12. Serenade To An Empty Room
RADIO SONG
I always wanted to write a song about the radio
and the only reason I never wrote a song about the radio is
Radio's about my favourite word and I was afraid of over using it I thought
But now I have have start and it's feelin kinda right,
I'd like to tell you all I know about the radio tonight
I never learned about the radio I only ever used to listed to it a lot.
When the nights are long and you're felling about of sort
You can listed to the music, you can listed to the sports
You can listed to the traffic and weather reports
There's consolation there.
And if you like a lot of chatter, you can get a lot of chat
The radio's a very handy media for that
And it really doesn't matter if patter is pat,
all the better to help you sleep
Such a beautiful name for such a beautiful thing
And once I sent away and got a secret ring
You can turn it up loud and you can turn it down soft
You can even turn it off
And another little trick, though to say it is embasassing
You can listen to the news and you'll feel better by comparison
Sitting safe and sound, while they are blowing up a garison somewhere.
Take great care, no dead air ______ Is ever alowd to happen or a creaky chair
Keep your finger on the button and your head right there
and the time goes beep beep beep . . .
We used to have a radio that was bigger than me
Back in the days before the invention of a form of entertainment
Whose name I wouldn't mention in the self same scentance as a radio
Here's another song about the radio
Faithful friend way back when, the voice of doom, filled the room.
Gone the way of lovin bloom, now it's static packed in the attic.
Well I always found the radio was dependable rigged
They come from little itsy-bitsy to way to big
But at least I know wherever I go I can always listen to my radio.
And when the nights are clear, and can also hear a radio wave from Uncle Sam, to my antenna
And that's all I'd really like to say about the radio today Thank you.
SONG FOR CUPID
Hey you, come here
Since you're so near
A word to clear the air
You're back. You say. Well hip, hooray.
You know you don't play fair.
You walk, right in. Old friend, big grin.
When you never intend to stay.
You tease, you hint. Like gold, you glint.
Then strike like flint and start a fire.
The heat, the soul, but soon control just gone and left his mad desire.
You take, it all, then let me fall
Like a dare-devil from a wire.
The nerve, the pain, in deep, in vain
The fool again, I see.
My mind, my heart, can't make them start.
Can't make them stop tormenting me.
And you're to blame, cause in your name
I give them both away.
In the middle of something
I've got to try to understand
I saw her as she took my hand
and it was grand
But then I landed in the middle of something.
You fake, you trick, you make, me sick.
Forsake me quick, and let me go.
Take off, take five, try bringing one back alive
This ain't no dive I'm running here you know.
No way, no fair, how can one bear, what was meant to be shared by two.
It's late, goodnight
Now please, turn out your light.
It's shining way to brightly to be real.
Don't keep me from my sleep, you crumb.
I'm sure you've somewhere else to go, you heal
Farwell adew, no it's me who's through with you
And I hope you know how it feels
In the middle of something.
ANCIENT EYES
The Indian walks to the end of the street.
He is looking for someone he promised to meet
for a bottle of wine to share the defeat
of a long time ago.
The Indian's wearing a feather that fell.
For a joke he has got it stuck in his lapel.
It comes from a pigeon 'cause the eagles don't dwell
here anymore.
And he panhandles change as he wanders along.
And he dances in front of me as I play a song.
And he asks if I've been in the city for long
in a voice as soft as the wind.
Ancient eyes - set in a face that is young.
Deep and wizened. Rimmed in red. Overhung.
He asks me if I need a good place to stay.
"There's a building that's vacant a few blocks away.
You go in through the window. I'll show you the way",
he says,"when I come back with my friend."
Then he looks up the street and he lets his voice drop.
"Oh, oh," he says, "here comes a cop.
Just keep actin' natural and I hope he don't stop
'cause I'm hiding a bottle of wine."
But the cop on the beat just shakes his head as they pass
to the old window washer who is washing the glass
and who answers him: "What they need is a kick in the ass."
Even though he himself has been burned.
Ancient eyes - studying the dust at his feet.
No surprises does he expect in the street.
Then he spreads out his arms like a circling bird
and he cuts a young businessman out of the herd
and he turns his hand over without saying a word,
but all he gets back is ignored.
So he shrugs and waves at me and walks off as I'm
still smiling at him for his pantomime
and he calls back: "I'll see you around on Indian Time,"
though I never did see him again.
But I watched him go as he went after his drink.
Lost in the crowd. Pushed to the brink.
But the spirit persists in an unbroken link
you can see looking back from those eyes.
Ancient eyes - of the deer and the owl.
The sweet grass rises, though the water is foul...
DOG BLUES
If I was a dog I'd have the
Tied to a parking meter blues
If I was a hog I'd have the
Fenced off from my feter blues
If I was a log I'd have the
I remember when I was a ceder blues
But I'm a human being, so being human I've got the still in love with you blues.
If I was a poet, I have the
Just plain uninspired blues
If I was a throwit(that's a human throwit),
I'd have the feel like I've been gargling with barbed wire blues
And if I was a billy goat
I'd have the I've been chewing tupo rubber tire too long blues
But I'm a human being, so being human I've got the still in love with you blues.
We had our moment in the sun
Now I'm just resting in the shade
We might have been having a litte too much fun I guess
Judging my the mess we made
If I was a brand new fence post
I'd have the rot on my bottom blues
If I was a host
I'd have the look like they ain't gunna leave till the automn blues
If I was the holy ghost
I'd have the well that ain't what we tought him
But I'm a human being, so being human I got the you know what's for you know who.
A NORMAL DAY/ARCH SUPPORT BLUES
Well I'm standing outside of a rock and roll bar
trying to make money on my old guitar
trying to get join but I ain't gettin' far
singing the blues away.
Thinking of the one that I had a lotta fun with
some time ago.
God knows when I'm gonna find another friend
in all of this ebb and flow.
O! The friendly bartender's on a double shift.
I'm in the middle of a one man riff.
If singing the blues is some kind of gift
next time I'd rather have a toaster.
I'm sittin' on the lawn, talkin' to a blonde,
trying to figure out all the double entendre.
Trying to listen to someone trying to sing a song
about the crazy world that we live in.
And the party is agoin' on all over the place.
Even the trees are dropping leaves in my case.
And the goings on agoin' on in front of my face
are making me wonder why.
And I went to a party where I met the mayor.
He's a nice old feller now and he don't care.
And I heard there might be lobster there
but I hadda make do with the chip dip.
Back on the corner tending store
I play a little longer and I make a little more.
The girls all smile but this drunk old bore
is the only one to stick around and listen.
But Linda and Catherine come along soon.
They gimmee a hand when I give 'em a tune
and then they turn around and tie a helium balloon
to the handle of my guitar case.
But the tree won't leave and the dog won't bark
and the moon won't shine, it would ruin the dark
and the squirrels are lookin' for a place to park
and the taxi cabs are picking up nuts.
.
Well I'm asittin' on a pier, drinking a beer,
(which you better not get caught doin' here).
Ain't it funny how the bottle can take the veneer
right offa your average joe.
Dancin' in the rain while a friend of mine is playin'
a Scottish reel. And there's a fella tossin' watermelon
up from his boat and it's loaded with Tequila
So we ended up the evening on a drunken note.
Every vessel in the harbour’s got a brand new coat.
The seagulls cry and fish all float
and everybody else goes home.
TIME
You fill my ever waking hour
You promise you'll devour me in the air
Impossible to hide from, you're never on my side
And so I know you're not my friend.
And though I know you always tell the truth
I can never make you speak
And in the end I know you'll pay a penny or a single day
For all the untold havic that you reak.
Time. Givin us to fill, though we know we never will, Time.
Time is heavy like a stone, yet it doesn't way a thing.
It has no muscle and no bone, and yet it flys on wings
Until it finds you all alone, as if attracked by the sound of tear.
Then it settles all around you like a vulture that has found you
And gnaws away while the moments last for years.
Time. They tell me it will heal, but the only thing I feel is Time.
I light another cigarette, take another drink of something I can hardly taste.
All because of her, I tell myself, but all the while I know
It's all because of time I'm trying to waste.
Now wasting time is such a foolish thing to do, cause it can't be replaced.
But I offer no excuses, I have plain run out of uses
For that stuff that I can hardly bear to face.
Time. As far as I can see, it's time that's wasting me. Time.
Only in my dreams can I escape this steady stream of mistery
That drips like poison to my brain.
So pitty pours like iodine, upon this wounded heart of mind,
And in my despiration I take pleasure in the pain.
Twisted logic I agree, has got a grip on me,
That I can't comprehend or much less do expain
Although it flows it's dry as a bone, and where it goes remains unknown
And those who try to own it, try in vain.
Time. Say that though you may, you'll spend it all away, Time.
EVELYN
Evelyn sits in her lonely appartment
Saturday night blues dissappointment
Out of money, bored to tears
Seems like nights like these have been going on for years.
She lays out her favourite cloths.
Showered and made up, powders her nose.
Stupid telephone. She can do better on her good looks alone.
She's gunna have a good time. And it won't cost her a thin time.
She's gunna make them pay for new Evelyn today
And what she'll do tonight'll be a crime.
She didn't have to go to far
Walked into the nearest bar.
Joined a general laughter
Soon she found what she was after
Not too crued, not too bright
Trying to be nice, already have tight.
He had money to spend, trying to impress his friend.
How you doin' cutie. My but you're a beauty.
So what do you think, and what'll you have to drink
No I consider it my duty.
Stood a few round of idiot talk
She's a steno, he's a jock.
Made her vague excuse. Finished her gin and juice.
Checking herself in the bathroom mirror.
For over the cubicle, what does she hear
But two girls talking, men men men
When are they ever gunna learn
When are they ever gunna learn
They will only cheat you.
Promise and mistreat you.
Take you for a ride, I should take you aside, but I don't even want to meet you.
Crossed the room with head held high
Looking straight ahead, eyes are dry.
Made it to the street.
Praising the defeat.
Once outside it all comes down, all the heartache
All the run around
All the anger, all the hate
The only good that ever came of any of it, she lost a little weight.
Will she find love one day. Day of rest on Sunday.
Another weekend missed, well add it to the list then back to work on Monday.
Pictures Of Someone I Used To Know
She can be as insecure
as the rail she walks along.
Beside the old abandoned track she found
in some run down part of town
she wanted me to see.
Pictures of someone I used to know.
She can light up like a child,
full of wild, unlikely theories that she’s heard.
She can tell me
things for which they haven’t yet invented
any words.
Pictures of someone I used to know.
Running through a sudden rain
daring me to follow her, she makes me laugh.
She reminds me of a crane
or some exotic water bird,
or maybe a giraffe.
Pictures of someone I used to know.
Down her street.
Up her stair.
See her sitting in her chair.
Puts her cup down in her careful way.
We are coming from a walk.
Last night we might have stayed a little too long
out underneath the moon.
I am free ‘til ten o’clock,
she has plans for something
later on this afternoon.
Pictures of someone I used to know.
Love is mad, love is sane.
The direction signals they don’t always ring out like a bell.
Words and pictures stay the same
we all know love is not like that
Oh well...
Pictures of someone I used to know.
Pictures of someone I used to know.
ONLY CRAZY PEOPLE
It must be six
when I climb the stair,
past the point
where my easy chair
got stuck, now I am making do
- though I could use it now.
Light another
cigarette.
Lookin' out the window,
I won't sleep yet.
Let all the big ideas
and the ringing in my ears
go flying out that window...
Haven't had a chance to think
since I was in the shower.
Only crazy people would
try thinking at this hour.
Well the show was good.
The party wore.
We spoke a moment just before
the crush, then it was out the door
- and out the window too.
Crazy days.
Round the bend.
And now they're saying
"Let's send him out again."
Well, it's better than what I was doing
not so long ago...
Not so long ago
this was beyond my wildest dreams.
Only crazy people
wouldn't trade a bunch of dreams.
Well I could still say now;
but not a chance.
I'll find someone
to mind the plants
and worry about answering all the questions
as they come along.
I'm moving soon.
I'm gonna buy a car.
It's a long way to come
from digging through my penny jar.
From a grain of sand to a shining star
at the speed of light...
Doesn't take too long
to go a bit too far.
Only crazy people
ever wonder where they are.
Well I know where I am.
In a trap some say.
Where all the glitter blinds the way
Yet all that glitters is not
hay now...
The comedian,
who did the stand-up bit,
backstage he asked me
how it feels to be "it".
Well, it feels sleepy. It feels heady.
It's not sure if it is ready...
Ready or not here we go
to put on the big show.
Only crazy people
would think twice before they go.
WORDS AND MUSIC BY BOB SNIDER
(c) peermusic CANADA INC./CHATTERBOX MUSIC