A Year of Songs Debut

There was a period when I was damn glad to have a job in a gas station in a gritty, dangerous, inner city neighborhood. One week, there were three killings on the block, two of them in the squat next to the station.

Needless, perhaps, to say, I met a lot of interesting folks from many cultures — if not all socioeconomic strata.

I was hanging on by my fingernails but at least I had a roof over my head and a car and an old guitar.

A lot of the folks around me weren’t so lucky.

It was an era that got under my skin in funny ways and opened up my suburban-bred thought processes enough that I found myself exploring the milieu in my imagination and ultimately in my music.

When I look back on my life
to see what’s comin’ next
All I see is more unpaid bills
more bad checks and auto wrecks

Won’t someone help me please
Jesus, get my feet back in the right tracks
won’t someone help me please
Can’t everyone see that this wasn’t supposed to
happen to me

I’d be fadin’ away
in the smoggy sun of Californ-i-a
If I had my Way
If I had my way

But this place got a hold on me
tighter than Alcatraz
and it ain’t got half the charm
that I’ve heard that Alcatraz has

My teeth are fallin’ out
and my liver’s going bad
my wife’s gained 500 pounds
and my daughter has been had

by every two bit piece of scum
in a low life rat bag town
that’s known for its losers
but then as my wife tells me every night as she
crawls in bed next to me
honey:

beggars can’t be choosers
we’re just natural born losers
we’ve been losing since the day we were born
we’ll be losing til the day we die

some of us was born to win
and others just to wonder why

beggars can’t be choosers…

Won’t someone help me please
Jesus, get my feet back in the right tracks
won’t someone help me please
Can’t everyone see that this wasn’t supposed to
happen to me

I’d be fadin’ away
in the smoggy sun of Californ-i-a
If I had my Way
If I had my way