please don't just pass 'em by and stare
As if you didn't care, say, "Hello in there, hello."


John Prine   "Hello In There"

I Feel It!

There's a feeling in music and it carries you back down the road you have traveled and makes you travel it again. Or it takes you back down the road somebody else has come and you can look out across the world from the hill they are standing on. 

Sometimes when I hear music I think back over my days - and a feeling that is fifty-fifty joy and pain swells like clouds taking all kinds of shape in my mind - If it is joy it is of such a treasured sort and such a fine make that the thought of its passing is near to pain - and you can see how pain has paid you a profit in its own strange way - and the joy of the sadness is like a raindrop falling in the sun.

Music is on the radio - I notice that as I listen, I think of my mistakes, ill words, wasted time, and the next note I think of who I love and who I hate, and the success I've had at both, and of my tomorrow's chances. And I feel like a singing god riding on a cloud snapping my fingers and ruling a universe.

Music is a tone of voice, the sound life uses to keep the living alive. They call us back many times a day from the brinks of torture - the holes of superstition. There never was a sound that was not music - there's no real trick of creating words to set to music - once you realize that the word is the music and the people are the song. 

There's A Feeling In Music
Words by Woody Guthrie, 

Excerpt from Woody Guthrie diary entry written on 3/16/1942

I Repeat...

I Am Very Busy Now

Thanks, Sis

It was hangin' in a corner
Like a candy ball and chain
It wasn't nothin' she ever thought about
Didn't know it was gone the day she moved out
In my hand if I pointed it just right
You oughta heard what come to me at night
On that little transistor
My big sister's radio

Well it couldn't hold a candle
To a modern stereo
It only had one speaker
Only had one dial
Oh that radio used to make me smile gettin'
So many DJs from so far away
You oughta heard the records they would play
On that little transistor
My big sister's radio

My big sister's transistor radio
Had a song for my heart and a song for my soul
One for my heart aches
One for my tears
Every song was music to that young boy's ears

Memphis and New Orleans
Only half a turn away
900 miles just turning that dial
And the music would start to play
I heard that old soul rock and roll
Funky rhythm and blues
Man I din't know what I was getting into
On that little transistor
My big sister's radio

My big sister's transistor radio
Had a song for my heart and a song for my soul
One for my heart aches
One for my tears
Every song was music to that young boy's ears

Now I'm grown and I long for those nights
In the corner by the bedroom light
Laughin' and a' singin'
Dancin' in my drawers
Spinnin that dial 'til my fingers got sore
All those DJs I wished I could call
Looking back I know I owe it all
To that little transistor
My big sister's radio
It was a little transistor
My big sister's radio
It was a little transistor
My big sister's radio

Mike Shermer    My Big Sister's Radio

Too Much Month

It's called the Doomsday Clock,  in 1947 they came up with a symbolic way to show how close humankind is to total destruction. The closer to midnight, the worse off we are. It was originally set at 7 minutes to midnight, and has gotten as close as 2 minutes.

For me it's a great visual for how I feel every payday...every two weeks I reset the clock and try to make it to next payday without a catastrophe! I never set it more than five minutes til...why kid myself...and most times we end up with just seconds to spare...because like the song says:

There's just too much month at the end of the money!

Tick-Tock!

Ralphie

Standin' Knee Deep

There’ve been times in my life
When I’ve felt out of touch and half-crazy
Lost in a crowd with lovers and friends by my side

There’s a numbness I’ve known,
all alone in some shimmering city
With bright lights around me
and nothing but shadows inside

There’ve been desperate times
when my heart was so dry
That I felt like my life was a curse
I was standin’ knee deep in the river and dyin’ of thirst

There are months at a time
When no reason nor rhyme can sustain me
When nothin’ makes sense
and everything turns upside-down

There are nights when I fight
to keep dreamin’ from driving me crazy
And I shut off my mind
just to keep it from spinnin’ around

But it’s down in that quiet in that stillness I find
The sweet water for which I’ve longed searched
While standin’ knee deep in the river and dyin’ of thirst

So if you’re having times
When you feel out of touch and half-crazy
Lost in a crowd with lovers and friends by your side

If the game’s getting old,
and you’re cold and exhausted and maybe
You’d just like to cop-out and crumble,
or lay down and die

If you come to a time when you need to decide
Friend, you might want to ask yourself first
Am I standin’ knee deep in the river and dyin’ of thirst?

’Cause there’s a great river runs
from the heart of the sun
Through the soul of the whole universe
From the limitless light that brings order and might
To the substance of Heaven and Earth

And it’s down in that quiet, in that stillness inside
There’s a well we don’t seek ’til we hurt
From standin’ knee deep in the river and dyin’ of thirst

Yes, down in that quiet, in that stillness inside
Are sweet waters to heal this whole Earth
That is standin’ knee deep in the river and dyin’ of thirst

Lacy J. Dalton   Standin' Knee Deep

Duck And Cover

Someone's in the back yard, bangin' on the door  

Daddy's gone away, he's comin' back no more  

His baby's curled up on a stranger's floor  

Mama's thinkin', family dinners weren't too much to ask for

 
Everybody here's got a story to tell 

Everybody's been through their own hell  

There's nothin' too special 'bout gettin' hurt  

Gettin' over it, that takes the work
 

'Cause one way or another, all need each other  

Nothing's gonna turn out the way you thought it would  

But friends and lovers, don't you duck and cover 

'Cause everythin' comes out the way it should

 
Blessed are the humble, blessed are the meek 

Blessed are the hungry, blessed are the weak  

Blessed are the ones on the other side  

Blessed are we for just bein' alive

 
One day I stopped wantin' anythin' at all  

The Heaven's opened up like a waterfall  

No use in worryin' 'bout when it ends 

Just for now be thankful for what I get

 
'Cause one way or another, a man's gonna suffer  

It makes no difference the way you wanted it  

But friends and lovers, don't you duck and cover 

'Cause everythin' comes out the way it should, in the end

 
Seems like life is a palindrome  

Cry when you die, cry when you're born  

In between, it's all about the ups and downs  

Add 'em all together, they cancel each other out

 
'Cause one way or another, one way or another  

Won't get what you wanted, you'll get enough, for sure
'Cause one way or another, winter pays for the summer  

Won't get what you wanted, what you got'll be good

 
Someone's in the back yard, bangin' on the door  

Daddy's gone away, he's comin' back no more  

His baby's curled up on a stranger's floor  

Mama's thinkin', happy endings weren't too much to ask for -

Glen Phillips  Duck And Cover

Fishing Out The Pearl

There is a long hard Road follows far behind me,
Its so cold I'm about to die,
Chasing a dream around the world
Its got me feeling down
Though it use to make me high
Looking for answers searching for the truth,
In an ocean of lies.
trying to find a reason to make the whole thing right,
will make you old before your time

When I was younger,

I thought I ruled the world ,
It was an oyster at my feet,
Dancing to my own drum,
fishing out the pearl
wish I would have been much more discreet
I've lived a lifetime,
acting out a part,
Its been a long uphill climb,
now all the things that use to mean so much to me
Has got me old before my time,

Wondering aimlessly,wondering down,
would it ever be much different now,
Remind me of the past,
I slip into a dream,
funny things ain't never what they seem,


Living like children,
never doing what we are told ,
Would not hesitate to take a chance,
That Road behind me now was paved with fool's gold,
Its almost time for the victory dance,
No more feeling guilty,
for things I never did,
feeling nothing for my crime ,
Living like a gypsy ,
dreaming like a kid,
it makes me old before my time...

There is a long hard Road, it lies so far behind me... 

The Allman Brothers Band Old Before My Time

Remember...

While digesting Reader’s Digest
In the back of a dirty book store
A plastic flag with gum on the back
Fell out on the floor.
Well,I picked it up and ran outside
And slapped it on my windowshield.
And If I could see ol’ Betsy Ross
I’d tell her how good I feel.

(Chorus:)
But, you flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven anymore.
They’re already overcrowded
From your dirty little war
Now Jesus don’t like Killin’
No matter what the reasons for.
And your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore.

Well,I went to the Bank this morning
And the cashier said to me
If you join the Christmas Club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free.
I didn’t mess a round a bit
I took him up on what he said
And stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife’s forehead.

(Chorus:)
But, you flag decal won’t get you
Into Heaven anymore.
They’re already overcrowded
From your dirty little war
Now Jesus don’t like Killin’
No matter what the reasons for.
And your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore.

Well,I got my windshield so filled with flags I couldn’t see
So I ran my car upside a curb and right into a tree
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead,
And I’ll never understand
Why the man,
Standing in the Pearly Gates said…

(Chorus:)
But your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore,
We’re already overcrowded from your dirty little war
Now Jesus don’t like killin’
No matter what the reasons for.
And your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore.

John Prine

Still Learning

The hour is early

The whole world is quiet

A beautiful morning's about to ignite

I'm ready for danger

I'm ready for fire

I'm ready for something to lift me up higher

Life's been good, I guess

My ragged old heart's been blessed

With so much more than meets the eye

I've got a past I won't soon forget

You ain't seen nothing yet

I'm still learning how to fly

It's the dreams that die hard

With old habits to break

You can't let down your guard

When there's so much at stake

I'm halfway to heaven, halfway to hell

But I might roll a seven

You never can tell

Life's been good it's true

When I'm feeling just like new

The same old rules need not apply

I've got a past full of sticks and stones

And a good feeling in my bones

I'm still learning how to fly

I wanna go faster

I don't wanna slow down

I don't wanna get off of this merrygoround

I wanna be reckless

I wanna be vain

I wanna make love like a runaway train

Life's been good I said

I'm 10,000 miles ahead

The day I rest is the day I die

I've got a past like a broken wing

But you ain't seen anything

I'm still learning how to fly

I'm still learning how to fly

Rodney Crowell