Hacienda

Out on the desert

Traveling by night

Out among the boulder

And the cacti.

 

Hoof beats a-sounding

A mounted haunted man

Making his way by the glow

Of the milky way band.

 

Come on in, welcome

Traveler

To this old hacienda

Come on in

Let me build you a fire.

 

 

Saddlebag, boots and garments

Gather in the room.

Coming down the veranda

The scent of her perfume.

 

She draws you in

Spilling magic in the air.

If only for a while,

You’re left without a care.

 

Come on in, welcome

Traveler

To this old hacienda

Come on in

Let me build you a fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juniper and Pinon

I hail the morning glory of the sun

And stand before a road that runs

All ribbon-like through the Pawnee Grass.

 

With my satchel and travel log at hand

I mull over a dog-eared plan

And raise a stone cairn upon the sand

 

I’m heading for new horizons

On a kind gentle wind

With my darling companions

Juniper and Pinon.

 

 

Well, I could use a brand new song

You know the rush is sweet and strong

There ain’t nothing like a brand new song.

 

Among old adobe walls I lie

Beneath the stars in the firelight

And the morrow right by my side.

 

I’m heading for new horizons

On a kind gentle wind

With my darling companions

Juniper and Pinon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home On The Range

O give me a home where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

 

Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crowded House Blues

Welcome to this simmering, congested, manic world

In the Year of Our Lord twenty hundred or so

Bred in a valley of blue and green

On comic book heroes and baseball cards.

Now, my friends and I here we are in the years

Purple mountain majesty you once really lived in style

But, all such good things must come to an end.

When you’ve got the crowded house blues

When you’ve got the crowded house blues.

 

It’s secret, it’s elusive, it’s hidden and dark

Feel it creepin’, feel it crawlin’, lurkin’ in your yard.

Jarred me awake one morning out of a suburban dream

Sweat upon my brow, bedlam jammin’ about my head

I took to the freeway with a gun in my hand

Blew my way through an L.A. traffic jam

Gonna de-populate this place

Gotta get some relief.

‘Cause I’ve got the crowded house blues

Yes, I’ve got the crowded house blues.

 

Hype and seduction- a myopic age

Adrift on an ocean amid partisan waves.

I’m an apathetic speed freak, I’m a gang bangin’ fool

Off county roads, down urban streets people bleed in the night heat

Call me an incarnation of some underworld imp

But, there’s just one funny thing- aint it the sobering truth-

I’m a product of the world, a reflection of you.

So, don’t cut me down, don’t you piss on my lawn

Don’t darken my sky, don’t you taint my well

Don’t shatter the silence, nor be so unkind

‘Cause I’ve got the crowded house blues

‘Cause I’ve got the crowded house blues.

 

Red Dust

We were the Roman cavalry

Lightning-like we crossed the valley

We tore into their wheeling flanks

While our legions splintered their ranks.

 

It was such a furious fight

I called out for my wife

Then rose out over the battlefield

Silent and surreal

 

We were a crew of astronauts

Eighty million miles of space we crossed

We landed in the hours of dawn

In the shadow of Olympus Mons

 

Red dust coated our suits

We looked out over the butte

Onto an alien world revealed

Silent and surreal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peculiar Fate

Dear beloved ones

By now, I’m gone

Now a falling star

A new ray of dawn.

 

You may find good reasons

Hard to see

But, it’s all now

So clear to me.

 

What a peculiar fate

If we could only hold you now

Still your soul, and then somehow

What a peculiar fate.

 

 

Merriwether Lewis,

Maybe Marilyn Monroe

And Kurt Cobain

The millions unknown.

 

Scattered about this earth

Like autumn leaves

Waiting

For a breeze.

 

What a peculiar fate

If we could only hold you now

Still your soul, and then somehow

What a peculiar fate.

 

Disillusion- I lost my way

Resignation- I’ve grown tired

Now my song is sung

My day is done

What a peculiar fate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Inn

Boston at last and the plane’s touching down

Our hostess is handing the hot towels around

From the terminal gate to a black limousine

It’s a ten minute ride to the Holiday Inn

 

Boredom’s a pastime that one soon acquired

Where you get to the stage where you’re not even tired

Kicking your heals till the time come’s around

To pick up your bags and head out of town.

 

Slow down Joe, I’m a rock ‘n roll man

I’ve twiddled my thumbs in a dozen odd bands

And you ain’t seen nothing till you’ve been

In a motel baby like the Holiday Inn.

 

Those Were the Days

Back in the days

You could walk on the earth,

Hear the sound of the wild,

And you could still see the stars.

 

Mama, we’ve Apaches

Drawing water from the well.

Don’t their ponies look tired

Through the heat waves arisin’

From the trail to who knows where.

 

Look, a black widow

In the outhouse again.

One more dust storm

Another diamondback den.

 

Daddy, he raised us

Aunt Loleda kept an eye on us

‘Cause Mama had died

When little Annabelle was born.

We grew up, oh so fast.

 

All through the lean years

We cut our teeth hustlin’

One thing or another

‘Till war broke out

 

I buried a part of me

On the beachhead that dawn.

Through hellfire and din

It was awful, dear God

I survived- but not my brothers.

 

I married my sweetheart

On the morn of a new age.

Hey Ho, we made a go

By the shores of the Great Lake.

 

Hold me my lovely

Dear daughter and son.

I’ll be crossing that great

Wide river that calls           

Alas, those were the days.

 

Misfit Child

Come along my wild

My dear misfit child

What are we gonna do

About you?

There’s a million miles of barbed wire

And smoldering jungle fires

Mountains of debris

Suffocating me.

 

I was traveling through the Great North Wood

I rose a ridge and there I stood

All around me, gone

It was all gone.

Crawling everywhere

Smoke and dust filled the air

Awful big machines of yours

Making off with more and more.

 

  I never meant to do you harm

  No harm

  I never meant you

  No harm.

  How can I right this wrong?

 

The governor promised his moneymen

“Our agenda, gentlemen-

We’re gonna build another road

Lots of roads.

Never mind esthetics

Set aside your code of ethic

Let’s go a-plundering

And pillaging.”

 

Where once there lived a river

Oh, a mighty muddy river

From the mountain free

Flowing to the sea.

No aurora borealis

No solar eclipse

Why, nothing that I do

Satisfies you.

 

  I never meant to do you harm

  No harm

  I never meant you

  No harm.

  How can I right this wrong?

 

I’m sick of all those greedy eyes

Filthy lies, their pesticides

Fever schemes on paradise-

waiting.

Rolling hills of sprawl

Cookie cutter homes and mega malls

We’ll bring ‘em all to their knees

Or drown ‘em in the sea.

 

 

Woman (After All of These Years)

Woman, after all of the years

You’d think that I’d be over you.

The heart of the matter, the truth is my dear

Woman, I’m still in love with you.

 

Woman, being with you felt right at home

We were cut from the same bolt of cloth and soul.

One too many times I left you wantin’ and alone

Woman, when I reach out for you you’re gone.

 

Ooh, once upon a time

What might have been

I keep you gentle on my mind

Where we still run with the wind

Where you’re always near by

Always a part of my life.

 

 

 

Senorita Sunshine

Down in the village cantina

Drowning in local tequila

Laughing and in love

With a sweet senorita.

 

Dos mas, por favor

Para mi y mi amor

What are you and I

Waiting for?

 

Senorita sunshine

We have roads to unwind

Take my arm

We’ll leave it all behind.

Senorita sunshine.

 

 

On the far side of a foreign sun

We were wed by an alien

Hey man, this calls

For a big celebration.

 

From a gourd poured one last toast

Salute to the cosmos

One more song

One more native dose.

 

Senorita sunshine

We have roads to unwind

Take my arm

We’ll leave it all behind.

Senorita sunshine.