1)  didn't wanna love you  

time to put these dreams aside
and live out on a limb.
only honesty might help me now

i wanted to be your lover, baby
now i'm learnin' to be your friend
but if i see who you are
it's only goin' to make it easier anyhow.

i didn't wanna love you but now i do,
can't tell a lie if my heart is true,
and even if you leave me and make me blue
there ain't a thing that i can do
but love you
love you, love you, love you.

there's a place inside my mind
i haven't been for years.
i've got to find it now before it's gone forever.

and if a friend can show a lover
how to move on up to love,
well then i guess you showed the way,
it' now or never.

i guess i'm learnin' to love you, baby
in the way that you need to be.
it's just a quiet steady feelin' all the time.

but if i run away sometimes
well i know that you'll understand
that it's hard to get up off the ground
and to leave my fears behind.



2)  funky song


Marriage and career are on the rocks.
I’m living the life i dreamed of,
as a floating point location, determined only
by the moment’s impulse or inspiration.
I’m an artist,
Right down the street in San Anselmo is a bar,
The Lion’s Share, where local bands play.
One of them happens to be Van Morrison,
the Irish R & B rocker.
I’m ‘adopted’ by his female back-up singers,
one of whom happens to be his wife.
My privileges include free admission
and back-stage access to most of Van’s gigs.
One night, swaying to the music,
drunk on free drinks, courtesy of  Mrs. Morrison,
i have a clear vision of my future.


after a long, long while
i will lay this body down
on a bed of lilies and pink roses.
my friends will remember me kindly
when they lay me under the ground
and i have gone to see what the other side discloses.

good night,  my honky tonk ladies
i won't  be seeing you anymore
i'll be rollin' up the road now
where the cold winds blow.
let's sing that old, funky song
just once more.

it's long hours after midnight
and it will be long hours more
before i take my rest with the worst and the best
down on Jordan's sunny shore.

i'll be swayin' in a crowded barroom
to the tune of a sad troubadour
i will be dreamin' away my life
in the arms of another man's wife
till i'm lyin' stone cold on the floor.

it's late, late past midnight
i'll be here till half past four
just show me a pretty woman
and i will find a straight line right to her door
'cause just as long as there are honky tonk angels
just as long as this wine and this whiskey flow
and just as long as this music
can hold back the dawn
i'm not gonna leave here
till they lock up all the doors.

i’ll be singin’

good night,  my honky tonk ladies
i won't  be seeing you anymore
i'll be rollin' up the road now
where the cold winds blow.
let's sing that old, funky song
just once more.



3)  greyhound depot


1971. I’m living in Marin county, CA
My first marriage has disintegrated, worse
exploded; sucked, perhaps into the immensity
of the northern California sky.
I am far from home. Night is falling
behind the hills toward the Pacific.
My ‘career’ as a rock star has disappeared too.
Through the eerie calm of despair
I catch a glimpse of derelictions,
lonelinesses, wanderings in seedy envirions,
toward i don’t know what.


i walked out yesterday evening
a yellow moon was on the rise
so big and bright on the horizon
and the clouds  were driftin' along the hillside
maybe you and i had a good thing darlin'
but we had lost the heart to try.
now we're sayin' goodbye, goodbye,
we are sayin' goodbye.

and i was on my way
down to the greyhound depot
and the night closed around me like a hand
the depot looked kind of yellow and dirty
as i walked up to the souvenir stand
and the man had kind of a sad expression
but i didn't ask what was on his mind
because we're sayin' goodbye, goodbye
we are sayin' goodbye.

and you know that it seems like a shame
that you and i might never get together again
but i guess that we used up what we had
and that what makes it so sad.

and when i left the greyhound depot
i looked up at the sky
and it seems like while i had been waiting
the moon had rose up pretty high
and i looked away to the distant hillside
and it was dark down inside my mind
because we're sayin' goodbye, goodbye
we are sayin' goodbye.



4) lady of a thousand songs


i guess it's best when we're alone
i don't like talkin' on the telephone
i'm tired of hearin' a lot of loud rock'n' roll
i need to find a quiet place
in the bottom of my soul
 -

won't you
 
be my lady
of a thousand songs
and rock me on your blue, blue pillow
all night long.
i'm just a tired sailor
and i'm longing to be home
oh, won't you
be my lady,
be my lady,
be my lady of a thousand songs.

and let me come again behind your eyes
dream you hold me naked in the pouring rain.
i want to scream and shake when you touch me, just one more time
till your crazy fingers
take away my pleasure and my pain

i want you to . . ..

and i'll see your face over a coffee cup
at the start of every day
and hold you in the doorway
while the children run and play
you can pull the covers over me when it's sleepy time
and we can lie down together
make some funny little rhymes.

oh, i know that we'll make love again
a hundred thousand times
but let's make love just one more time
so we can fall asleep
and tell me that i'm gentle and tell me that i'm strong
oh,  let's make love and talk again
one more time before the dawn.

i want you to
be my lady of a thousand songs
and the sounds and the words
will come pouring out of me
in the hidden lock
you have turned your tiny key
and i want you to
be my lady. . .

and be my lady of a thousand dreams
and rock me on your blue, blue pillow
all night long.
i'm just a tired sailor
and i'm longing to be home
oh, won't you
be my lady,
be my lady,
be my lady of a thousand dreams.

and be my lady thousand songs . . .


5)  little sparrow

so come back, little sparrow
and we will sing and we will talk again
and since love is what we sing about
and what we talk about
i hear you
the pen touches the paper
and we're off again.

and oh, i see that you are holdin' up your flag
the one with the dream picture on it
the dream called 'our future'
and 'our life' and 'our love'
the dream called our love.

fly higher then, little sparrow
and follow me, and lead me on
i'm an old eagle, and you've got the speed
but i can fly like a arrow
and i want you to know
that i've been circlin' these hills
for a few years now.

so let's go again, little sparrow
since love is what makes us fly
and since love is what makes us sing
and we won't count the days of resting
and hiding out and holin' up
in between the good times
of feelin' our pains and waiting.

preparing dispatches and communiques
for the final defeat
telephone conversations prepared and rehearsed
for the meeting where the peace treaty in signed

you know that Grant and Lee met quietly
with just a trace of  emotion
a quaver in the voice
and a moistness at the corners of the eyes

but everything is prepared now
in the mind and the heart
to spare us
the final agony
and the glorious war
is ended
the glorious war
is ended.

oh, but since love is what we prepared for
and the subject of these negotiations
and since i see
that you are holdin' up your flag
the one that says:
"i ain't quitin' yet
i ain't quitin' yet,
so don't you tread on me, baby
don't you tread on me, baby"
i say: yes
and i don't tell you
what i had prepared
and nursed, and cursed and rehearsed.
no, i just say: yes
come back, come back
little sparrow
and we will sing
and we will talk again
and since love is what we sing about
and what we about about
i hear you
the pen touches the paper
and we're off again.  


6) marylou


marylou, you didn't make me blue
you didn't break my heart in two
you didn't make me cry over you
you done me just like you were s'posed to do

marylou

i didn't have to be a fool for you
didn't have to promise to be true
i never got down thinkin' about you
you done just like you were s'posed to do

marylou

oh, marylou
walkin' and a talkin 'bout my sweet marylou
oh, marylou,

it wasn't a game of push and shove
it wasn't love sent from above
i don't know what we were thinkin' of
but we fit together just like fingers in a glove

marylou

oh, marylou

i didn't jump in the river over you
i didn't go down to the corner and get drunk over you
i didn't do stupid things i didn't mean to do
your love light just came shinin' through

marylou

oh, marylou
walkin' and a talkin 'bout my sweet marylou
oh, marylou.

i said i'm walkin' and talkin'
i'm gonna sing and shout
sing and shout about
marylou, marylou
'bout my sweet
marylou



 7)  stealin' love  -  for the lyrics of this song click here


8)  you let me down


blow, blow. blow, you night winds, blow
and wash my angry soul
you know that i loved you
just as deep as i could go
just as deep as you would let me go.

but you kept me on the outside
and now i'm chokin' back my tears
as i look into your eyes.
you wouldn't let me go down
to where i could feel so strong
that i would not know right from wrong
down deep in love where i belong.

and i want to see the light
changin' on your face
and feel your body
in the pale morning light
see the fog come rollin' down
the green, green mountainside
and i want to know
that you'll be watchin' me too.

tired, but i can't sleep
my mind keeps ramblin' on
i guess i'm strung out on your love.
i'm burned out and i'm wasted
and all that i have left is this song
to help me remember
what i was dreamin' of.

i needed you to be good to me
i needed some love and some tenderness
but thanks anyway for teachin' me
what lonely means
there's nothin' you can say to me now
that will break these chains
that have got me bound
because you didn't leave me
you just let me down.

oh, you didn't leave me
you just let me down.