Carrion Crow 
The English developed an intense hatred of crows and hunted them mercilessly, due to the birds’ habit of following soldiers into battle, as gulls follow fishing boats. This was bad for morale. Thanks to Lorre Wyatt for the last line of the last verse. 

Chorus: 
We have to feed the carrion crow, carrion crow, carrion crow 
We have to feed the carrion crow, he doesn’t like to go hungry. 

He’s always there when trouble begins 
He’ll sit and stare and wait to dig in 
He doesn’t care who loses or wins 
As long as he doesn’t go hungry. 

Chorus 

He loves the sound of guns in the night 
Mothers who scream and brothers who fight 
He’ll have a feast as soon as it’s light 
Then he won’t have to go hungry. 

Chorus 

Rich or poor he never can tell 
If your soul’s gone to heaven or if it’s in hell 
He only knows you’ve got a sweet smell 
Now he won’t have to go hungry. 

Chorus 

We fight disease so people won’t die 
Work for peace so bullets won’t fly 
But still he gets a steady supply 
We never let him go hungry. 

Chorus

 

Give My Bones to Greyhound 
I have no idea where the idea for this song came from. Once it started, it kept rolling downhill, and I couldn’t find the brakes. 

I am the restless kind, I have a traveling mind 
I never can unwind unless I’m moving 
When I start feeling down, I head right out of town 
I will not hang around to try improving. 

Like Engine Number nine, I rumble down the line  
To leave my cares behind, I do not need ’em 
I don’t have any roots, I don’t have any suits 
Just one pair of boots and lots of freedom. 

Chorus:
When I die don’t make me rest in peace 
I only want to fly just like the wild geese  
Let my soul rock and roll 
Down by the axle grease 
Give my bones to Greyhound. 

Someday I’ll bite the dust, like everybody must 
But I won’t sit and rust like an old jalopy 
When I run out of breath I will not take my rest 
A little thing like death will never stop me. 

So throw me in a box, just like a pile of rocks 
Put in a pair of socks for stormy weather 
Then to the station go and stow me down below 
I’ll ramble to and fro forever. 

Chorus

 

This Old Car 
In memory of a 1986 Tercel that I thought would last forever until, one day, it didn’t. Luckily, I was wearing my seat belt. 

This old car seen better days 
It traveled far, back roads and highways 
It moved so fast had a sparkling shine 
That couldn’t last all this time. 

This old car once had a smile 
That seemed to grow with every mile 
So full of cheer, so full of trust 
But through the years it turned to rust. 

This old car belching smoke 
Stumbles past, people choke 
Say “That’s not a car, it’s just a joke” 
Did they think it’s always been this broke. 

This old car remembers nights 
Of shooting stars and turned-off lights 
A couple kids with mussed-up hair 
Where did they go, that lovely pair. 

This old car seen better days 
It traveled far, back roads and highways 
It moved so fast had a sparkling shine 
That couldn’t last all this time. 

 

After the Fire  
Written on the first anniversary of 9/11.  

After the fire the tears fell like rain  
Where tall trees had stood there was nothing but pain  
A forest of green was turned into ash  
The world that we knew disappeared in a flash.  

After the fire we gathered around  
Searching for signs of life on the ground  
The earth looked so bare, as dead as can be  
But something was there that nobody could see.  

Slowly a seed under our feet  
Started to stir, woken up by the heat  
It sent down a root to help it hold tight  
It sent up a shoot to reach for the light.  

Seedlings will grow, trees will stand tall  
Though we’ll always know how far they can fall  
But nothing can kill the will to survive  
After the fire there is so much alive.

 

I Need You (Paul Kaplan and Lisa Kleinholz) 
Line one is adapted from the traditional ballad “I Loved a Lass,” a.k.a. “The False Bride” or “The Lambs on the Green Hills.”  

I was shipwrecked in the forest 
Until you came along 
All the world was talking backwards 
Until I heard your song 
Until I heard your song.  

Chorus:
I need you like a foot needs a shoe 
My soul is all worn through
I need you.  

I would climb the highest mountain 
Or swim the widest sea 
I would even stay right here 
If you’d stay right here with me 
If you’d stay right here with me.       

Chorus  

We are naked when we come here 
And naked when we go 
In-between we need protection 
From wind and rain and snow 
From wind and rain and snow. 

Chorus

 

So I Could Get to You 
In honor of all my ancestors who did what they had to do to grow up, reproduce and make sure at least one child reached adulthood. Not an easy thing to do, then or now. 

My mother cried, my mother moaned, so early one midsummer’s morn 
And with one final heaving groan to her a child was born 
She suckled me upon her breast and she and Dad did all the rest
To ready me to leave the nest so I could get to you.  

Chorus:
So I could get to you, my love 
No road too long, no sea too rough 
For I was made of sterner stuff  
So I could get to you. 

I found that life is just a play, you strut and fret upon the stage 
You learn the lines you have to say and try to act your age
I was sometimes up and sometimes down and sometimes I went ’round and ’round 
But I escaped the lost and found so I could get to you.          

Chorus 

In hurricanes with crashing trees, in thunderstorm and winter gale 
A steady voice was telling me to stay upon your trail 
Through drifting snow and sheets of ice I kept my eyes on paradise 
As I used every known device so I could get to you.             

Chorus 

And when at last I saw you there, holding out your valentine 
I shrank with fear and would not dare to cross the borderline 
I was stumbling blind without a guide when something moved me deep inside 
To leap across the great divide so I could get to you.            

Chorus 

And now that we have joined our fate, we’re touching deep within the heart 
Though sometimes we must separate we’ll never be apart 
And as I stand beneath the sun and think of what I’ve lost and won 
I thank my stars for all I’ve done so I could get to you.         

Chorus

 

If You Would Care for Me 

I am proud to be accompanied on this song, and elsewhere on this album, by the next generation of musicians, showing us their formidable chops. 

If you would care for me  
The way I care for you 
How simply simple life would be 
If you would love me too. 

The stars that shine so bright 
Could never match the face 
That fills my dreams with silver light 
Then leaves without a trace. 

Over and over you say hello 
And then you walk away 
Forever and ever you never will know 
How much I wish you’d stay. 

The skies that now are grey 
Would turn to brilliant blue 
If you would turn to me and say 
You feel the way I do.

 

Take out the Garbage When You Go 
Many thanks to the chorus, consisting of: Mary Annis, Shirley Conant, Elizabeth Farnsworth, Joe Hynes, Liam Hynes, Jeff Lee, Doug Plavin, Sianna Plavin, Asia Seager and Rico Spence. 

You tell me that you’re leaving 
That our love has lost its glow 
Though you were once my Juliet 
And I your Romeo 
But before you break my heart in two 
There’s one last thing that you can do 
Take out the garbage when you go. 

Chorus:
Take out the garbage when you go 
It’s an awful lot to ask of you, I know 
But these filthy bags could spread disease 
So I’m begging you on bended knees to 
Please, please, please, please 
Please, please, please, please, please 
Take out the garbage when you go. 

You saved every reminder 
Of the good times that we shared 
The bananas that we peeled 
The apples that we pared 
You say our love’s gone sour 
But I think it’s just the cauliflower 
I gave you once to let you know I cared.

Chorus 

Now we’re standing in the doorway 
To say our last farewells 
My eyes are filled with tears 
My house is filled with smells 
Our love was sweet as lobster meat 
The kind you always used to eat 
Well, now’s your chance to throw away the shells.

Chorus

 

Princes of Maine 
The story of  The Cider House Rules, in five verses. 

There’s a heart that is weak 
But it goes on and on  
Never missing a beat  
For the spirit is strong. 

And the ones who make the rules 
Never feel the pain 
Not like the kings of New England 
Not like the princes of Maine. 

There’s a woman in love 
But she can’t stand to wait. 
While the powers above 
Are deciding her fate. 

And the ones who make the rules 
Never crash their planes 
Not like the kings of New England 
Not like the princes of Maine. 

When you bring in the crop 
Every hand has a use 
If an apple should drop 
Then you squeeze it for juice. 

And the ones who make the rules 
Never stumble through the rain 
Not like the kings of New England 
Not like the princes of Maine. 

And the knife it can heal 
And the knife it can kill 
When your life gets too real 
Sometimes blood has to spill. 

And the ones who make the rules 
Never cut their veins 
Not like the kings of New England 
Not like the princes of Maine. 

Take some glass that is rough 
Throw it down in the sand 
When it’s rounded enough
Bring it home in your hand. 

And the ones who make the rules 
Never seem to change 
Not like the kings of New England 
Not like the princes of Maine. 
Good night you kings of New England

 

The Halls of a Hospice
“The Streets of Laredo,” from which I borrowed the tune in 1988, derives from the English “The Unfortunate Rake,” which, I later discovered, has such verses as: 
“And had she but told me before she disordered me, 
Had she but told me of it in time, 
I might have got pills and salts of white mercury, 
But now I'm cut down in the height of my prime.” 

One night as I walked down the halls of a hospice 
I saw a young man with a deadly disease 
“Come sit down beside me,” he called from his bedroom 
I sat down beside him to give his heart ease. 

He said “When I was younger I felt like a stranger 
Whatever I tried it was always the same 
I came to New York unaware of the danger 
Just like a moth who is drawn to the flame. 

“I went to the places where men find each other 
I felt like myself for the very first time 
I sought after pleasure and now-and-then treasure 
For that I’ve been sentenced to die in my prime. 

“That TV evangelist says I deserve it 
He says that I’m paying the wages of sin 
But if it is suffering that makes us more holy 
I’ll meet him in heaven, if he can get in. 

“Tonight my dark cloud will crawl in through the window 
To carry me off on a journey unknown 
But there is a shining on that dark cloud’s lining 
From people like you and the kindness you’ve shown. 

“So go to the window and see that it’s open 
Then take this farewell to my family and friends 
Tell them I loved them much more than I showed them 
And ask them to think of me now and again.”  

As soon as the last of his words was delivered 
The young man lay back, for to rest his poor bones 
I opened the window and silently shivered 
For I suddenly knew I was there all alone. 
One night as I walked down the halls of a hospice....

 

I Can’t Remember Wintertime 
Written in the south of France in the summer of 1985. On a wall near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is a memorial plaque for a partisan who fell on that spot. Even in 2002 the vase above the plaque contained fresh flowers. The tune was inspired by Robert Schumann’s “Ich Grolle Nicht” (I bear no grudge). 

July is here, it’s filling all the beaches 
With laughing kids so innocent and free 
And virgin lovers eating figs and peaches 
And tired old men like you and me 
And tired old men like you and me. 

And as we sit beside each other  
Your body frail, the same as mine 
I can’t believe you’re not my brother 
I can’t remember wintertime 
I can’t believe you’re not my brother 
I can’t remember wintertime. 

Last night we held our yearly celebration 
The one your people call “Tag der Bastille” 
Again I cursed the years of Occupation 
A wound that time has yet to heal 

A wound that time has yet to heal. 
But as we sit beside each other  
Your memories dark, the same as mine  
I can’t believe you’re not my brother 
I can’t remember wintertime 
I can’t believe you’re not my brother 
I can’t remember wintertime. 

Our fathers met upon the field of slaughter 
And you and I repeated history 
I pray these children playing in the water 
Will never know such misery 
Will never know such misery. 

And as we sit beside each other  
Your dreams of peace, the same as mine 
I can’t believe you’re not my brother 
I can’t remember wintertime 
I can’t believe you’re not my brother 
I can’t remember wintertime.

 

Christmas morn 
Written in 1985, for a Christmas show at the Bottom Line that Christine Lavin was organizing, that never quite materialized. Normally, Christine is unstoppable. I suspect FBI involvement. 

A child was born, it was on Christmas morn 
Who could know what he’d grow up to be 
His mother she loved him and thought the world of him 
The year was zero, BC 

Up in the heavens a star did appear 
To show us the way to the end of our fear 
We gathered together from far and from near 
That marvelous child to see 
That marvelous child to see. 

A child was born, it was on Christmas morn 
Two thousand and two, AD 
His mother was poor and the wolf at the door  
Said “Your baby is coming with me.” 

Up in the heavens the Star Wars begin 
And the warlords get fatter while the children get thin 
Then the door slowly opens, the wolf slouches in 
Oh where can the wise men be 
Oh where can the wise men be. 

A child was born it was on Christmas morn 
Who could know what he’d grow up to be. 

 

The Joke 
Written in 1969, shortly after a stranger aimed a knife at my heart. Luckily my arm got in the way. 

(Wide version—thin version below) 

I stared into the darkness, I could not see a thing 
I whispered am I all alone, no one was answering 
And when I turned to exit from the scene of my distress  
I was flattened like a light bulb by the Seventh Avenue Express. 

I went into the forest and sat upon a stone 
I figured that I finally had found a steady home 
But the soil started slipping and my rock fell to the sea 
And I landed on a rooftop in another century. 

I was standing on a corner when a man came up and said 
That everything alive today is part of something dead 
And knowing I could prove him wrong I kept my self control  
But when I spoke he saw the joke and he shot me through the skull. 

I stood before the mirror, I saw my picture there 
And I watched myself grinning as I combed my thinning hair 
And I asked my reflection am I different from all the rest 
Nobody replied to me but the pounding in my breast 
Nobody replied to me but the pounding in my breast.

 

Vacation Time 
Doug is playing with brushes on a huge, empty lard can which he picked up on Swan’s Island, Maine, coincidentally just across the water from where my family spends our vacation each summer. 

No mail, no phone, no thoughts of home
Removed, remote, out in a boat 
Vacation time. 

No rat, no race, no train to chase 
Take off my shoes, shake off the blues 
Vacation time, vacation time. 

Laze away the day, slower than a gin fizz  
If I don’t make hay tell me what the sin is. 
These fish won’t bite but that’s all right 

I guess they’ve gone somewhere to spawn 
Vacation time, vacation time, vacation time. 

No mail, no phone, no thoughts of home 
Don’t write, don’t call until the fall 
Vacation time, vacation time, vacation time 
Vacation time.

 

The Leaving of Liverpool (traditional) 

In which a Russian/German-American plays a Puerto Rican cuatro and a Chinese harmonica on a song about an English city, learned from Irishmen. One of many Clancy Brothers songs that Bob Dylan adapted (“Farewell”). 

Oh, I’m bound away to leave you 
Goodbye my love, goodbye 
And there’s just one thing that grieves my mind 
That’s leaving you behind. 

Chorus:
So it’s fare thee well my own true love 
When I return united we will be. 
It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me 
But my darling when I think of thee. 

Oh I’m bound for California 
By way of stormy Cape Horn 
And I will send you a letter, love 
When I am homeward bound.            

Chorus 

Oh I’m bound on a Yankee clipper ship 
Davy Crockett is her name 
And Burgess is the captain of her 
And they say she’s a floating shame.

Chorus 

It’s my second trip with Burgess on the Crockett 
And I think I know him well 
If a man is a sailor he can get along 
But if not then he’s sure in hell.         

Chorus 

Oh, the sun is on the harbor, love 
And I wish I could remain 
For I know it will be a long, long time 
Before I see you again.

Chorus

 

Love Is a Hard Thing to Find  
Thanks to Jordan Kaplan. I used some of his ideas for the flute part. 

Love is a hard thing to find  
Easy to lose your mind,  
Easy to lose your mind.  

We flew so high from the start 
Only to fall apart,  
Only to fall apart.  

My life was neatly arranged  
Then it changed,  
Then it changed.  

The sea longs to hold solid land 
Only to break on sand,  
Only to break on sand.  

Love is a hard thing to find, 
Easy to lose your mind 
Easy to lose your mind 
Easy to lose….

 

Underneath the Stars Above 
I wrote this when I was attending the Cornelia Street Songwriters’ Exchange in Greenwich Village in the nineteen-eighties. 

If hand didn’t rhyme with understand 
If moon didn’t rhyme with June 
If I love you didn’t rhyme with true 
I’d have no tune to croon. 
If dance didn’t rhyme with romance 
No one could write songs of love 
Then what on earth would we sing about 
Underneath the stars above. 

We’d have to sing about physics 
Or maybe a laundromat 
But nobody here would shed a tear 
For something as silly as that. 
Imagine a lovely chanteuse 
On stage at the cabaret 
Milking the crowd for all they’re worth 
With a song about tooth decay. 

But desire always kindles a fire 
The heart always knows from the start 
Heavenly bliss comes with a kiss 
And nothing can pull them apart. 
For all these words were invented 
To fit like a hand in a glove 
Every time we need a rhyme  
Underneath the stars above.

 

As Through This World I Go 
Inspired by a trumpet quartet I heard at Kinhaven Music School, where my daughter Siena spent four blissful summers. 

My dear companion strong and free 
I wonder if you know 
How much your friendship means to me 
As through this world I go. 

Before my flowing tears have dried 
From one more bitter blow  
You’re always standing by my side 
As through this world I go. 

And when the storm clouds disappear 
And all the sky’s aglow 
Your kindness keeps me in the clear 
As through this world I go. 

When ever we get pulled apart 
To wander to and fro 
I hold you here within my heart 
As through this world 
As through this world 
As through this world I go.