It’s been a long time since I’ve fallen in love drifting around in a rowboat.
But it’s a nice memory. Even if it seems more like a dream, now. Sometimes it seems like someone else’s dream.
It wasn’t, however, in someone else’s dream. It was at a tiny park in the foothills just east of Orange, California — undoubtedly now surrounded by condo complexes if it survives at all — then, surrounded by empty rolling hills and stands of oak.
I fell in love… but she didn’t. Still, it seemed like such a good idea, I took a string of girls there, trying to recapture that lost moment. Other girls may have fallen in love with me… but I never got that moment back.
The song — or at least its inspiration — also owes more than a little to a number of works by Brian Eno, most notably “By This River.”
EMILY
On a lake
the faded yellow row boat
drifts in lazy circles
while I fall in love with you
Emily Emily watch the sky go around Emily Emily watch the sky
Willows weep
tears melt in cool water
your white cotton dress
you warm brown legs
your deep green eyes
Emily
Emily Emily watch the sky go around Emily Emily watch the sky
(C)1982, TK Major
I had to write a song for a girl named Michelle as part of the Barista Cycle project.
What’s the first thing you think about when you sing the name Michelle? Me, too.
Pretty soon I was writing about a girl working for the phone company (back in the days when there was pretty much just one big phone company, nicknamed Ma Bell). Having been a directory assistance operator as a temp for six weeks (long story, money plays a part in it), I’d heard the same thing from a few girls: “Here I am a single female surrounded by gorgeous men with steady jobs and great fashion sense, but…”
Once I was treading on the hallowed shadow of the Beatles, I found myself drawn to turning the song into one of those all the lonely people-type affairs, if anything for the license it might afford, allowing a cheap but hopefully satisfying excursion into lazy compassion.
So… we catch up with Michelle on a Saturday night, her charming, handsome through-the-week pals are otherwise engaged, even her cat is out for a night on the town…
Michelle (It’s Easy to Be Sad)
Michelle
Ma Bell was such a strange career choice
I know you did it to be around all them pretty boys
but I’m afraid you will never be annoyed
by smooth operators down in the break room
they’ve all got something else to do
Michelle
Ma bell was no place to meet boys
all the best they’re all just someone else’s toys
all of the strut and all of the noise
all the clothes and all the poise
they’ve all got something else to do
Michelle
It’s a saturday night michelle
It’s a saturday night michelle
It’s a saturday night michelle
And when Monday morning comes around
You know you’ll hear how it all went down
and you know how it’ll make you feel
the same old loneseome way
It’s easy to be sad
when all your boyfriends are gay
I wasn’t so sure this song would ever see the public light of day. First of all, it’s premised around an especially silly pun (which I’m hoping I needn’t explain). Second, until I added a new verse last night as I was recording it, I was afraid it would come off as a dark and threatening sort of thing. I was imagining having to put up another “This is not a murder ballad” kind of disclaimer…
Happily, I came up with a way to end the song that makes it whole… that actually gives it some much needed resolution. An ending that hopefully means I won’t be accused of fostering violence against anyone.
In fact, I was still writing the song as I recorded this very version. At the last moment I found myself doing the chorus and realizing I had to change it, somehow, to reflect that resolution. And even casual listeners will surely hear the hesitation as I delivered the new lines off the top of my head.
Rather than re-record the track, I decided to share that moment of creation with you, my trusted and loyal reader. Also, it was late and I was tired and… after all, this is A Year of Songs… it’s not about perfection. Or even competence.
It’s about keeping going…
Who’ll Stop Lorraine?
I’ve known Lorraine since we were kids
and I’ve always been amazed
Every time she went too damn far I thought
Who’ll stop Lorraine?
I saw her hunt down Billy Jim
he was doomed from that first day
I saw her rip his heart in two and thought,
Who’ll stop Lorraine?
From the hotel bar to the airport lounge Everyone knows her name Over and over I ask myself, Who’ll Stop Lorraine?
Finally one day I’d had enough
I sat her down looked her in the eye
Lorraine I love you, girl, but straighten up,
’cause, Lorraine, you’re wreckin’ people’s lives
From the hotel bar to the airport lounge Everyone knows your name Over and over they ask themselves, Who’ll Stop Lorraine?
I never thought Id see a tear in her eye
I never thought I’d see into her soul
but since that day she’s come so far
and God I’ve come to love her so
From the hotel bar to the airport lounge Everyone knows her name Over and over they ask themselves, Whatever became of Lorraine?
(C)2001, TK Major
PS… I also have one from 1994 (that I just now rediscovered — I doubt I’ve read it since I wrote it) called “When Lorraine Comes”… I strongly suspect that one won’t make it into AYoS. (Sample lyrics: “When Lorraine comes / she coughs and shakes her head / she hardly moves in bed / she might as well be dead /When Lorraine comes…” I think you get the drift.)
As far as I can figure the lyrics to this song (writing them and investing them with meaning are separate processes, y’know?) the protagonist is a kind of downtrodden everyman/everywoman… about how I figured someone married to me would turn out in a decade or two. Or six months.
These are the kind of elemental lyrics that make songwriters like me want to mumble (as if I could still pretend to shame after these nearly 90s songs) and it is only commitment to the process that allows me to grit and paste them into this post. But one of the most important lessons of rock and roll, I think, is that, if you have stupid lyrics to sing, sing them loud. Mumbling stupid lyrics is sure to invite eventual abuse. Shouting them out proudly, stupidly, now, that, my friend, was rock and roll.
It’s Only Been a Million Years
One day you’ll wake up
and figure out I’ve gone
Only thing surprising
took so damn long
It’s only been a million years since I had a dream It’s only been forever since I felt a thing
One day I love you
next day I don’t
Hard to believe
You didn’t know
It only takes an instant
for the hottest flame to die
it only takes forever
to spend your life wondering why
It’s only been a million years since I had a dream It’s only been forever since I felt a thing
