A Year of Songs

Ignorance is bliss, pretty much, when it comes to pop culture.

Even before my TV died I was pretty isolated from the incessant inanity and mindless chatter of the popular media.

But I am a political beast, and when the worlds of politics and pop culture admix or worse, procreate, it can be hard for even me to escape being caught up.

So it was with the candidacy of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin for the vice-presidency. Faithful readers with short-to-medium length memories may recall my thinly veiled jab at the populist Ms Palin in the form of my song, “A Thousand Lies (Bridge to Nowhere).”

But, the election cycle being over, I might have been blissfully unaware of the latest Palin family drama, the breakup of Sarah’s pregnant 17 year old daughter from her once-much-touted fiance, um… what’s his name?

Still, my blissful ignorance was pierced when the media feasted on the break-up of two 17 year olds, sending it to the very top of Google’s aggregated news page. (However briefly.) And a day or two later, trapped in the supermarket line, the tragic dimensions of this shattered love affair were hammered home by one tabloid headline after another.

Clearly, this was news of national import.

Maybe I was still feeling the afterglow of in the wake of my song about another teen pregnancy gone muy complicado, the mandolin-driven “Lyin’ Cheatin’ Baby Daddy Dog Little Boy.” Maybe I just wanted to get drain the last little drop of juice out of the Palin story as that senior stateswoman of trailer trash politics goes into what will no doubt be a chyrsalic transformational hiatus.

So, imagine my disappointment when the story of the young lovers breakup dropped off the front pages of even the tabs like the leaves off an overwatered Ficus.

Another shot at the big time gone… like snow on the water… so to speak.

Bristol, Don’t Go
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previous versions
Friday, March 27, 2009

lyrics
Bristol, Don’t Go

There was a time when I knew everything
just about a year ago
there was a time when you wore my ring
and now it’s lyin’ there in the snow

I thought it would always be you and me
and I thought it could always be so
I thought tomorrows were all just like today
but, now, Bristol, babe, I just don’t know

Bristol the future’s not ours to hold
I can feel it slipping away
Bristol I thought I owned the world
now the world owns me today

The bigger the dream the smaller the dawn
I barely woke up today
I know I’ll find a way to go on
at least it’s what I say

Bristol the future’s not ours to hold
I can feel it slipping away
Bristol I thought I owned the world
now the world owns me today

(C)2009, TK Major

New song alert!

The bigger the dream the smaller the dawn
I barely woke up today…
Bristol Don’t Go [pop out player]
[lyrics in the post above]

Hey, kids… I have a new song by my (one man) band, one blue nine — “Bristol, Don’t Go” — and it’s available for free download (for a limited time) and streaming at these fine locations:

Last.fm	ReverbNation
iLike	Soundclick

Sorry… no acoustic version yet.

I wasn’t going to post this but…

The rusty little Bug was leaking rain in from the windows and they had to keep their feet forward to keep them out of the murky water that would slosh back and forth from back seat to the front, washing across the shifter linkage hump like the North Sea over a broken dike.

But they were stopped now, with the heater off and the windows streaked through fog, and she was crying long silvery tears that streamed down her cheeks amd fell to the damp wool of her overcoat. Her slim shoulders moved forward convulsively with her sobs and he sat in the driver’s seat, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his own overcoat.

He alternated between trying to ignore her and stifling the compulsion to reach out and try to comfort her, an urge that cried from so far down in his wintry soul that it seemed like the shade of a feeling from some forgotten movie… some world he’d lived in, once, so long ago that it was spring there.

He tried to burrow down to find that feeling somewhere, lost in a snowdrift at the bottom of his emptiness.

But all he found were his fists balled in his coat pockets and a girl sobbing beside him.

previous versions
Monday, September 26, 2005
Friday, March 03, 2006
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006

lyrics
Looking for Trouble

Some people say
Love is a game
but I’m telling you now that I wasn’t playing
when I fell in love with you

Here I go again
Looking for reasons where there aren’t any reasons
Here I go again
looking for trouble… I’m already in trouble

That day in my car
don’t say you don’t know
You held me so close
begging me to let go
I told myself you were just confused

Here I go again . . .

You always said
that it was fate
I’m telling you now
that I was framed
when I fell in love with you

Here I go again . . .

A dog barks
the wind howls through the night
I whisper your name and
stare in the fire
I can’ keep myself from calling out to you

Here I go again
Looking for reasons where there aren’t any reasons
Here I go again
looking for trouble… I’m already in trouble

Copyright 1981
T.K. Major

(C)2008, TK Major

higher resolution video on YouTube

lyrics
Thelma Lou [video]
The day that you came back to town
he thought he’d be seein’ you around
he thought he could pick it up
where he put it down

but he thought he’d treat you right this time
just like he dreamed about each night
just like he prayed he’d have the
brains to do this time

Now he’ll never know
why he ever let go of you
Thelma Lou
he dreamed he’d make it right
but none of those dreams
ever did come true
and now he just dreams of you
it will always be Thelma Lou
nothing anyone can do
it will always be dreams of you
Thelma Lou

Now he was just a nothing way back then
but he couldn’t believe how you could pretend
not to care about all the things you couldn’t have
if you stayed with him

So he pushed himself hard just to get ahead
and he woke up one day in an empty bed
and he looked in the mirror and
he realized the years — and you — had fled

Now, he’ll never know why he ever let go…

Well he always thought he’d get one last chance
but all he got was one last dance
as your fiance watched
from across the crowded room

But he held you so close like he didn’t care
it was like no one else in the world was there
and still it was too late
for him to say “I love you”

Now he’ll never know
why he ever let go of you
Thelma Lou
he dreamed he’d make it right
but none of those dreams
ever did come true
and now he just dreams of you
it will always be Thelma Lou
nothing anyone can do
it will always be dreams of you
Thelma Lou

19 June 2005
(C)2005 TK Major
(C)2008, TK Major