Lyrics for the FreeSong Suite

ROOM 1407

SEASONS
Winter’s woes are frozen, buried deep in the sand
Winter’s woes have chosen to drift away and keep me free

Springtime joy has awoken a sudden urge
To sing…springtime joy is a token of a happy place
in my memory

Sinister, cerebral summer with her
instinctual quest for madness.
Blame it on the heat and call it a day or a sweltering night.
They’ll all understand.  They don’t come from heat you know

Autumn chill’s reminder of darkness taking over
Autumn’s chill’s a kinder, gentler grasp
On the cold about to set in.
A blinder to things good and true.
Curse you, winter!

DRY
Days and Nights of Longing
Days and Nights of Longing
Days and Nights of Longing
For Sunlight

Rain Staying on too long
Coming on too strong
where’s sunlight
bright light
warm sight
Dry
Dry
Dry

Days and Nights of Longing
Days and Nights of Longing
Days and Nights of Longing
For Sunlight

BOB & WEAVE
I saw you there, trying to get past me
Bob & Weave, Bob & Weave, Bob & Weave
You sprint over the grating and out on the avenue
I saw you there, leaping, high in the air
You just had to go, go where you were going

A child turned around,
She said
She said
She said
She heard your footsteps
She heard your footsteps
Speeding up behind her

I saw you there, trying to stop quickly
Bob & Weave, Bob & Weave, Bob & Weave
She looked at you in a strange way and
Said “What are you running for?”
You were breathless, looking far away
I then heard you say, “I’ve run my whole life, how can I stop now?”

I saw you there, walking, wiping your brow
With a paper towel somehow.

I saw you catch your
Breathe and ask around for water.

I gave you some.

NIGHT TIES
Moonlight drips slowly outside my window
Whispering secrets along with its glow
I hear the sound of darkness, the sound of darkness

I feel eternal when the sun’s fallen down
I’m ready to tackle the cobwebs around
And find their hiding places in dingy spaces

In the still of the night my spirit is at home
Feels free to roam and fly without a fight
Just like the dripping moonlight

ROOM 1093

JOE’S CAR
So I went out for a drink
with Crystal and Jimmy and Moe
Back in my HomeTown
So much catching up to do

I’d seen the world had stories to tell
It’d been 10 years so what the hell
From Paris to Bombay, the look on
their faces went blank and Jimmy
turned to Moe and said
Joe’s car broke down again

You see, Joe’s car’s a good car
But the tranny has seen better days
Treat your car like your woman
Ain’t that what Joe always says

It was very good to see
Jimmy and Crystal and Moe
And hear about Joe
But I just don’t know if I’ll ever
Come down and hangout again
In my old HomeTown

STEMMING
The Voice of Reason began to speak
With his booming, bombastic tone
He is loud and his tenacity
ABSOLUTE!

He says to ALL present “I know what has to be done, believe me!
You will fall on your face if you don’t take my advice and heed my words.
You must heed my words!”

Not a sound in the room
not a blinking eye.
Then slowly…
Uncomfortably..
Steady and strong
The sound grew thunderous.
We couldn’t control ourselves anymore
I myself ran for the door.

ROOM 1310

GONE FISHING
Went to the lake with my uncle
My uncle and crazy June
Daylight creeped up and chased
away that lingering moon
Warm water, sweet birds circling over,
Fishing rods & reels, sturdy tools like steel
Dinner is coming soon with luck as a clover

After an hour or two June and I began to moan
Soft and low with gritty, frustrated tones
Not a bi-ig fa-a-at nibble in site
Fishing rods & reels, sturdy tools like steel
Dinner is coming soon. Fish for sure tonight

Soon Crazy June caught a BIG Blue One
Then 10 minutes later I did too!
My uncle jumped for joy
and we danced around…
Yeah Yeah Yeah

That Blue Fish 1 and Blue Fish 2
Alongside all the smaller crew

Spewing sound waves my way, “Hey, hey sister isn’t it true,
could it be you that killed me?”

Spewing sound waves my way, “Hey, hey sister isn’t it true,
could it be you that killed me?”

Dinner’s at stake with my uncle, my uncle and Crazy June
They ain’t humming along to my nervous tune
Hoarding the catch
so I can’t grab a fin
Fishing rods & reels, murder tools like steel
No meal is coming soon. Only nightmares, haunting memories of

“Hey, hey sister isn’t it true,
could it be you
that killed me?”

“Hey, hey sister isn’t it true,
could it be you
that killed me?”

THE IDEAL SITUATION
Once I read a story about a civilization from long, long ago
They had a system in place and I want everyone to know.
Where status, creed or color didn’t make one superior to the other
In a society in Africa called Jenne Jeno.

For 1600 years, an undying peace on the banks of the Niger flood plains.
There were farmers, fisherman, pastoralists too,
who traded with the small world beyond their domain.
Marka, Bambara, Fulani, Bozo, Somono lived in harmony.
Their specialties kept them alive
This was key to how they survived.

Living..working…playing…music making…Loving

Tribal rites and passages, cultural differences flourished easily.
And they never had a war to prove it.

Sounds like the ideal situation to me.

HEATING UP
Spring is coming, about to swing the corner.
Spring is coming, the past is a damper,
stamper of spirits and souls
Square-legged and cold.

Ohhhhh there is a smell of honeysuckle
Caught in the tussle of late evening light,
purple, pink and old

Winter walls are breaking down, claiming defeat
The weather is heating up,
The weather is heating up
It must be time to meet

Lyrics for Cartwheels Through the Cosmos

LEAP OF FAITH

Stop it
stop it now
take it
take it now
a leap of faith
to make you better, more free

Give up
give up now
step up
step up now
a leap of faith
to make me better, more free

Life’s been a scheme
sepia-toned and warm
Throw me starkness
Bold, vivid and clear

Change it
Change it now
arrange it
arrange it now
a leap of faith
to make things better, more free, more free

EXCHANGE RATE

Wandering through an African Street fair
Oh yeah
Jewelry aplenty and mats
Many African artifacts
Tall men, stout men
In kofi hats
Racks filled with African robes and dresses
Afro-American sisters selling add-on tresses
For straight and natural hair styles

I see dreadlocked folks for miles
With cowrie shells
in their hair and on some
Earrings and necklaces
That they wear
And those brothers and sisters
Stepping proudly with urban flair

I see cowries
On tribal masks
I think that’s one hell of a task to get them on there

I wonder if all the cowrie shells I see
Would have been enough to pay for me
In Dahomey
In 1723?

IT’S COMING

So soon, very soon, the world is going to blow up
in teeny tiny smithereens
and we’ll all go flying into space
with the shrapnel and that
will be it (2x)

Lately, of late, I am smelling Armageddon
and that red dawn is closing in and we can scream,
we can cry, we can pray, it won’t help us one bit

Chorus:
Out there in space I’ll be floating and stretching,
trying to reach for my toes.
See how far the next star is
from my knees and from my elbows.
I’ll swim back strokes to catching up
with the asteroids; hope to avoid those black holes
I’ll do cartwheels through the cosmos
When the earth is done, done, well done… (3x)

SPIN (dedicated to the BUSH Administration)

Turn it around and twist it.
Roll it in a tube.
Jump on it and smash it. Trash it.
Stake your life on it and God’s too.
Sell it as a business.
Better make a profit.
Manipulate and print it.
Get it in your head (3x)
Turn upside down and dream it
Sleep on it and milk it.
Eat it and then drink up, drink it,
Swallow it and think it.
Ride, ride, ride and fly high
Ride, ride, ride and fly high
Smile for the camera and
Get it in your head (5x)

Chorus:

That’s what the man said, that’s what he said.
staying out of bed may you might get you pumped
full of dread and be left for dead…
if you don’t believe, if you don’t perceive the gentle
assertions, coercion.  Can you feel it, can you feel it.

PILLOW ON MY EAR

Pillow on my ear
Pressed firmly with my right hand
Left thumb stuck in my mouth
Eyes shut tight
Don’t want to let the bed bugs
Bite, bite

Pillow down there
Jammed between my thighs
Pressed firmly
With my long strong legs
I’m begging for silence

So I can think about daisies and buttercups
Meadows filled with sunshine
Rivers wet with blue

You speak so loudly
Trying to get through
My long strong legs pressed firmly
Left thumb stuck in my mouth
Cradles a tear
With a Pillow on my ear

ALONG THE WINDING WAY

Scheme, scheme
deem, deem
Stream, stream
moving along the winding way
stopping never as if to say
I don’t need to breathe
I don’t need to breathe

Sham, Sham
Cram, cram
Scram,
scram damn all those naysayers
and givers of woe
because I don’t need to breathe
I don’t need to breathe

Dish, dish
dish  wish,
wish
I am a fish in water
swimming away from
pain and sorrow
I don’t need to breathe
I don’t need to breathe

So why should I slow down
why should I stop and smell anything?
How can I smell

if I don’t breathe (2x)

STRAY DOGS

Stray dogs and the weather seem to get me down today
Seen a dead bird’s feathers on the way to catch the train
I can’t believe the carnage left by yesterday’s hard rain

My mood turns to joyous when I start to think of you
feeling like a novice, just about when love is new
I can’t believe I’ve fallen well, I guess sometime I do.

Dying, Dying inside
feeling scared and thinking lonely
thinking only if you would be here, near
near, here by me

EARTH

Stars suspended in midair
What is the question here
You see what I mean

If we all exist down here
Why do some people care
About things unseen

In their quest to explain everything
They forget we don’t know anything
How can they decide that we are the one
On this trivial 3^rd stone from the sun.

So now that’s the picture’s clear
We don’t know why we’re here
It may be a dream
It maybe a dream…..