From Baxter finding me floating face down in the water, far from shore, and handing me a six-string and saying, here, you need this, and me clinging to it like the drowning man I was would cling to a piece of driftwood, to the lyrics and rhythms of some of the greatest songwriters mirroring my despair and desperation through healing and redemption, music has seen me through it all.
I was looking through my signatures the other day, wryly noting what I've used in the past couple of years. Once, a fellow actor in a play I was in at the time emailed me asking if my signatures had any special meaning, or if they were directed at any one particular person. Maybe he was feeling a little paranoid, as all actors do. At the time, the signature was Lucinda Williams' You took my joy/I want it back. I lied, and told him, no, it wasn't directed at anyone in particular, and really didn't have a whole lot of meaning.
Of course it did, and why wouldn't it have meaning?
Anyway, in no particular order other than alphabetical, which is the way Outlook files signatures, my sigs over the past couple of years have been:
House rules, no exceptions
No bad language, no gambling, no fighting
Sorry, no credit, don't ask
Bathroom wall reads: Is God the answer? Yes.
Ninety-nine and a half just won't do.
Outside my window, I can hear the radio,
And I know that motor wagon is ready to fly,
'cause it's almost Saturday night.
So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key.
I wanna watch the ocean bend
the edges of the sun then
I wanna get swallowed up in
An ocean of love
I've lost count of the times I've given up on you
But you make such a beautiful wreck, you do
Ya, you make such a beautiful wreck, you do
You make such a beautiful wreck, you do
At the dark end of this bar
What a beautiful wreck you are.
It's better to burn out than it is to rust.
She said her name was Billie Jean and she was fresh in town.
I didn’t know a stage line ran from hell.
And feelin' good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know, feelin' good was good enough for me
I wished I was in Austin
In the Chili Parlor Bar
Drinking Mad Dog margaritas.
Won't you share a common disaster?
Some people ain't no damn good
You can't trust 'em, you can't love 'em
No good deed goes unpunished.
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Don't let 'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.
Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such.
Don't think twice
It's all right.
Why'd you let go of your guitar
Why'd you ever let it go that far
Drunken Angel
Everyday is a winding road
I get a little bit closer
Everyday is a faded sign
I get a little bit closer to feeling fine.
Got two reasons why I cry away each lonely night,
The first one's named sweet Anne Marie and she's my heart's delight.
The second one is prison, babe, the sheriff's on my trail,
And if he catches up with me, I'll spend my life in jail.
Georgia, Georgia, no peace I find.
Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind.
Even God must get the blues.
God must hate me
He cursed me for eternity
God must hate me
Maybe you should pray for me
Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
Is it over now- do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home.
Oh good shepherd
Feed my sheep
So I bought a guitar and I practiced real hard
I wasn't much good, but I was willin'
Till to my chagrin, my girlfriend came in
And she said, "Can you sing any Dylan?"
out all night playing in a band
looking for a fight
with a guitar in your hand
with a GUITAR in your hand
We all got holes to fill
and them holes are all that's real
some fall on you like a storm
sometimes you dig your own.
I am just a poor boy
Work’s my middle name
If money was the reason
Well I would not be the same.
I love this town... like an unmade bed
I need a love to keep my happy.
It's a long way to Texas... it's a long way back home
It's a three hour flight on the plane when I go
... away from this snow from Boston to South Shore where the
Dreams roll and tumble... and bring the prose to the wheel...
If you're goin' through hell,
Keep on goin'.
Don't slow down:
If you're scared don't show it.
You might get out,
'Fore the devil even knows you're there.
It ain't wise to need someone
As much as I depended on you.
It's goodbye to all my friends.
It's time to go again.
Now that we come showin' up
Rumors bouncin' off of that truck
Just a let 'em stare at her and me
'Cause I don't care about anything but us
And there's nothing wrong with me
This is how I'm supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don't believe in me
And when you said I scared you,
Well I guess you scared me too.
If I had possession of Judgement Day
I wouldn't have no right to pray.
Now I'm leaving Normal and heading towards Who Knows Where.
I've finally learned that there's good and bad
And that a guy can do some choosin',
Of that I'm glad cause this heart and face
Won't take any more bruisin'.
And the next time I fall in another's arms
There's one thing I'll be certain,
That she can bear the weight of the love I give
Without considering it a burden.
Living Life #9.
When you can't find a friend
You've still got the radio.
Livin' on refried dreams.
Guess I've got that old travlin' bone, 'cause this feelin' won't leave me alone.
But I won't, won't be losin' my way, no, no
long as I can see the light.
All I ask
Don't tell anybody the secrets
I told you.
I said "Mama, he's crazy and he scares me
But I want him by my side
though he's wild and he's bad
and sometimes just plain mad
I need him to keep me satisfied"
My Give A Damn's Busted
I got no friends 'cause they read the papers
They can't be seen with me and I'm getting shot down
And I'm feeling mean.
No more to give so no more to take
Why won't you
leave me alone?
I'm old enough to know better, but still too young to care.
Why is there one in every crowd, and why do I attract them?
Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
People bought 'em
And they called it Paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea
Is it too much to demand
I want a full house and a rock and roll band
Pens that won't run out of ink
And cool quiet and time to think.
And the moral of this story
Is I guess it's easier said than done
To look at what you've been through
And to see what you've become.
Quivers down my backbone
I got the shakes in the knee bones
Shivers down my thigh bones
Like I'm
Shakin' all over
I've heard that into every life
a little rain must fall.
If there's any truth to the saying,
Lord, let it be a southern rain.
Blow up your TV throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own.
Well, I sat there at the table and I acted real naive
For I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve.
So what in the world's come over you?
What in heaven's name have you done?
You've broken the speed of the sound of loneliness
You're out there runnin'
Just to be on the run.
Well, I got a heart that burns with a fever
And I got a worried and jealous mind
Well how can a love
That will last forever
Get left so far behind?
I'm the PATRON SAINT of the denial with an ANGEL FACE and a taste for suicidal.
I recall once upon a time,
Livin' was so easy and I felt so fine.
But, my, my, my right before my very eyes,
Satan came with fire to burn me,
Wouldn't listen when they warned me.
A dagger in my back while she's calling me honey,
Wouldn't stand back, for neither love nor money.
The hotter it is you know the hotter it gets.
Every Friday, well, that's when I get paid.
Don't take me on Friday, Lord, 'cause that's when I get paid.
Let me die on Saturday night, ooh, before Sunday gets my head.
Why don't you cash in your chips
Why don't you call it a loss
Not such a big loss
Chalk it up to better luck
This old guitar ain't mine to keep
It's mine to play for a while
To live is to fly, low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes.
Well I been drinkin' again
And I know it's a sin
But I just can't refuse an old friend
Cause life is gettin' me down
And I been two times around
And there ain't nothing but pain around the bend.
Is there anything a man don’t stand to lose,
When the devil wants to take it all away?
Clouds of myst’ry pourin’ confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages, tryin’ to find the sun;
And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain.
Well you stole it 'cause I needed the cash
And you killed it 'cause I wanted revenge
Well you lied to me 'cause I asked you to
Baby, can we still be friends
And I been from Tucson to Tucancary, Tahathapi to Tanapall
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed.
And if you give me weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
Then I'll be willing
To be moving.
I'd rather look around me -- compose a better song
'cos that's the honest measure of my worth.
In your pomp and all your glory you're a poorer man than me
as you lick the boots of death born out of fear.
You took my joy
I want it back.
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