aboutslamposplace

2007-04-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

Good Planets Are Hard to Find

Good planets are hard to find,
Temp'rate zones and tropic climes,
True currents in thriving seas,
Winds blowin' through breathing trees,
Strong ozone and safe sunshine,
Good planets are hard to find.

Good planets are in demand,
Clean beaches and sparkling sand,
Land masses with room to spare,
Jet streams and perfect air,
High forests and low wetlands,
Good planets are in demand.

And the mind don't know
If the heart can't see;
Let the blind man go
To his destiny...

Good planets are rare indeed,
Rain fallin' on crops and seed,
Big rivers and good topsoil,
Fuel sources from cane to oil,
Green gardens of all we need,
Good planets are rare indeed.

And the mind don't know
If the heart can't see;
Let the blind man go
To his destiny...

Good planets are scarce and few,
Earthworms and caribou,
Strong food chains and tasty meals,
Textiles and plants that heal,
Iron mountains and skies of blue,
Good planets are scarce and few.

-- Steve Forbert

2007-02-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Don't take your love away from me.
Don't you leave my here in misery.
If you go, then I'll be blue
`cause breakin' up is hard to do.

Remember when you held me tight,
and you kissed me all through the night.
Think of all that we been trough,
`cause breakin' up is hard to do.

They say that breain' up is hard to do;
now I know, I know that it's true.
Don't say that this is the end.
Instead of breakin' up
I wish that we were makin' up again.

I beg of you don't say good-bye;
can't we give an other try?
Come on baby, let's start anew,
breakin' up is hard to do.

I beg of you don't say good-bye;
can't we give an other try?
Come on baby, let's start anew,
breakin' up is hard to do.
Yeah, breakin' up is hard to do.

-- Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield

2006-08-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

The One on the Right is On the Left

There once was a musical troupe
A pickin' singin' folk group
They sang the mountain ballads
And the folk songs of our land

They were long on musical ability
Folks thought they would go far
But political incompatibility led to their downfall

Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear was a Methodist

This musical aggregation toured the entire nation
Singing the traditional ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They performed with great virtuosity
And soon they were the rage
But political animosity prevailed upon the stage

Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear burned his driver's license

Well the curtain had ascended
A hush fell on the crowd
As thousands there were gathered to hear the folk songs of our land
But they took their politics seriously
And that night at the concert hall
As the audience watched deliriously
They had a free-for-all

Well, the one on the right was on the bottom
And the one in the middle was on the top
And the one on the left got a broken arm
And the guy in the rear, said, "Oh dear"

Now this should be a lesson if you plan to start a folk group
Don't go mixin' politics with the folk songs of our land
Just work on harmony and diction
Play your banjo well
And if you have political convictions keep them to yourself

Now, the one on the left works in a bank
And the one in the middle drives a truck
The one on the right's an all-night deejay
And the guy in the rear … got drafted

-- As sung by Johnny Cash, 1965

2006-04-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

VEGA-TABLES

I'm gonna be round my vegetables
I'm gonna chow down my vegetables
I love you most of all
My favorite vege-table.

If you brought a big brown bag of them home
I'd jump up and down and hope you'd toss me a carrot.

I'm gonna keep well my vegetables
Cart off and sell my vegetables
I love you most of all
My favorite vege-table

Oh oh taba vega vegel
I tried to kick the ball but my tenny flew right off
I'm red as a beet 'cause I'm so embarassed ...

Oh oh dum do dum de dooby do
Oh oh dum do dum de dooby do
Oh oh dum do dum de dooby dooh yeah
Oh badumday oh dum do dum de dooby do
Oh badumday oh dum do dum de dooby do
Chomp chomp chomp chomp do-do-do do-do-do
Bop bop bop bop do-do-do do-do-do

I know that you'll feel better
When you send us in your letter
And tell us the name
Of your favorite vege-table.

--- By Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks

2006-02-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

I'M A MIDNIGHT MOVER

I'm a midnight mover
All night through
I'm a midnight teaser
Real soul pleaser
I'm a midnight hugger
All night lover.

Trust in me when you're down and out
I will always bring you up ...

They call me the midnight mover
I'm a midnight walker
Sweet soul talker
I'm a midnight creeper
All day sleeper
I'm a midnight rover
Have to look things over.

Leave your love light shinin' bright
Makes me know that everything's all right.

I'm a mover, groover,
Teaser, pleaser
Hugger, lover, walker, talker
Got to be a midnight mover
Got to be a midnight groover
Got to be a midnight teaser
Got to be a midnight pleaser
Got to be a midnight huggerGot to be a midnight lover
Got to be a midnight walker
Got to be a midnight talker
Got to be a midnight creeper.

-- As sung by Wilson Pickett

2006-02-10T19:44:00.000-08:00

I Want You Back

When I had you to myself
I didn’t want you around
Those pretty faces always made you
Stand out in a crowd.

Then someone picked you from the bunch
One glance was all it took
Now it’s much too late for me
To take second look.

Oh baby give me one more chance (to show you that I love you)
Won’t you please send me (back in your heart)
Oh darlin’ I was blind to let you go
But now since I see you in his arms
I want you back
Yes I do now
I want you back.

Trying to live without your love
Is one long sleepless night
Let me show you girl
That I know wrong from right
Every street you walk on
I leave tear stains on the ground
Following the girl
I didn’t even want around.

Abuh buh buh buh ... All I want! Abuh buh buh buh .... All I need! Abuh buh buh buh..

As sung by the Jackson 5

2006-01-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

Going on an Adventure Where Somebody Could Get Killed (But Not Me)

... I'm a practical American
From the Middle West
And I can piss on a grave
While welcoming guests.

-- Iggy Pop, I Felt the Luxury, 1999

2006-01-26T04:12:00.000-08:00

WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE

In this dirty old part of the city
Where the sun refused to shine
People tell me there ain't no use in tryin'
Now my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know.

Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watched his hair been turnin' grey
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away. Oh yes I know it (Yeah!)
He's been workin' so hard (Yeah!)
I've been workin' too, baby (Yeah!)
Every night and day ... (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!)

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
'Cause girl, there's a better life for me and you.

Now my girl you're so young and pretty
And one thing I know is true, yeah
You'll be dead before your time is due, I know it.
Watch my daddy in bed a-dyin'
Watched his hair been turnin' grey, yeah
He's been workin' and slavin' his life away ...
I know he's been workin' so hard (Yeah!)
I've been workin' too, baby (Yeah!) Every day baby (Yeah!) Whoa! (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!)

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you ...
Somewhere baby, somehow I know it.

We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
Girl, there's a better life for me and you.
Believe me baby, I know it baby. You know it too.

Written by Weil/Mann, sung by The Animals, 1964

2005-12-11T19:02:00.000-08:00

Seasons in the Sun

Goodbye to you my trusted friend
We´ve known each other since we were nine or ten
Together we´ve climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and abc´s
Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees.

Goodbye my friend it's hard to die
When all the birds are singingIn the sky
Now that spring is in the air
Pretty girls are everywhere
Think of me and i'll be there.

We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time.

Goodbye papa please pray for me
I was the black sheep of the family
You tried to teach me right from wrong
Too much wine and too much song
Wonder how i got along.

Goodbye papa it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
Little children everywhere
When you see them I´ll be there.

We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the songs like the seasons have all gone.
We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the seasons have all gone.

Goodbye Michelle my little one
You gave me love and helped me find the sun
And every time thatI was down
You would always come around and get my feet back on the ground.

Goodbye Michelle it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air with the flowers everywhere
I wish that we could both be there.

We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time.
We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the seasons have all gone ...

2005-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

Please Come Home for Christmas

Bells will be ringing
The glad, glad news
Oh, what a Christmas
To have the blues
My baby's gone,I have no friend
To wish me greetings once again

Choirs will be singing"Silent Night"
Christmas carols by candlelight
Please come home for Christmas
Please come home for Christmas
If not for Christmas
By New Year's Night

Friends and relations
Send salutations
Sure as the stars shine up above
For this is Christmas, Christmas my dear
The time of year to be with the one you love

Then won't you please tell me
You'll never more roam
Christmas and New Year's will find you home
There'll be no more sorrow
No grief, no pain
Because I'll be happy
Christmas once again

--- By Charles Brown and Gene Redd

2005-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

"Die Gedanken sind frei"

From 1845 to 1861 large numbers of German Freethinkers emigrated to the Texas Hill Country. Freethinkers were predominently German intellectuals who advanced reason and democracy over religious and political autocracy. Many had been active in the 1848 German Revolution and sought freedom in America. The Freethinkers established numerous Central Texas colonies, including Bettina, Castell, Cypress Creek, Luckenbach, Sisterdale, and Tusculum (Boerne). Settlements which conducted intellectual forums in Latin became known as "Latin Colonies". Within a few years of the founding of Comfort in 1854, half the Hill Country Freethinker population was living in the area.

Freethinkers valued their new found freedoms of speech, assembly, and separation of religion and government. Instead of religious dogma, Freethinkers believed in individual philosophy. They advocated equal rights for all persons, and their moral values were dominated by respect for life and nature. Many were active in political issues of the day including the rejection of seccession and abolition of slavery. Intellectual pursuits were shared with agriculture and other crafts of physical labor. Secular education and organizations (Vereins) provided social and cultural fulfillment. Existence was peaceful and their influence rapidly expanded.

Loyalty to the Union during the Civil War had cost many their freedom and lives. Some Freethinkers relocated to nearby urban areas or other states, and a few returned to Europe. Arrival of the railroad in Comfort in 1887 and other outside factors largely influenced the construction of the first church in 1892. Freethinker origins continue to influence the spirit of the community and surrounding areas.

---Text on cenotaph placed by citizens in 2002 outside the Ingenhuett Store, in downtown Comfort, Texas

2005-11-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

Love Is Strange

Love, love is strange
Lot of people take it for a game
Once you get it
You'll never wanna quit (no, no)
After you've had it (yeah, yeah)
You're in an awful fix.

Many people
Don't understand (no, no)
They think loving (yeah, yeah)
Is money in the hand

Your sweet loving
Is better than a kiss
When you leave me
Sweet kisses I miss.

MICKEY: Silvia...
SILVIA: Yes Mickey?
MICKEY: How do you call your loverboy?
SILVIA: Come 'ere loverboy!!
MICKEY: And if he doesnt answer?
SILVIA: Ohh loverboy!
MICKEY: And if he STILL doesnt answer?
SILVIA: I simply say ...

Baby, Oohh baby
My sweet baby
You're the one

TOGETHER: Baby, Oohh baby
My sweet baby
You're the one.

--- As sung by Mickey and Sylvia, a long time ago

2005-10-31T15:13:00.000-08:00

White Man in Hammersmith Palais

Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator
Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands sound systems
And if they've got anything to say
There's many black ears here to listen
But it was Four Tops all night with encores from stage right
Charging from the bass knives to the treble
But onstage they ain't got no roots rock rebel
Onstage they ain't got no ... roots rock rebel
Dress back jump back this is a bluebeat attack
'Cos it won't get you anywhere
Fooling with your guns
The British Army is waiting out there
An' it weighs fifteen hundred tons
White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution
Punk rockers in the UKThey won't notice anyway
They're all too busy fighting
For a good place under the lighting
The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha you think it's funny
Turning rebellion into money
All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They'd send a limousine anyway
I'm the all night drug-prowling wolf
Who looks so sick in the sun
I'm the white man in the Palais
Just lookin' for fun
I'm only
Looking for fun

--- The Clash, 1977

2005-10-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

Word to Judy Miller

"Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuck-offs and misfits---a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage."

---Hunter S. Thompson, journalist, fabulist, dead man

2005-10-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

VENUS (de Milo)

Tight toy night, streets were so bright
The world looked so thin and between my bones and skin
There stood another person who was a little surprised
To be face to face with a world so alive.

I fell. (DIDJA FEEL LOW?)
NO, Not at all. (HUH???)
I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.

I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.

You know it's all like some new kind of drug
My senses are sharp and my hands are like gloves
Broadway looked so medieval, it seemed to flap, like little pages
I fell sideways laughing with a friend from many stages.

(How l felt.)

Suddenly my eyes went so soft and shaky
I knew there was pain but pain is not aching
Then Richie ... Richie said: "Hey man let's dress up like cops. Think of what we could do!"
But something, something said "You better not."

And I fell ...

--- Tom Verlaine, Television, Marquee Moon, 1976

2005-10-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

Allons à Lafayette!

Allons à Lafayette mais pour changer ton nom.
On va t'appeler Madame, Madame Canaille-Comeaux!
Petite, t'es trop mignonne pour faire to criminelle!
Comment tu crois mais moi, j'peux faire mais moi tout seul?
Mais toi. mais joli coeur, 'garde donc mais quoi t'as fait!
Si loin comme moi j'su' d'toi, mais ça, ça m'fait pitier!

Allons à Lafayette mais pour changer ton nom.
On va t'appeler Madame, Madame Canaille-Comeaux!
Petite, t'es trop mignonne pour faire to criminelle!
Comment tu crois mais moi, j'peux faire mais moi tout seul?
Mais ou, mais t'es de moi si loin de moi, mignonne!
Tu peux me crever 'l coeur, jolie et jolie fille!

Allons à Lafayette mais pour changer ton nom.
On va t'appeler Madame, Madame Canaille-Comeaux!
Petite, t'es trop mignonne pour faire ta criminelle!
Observe moi bien, migonne, tu vas voir mais pour toi-même
Que moi mais j'mérite pas tous ça mais t'après faire!
T'après quitter ton nèg mais pour mais t'en aller!

(Let's go to Lafayette to change your name!
We'll call you Madam, Madam Rascal Comeaux!
Little one, you're too cute to do me wrong!
How come you believe that I can make it all alone?
But you, pretty heart, look what you've done.
So far as I am from you, why it's pitiful!

Let's go to Lafayette to change your name!
We'll call you Madam, Madam Rascal Comeaux!
Little one, you're too cute to do me wrong!
How come you believe that I can make it all alone?
Why yes, you're so far away from me, cute one!
You can break my heart, pretty, pretty girl!

Let's go to Lafayette to change your name!

We'll call you Madam, Madam Rascal Comeaux!
Little one, you're too cute to do me wrong!
Look me over, my beauty you'll see for yourself
That I don't deserve all the things you're doing!
You're leaving your lover to go away!)

--- Traditional Cajun song

2005-10-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

JIM GORDON BLUES

Alienation generation's constipation
Consequence of years of Oprahzation
Super-concentrated self infatuation
I don't have a clue
I don't trust those who do
I'm just tryin to shake these Jim Gordon Blues.

Now that every word has lost its meaning
Now we know the image is deceiving
I can't trust what I'm not believing
I don't have a clue
I don't trust those who do
I'm just tryin to shake these Jim Gordon Blues.

Don't kiss it, who knows where it's been
Don't think it, if it might offend
Don't chase what's blowin in the wind
I don't have a clue
I don't trust those who do
I'm just tryin to shake these Jim Gordon Blues.

The voices are screaming, constantly berating
A moment of silence would be so intoxicating
The urge to kill can be so liberating
I don't have a clue
I don't trust those who do
I'm just tryin to shake these Jim Gordon Blues.

--- The Dictators, DFFD, 2001

2005-10-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop

I met the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
"Those breasts are flat and fallen now,
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty."

"Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul," I cried.
"My friends are gone, but that's a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart's pride.

"A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent."

--- W.B. Yeats, 1933

Rub Me Raw

2005-10-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

I know these blues are gonna rub me raw
Every single cure seems to be against the law

Went and told my psychic
I said "Keep it to yourself.
I don't wanna hear it and don't be telling no one else."

Word's out on the street
Whispers in the night
They come out of the woodwork, wanna see what it's like

Pickle-ickle-ickle
Gonna run that voodoo down
How the crowd gets fickle when your face is to
the ground!

Oh no these blues are gonna rub me raw
Oh no these blues are gonna rub me raw

Now I'm shaking all over
I'm a shattering mass
But I'm gonna sit up straight
I'm going to take it with class

Old man used to tell me
"Son, never look back,
Move on to the next case.
Fold your clothes and pack."

To the green horned chicken hoppers I say
"Get yourself a trade,
Or go hack to the chat room and fade in the shade"

Oh no these blues are gonna rub me raw
Oh no these blues are gonna rub me raw

I know these blues are gonna rub me raw
Every single cure seems to be against the law

I was walking pretty well then I fell into a hole
I should climb out quick, but I hate doing what I'm told

Got a wang-dang-doodle wrapped in bog snake hide
This goat head gumbo is keeping me alive

I don't want your pity or your fifty-dollar words
I don't share your need to discuss the absurd

Oh no these blues are gonna rub me raw
Oh no these blues are gonna rub me raw

--by Warren Zevon & Jorge Calderón