Selected Songs — Allan Wachs

SELECTED SONGS & LYRICS

MAXWELL HOUSE
Out beyond the reaches of the steel blue sky
In the far lands of the morning where the dreams of poets fly
A shattered silver bullet exploded in the sun
A child's eye watching for everyone
Maxwell House ain't what it used to be
Mississippi John won't you sing to me again

Here's to planets turning in heavenly night
Here’s to rockets burning at dawn's first light
And here’s to roads of glory and the secret's no one tells
There's ashes at the bottom of the wishing well
Heroes falling into the sea
Mississippi John won't you sing to me again

One November morning in ’63
Shots without warning, dreams the casualty
And now a silver bullet explodes beneath the sun
A child's eye watching for everyone

Maxwell House ain't what it used to be
Mississippi John won't you sing to me again

Heroes falling into the sea
Mississippi John won't you sing to me again

HEAR SONG

HOMER
His name is Homer Pettigrew
And he once was a rodeo champ
He could ride any bull down in the dust
That could snort or kick or stamp
Back in '48, in the Lone Star state
He still can hear the crowd
His name is in the record book
But you'd never know that now

He'd sing me an old cowboy song
In a voice so rough and choked
It's been that way ever since the day
A horse kicked him in the throat
And he'd make some chords on my guitar
Like once he knew how to play
Homer you must have knocked the cowgirls out
Back in your younger days

(Chorus)
And the wild Texas nights
Turned to rainy Portland days
Living 'neath the Burnside Bridge
In a burned out wino's haze
How he ever got to be there
He never would tell me
But each man's got his reasons
For the way he wants to be

There's one thing that he said to me
And it still comes back to haunt
Be careful of people with too many things
'Cause they don't know what they want
Now the last time I saw Homer
He had a bloody head
Two bums in from Yakima
Tried to steal his stinking bed

(Chorus)

HEAR SONG

SURRENDER TO LOVE
Years end, time to count my sins
And make amends where I can.
Old friends, I’ve hurt time and again
Crossing lines drawn in the sand

Leave your anger, leave your disguise
Leave the darkness in your eyes
Free your soul from hatred's chains
Give in to the love that must remain

(Refrain)
The heart is tender so you'll remember
You must surrender to love

Lives past in the eternal rain
Forsaken in the Pyrenees in flames
Smoke on the blue sea, and jangling bells
No one living left to tell

Leave your anger, leave your disguise
Leave the darkness in your eyes
Free your soul from hatred's chains
Give in to the love that must remain

(Refrain)
The heart is tender so you'll remember
You must surrender to love

(Bridge)
Reach for the sky, reach for the stars
Reach for someone, wherever you are

(Refrain)
The heart is tender don’t you remember
You must surrender to love

HEAR SONG

HARP’S HILL
As I took a walk upon Harp’s Hill
You lay fast asleep, warm and still
While the lilacs bloom, the roses too
And birds sing like dreams the long night through

All along the moor, and through the dew
In the starry light I long for you
Lilacs for my love, and roses too
And arms to hold you close the long night through

(bridge)
Under the endless sky, ancients pray
As the baby sighs the great trees sway
As the baby cries the heavens turn
Never knowing why the baby learns

As I took a walk upon Harp’s Hill
You lay fast asleep, warm and still
Lilacs for my love, and roses too
And birds that sing like dreams the long night through
And arms to hold you close the long night through

HEAR SONG

DARK AGES
I can't remember mama
I can't remember who I am
I woke up this morning
Blues walking like a man
I don’t know where I’m going
But I sure know where I’ve been

It’s been dog eat dog
It’s been every man for himself
Been dog eat dog,
Been everyone for themselves
It may be for survival
But it’s still bad for your health

It's the dark ages darlin’
And the devil's home to roost
We're in the dark ages,
We all got proof
Blues deep as midnight
Still hungry for the truth

I’ve got amnesia mama
Don't know who I am
I woke up this morning
Blues walking like a man
Am I evolving honey
Or am I still a barbarian

Hear More

BIG BOYS
Playgrounds hard and the bullies know
I slipped and fell to a broken nose
Never voted, but somehow chose
Big Boys got the schoolyard closed

Here they come dressed for the show
Atomic Flash and Twisted Rose
We all suspect, but no one knows
Why the Big Boys got the schoolyard closed

(Refrain)
Take my hand, don’t turn to stone
Don’t turn away, don’t go alone
Take my hand in the howling wind
And we won’t look back again

Winter’s coming and sure as sin
We’re going down for one more spin
Playgrounds hard and the bullies know
Big Boys got the schoolyard closed

(Repeat refrain)

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ARON'S SONG
Well that desert winds growing
Better smoke them camels
I hear a voice calling
I hope that it's a mammal
It said "I'll tell you where we're going
If you take my hand"
Forty hard years
In the desert sand

Refrain 1:
He sent me here....

I’m goin' way out on a mountain
I can't tell you why
You can feel it underneath you
You can see it in the sky
To climb Jacob's ladder
You've gotta stand tall
Every morning it's a wonder
I can stand at all

Refrain 2:
He sent me here, he sent me here, he sent me here

Bridge:
My hopes are all gone
But I'm still looking
For the Promised Land
.....for the Promised land

Now the bushes are burning
And the idols still gold
The rights to the returning
Have been cut up and sold
The waters divided
With a raising cane
I won't be free
Until we're brothers again

Refrain 3:
What's become of my people? What's become of my people?
What's become of my people?

Refrain 4:
He sent me here, he sent me here, he sent me here

HEAR SONG

WILLY LOMAN BLUES
They’ve got you by the ankle boy, they’ve got you by the throat
They’ve got you by your credit score they’ve even got your goat
Living in a house of cards, you pray the wind won’t blow
Convinced the ashes of your life look like falling snow
You wake up in the morning, there’s dirt beneath your shoes
Don’t you know you’re waking with the Willy Loman blues

Once you were so confident, once you were so sure
Once you could have talked yourself through anybody’s door
They’re shortening the leash my friend, they’re pulling in the lines
They’re breaking all their promises, it’s a shame, it’s a crime
When you’re dreams are cancelled ‘cause you’ve got too much to lose
You know you’re being strangled by the Willy Loman blues

(Bridge)
You thought you’d ride the bubble for as long as you’d choose
Banksters making offers you could not refuse
Now you’re moaning ‘bout the bail out and getting double crossed
And your nest egg has vanished like paradise lost

My father was a battered soul, he hated his own life
He carved away his broken heart with a cigarette and dinner knife
The apartment shack began to crack from tensions in the room
The Depression was so long ago, I thought we were immune
So strap me to the table boys, feed me my old shoes
And tell me tales of escape from the Willy Loman Blues

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BACK TO ONE (Full Circle)
I saw the owl perched high up in the tree
I felt the gears of grief start suddenly
A roaring wind that somehow ceased to be
With a final certainty

Now it comes full circle
That’s how it’s always been
Live our lives in lesson
Then we start again
Lord, I’m getting rocked here
I’m trying to hang on
Everybody’s gone,
Back to one

Spotlights shining, the story did unfold
We hit our marks, we did as we were told
Move on action until cut is called
This wasn’t in the script, no warning of a fall

Now it comes full circle
That’s how it has to go
When the wheel stops
No one ever knows
Lord, i’m getting rocked here
I’m trying to hang on
Everybody’s gone,
Back to one

The show is over and all the lights are dim
But it’s too hard to say good-bye my friend
I’d like to think we’ll someday meet again
But who knows where, i don’t know when

And now it’s come full circle
What’s done is done
Everybody’s going
Back to one
I’m getting rocked here
I’m trying to hang on
Everybody’s gone,
Back to one,
Now it’s come full circle
Back to one

HEAR SONG

BURNING MAN BLUES
Escrow’s up and the septic’s down
Grabbing for anything, i thought we’d drown
Palm trees swaying in the paradise breeze
Middle of hell…down on my knees..
I had a hot motor and a heavy load
I gotta pay up or they’ll foreclose
And take my piece of tobacco road

Economy collapsed, more like hijacked
Money’s tied up in this god damned house
Doctors say i’ve got to relax
They call it stress, bankers call it non-liquidity
I had a hot motor and a heavy load
Out of my way, i’m digging a hole
Down to the bottom of tobacco road

The bank had us by the neck,
I didn’t know but was beginning to suspect
That the checks and balances, the balances and checks
We’re not altogether working in our favor
So i got some really sharp lawyers
I had a hot motor and a heavy load
Swimming around in my own dust bowl
Living the good life on tobacco road

(Bridge)
May I tell you one thing as a path to salvation
Sufferings overrated, it’s an old vibration
Sacrificial lambs don’t work like they did before
That judaeo christian paradigms changing for sure
But it’s not gone yet

It’s doggerel, it’s vaudeville,
It’s the apocalyptic carnival
Call it karma or hard rain,
Or the last gasp of a dark campaign.
I had a hot motor and a heavy load
But i got out from under tobacco road
I sold the house and then……it burnt down
A crying shame..
All my neighbors homes in flames

Tobacco road may be smoked up again
But there’s hot property for sale
So everybody come on in…come on in…
All you developers
I had a hot motor and a heavy load
Bumping along like old Tom Joad
Carrying my grapes of wrath down tobacco road

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CLOSED FOR REPAIRS
Morning rolled the dice on me
I knew i had to wake up eventually
Barely thinking, I could clearly see
Seven come eleven made a fool of me

So i forced myself to get out of bed
Pretty sure i wasn’t dead
Still i can’t recall a single thing she said
Except the sky is blue, the clouds are in your head

Memory lane’s closed for repairs
Got washed out in the Flood of Tears
If your heart should break
Where you gonna find a spare?

So i wiped the dreams and dust from my eyes
Another day, another disguise
Morning’s here, gotta wake up fast
I’m moving forward straight out of the past

Memory lane’s closed for repairs
Got washed out in the Flood of Tears
If your heart should break
Where you gonna find a spare?

Morning rolled the dice on me
I knew i had to wake up eventually
Not even thinking, I could clearly see
Seven come eleven come along with me

HEAR SONG