Monthly Archives: December 2005

Without a Thought of You

Without a Thought of You

 

 

You wouldn’t know it to look at me, now, but I used to run with the art damage crowd.

I wasn’t doing my grocery shopping around gallery opening calendars, like some of my friends whose periodic white wine, cheese and cracker binges showed up like tree rings as striations on unpainted fingernails — but I did my share of gallery crawls and loft parties, nonetheless.

My friends had by and large decided that they were hip and anything they did was, therefore, glamorous — and they were great guides through the urban cultural jungle, pulling me aside to whisper about this artist or that critic lurking in some alcove or doorway or backgrounding me on the current scandals and gossip.

Of course, ultimately, there is the art. But the great thing about a mediocre opening or a show filled with pretentious, metooist claptrap was that it left more time for serious — sometimes vengefully serious — drinking. Show me bad art, will you? Your cheap chablis will feel my wrath, gallery swine!

[And let me here apologize to all you gallery owners I helped run out of business back in the ’80s and early ’90s. Yes. You were right, I was a deadbeat. I never bought a damn thing.]

If you hang out on that scene long enough, sooner or later you’ll see a few earnest, hardworking artists who somehow got swept up in the action. You’d think they’d know better.

One supposes it’s usually the allure of cute or sexy or dramatic girls or young men, timelessly in black, who stare into the artist’s eyes and tell them they’re, you know, deep. No matter how deep you actually are, that stuff can turn you around for a minute or two.

Without a Thought of You

To think that I once
felt sorry for you
it’s all that i can
bring my puny brain to do

you must think me quite naive
and don’t think I ain’t gonna leave
I just want you to know
what you put me through:

I won’t ever have a dream
without knowning it won’t come true
I won’t ever think of lonely
without a thought of you

Fallin’ for you
was a stretch for me
all your arty friends,
important people to bleed

as every artists knows
every show that
opens must close
you can put it in 30 pt type
in my review:

I won’t ever think of lonely
without a thought of you
i won’t ever have a dream
without knowning it won’t come true

I won’t ever think
forever
without knowing it’s
really never

I won’t ever think of lonely
without a thought of you

10-4-95
(C)1995, TK Major

[A note on the photo at the top of this post: Stumped for an image for this song, with about half the post written, I decided to take my tiny digital cam out for a walk. This image came straight out of the camera, with no mods except resizing to fit this space. I’d actually been trying to shoot clouds in the puddle, was settling for palm trees, and didn’t realize my own reflection had snuck into a corner of the snap.]

Share

Baby Said

Baby Said

Baby was the ultimate be-careful-what-you-wish-for present. A pretty little Pandora’s gift box of trouble that any red blooded young man would be delighted to find lying under the Christmas tree.

Requiring more maintenance than a fleet of Jaguars, Baby could accelerate from zero to absolutely insane in 6 seconds flat, swinging in dizzying arcs between coyly demure and wide-eyed man-eater, from maudlin sentimentality to steely disdain to weeping, soul-melting anguish. And back again.

Best left to connoisseurs and aficionadi…

A note on these recordings…

I’ve included both a (more or less) straight folk version as well as a (hopefully) funky (but still quite acoustic) version. You can also hear the ‘studio’ version on my one blue nine soundclick page. The one blue nine version is, I think, kind of droll. The basic mix has been kicking around for a few years and was DL’d thousands of times at the old mp3.com (where it made the ‘hard house’ top 10). Earlier this year, I came up with an acapella harmony intro that’s good for a chuckle or two, I think. I wish I could tell you I was a natural whiz at harmonizing with myself, but technology played a big roll in the new intro.

BTW… the inclusion of two AYoS versions today puts us even after the Holiday Clip Show. I’m now back on mission. A song per day. I won’t try to slack off again. Clip show… what was I thinking?


[full club style  version  on Soundclick (2000) | requires Flash]

Baby Said

baby said she’d love me
she’d always stand beside me
baby lied . . . but that’s all right
baby said forever
baby said never say goodbye
she left that night

baby said a lot of things a
fool wouldn’t buy
she got caught a thousand times
I sorta let it slide
baby said she loved me
I think she thought she did
baby said a lot of things
she was such a crazy kid

baby said honey
you ain’t got no money
I like that so
my old man’s made of loot
and it don’t buy no truth
and Baby knows

baby said a lot of things
it was such a crazy time
Baby said remember
cause I’ll see you when you die
baby said its over
over and over again
baby said forever and then we
just begin again

baby said save me
sometimes I think I’m crazy
She’d say anything–even the truth
But once you surrendered
it really was forever and
there wouldn’t be nothing anyone could ever do

baby said a lot of things a
fool wouldn’t buy
she got caught a thousand times
I sorta let it slide
baby said she loved me
I think she thought she did
baby said a lot of things
she was such a crazy kid

(C)1991, TK Major

Share

Things That Lisa Says

Things That Lisa Says

Who among us can resist the temptation to get maudlin and morose on Christmas Eve?

And what can be sadder than the story of a tragically misunderstood young girl who cried out for attention once too often?

You won’t find the whole story in this reading of the song because last night when I was recording this, I simply could not commit the denoument verse to the hard drive… it was just too pat, too on the nose… too obvious. Too lame.

Suffice it to say that in the part of the story I left out, Lisa will have an opportunity to be reevaluated at the staff’s convenience at some future date — if she shows a sufficient change in attitude. Her parents will send the upstairs maid to visit her every other weekend.

Still, there’ll be glimmer of hope, a young intern who whispers that he’s going to the state authorities, trust him — he’ll get her out.

Yet, she doesn’t see him again and on a lonely Christmas Eve, staring out through the tiny, barred window of her discreetly padded cell, she finds herelf praying for a Christmas miracle…

Yep, all of that was in that was in that one verse I cut. You know what they say, art is knowing what to leave out.

Happy holidays!

Things That Lisa Says

No one understands
the things that Lisa says
they just shake their head
they think that Lisa’s strange

No one understands
the games that Lisa plays
singing to herself
and dancing in the rain

No one’s ever seen
the world where Lisa lives
it’s all some crazy dream
she’s just a crazy kid

No one understands
the games that Lisa plays
singing to herself
and dancing in the rain

(C)1975, TK Major

Share

I Just Started to Cry

I Just Started to Cry

If you’ve ever made love in a hayloft — or tried — you probably realize that the reason such scenes are a fixture of certain romantic literature is that you have to be completely filled with a crazed, don’t give a damn passion to lay down in hay much less roll around in it.

But waking up in a hayloft the morning after puppy love turns serious during a sudden, summer storm… I’m thinking there might be a few delicious moments, there… or maybe bittersweet, if deep down you know you’re headed out of town as soon as you can get some travelling money together and hop a freight out to one of the coasts or maybe down to the gulf.

This song is about that moment, that very moment, when you know for certain just how much you’re about to throw away.

I Just Started to Cry

We ran through the summer night
it was hot and it was black
we ran until we were all alone
and didn’t even know the way back

We were young
we were in love
that summer we were one
when I look back I start to cry
to think of what is gone

A storm came up from the south real fast
and lightning lit the rain
I looked in her eyes for a moment
and then it was dark again

Our hands entwined and then our tongues
we were soaking wet
we made our way to the old Hansen barn
and there our souls met

I woke up the next morning
and she slept by my side
the sunlight poured through the hayloft door
and I just started to cry

I cried cause she looked so pretty lying there
I cried because I loved her so
I cried cause I knew she was the only one
and I cried cause I knew I was gonna go

(C) 1991 TK MAJOR

Share