Jimmy Winokur


mid-80s

Some Favorite Quotations

Song Lyrics
from the Core

More Song Lyrics:
next pages; song listings below:
Other Specially Meaningful Lyrics

Song Lyrics: Love Songs
 

Prose Quotations
Poetry

Music Index
Website Homepage/Index

Index to Song Lyrics

 

Lyrics from the Core
(this page)

Jackson Browne
Moving Farther On
My Opening Farewell
Under the Evening Sky
Sing My Songs to Me
Bruce Cockburn

Hills of Morning,
No Footprints
Rumours of Glory
What About the Bond
Judy Collins
Secret Gardens
Bob Dylan
The Times They Are A'Changin'
Bob Welch& Christine McVie
from the early 70s version of:
Fleetwood Mac

Night Watch
Why
Elton  John & Bernie Taupin

This Song Has No Title

Kris Kristofferson,
To Beat the Devil
Joni Mitchell
I Think I Understand
My Childhood Lullaby

Mighty Like a Rose

Pink Floyd

Shine on You Crazy Diamond
Paul Simon

The Boxer
Song for the Asking
Jerry Jeff Walker
I Makes Money, Money Don't Make Me
Maybe Mexico
She Knows Her Daddy Sings
(for Little Jessie)
Shell Game
David Wilcox
Love Will Show the Way
Young Man Dies
Jesse Winchester
That's What Makes You Strong
Jimmy Winokur
Together
(lyric in search of melody)

 

click here for next page:
Other Specially Meaningful Lyrics
These include:
Eric Anderson
Thirsty Boots
Billy Jim Baker
Contrary to Ordinary
John Lennon & Paul McCartney,:  The Beatles
A Day in the Life
Jackson Browne
For Everyman
For a Dancer
Lights and Virtues
Beth Nielsen Chapman
Dancer to the Drum
Bob Welch & Danny Kirwan of Fleetwood Mac (early'70s)
Revelation
Future Games
Jerry Herman, from La Cage aux Folles
I Am What I Am
Kris Kristofferson
To Beat the Devil
Joni Mitchell
The Circle Game
Pink Floyd
Brain Damage
Paul Siebel
Then Came the Children
Paul Simon
Boy in the Bubble
Sound of Silence
Kodachrome
Father and Daughter
How Can You Live in the Northeast
Sondheim/Lapine from Sunday in the Park With George
Move On
James Taylor
For Martin Luther King
Secret of Life
Terra Nova
Jerry Jeff Walker
Some Go Home
     (Tennessee Train Song)

A Letter Sung to Friends
David Wilcox
Leave It Like It Is (Kitchen Blue
)


 

click here for Love Song lyrics:
Song Lyrics:  Love Songs

The Beatles
All You Need Is Love
In My Life
I Will
Karla Bonoff
Rose in the Garden
Paul Brady
Cold, Cold Night
Guy Clark
Coat From the Cold
Judy Collins
(What I'll Give You) Since You've Asked
Bob Dylan
One Too Many Mornings
Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather
Just Like A Woman
Vance Gilbert
Unfamiliar Moon
Richard Rogers w/Lorenz Hart or Oscar Hammerstein:
Some Enchanted Evening
With a Song In My Heart
Paul Siebel
Long Afternoons
Paul Simon
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Train In the Distance
Jerry Jeff Walker
My Old Man
Jimmy Winokur
Till Morning's LightI
Jesse Colin Young
Get Together
 

 

 

 

Lyrics from the Core

....
Cast off that shell
Don't resist the unknown
Your understandin' is open-handed
Hold it closed and you're alone....

from Jerry Jeff Walker, Shell Game (1969)
Copyright, Cotillion Music, Inc. and Danel Music, 1969


 
 

 

 

The whole world's topsy turvey
You feel like you're upside down
Everyday is a push and shove
Ah, people trying to get around
Workin' hard tryin' to make some bread
Try to get it 'fore it get's away
Its too bad man must work to get along
But to live you know he needs to pay
The city is a place to build your dreams
A chance to give your ideas life
But a man gets a longin' for some country green
Just wants some peace and quiet
Peace and quiet....

Ah to be up and leaving this town
Heading down an open road
With all that you own kinda thrown on the back seat
Thinking 'bout where to go
Maybe New Orleans, maybe Mexico

If only you could pack up everything you love,
And everyone who'd ever been your friend
Keeping close to you the things that make you strong
Got to carry them with you around the bend
The fear to move and meet the new can keep you in line
To go you know that something stays behind
So separate the good and bad and take along the kind
To the place you'd like to be at right on time
Time...

Ah to be up and leaving this town
Heading down an open road
With all that you own kinda thrown on the back seat
Thinking 'bout where to go
Maybe New Orleans, maybe Mexico....

Got to get outta here, mama,
Got to head on down, right on down
Stop off down in Austin Texas,
See some friends of mine, yeah,
Down near the border...

Jerry Jeff Walker, Maybe Mexico (1968)
Copyright, Cotillion Music, Inc. and Danel Music, 1968
 


 

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There's a young man dying
as he stands beside the sea.
You can see him smiling, unbelievably free:
wind in his hair, light in his eyes.
He looks a lot like you, and you look so surprised
that he would send you on your way
with no good-byes.
But he can't go, and you can't stay,
'cause in the years it takes
to make one man wise, the young man dies.

Meanwhile you're sailing,
as you wave good-bye to shore.
You're anticipating what these new days
will hold in store.
It's the mystery of the ocean,
but now he's in over his head.
This is no place for the young man,
he's got to send you on instead.
And still you're looking so surprised
that this change has come as prophesied
but the years won't compromise,
'cause in the years it takes
to make one man wise, the young man dies.

The young man:
He was such a lonely boy.
Yeah, but he could dream, all right.
He could picture you a perfect sunrise
in the middle of your darkest night.
And he could take a sip from someday,
like he had a secret well.
He could listen to the voices calling
from a distant time will tell.
It's you in that picture where you're looking far away
like you hear a whisper of the things
you'll know someday.

But back then your heart was hungry
for something hard to find; you were
just holding out for someday,
but you've left that pain behind
'cause he walked you through those mountains,
for as long as he could bear.
He never reached the fountain,
but he could take you there.
The young man's dying
'cause in the years it takes to make one man wise,
the young man dies.

David Wilcox, Young Man Dies
©1999 Midnight Ocean Bonfire Music (ASCAP) Cindy Lou My Dear (ASCAP)
All Rights Reserved/International Copyright Secured

 

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If you love somebody
Then that means you need somebody
And if you need somebody
That’s what makes you weak
But if you know you’re weak
And you know you need somebody
O it’s a funny thing
That’s what makes you strong
 

That’s what makes you strong
That’s what gives you power
That’s what lets the meek come and sit beside the king
That’s what lets us smile
In our final hour
That’s what moves our souls
And that’s what makes us sing.

And to trust somebody
Is to be disappointed
It’s never what you wanted
And it happens every time
But if you’re the trusting kind
This don’t even cross your mind
O it’s a funny thing
That’s what makes you strong.

Jesse Winchester, That’s What Makes You Strong,
(2000, from Gentleman of Leisure; and Live Mountain Stage)

 

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Sing my songs to me
Sing them to me softly
Sing me sunlight and shadows
Orange groves and meadows
Let your voice ring back my memories
Sing my songs to me

Bring my dreams to me
Bring them from the darkness
Let the minutes and hours
Show my mind strange new flowers
But I`d like to know where they go
when the morning comes
Bring my dreams to me

Because it seems to me that there may never be
A better chance to see who I am
Come timelessly dancing
Through my dreams to me

Jackson Browne, Sing My Songs to Me



 

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Above the dark town
After the sun's gone down
Two vapour trails cross the sky
Catching the day's last slow goodbye
Black skyline looks rich as velvet
Something is shining
Like gold but better
Rumours of glory

Smiles mixed with curses
The crowd disperses
About whom no details are known
Each one alone yet not alone
Behind the pain/fear
Etched on the faces
Something is shining
Like gold but better
Rumours of glory

You see the extremes
Of what humans can be?
In that distance some tension's born
Energy surging like a storm
You plunge your hand in
And draw it back scorched
Beneath it's shining like
Gold but better
Rumours of glory
Bruce Cockburn, Rumours of Glory
Copyright Golden Mountain Music Inc., 1979



 

 

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Video clip of a portion of Mario Savio's speech
before the Berkeley Free Speech Movement sit-in
(December 3, 1964)

 

  Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

 

   

 

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
 

 
  Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
   

 

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

 
  Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
   

Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin'
Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

  • Following Savio's speech, above, Joan Baez sings:  All Your Trials Soon be Over  and  Blowing in the Wind.  
  • Mario Savio leads crowd into Sproul,
  • Baez leads the singing of  We Shall Overcome
  • Listen to it
    For a wonderful archive of related materials, visit
    The UC Berkeley Library/Media Resources Center
     Social Activism Sound Recording Project: 
    The Free Speech Movement and Its Legacy
     

     

     

     

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    In the clearing stands a boxer,
    And a fighter by his trade
    And he carries the reminders
    Of ev'ry glove that laid him down
    Or cut him till he cried out
    In his anger and his shame,
    "I am leaving, I am leaving."
    But the fighter still remains

     from Paul Simon, The Boxer

     

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    Disharmony gives way
    To mute helplessness
    Not enough communication
    Too much not expressed

    It's all to easy
    To let go of hope
    To think there's nothing worth saving
    And let it all go up in smoke
     

    What about the the bond?
    What about the mystical unity?
    What about the bond
    Sealed in the loving presence of the Father?

                      

    Dysfunction
    Of the institutions
    That should give a frame to work in
    Got to find our own solutions

    Confusion
    Pressure from all sides
    Got to head right down the centre
    In the love that will abide
     

    What about the the bond?
    What about the mystical unity?
    What about the bond
    Sealed in the loving presence of the Father?

     

    Man and woman
    Made to be one flesh
    Nobody said it would be easy
    But can we let go now and fail the test?

    Now you could say
    Life is full of moving on
    But do you want the pain that's
    Already been spent
    To all be wasted -- c'mon
     

    What about the the bond?
    What about the mystical unity?
    What about the bond
    Sealed in the loving presence of the Father?


    Bruce Cockburn, What About the Bond?

     

     

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    Sometimes out here on the road
    Too late to call I see the telephone
    My minds a line running straight for home
    I think I see her sleeping soft and warm

    'n she knows her daddy sings
    We know all that the money brings
    She thinks our world is everything
    But does she know
    She's the precious thing

    I know we've had our ups and downs
    Drove our love nearly out of bounds
    Can't go back to a lot of towns
    We were doin' what was goin' round

    Now she knows her daddy sings
    We know all that the money brings
    She thinks our world is everything
    But does she know
    She's the precious thing ? 

    Two adults in a world alone
    Take a little love, make a little home
    The little hands touch your wavy hair
    Then wave goodbye and leave us standin' there.

    But she knows her daddy sings
    We know all that the money brings
    She thinks our world is everything
    But does she know
    She's the precious thing

    She thinks our world is everything
    But does she know
    She's the precious thing

    Jerry Jeff Walker, She Knows Her Daddy Sings/For Little Jessie
    Copyright 1981, Groper Music
    for Talia Will, born the very same year, sung the very same song!

     

     


     

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      Sweetest little fellow, everybody knows;
        Don't know what to call him but he's mighty like a rose!
      Lookin' at his mommy with eyes so shiny blue,
        Makes you think that heaven is comin' close to you.
      When he's there a-sleepin' in his little place,
        Think I see the angels looking thro' the lace.
      When the dark is falling, when the shadows creep,
        Then they come on tip-toe to kiss him in his sleep.
      Sweetest little fellow, everybody knows,
        Don't know what to call him but he's mighty like a rose!
      Lookin' at his mommy with eyes so shiny blue,
        Makes you think that heaven is comin' close to you.
       

      Mighty Like a Rose,
      Words by Frank L. Stanton  Music by Ethelbert Nevin (1901)
      Lullaby sung to me from infancy

       



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    Here is my song for the asking
    Ask me and I will play
    So sweetly, I'll make you smile

    This is my tune for the taking
    Take it, don't turn away
    I've been waiting all my life

    Thinking it over, I've been sad
    Thinking it over, I'd be more than glad
    To change my ways for the asking

    Ask me and I will play
    All the love that I hold inside

    Paul Simon, Song for the Asking

     

     


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    A lady stands before an open window
    Staring so far away
    She can almost feel the southern wind blow
    Almost touching her restless day

    She turns from her window to me
    Sad smile her apology
    Sad eyes reaching to the door

    Daylight loses to another evening
    And still she spares me the word goodbye
    And sits alone beside me fighting her feelings
    Struggles to speak but in the end can only cry



    Suddenly its so hard to find
    The sound of the words to speak her troubled mind
    So I`m offering these to her as if to be kind:
    There`s a train everyday leaving either way
    There`s a world, you know
    There`s a way to go
    And you`ll soon be gone -- that`s just as well
    This is my opening farewell

    A child`s drawings left there on the table
    And a woman`s silk lying on the floor
    And I would keep them here if I were able
    Lock her safe behind this open door

    But suddenly it`s so clear to me
    That I`d asked her to see what she may never see
    And now my kind words find their way back to me
    There`s a train everyday leaving either way
    There`s a world, you know
    You got a way`s to go
    And I`ll soon believe -- it`s just as well
    This is my opening farewell

    Jackson Browne, My Opening Farewell
    in memory of my mother


     

     

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    I makes money, money don't make me, that's the way I am and it's plain to see
    Get right for yourself, they can't put you on a shelf
    Live and let live, you know its plain enough
    There ain't a dollar in the world can make me change my stuff


    I met lots of men who told me when they finally make their first million
    They're gonna live like kings, gonna try everything
    They're gonna flatter pretty women
    If they know how to do it, why not get to it, instead of waiting all your life
    'Cause life is only doing, what you think is worth pursuing
    Instead of waiting all the time


    So you'll never find the endin' of sittin' and pretending
    You're gonna do it sometime
    You keep knocking on wood, doing exactly what you should
    Trying to save enough dimes

    Build 'em up higher, so you can retire, to your castle in the blue
    But you find it's all behind and it's probably slipped your mind
    And you're too pooped to toot
     

    from Jerry Jeff Walker, I Makes Money (Money Don't Make Me)

     

     

     

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  •  

  • Warm and lovely mystery, fire smiling through
    Before this moment fades away I want to know you
    I've got lightning in my pocket, thunder in my shoe
    Have no fear I've got something here I want to show you
    
    Hey, low, under the falling sky
    Easily we will lie while I bring it to you
    
    It's a low road, a high wire going from me to you
    And in your eyes the distance left is closing
    I've got a feeling in my oceans
    Blood underneath my skin
    That into your bright fields this prison is opening
    
    Hey, low, under the falling sky
    Easily we will lie while I bring it to you
    
    Our shadows wake each day though they don't know why
    They hope and try - live and die
    So leave them in their frozen world
    Come and be my lover
    If only for one stolen moment we will live forever
    Forever
    Warm and lovely mystery, can you hear the choir?
    Voices can no longer hold my desire
    Just abandon your sad history and meet me in the fire
    Our angels wait to take us higher and higher
    Higher and higher
    
    Hey, low, under the falling sky
    Easily we will lie while I bring it to you
    
    Jackson Browne, Under the 
    Falling Sky (1972)
    with memories of Ga.
    
    
    
    
    
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    Mist hangs above hills
    Above mist hangs face of mountain
    Above mountain face hangs a net of sky --
    Crack! There are wings and they rip the net!

    And the Dance flows on
    Everything flows toward the rim of that
    Shining Cup

    Crossed sticks lie on earth
    Between crossed sticks -- pile of ash
    Something rises on the wisp of smoke
    Dog's feet move by fast

    And the Dance flows on
    Everything flows toward the rim of that
    Shining Cup

    Through these channels/words
    I want to touch you
    Touch you deep down where you live
    Not for power but
    Because I love you

    So
    Love the Lord
    And in Him love me too
    And in Him go your way
    And I'll be right there with you
    Leaving
    No footprints when we go
    No footprints when we go
    Only where we've been a faint and fading glow

    Bruce Cockburn, No Footprints (1978)
    Copyright Golden Mountain Music Inc., 1979

     

     

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    Daylight falls upon the path, the forest falls behind
    Today I am not prey to dark uncertainty
    The shadow trembles in its wrath, I've robbed its blackness blind
    And tasted sunlight as my fear came clear to me

    I think I understand
    Fear is like a wilderland
    Stepping stones or sinking sand

    Now the way leads to the hills above the steeple's chime
    Below me sleepy rooftops round the harbor
    It's there I'll take my thirsty fill of friendship over wine
    Forgetting fear but never disregarding her

    Oh, I think I understand
    Fear is like a wilderland
    Stepping stones or sinking sand

    Sometimes voices in the night will call me back again
    Back along the pathway of a troubled mind
    When forests rise to block the light that keeps a traveler sane
    I'll challenge them with flashes from a brighter time.

    Oh, I think I understand
    Fear is like a wilderland
    Stepping stones or sinking sand

    Joni Mitchell, I Think I Understand (1967) 
    Copyright Siquomb Publishing Corp., 1967

    
    
     

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    Sunset is an angel weeping,
    Holding out a bloody sword.
    No matter how I squint I cannot
    Make out what it's pointing toward.
    Sometimes you feel like you've lived too long.
    Days drip slowly on the page
    You catch yourself
    Pacing the cage.

    I've proven who I am so many times
    The magnetic strip's worn thin.
    And each time I was someone else
    And everyone was taken in
    Powers chatter in high places,
    Stir up eddies in the dust of rage,
    Set me to pacing the cage. 

    I never knew what you all wanted
    So I gave you everything,
    All that I could pillage
    All the spells that I could sing
    It's as if the thing were written
    In the Constitution of the Age
    Sooner or Later you'll wind up
    Pacing the cage

    Sometimes the best map will not guide you
    You can't see what's around the bend.
    Sometimes the road leads you through dark places
    Sometimes the darkness is your friend
    Today these eyes scan bleached out sand
    For the coming of the outbound stage
    Pacing the cage

    Pacing the cage.

    Bruce Cockburn, Pacing The Cage (1995)
    Copyright Golden Mountain Music Inc., 1996


     

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    Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the
      steel breeze.
    Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend,
    	 you martyr, and shine!
    
    You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
    Shine on you crazy diamond.
    Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the
      steel breeze.
    Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper,
      you prisoner, and shine!

    from Pink Floyd, Shine on You Crazy Diamond  (on Wish You Were Here)

                                    

     

     
     

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    Underneath the mask of the sulphur sky
    A bunch of us were waiting
    Watching the people looking ill-at-ease
    Watching the fraying rope get closer to breaking

    Women and men moved back and forth
    In between effect and cause
    And just beyond the range of normal sight
    This glittering joker was dancing in the dragon's jaws

    Let me be a little of your breath
    Moving over the face of the deep --
    I want to be a particle of your light
    Flowing over the hills of morning

    ....

    from Bruce Cockburn, Hills of Morning  
    Copyright Golden Mountain Music Inc., 1979

     


     

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    Sometimes I want to say things
    To one I think I've loved before
    But when I look to let it out, I'm fear.
    I see the love I held so warm within
    Was just mine, not given, never shared
    Perhaps back then I'd yearned --
    And maybe, just for love, I'd dared --
    To shake the tightness loose
    And let my loving show

    It seemed that then, perhaps, we were together,
    Singing out a single song
    Maybe it was just the smiling, sighing
    That made the wrong no longer wrong.

    But then in the coolness of a later day,
    When once again he's come my way,
    I look for words to bring the loving back.
    I'm tempted to recall how sure I was
    That he was sure of me,
    How warm I thought we were.
    Still, when I catch his eyes,
    I dodge their question
    Not knowing what to say.

    Could we have been together
    Singing out a single song
    Or even sitting, smiling, sighing?
    Or was there really something wrong? 

    By now my doubt controls.
    It comes from what I should have known:

    What's inside looks different seen from without.
    The shadows of the softness of my soul
    Fade in the clear light of words
    Which define what has no definition

    And emerges as pretentiousness.
    That is, except to the shallow mind grown older,
    Which tells its heart to heed the words
    Which it itself still fears to think.

    Then he simply nods his head and smiles.

    And then, again, we are together
    Singing out a single song
    And maybe we're just laughing, sighing
    And what was wrong is no longer wrong

     

    Jimmy Winokur, Together
    (Lyrics Without Melody) (1970, 2003)
    Ó Copyright, 1970 James L. Winokur
     

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    Tune me in to the wild side of life,
    I'm an innocent young child sharp as a knife
    Take me to the garrets where the artists have died,
    Show me the court rooms where the judges have lied

    Let me drink deeply of the water and the wine
    Like colored candles in dark dreary mines,
    Look in the mirror and stare at myself
    And wonder if that's really me on the shelf

    And each day I learn just a little bit more.
    I don't know why but I do know what for.
    If we're all going somewhere let's get there soon
    This song's got no title, just words and a tune.

    Take me down the alleys where the murders are done
    In a vast high powered rocket to the core of the sun.
    Want to read books in the studies of men,
    Born on the breeze and die on the wind.

    If I was an artist who paints with his eyes,
    I'd study my subject and silently cry.
    Cry for the darkness to come down on me,
    for confusion to carry on turning the wheel

    Bernie Taupin & Elton John, This Song Has No Title (1973)
    Copyright Dick James Music Limited, 1973


     

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    You say you see no hope,
    You say you see no reason we should dream
    that the world would ever change.
    You're saying Love is foolish to believe.
    'Cause there'll always be some crazy
    with an Army or a Knife
    To wake you from your daydream,
    put the fear back in your life...

    Look, if someone wrote a play
    Just to glorify what's stronger than hate;
    Would they not arrange the stage
    to look as if the hero came too late?
    He's almost in defeat!
    It's looking like the Evil side will win!
    So on the edge of every seat
    From the moment that the whole thing begins.

    It is Love who makes the mortar
    And it's Love who stacked these stones,
    And it's Love who made the stage here
    Although it looks like we're alone
    In this scene set in shadows
    There is Evil cast around us
    But it's Love that wrote the play...
    For in this darkness Love can show the way.


    So now the stage is set.
    Feel your own heart beating in your chest.
    This life's not over yet.
    So we get up on our feet and do our best.
    We play against the fear
    We play against the reasons not to try.
    We're playing for the tears burning
    in the happy Angel's eyes

    It is Love who makes the mortar
    And it's Love who stacked these stones,
    And it's Love who made the stage here
    Although it looks like we're alone
    In this scene set in shadows
    There is Evil cast around us
    But it's Love that wrote the play...
    For in this darkness Love will show the way.

    David Wilcox, Love Will Show The Way (1994)
     

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    In my early years I hid my tears
    And passed my days alone
    Adrift on an ocean of loneliness
    My dreams like nets were thrown
    To catch the love that I'd heard of
    In books and films and songs
    Now there's a world of illusion and fantasy
    In the place where the real world belongs

    Still I look for the beauty in songs
    To fill my head and lead me on
    Though my dreams have come up torn and empty
    As many times as love has come and gone

    To those gentle ones my memory runs
    To the laughter we shared at the meals
    I filled their kitchens and living rooms
    With my schemes and my broken wheels
    It was never clear how far or near
    The gates to my citadel lay
    They were cutting from stone some dreams of their own
    But they listened to mine anyway. 

    I'm not sure what I'm trying to say
    It could be I've lost my way
    Though I keep a watch over the distance
    Heaven's  no closer than it was yesterday

    And the angels are older
    They know not to wait up for the sun
    They look over my shoulder
    At the maps and the drawings of the journey I`ve begun

    Now the distance leads me farther on
    Though the reasons I once had are gone
    I keep thinking I'll find what I'm looking for
    In the sand beneath the dawn

    But the angels are older
    They can see that the sun's setting fast
    They look over my shoulder
    At the vision of paradise contained in the light of the past
    And they lay down behind me
    To sleep beside the road till the morning has come
    Where they know they will find me
    With my maps and my faith in the distance
    Moving farther on
     

    Jackson Browne, Moving Farther On

     

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    My grandmother's house is still there
    But it isn't the same
    A plain wooden cottage
    A patch of brown lawn
    And a fence that hangs standing
    And sighing in the Seattle rain

    I drive by with strangers
    And wish they could see what I see
    A tangle of summer birds
    Flying in sunlight
    A forest of lillies
    An orchard of apricot trees

    Secret Gardens of the heart
    Where the flowers bloom forever
    I see you shining through the night
    In the ice and snow of winter

    Great grandfather's farm is still there
    But it isn't the same
    The barn is torn down
    And the fences are gone
    The Idaho wind blows
    The topsoil away every Spring

    I still see the ghosts
    Of the people I knew long ago
    Inside the old kitchen
    They bend and sigh
    My life passed them up
    And the world passed them by

    Secret Gardens of the heart
    Where the old stay young forever
    I see you shining through the night
    In the ice and snow of winter

    But most of all
    It is me that has changed
    And yet I'm still the same
    That's me at the weddings
    That's me at the graves
    Dressed like the people
    Who once looked so grown-up and brave

    I look in the mirror
    Throught the eyes of the child that was me
    I see willows bending
    The season is Spring
    And the silver blue sailing birds
    Fly with the sun on their wings

    Secret Gardens of the heart
    Where dreams live on forever
    I see you shining through the night
    In the ice and snow of winter

    Judy Collins, Secret Gardens
    Universal Music Corp. (ASCAP)/ Rocky Mountain National Park Music, Inc.  (ASCAP)


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    Go on, you know you're only one
    Set me free
    You take me up and turn around
    But let me in
    Take this shadow from my eyes
    And tell me everything
    Take the desert from my soul
    And lift me up from down below
    Let me take some pride in your creation

    Cause i have lived alone in castles that were lonely
    And i have cursed the dawn and wondered why i do
    Well i have wondered why i live
    Now i know you must forgive
    Let me stand inside your magic shadow

    The night is coming faster
    And you're feeling all unchained
    In the north there is a jungle
    Where rockets are aflame
    And i hope that in the desert
    There are ships and there is noise
    And above the greatest city
    There will shine a magic shadow
    And a voice

    It's taking long but i'm getting strong as i grow old

    Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac (the early 70's band), Night Watch 

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    There's no use in crying, it's all over
    But i know there'll always be another day
    Well my heart will rise up with the morning sun
    And the hurt i feel will simply melt away

    from Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac (the early 70's band), Why



     

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    A couple of years back, I come across a great and wasted friend of mine
    in the hallway of a recording studio; and while he was reciting some poetry to me
    that he'd written, I saw that he was about a step away from dyin' and
    I couldn't help but wonder why. And the lines of this song occurred to me.
     I'm happy to say he's no longer wasted and he's got him a good woman.
    And I'd like to dedicate this to John and June, who helped show me how to beat the devil.


    It was winter time in Nashville, down on music city row.
    And I was lookin' for a place to get myself out of the cold.
    To warm the frozen feelin' that was eatin' at my soul.
    Keep the chilly wind off my guitar.

    My thirsty wanted whisky; my hungry needed beans,
    But it'd been of month of paydays since I'd heard that eagle scream.
    So with a stomach full of empty and a pocket full of dreams,
    I left my pride and stepped inside a bar.

    Actually, I guess you'd could call it a Tavern:
    Cigarette smoke to the ceiling and sawdust on the floor;
    Friendly shadows.

    I saw that there was just one old man sittin' at the bar.
    And in the mirror I could see him checkin' me and my guitar.
    An' he turned and said: "Come up here boy, and show us what you are."
    I said: "I'm dry." He bought me a beer.

    He nodded at my guitar and said: "It's a tough life, ain't it?"
    I just looked at him. He said: "You ain't makin' any money, are you?"
    I said: "You've been readin' my mail."
    He just smiled and said: "Let me see that guitar.
    "I've got something you oughta hear."
    Then he laid it on me:

    "If you waste your time a-talkin' to the people who don't listen,
    "To the things that you are sayin', who do you think's gonna hear.
    "And if you should die explainin' how the things that they complain about,
    "Are things they could be changin', who do you think's gonna care?"

    There were other lonely singers in a world turned deaf and blind,
    Who were crucified for what they tried to show.
    And their voices have been scattered by the swirling winds of time.
    'Cos the truth remains that no-one wants to know.

    Well, the old man was a stranger, but I'd heard his song before,
    Back when failure had me locked out on the wrong side of the door.
    When no-one stood behind me but my shadow on the floor,
    And lonesome was more than a state of mind.

    You see, the devil haunts a hungry man,
    If you don't wanna join him, you got to beat him.
    I ain't sayin' I beat the devil, but I drank his beer for nothing.
    Then I stole his song.

    And you still can hear me singin' to the people who don't listen,
    To the things that I am sayin', prayin' someone's gonna hear.
    And I guess I'll die explaining how the things that they complain about,
    Are things they could be changin', hopin' someone's gonna care.

    I was born a lonely singer, and I'm bound to die the same,
    But I've got to feed the hunger in my soul.
    And if I never have a nickle, I won't ever die ashamed.
    'Cos I don't believe that no-one wants to know.

    Kris Kristofferson, To Beat the Devil

     
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