LYRIC SHEET TO CURTIS AND LORETTA'S "IT'S WHERE YOU HANG YOUR HAT" IT'S WHERE YOU HANG YOUR HAT Loretta Simonet copy. 1994 1. It doesn't close at 5 p.m. and there's no dress code there, You can enter anytime, wear a suit, wear underwear, No one'll laugh at your balding head, they won't eye your wheelchair, You're queen you're king, you've got everything, When you're finally there. CHO Home sweet home my honeycomb, It's where you hang your hat, Yeah home is where the heart is, yeah home is where it's at. 2. You may be home in a trailer park, or home on the range, In a mansion, cabin, or an igloo, a bungalow or A-frame, Go to your palace or your grass shack, lay your burden down, Scream or laugh, take a bubble bath, sleep or dance around. 3. Country roads may take you there, or city sidewalks too, Baseball players dream of it, and certain pigeons do, Everybody longs for it, and by and by we'll see, You can feel it anywhere in your loved ones' company. BIRD ON THE WIRE Leonard Cohen, copy. 1968, Stranger Music 1. Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in some midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free. 2. Like a worm on a hook, like a knight in some old-fashioned book, I have won all my ribbons for thee. CHO I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch, And he said to me, "Son, you must not ask for so much." I saw a banker leaning on a Rolls Royce door, And he said to me, "Hey why not ask for more?" 3. Like a baby stillborn, like a beast with his sharpened horn, I have torn everyone who reached out for me. 4.But I swear by this song and by all of those I have done wrong Well I will make it all up to thee. CHO And if I have been unkind well I hope that you will just let it go by, And if I have been untrue, well I hope you'll know it was never to you. ENDLESS LOVE SONG Curtis Teague, copy. 1994 1. I'd have to write you some endless love song, Somthing that'll go, like the wind is gonna blow, Something that can feel like the sun when it rises, Something filling up, like a river will grow. CHO And then I know, there's just not a word, Or lines to rhyme like a heart and a mind, So I can only say that I'm one of a few, That has known love as I have known you. 2. I'd have to write you some endless love letter, Endless p.s.'s and X's that don't end, But no envelope can seal in the feeling, No such words can be written with a hand. 3. I'd have to write you some endless love novel, Encyclopedias, dictionaries, To find one way to say how I love you, It cannot be explained in all the libraries. 4. I'd have to write you some endless love song, I'd have to write you some endless love song, I'd have to write you some endless love, I'd have to write you some endless love. GARBAGE! Bill Steele copy. Chinga Music 1.Mr. Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potato Leaves the bone and gristle and he never eats the skin, Busboy comes and takes it, with a cough contaminates it, Puts it in a can with coffee grounds and sardine tins. Till the truck comes by on Friday and carts it all away. And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the bay. CHO Garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage. We're filling up our seas with garbage, garbage, garbage,garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage. What will we do when there's no place left to put all our garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage? 2. Mr. Thompson starts his Cadillac and winds it up the freeway track, Leaving friends and neighbors in a hydrocarbon haze, He's joined by lots of smaller cars all sending gases to the stars There to form a seething cloud that hangs for thirty days, While the sun looks down upon it with her ultraviolet tongues, It turns to smog and settles down and ends up in our lungs. CHO Garbage........We're filling up our air with garbage.......What will we do when there's nothing left to breathe but garbage........... 3. Getting home and taking off his shoes, he settles down with evening news, While the kids do homework with the TV in one ear, While Superman for thousandth time sells sexy dolls and conquers crime, They dutifully learn the date of birth of Paul Revere. In the paper there's a piece about the mayor's middle name. He gets that done in time to watch the all-star Bingo game, & that's CHO Garbage....we're filling up our minds with garbage......... What will we do when there's nothing left to hear, Nothing left to read, nothing left to wear, Nothing left to need, nothing left to talk about, Nothing left to walk upon, nothing left to care about, Nothing left to do and nothing left to see, And there's nothing left to be but garbage? BRAND NEW TRADITION Guy Marsh, copy. 1987 1. Oh the movers, the shakers, the coffee drinkers, There's a beach on each side, there's a boat make for sinking, A patio sofa, with ten year old pictures on the wall, That wonder where dad is all day. It's a brand new tradition he's building for mom and me, It's all about TV and bedroom repetition, They're empty inside, hoping no one is listening, They can't stand to think there's a thing that they're missing. It's a Chevy for wintertime, Italian for summer, I'm afraid that the dog's caught a permanent bummer. CHO Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie...... 2. They don't know the farmers, they can't see the fields, They buy a few groceries and eat out for meals, And on weekends they barbecue, waiting for neighbors, To see what they've done to put life in their favor. And they go to their weddings and hope they don't cry, And they go to their churches and hope they don't die. 3. Here comes little Jimmy, he delivers the paper, It's all the news of robbers and rapers, How some kind of justice got the death penalty, And the price you must pay to be tax dollar free, Oh the movers, the shakers, it's a brand new tradition, It's ten pairs of shoes, it's an act of attrition, It's the way that you feel when you step over people in the street. And it's hard to find words, it's hard to find humor, In a land that is plagued with suburban heart tumors, It's just for the children we sing this today, About a brand new tradition that's best laid away. DANCE IN THE HALLWAYS Loretta Simonet, copy.1994 1. When I was still quite young, I sold that sugar candy, All behind a clear glass counter, filled with candy canes, Children came from near and far to see the wonder of it, They'd press their nose against that glass and dream of sugar cane. CHO Let them dance in the hallways, Let them burst out in laughter, Let their eyes grow wide with wonder, let them roll in the grass Let them stumble just a little and get their clothes all dirty, Let them cry with the thunder, let them smudge up the glass. 2. The lady who was my boss liked that counter shiny, She could not stand the smudges from those fingers so tiny, So she shooed them off and taught me how to smash their dreams of honey, Saying, "You don't need to feel bad, for you know they had no money." 3. It had not been so very long since I was a small one, The memories of "Don't do this and that" fresh on my mind, So when I was alone I let those children smudge the window, When they'd gone I'd take a cloth and make that counter shine. 4. Years went by and now I sell glass beads of many colors, These baubles some years longer than that sugar cane will last, Children come to gaze upon the rainbows shining for them, I've heard myself say, "Children, now don't smudge up that glass." ELZA AND BRANKO Loretta Simonet, copy. 1994 1. Elza tore a page from her precious book, Fed it to the tiny stove without a second look, Once it gave her pleasure, now it served as fuel, Once she enjoyed life, now it was terribly cruel. Branko sawed up furniture, a shell hit close outside, He handed her a piece of chair, no hope left in his eyes. Once he sang the old songs to his lovely wife, Now he sang her just one song, to get them through their life CHO Wars will always rage, hate and fear will kill, Hardships grind us down, nearly break our will, They can take all that we have, our homes our bodies too, But there's one thing they can't take, my love for you. 2. He said, "I'll haul some water, for we'll run out today, I know a place not too far, just two miles away." She tried to hide her worry, she tried to hide her fear, Each moment she spent with him was immeasurably dear. She fetched the plastic buckets, he buttoned up his coat, She said, "You'll need another scarf, let me cover up your throat. Branko, please be careful, my prayers will go with you." "Elza, I will hurry home, our song will see us through." 3. She watched him through the window that was not boarded up In the street far below, the old man moved so slow. Once they had a nephew to make this trip for them, A sniper's bullet stopped him like so many of their friends, Minutes turned to hours, she thought of him alone, Every mortar blast she heard, she whispered "Please come home." She shivered in the darkness now, no candles left to light, She sent him every ounce of strength, saying "Sing with me this night." 4. He'd been gone far too long now, the fear ripped at her soul, Was he hiding out someplace, was he wounded, was he cold? She wished she'd made him take the last piece of bread with him, "Oh God," she prayed, "let me feed him once again." She jumped up from her chair then as if she'd heard a ghost, She knew she had to look for him no matter what the cost. She flung open the door, and there her lover stood, "Oh Branko, I could hear you singing, like we always should." ANNA ROSA Loretta Simonet, copy.1994 1. Often in the evening to the cafe she came, When the air turned cool and her brothers played games, To watch for Americanos who were white as a bone, Her mama said they lived where the sun barely shone. CHO Anna Rosa, beautiful child, A smile so bright, and a manner so mild, I'll see you in my dreams tonight, In an ocean breeze under clear moonlight. 2. She told them of her school on the edge of town, How her father fished the seas and she'd once seen a clown, How at home she took care of the little ninjos, Americanos shrugged and smiled and said "Bueno." 3. They spoke nonsense words from a faraway land, But she understood their smiles and their outstretched hands, As they passed her warm tostadoes and picante sauce, In that conversation not a thing was lost. 4. She posed for their camera with a grin so wide, That young, young beauty had no sadness to hide, And months and years later in the frozen north, When they looked at that picture, happiness spilled forth. DEPORTEE (PLANE WRECK AT LOS GATOS) Woody Guthrie, M. Hoffman copy. TRO-Ludlow Music 1961, 1963 1. Well the crops are all in and the peaches are rotten, The oranges are packed in their cresote dumps, They're flying us back to the Mexican border, They take all our money , we'll wade back again. CHO Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus, Maria, You won't have no name when you ride the big airplane, All they will call you will be deportees. 2. My father's own father he waded that river, They took all the money he'd made from his toil, He worked in your orchards, he slaved on your farmland, He rode them big trucks till he laid down and died. 3. Some of us are illegal and others not wanted, Our work contract's out so we've got to move on, It's six hundred miles to the Mexican border, They chase us like outlaws, and rustlers and thieves. 4. Well the sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon, A fireball of lightning, and it shook all our hills, And who are these friends, they're all scattered like dry leaves The radio said, "Well, they're just deportees." 5. Is this the best way to grow our big orchards, To treat our close neighbors from old Mexico, In the land of the brave and the home of the free, All we will call them will be deportees. CHO Goodbye to my John, goodbye to my Rosie, Goodbye to my friends, old Jesus and Mary, You won't have.... CORA Loretta Simonet, copy. 1978 1. She'd lost all the beauty of her youth, Her breasts they were sagging, her skin was so loose, She moved so slowly, couldn't pay her own way, What use could she be in this country today? CHO You always wanted to die, Cora, You always wanted to die, Now your body is calm, all that sadness is gone, And I see there's no reason to cry. 2. She was a broken old woman, her head it hung low, Such a lonely old woman, and no place to go, Her family had left her such a long time ago, Still we forced her to live when she wanted to go. 3. Cora told me alot I was beautiful, She said, "You know everything, you know what to do." I said, "Cora, you know so much more than I do." But she really believed that all good things are new. I AIN'T GOT NO HOME Woody Guthrie, copy. TRO-Ludlow Music 1961, 1963 1. Well I ain't got no home, I'm just a-ramblin' round, Just a rovin' worker, I go from town to town. Them police make it hard, wherever I may go, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore. 2. My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road, A hot and dusty road that a million feet have trod. A rich man took my home and he drove my from my door. And I ain't got no home in this world anymore. 3. I was workin' on the shares, and always I was poor, My crops I would lay into that banker's store, My man took down and died upon the cabin floor, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore. 4. Well as I look around, it's mighty plain to see, This world is such a great and a funny place to be, 'Cause the gambling man gets rich and we working men stay poor, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore. SINAII Curtis Teague, copy. 1994 1. Oh the shepherd was a gypsy boy, slept here on the ground, To see that star burn above a hundred circling camps. His sheep sleep beside the fire that never dies, There's no danger, just a coming morning, la de da. CHO Sinaii, you are higher than I, Oh we are just like Moses, coming down the mountainside, And standing still before you, we look into the sky, And we know, like Jesus the shearer, we're coming nearer. 2. Oh he spends the summer long, upon the mountain high, Until the clouds go below, when the wind can only cry. Now make your long trip down to the lower greener ground, Where your work will keep us warm through the winter, la de da 3. Oh he's just the shepherd's son, born to keep the flock, Oh we love to watch the lambs be born, and learn to stand and suck, And grow into their motherhood, we've seen them many times, Like the dawn, changing to morning, la de da. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS TOWN? Curtis Teague, copy. 1992 CHO Well, I came into this town, I'm not one to stick around, I never dreamed I could find one thing to make my wheels stop goin' round, But there's something here I feel, it could turn my love to real, What is the name of this town? Well, I'm stayin' here still. 1. Well I was headed north when I was not goin' south, This long gone blacktopped highway can run right on by my house, There's a woman inside, she's the one I am beside, What is the name of this town? Well, I'd like to decide. 2.I've been up and down the east coast, down and up in the west But these acres that I'm working now, mean more than all the rest, There's a woman inside of me, there's a child inside of her What is the name of this town? Well, I'd like to make sure. 3. And I was in the service, and I guess I'm back from 'Nam, Well, I thought I was a dead man, blown away to kingdom come, But there's love without a doubt, now I know what she's about, What is the name of this town? Well, I'd like to find out. THE OLD STAGECOACH ROBBERY Curtis Teague, copy.1994 1. Sam Bass he was a man, he was nobody's friend, He killed me in this canyon, beneath the big black wings, Down on the purple gray sage, down on the draw I died, My canteen still holds water, two long pistols by my side. REFRAIN The dollars were too many, and the bullets just a few You don't believe you'll ever die, until you finally do. CHO And we could not see the full moon for the dust behind the wheels, & you don't believe you'll ever die, But you finally will, yeah you.. 2. This bullet's too far in, it ain't a wound'll mend, This wornout stagecoach trail, it ain't no damn road to run, A horseman's gonna catch up with 6 horses hitched & tired, You never know your friend from foe until they've passed or fired. REF And not too many ride this road, there's 5 or more behind, Like horses drawn to water, 'cept it's dollars on their mind. 3.Out here the wind'll moan where the buzzards leave the bones The cactus and the coyote, keep 'em company. There's a cowboy's grave, old pistols in the sage, All the rest is way out west, dust behind the stage. REFRAIN So it doesn't really matter, if you gun for law or gold It's a gambler's proposition and you know you'll finally fold, It's the same old deck of cards, the same dirty deal, When all the cards are wild you know, no one wins until. CHO & you can see the full moon for the dust behind the wheels If you don't believe you'll ever die, you know you finally will.