October Song

Incredible String Band : October Song NYC 6/5/68


i'll sing you this October song
there is no song before it
the words and tune are none of my own
for my joys and sorrows bore it

beside the sea the brambly briars
in the still of evening
birds fly out behind the sun
and with them i'll be leaving

the fallen leaves that jewel the ground
they know the art of dying
and leave with joy their glad gold hearts
in the scarlet shadows lying

when hunger calls my footsteps home
the morning follows after
i swim the seas within my mind
and the pine trees laugh green laughter

i used to search for happiness
and i used to follow pleasure
but i found a door behind my mind
and that's the greatest treasure

for rulers like to lay down laws
and rebels like to break them
and the poor priests like to walk in chains
and God likes to forsake them

i met a man whose name was Time
and he said, "i must be going"
but just how long ago that was
i have no way of knowing

sometimes i want to murder time
sometimes when my heart is aching
but mostly i just stroll along
the path that he is taking

--robin williamson/mike heron

Lesson In Survival

Joni Mitchell: Lesson in Survival

There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Raven Girl

Richard & Mimi Farina: Raven Girl

now roam away, my raven girl
and roam away from me
and find a typhoon in the sky
and find the howling sea
and beat your wild and roving wings
and toss your raven head
and sing a mad and joyous song
and leave me with the dead

the night's a cold and barren place
the darkness seldom lies
the wind upon the howling sea
will lift your feathers high
the sand that inches from the tide
will claim the steps i've sown
the whispers in the ocean deep
will pick my weary bones

what murmurs in your raven heart
have taken you from sleep?
what raging on a foreign shore
has left me here to weep?
what clashing in the nightmare wind
has stirred your angry dream?
what thunder on the darkling plain
has never been forseen?

i long to roam along the seas
and hear the current cry
i long to blend among the waves
and never question why
i long to shift above the sands
and never come to rest
i long for raptures never known
while lying at your breast

now roam away, my raven girl
and roam away from me
and find a typhoon in the sky
and find the howling sea
and beat your wild and roving wings
and toss your raven head
and sing a mad and joyous song
and leave me with the dead

--richard farina

The Way It Goes

Gillian Welch/David Rawlings


The Way It Goes


Vancouver Folk Fest
7/15/11

Pirate Jenny

Nina Simone: Pirate Jenny


I am
the punishment
of God.
If you had
not committed
great sins,
God would
not have sent
a punishment
like me
upon you.
--Genghis Khan
----------------
Revenge is sweet
and not fattening.
--Alfred Hitchcock

Pretty Boy Floyd

Woody Guthrie
Pretty Boy Floyd

Visions Of Johanna

Marianne Faithfull: Visions of Johanna



the harmonicas play

the skeleton keys

and the rain

and these visions

of Johanna

are now all

that remain

--bob dylan

As I Roved Out

June Tabor
As I Roved Out

Dread Ina Babylon

Big Youth: Dread Ina Babylon


And Babylon
shall become heaps,
a dwelling place
for dragons,
a haunt of jackals
and a hissing
without an inhabitant.
--Jeremiah 51:37

R. Carlos Nakai

And while I stood there
I saw more than I can tell,
and I understood more than I saw;
for I was seeing in a sacred manner
the shapes of things in the spirit,
and the shape of all shapes
as they must live together like one being.
--Black Elk

-------------------------------------------------

R. Carlos Nakai
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
11/17/10

Youngstown From Youngstown

Bruce Springsteen
Youngstown
Stambaugh Theatre, Youngstown, OH.
1/12/96

When The Man Comes Around

Jorma Kaukonen: When the Man Comes Around


It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to and end amid a general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.
--Søren Kierkegaard

Old & In The Way (7/23/73)

Old & in the Way
The Boarding House,
San Francisco, Ca.
7/23/73

Jerry Garcia - banjo, vocals
David Grisman - mandolin, vocals
Peter Rowan - vocals, guitar
Vassar Clements - fiddle
John Kahn - bass

Cheyenne
Down Where the River Bends
Love Please Come Home
Midnight Moonlight
Fanny Hill
Hard Hearted Heartbreaker
Lonesome L.A. Cowboy
Pig in a Pen
Panama Red
Wild Horses
White Dove
Wicked Path of Sin
Blue Mule
Orange Blossom Special
Old & in the Way Breakdown
On and On
Lonesome Fiddle Blues
The Fields Have Turned Brown
Mule Skinner Blues
Catfish John
Land of the Navajo
Hobo Song

Setting The Woods On Fire

Hank Williams: Setting the Woods on Fire



since it can never
be too late
to change your life,
or else renew it,
let the unpleasant process wait
until you are compelled to do it.
the State provides
(and gratis too)
establishments for
such as you.

remember this,
and pluck up heart,
that, be you
publican or parson,
your every art
must have a start,
from petty larceny to arson.
and even in the burglar's trade,
the cracksman is not born,
but made.

so, if in your career of crime,
you fail to carry out some "coup",
then try again a second time,
and yet again, until you do;
and don't despair,
or fear the worst,
because you get
found out at first.

perhaps the battle will not go,
on all occasions,
to the strongest.
you may be fairly certain though
that he laughs last
who laughs the longest.
so keep a good
reserve of laughter,
which may be found
of use hereafter.

believe me that,
however well meant,
a good resolve is always brief.
don't let your precious hours
be spent
in turning over a new leaf.
such leaves,
like nature's, soon decay,
and then are only in the way.

the road to--well,
a certain spot,
(a road of very
fair dimensions),
has, so the proverb
tells us, got
a parquet-floor
of good intentions.
take care, in your
desire to please,
you do not
add a brick to these.

for there may come
a moment when
you shall be mended
willy-nilly,
with many more misguided men,
whose skill is undermined with skilly.
until then procrastinate, my friend.
"it never is too late to mend!”

--harry graham
(from perverted proverbs: a manual of immorals for the many)

Sitar And Flute

Ravi Shankar/Jean-Pierre Rampal: sitar and flute (1)


Ravi Shankar/Jean-Pierre Rampal: sitar and flute (2)


The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them.
--Albert Einstein
----------------------------------------------------------
i'm having recurring computer issues
and i am a stupid in these matters. arghh.
has anyone seen the reset button ?

Time Has Come Today

I Am Not Moving by Corey Ogilvie
Chambers Brothers: Time Has Come Today


We should never forget

that everything Adolf Hitler

did in Germany was "legal"

and everything

the Hungarian freedom fighters

did in Hungary was "illegal."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
1963

Officer Krupke

Gee, Officer Krupke: from West Side Story


dear kindly Sergeant Krupke

you gotta understand

it's just our bringin' up-ke

that gets us out of hand

Waiting For A Train

Jimmie Rodgers : Waiting for a Train



all around the water tank
waiting for a train
a thousand miles away from home
sleeping in the rain
i walked up to a brakeman
just to give him a line of talk
he said "if you've got money
i'll see that you don't walk"
i haven't got a nickel
not a penny can i show
"get off get off you railroad bum"
he slammed the boxcar door

I'm Getting Ready

Michael Kiwanuka

I'm Getting Ready

Merde Alors

James & Bobby Purify: I'm Your Puppet



B.B. King: The Thrill Is Gone






QUESTION:
One of the reasons why so many of the people at the Occupy Wall Street protests are so angry is because, as you say, so many people on Wall Street did not follow the rules.
But your administration hasn’t really been very aggressive in prosecuting. In fact, I don’t think any Wall Street executives have gone to jail despite the rampant corruption and malfeasance that did take place. So I was wondering if you’d comment on that.

PREZNIT:
You know, the financial sector is very creative, and they are always looking for ways to make money. That’s their job. And if there are loopholes and rules that can be bent and arbitrage to be had, they will take advantage of it.
So you know, without commenting on particular prosecutions---obviously, that’s not my job; that’s the attorney general’s job---you know, I think part of people’s frustrations---part of my frustration was a lot of practices that should not have been allowed weren’t necessarily against the law, but they had a huge destructive impact. And that’s why it was important for us to put in place financial rules that protect the American people from reckless decision-making and irresponsible behavior.

QUESTION:
Are you satisfied with how aggressive your administration has been when it comes to prosecuting this? I know a lot of it was legal, but a lot of it was not---

PREZNIT:
Right, and---well, let me say this. The president can’t go around saying prosecute somebody. But as a general principle, if somebody is engaged in fraudulent actions, they need to be prosecuted. If they’ve violated laws on the books, they need to be prosecuted. And that’s the attorney general’s job. And I know that Attorney General Holder, U.S. attorneys all across the country — they take that job very seriously .

Shit's On Fire, Yo

Arlo Guthrie: I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler



The country might
be better served
if we replaced
the government
with
546 names
drawn ramdomly
from the phone books.

(435 reps + 100 sens + 9 supes + 1 pres + 1 veep = 546)

Bert Jansch (11/3/43--11/5/11)

Bert Jansch : Blues Run the Game


Bert Jansch: Black Waterside


Bert Jansch : Gypsy Dave


Pentangle : Cruel Sister


Bert Jansch: Crimson Moon


For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system.
We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.
--Charles Bukowski

REST IN PEACE BERT JANSCH

We Want A Revolution Now

Judy Collins: Marat/Sade


four years after
the revolution
and the old king's execution
four years after remember how
those courtiers took their final bow
string up every aristocrat
out with the priests
and let then live
on their fat

four years after
we started fighting
Marat keeps up
with his writing
four years after
the Bastille fell
he still recalls
the old battle yell
down with all of
the ruling class
throw all the generals
out on their ass

why do they have
the gold
why do they have
the power
why why why why
why do they have
the friends at the top
why do they have
the jobs at the top
we've got nothing
always had nothing
nothing but holes
and millions of them
living in holes
dying in holes
holes in our bellies and
holes in our clothes

Marat we're poor
and the poor stay poor
Marat don't make us
wait any more
we want our rights
and we don't care how
we want a revolution
now

four years he fought
and he fought unafraid
sniffing down traitors
by traitors betrayed
Marat in the courtroom
Marat underground
sometimes the otter
and sometimes the hound
fighting all the gentry
and fighting every priest
the businessman
the bourgeois
the military beast
Marat always ready
to stifle every scheme
Of the sons of the
asslicking dying regime
we've got new generals
our leaders are new
they sit and they argue
and all that they do
is sell their own colleagues
and ride upon their backs
or jail them or break them
or give them all the ax
screaming in language
that no one understands
of the rights that we grab
with our own bleeding hands
when we wiped out the bosses
and stormed through the wall
of the prison you told us
would outlast us all

Marat we're poor
and the poor stay poor
Marat don't make us
wait any more
we want our rights
and we don't care how
we want a revolution
now

poor old Marat
they hunt you down
the bloodhounds are sniffing
all over the town
just yesterday
your printing press
was smashed
now their asking
your home address
poor old Marat
in you we trust
you work till your eyes
turn as red a rust
but while you write
they're on your track
the boots mount
the staircase
the doors thrown back
poor old Marat
in you we trust
you work till your eyes
turn as red a rust
poor old Marat
we trust in you

Marat we're poor
and the poor stay poor
Marat don't make us
wait any more
we want our rights
and we don't care how
we want a revolution
now