The first time I saw her, a long, long time ago, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She’d just got into town from West Virginia. She and her boyfriend and a tiny, tiny baby, whose father was back home. She had a soft coal country drawl and big eyes that made her look like a reticent, renaissance madonna (the religious painting kind, not the pop legend kind).
It’s undoubtedly a sad commentary on my fit in the human race, but I usually avoided women with kids. And it was for that reason — that I thought I was safe, that I let myself get sucked in, just a little.
She jettisoned her boyfriend within two weeks. I tried sympathy but she declared that he was a nice guy but a loser. She gave every sign of being a callous manipulator but I would look into those eyes and melt and think it was just the hard, tough life she’d led so far. I mooned around for awhile, unwilling to make any move (a kid… she had a kid… I was a kid… it couldn’t work) but secretly hoping (I suspect now, to my chagrin) that something would happen to force the issue.
It did, in the form of an older guy with a house and a good job. All of a sudden she was married and less than a year and a half later they were selling the house and splitting the proceeds in a moderately nasty divorce.
Not quite the situation in the song below… but if I told that story, I’d be in trouble.
I lost my best friend the day that I lost you
I lost my best friend the day that I lost you
I lost my best friend the day that I lost you
I may have lost my best friend but at least I got id of you
I feel so bad when I see him on the street with you
I feel so bad when I see him out on the street with you
I wanna rush up to him and say . . .
“Don’t worry brother, I know just what you’re goin’ through!”
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?
folk version:
acoustic funk version:
[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
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.)
