Great song lyrics

[Mumbleypeg]

Everything is not enough
And nothin' is too much to bear
Where you’ve been is good and gone
All you keep is the getting there

To Live is To Fly - Townes VanZandt


Ken

[Mumbleypeg]

Killing Me Softly With His Song was written about Don McLean after its authors Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox attended a Don McLean concert.

I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him, to listen for a while
And there he was, this young boy
A stranger to my eyes

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly
With his song

Ken

Just heard that Roberta Flack has passed at age 88. She won a Grammy for her version of “Killing Me Softly With His Song”.

Ken

[Ridgegrass]

Roberta "owned" that song. Great performance. I have a solo gig Friday night and it's on the set list. Always gets a good response. Good songs seem to do themselves. O'.

[Mumbleypeg]

Roberta "owned" that song. Great performance. I have a solo gig Friday night and it's on the set list. Always gets a good response. Good songs seem to do themselves. O'.

Always interesting to me that so many don’t know what a song is about. It’s one reason why we so much enjoy song writer roundtables. They usually tell you the backstory of how they got the idea for a song they’ve written. Some are pretty interesting (and can be very funny!). Some get birthed in 10 minutes, some take 10 years.

Ken

[Ridgegrass]

Ken, What's the picture? Thanks. J.O''.

[Ridgegrass]

BTW: Totally agree on the songwriters thing. The back stories are as interesting as the songs. I've written many and it's not easy. I heard some writer say once, "You gotta kiss a lot of frogs before you get to the prince". The trick is to keep at it, sooner or later one will develop into a good one. For every decent one there are probably twenty dogs. Guys like Paul Overstreet can turn one out in minutes.
I always give credit to the writers when doing a song. It's a shame, if you look up a song on line, many times they mistakenly name the artist as the writer. J.O'.

[Mumbleypeg]

Ken, What's the picture? Thanks. J.O''.

That’s from the Blind Nello Records annual Christmas Party. It’s a songwriter’s Roundtable charity event they do every year. The record label is several Texas singer-songwriters, who were each told they couldn’t get AirPlay because they didn’t even have a label. So they gathered forces and created the label. They now have a label and a distribution deal with a bigger label (Sony records maybe?).

Left to right in the picture are Houston Marchman, Mark David Manders, Max Stalling, his wife Heather Stalling (Blacktop Gypsy Band) and Kevin Deal. You can find their music on YouTube. They get airplay mostly on Americana radio stations and some have had at least one song covered by a major artist.

Kevin is a neighbor. Max used to live near here, my wife taught his nephew in first grade (He brought “Uncle Max” to school for show and tell one day).

Ken

[Ridgegrass]

Very good, thanks. I'll look them up. J.O'.

[Ridgegrass]

An American classic, written by Stan Jones in Arizona in 1948, supposedly from an old Apache legend that spirits of the dead ride in the sky. The imagery puts you right in the action. Gives me the chill bumps. It's as good description of hell as any.


"An old cowpoke went ridin' out one dark and windy day, upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way.
When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw, thunderin' 'cross the desert sky, and up a cloudy draw.

Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel. Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel.
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered across the sky. He saw the riders comin' hard, and heard their mournful cry.

Yippee ay aa, Yippe ay oh-o, Ghost herd in the sky.

Their eyes were red, their faces gaunt, their shirts all soaked with sweat. They're pullin' hard to catch that herd but they ain't caught 'em yet.
'Cause they'll have to ride forever on that range up in the sky, on horses made of fire, as they ride on hear them cry.

Yippee ay aa, yippee ay oh-o, Ghost riders in the sky.

As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name. If you wanna save your soul from hell a 'ridin' on our range.
Then cowboy mend your ways today or with us you will ride, a tryin' to catch the devil's herd across this endless sky.

Yippee ay aa, yippee ay oh-o, Ghost riders in the sky".

[Mumbleypeg]

Great song! Wish I had a dollar for every time it’s been recorded, makes me wonder if the writer ever made any royalties from it.

Ken

[Ridgegrass]

He probably didn't unless he had the publishing rights. That's where the profit comes and most publishers don't allow the artists to be publishers, an
especially common practice back then. It's a hard system to break into. If you self publish then you get little or no promotion so the big guys have the edge. Case in point, Fred Rose would "buy" songs from Hank Williams for a few bucks and publish them. You can guess who made the money.
The publisher for Ghost Riders was Wm. H. Morris Co. so ,unless Stan Jones had a lawyer/agent as slick as theirs, my guess is he got a little up front and something in royalties. So it goes. O'.

[Ivoryman]

YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE PAST
(Original composition, chords and lyrics)


I tried to put the toothpaste
Right back in the tube
Soon found out
It was a pointless move

No matter how I worked it
No matter how hard I tried
I couldn't make that dirty rotten toothpaste
Get on back inside

I tried to put the bullet
Right back in the gun
Could not believe
What me and the bullet had done

I looked around me
To see if anybody else had seen
If you ain't never been there
I know you don't know what I mean

I tried to put the words
Right back in my mouth
Two seconds after
The damn things came out

Sorry doesn't cut it
Sorry doesn't really even count
Sorry doesn't change the rumor
Once it's already out

You can't bring back the rumor
Once you open your mouth
You can't bring back the bullet
Once you fire it out
You can't put the toothpaste
Right back in the tube
No matter what you say
No matter what you do
Cause you can't change the past
No you can't change the past
It's gonna last and last
And the shaddow it casts
Is gonna last and last and last

You can have a little cry
You can be forgiven
You can turn and walk away
You can keep on living
But you can't change the past
Or the shadow it casts
It's gonna last and last
Even if you're sorry.

[Mumbleypeg]

Nicely done! I assume by “original” you mean it’s your own composition?

Here’s one that has been a long time favorite of mine. It’s about one of the author’s “Uncle Pete”, an old rancher who had recently passed away when this was written some 30 or so years ago now.

It’s been twenty some odd years since we lost Aunt Lil
Now he plays Russian roulette with memories, but there’s only time to kill
He’s too old to work his cattle, too stubborn to stay in bed
And each morning over coffee he turns to her picture and says

(Chorus)- I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse a time or two
I’ve got two bloodshot eyes and that’s enough to see me through
I’m fair to middlin, considering
Life’s mostly scars and souvenirs

There’s wrinkles on his face, and wrinkles in his clothes
And he wears a little thinner as each day unfolds
But he swears he’ll live forever, just to spite his health
But it takes Christian Brother’s brandy to reassure himself

(Chorus)

Now a picture’s worth a thousand words, money made is money spent
Bless us, oh Lord, for these Thy gifts, he knows not where they went
So the postman brings his pension and the county brings his meals
And I stop by from time to time and ask him how he feels

(Chorus)

Scars and Souvenirs - Mark David Manders, Max Stalling


Ken

[Ridgegrass]

My family is from Wyoming County West Virginia, very near the coal mines in that and the surrounding counties.They were teachers and bankers and merchants and not involved with coal per se. Some years back, on a trip to Pineville, we drove through a coal "town" called Rhodell in nearby Raleigh County. I don't recall seeing poverty so crushing. There were folks living in mobile homes that had the aluminum stripped of and sold, leaving the insulation held on with wire or fishing line nailed to the exposed studs. After seeing that close up I was moved to write a song. The town became "unincorporated" in 2017 due to the population dropping to 173 souls, and that slow exodus became the subject of the song. We never got to record it due to some in-band stupidity and a consequent break up. The lyrics are below.You'll have to imagine a minor key at around 76 beats per minute.


THE LEAVING


By the light at his father's kitchen table,
He said, 'Dad, I can't stand this anymore', and I'll be goin' just as soon as I am able,
His damp eyes could barely see the kitchen floor.

All his life he had watched his Daddy labor,
Knew the pain in his Mother's weary eyes.
But every year they'd be goin' to friends and neighbors,
For a loan or a handout to get by.

Oh Mom, it kills me to be goin'.
Do you think that I'd want to leave my home?
There's no work, and I can't stay beholdin',
To the ones here a' strugglin' for their own.

Many years in this valley, folks were busy.
They never dreamed those mines and mills would fail. Come hard time, all their hopes had gone to misery,
Starin' out now across those rusty rails.

Oh Mom, it kills me to be goin'.
Do you think that I'd want to leave my home?
There's no work, and I can't stay beholdin',
To the ones here a' strugglin' for their own.

Lookin' back just to see the wood smoke risin',
He turned and drove on down that dusty lane.
But in his heart burned a question, not surprisin',
"Will I ever, come down this road again?"
"Oh will I ever, come down this road again?

J.O'.

[Mumbleypeg]

Ken

[Ridgegrass]

Thanks Ken. O'.

[Mumbleypeg]

Reminds me a little of a couple of nostalgic songs about American ways of life passed by, written by Fred Eaglesmith. Check out White Rose, about a small rural town and its now shuttered gas station, both killed by the interstate highway. Thirty Years of Farming, about a farm foreclosure auction and its effect on the family that farmed it. He has also written a couple of songs about old John Deere tractors (one of which is now parked in front of a restaurant as “lawn art”, the other is in a museum). They can all be found on YouTube.

Ken

[Ridgegrass]

Dry Branch Fire Squad recorded his Thirty Years Of Farming That one says a lot. Lawrence Allen Hammond wrote another "John Deere Tractor" with the theme of a country boy in over his head with some "City" women. Larry Sparks has a killer version from the 1980 album of the same name. O'.

[Ridgegrass]

Dry Branch Fire Squad recorded his Thirty Years Of Farming That one says a lot. Lawrence Allen Hammond wrote another "John Deere Tractor" with the theme of a country boy in over his head with some "City" women. Larry Sparks has a killer version from the 1980 album of the same name. O'.

[Ridgegrass]

The Old Rusty Gate

She said her folks had died, just a lonesome year before.
They'd left her a hundred acres, mostly rocks, just a little more.
That place was just too big, and those rocks to hard to dig,
And in her eyes I saw the pain she wore,

By the old rusty gate I had rested in the shade.
Weary on my journey down the line.
That day I didn't know that in just a year or so,
A hundred acre heaven would be mine.

I stayed on as a hand, tried to help her with that land.
She said it might be good, if I could stay just for a while.
My days of labor flew, as my feelings for her grew,
And I found my payment lying in her smile.

By the old rusty gate.........

Now with time I'd realize, it was a simple turn of fate,
That led the way, for me to stay there, by that rusty gate.
Had I just gone on walking, I might spend my life alone,
Not a hundred acre heaven for my own.

By that old rusty gate, I had rested in the shade,
Weary on my journey down the line.
That day I didn't know, that in just a year or so,
A hundred acre heaven would be mine.

I wrote this about 1882, Paul Adkins recorded it and we, "The Good Deale Bluegrass Band" also cut it on our first album. J.O'.

[Mumbleypeg]

I wrote this about 1882, Paul Adkins recorded it and we, "The Good Deale Bluegrass Band" also cut it on our first album. J.O'.

Found the Paul Adkins recording on YouTube, and enjoyed it.

Always liked the Kimmie Rhodes song Hard Promises To Keep. It’s been recorded several times including by Willie Nelson but I like Kimmie’s own recoding if it best. Here’s part of it:

Promises are like little diamonds.
Promises are like little hearts
you meant to give away.
I thought you'd want them back someday.
I've kept them for you anyway,
but I know when I've been given
hard promises to keep.

Ken