TOPICAL SONG QUARTERLY JULY - SEPT. 1977 $1 WORDS BY JOANNA CAZDEN the Musician's Lady @ copyright 1976 Joanna Cazden .. flul \0 ~'s W" ~4 ~ " -h-oJ..,ti~ (Unaccompanied) Note: This song is recorded on Joanna I s new LP HATCHING (Sister 3. His buddy played bass and she learned the guitar Sun Records, 345 S.ved up for a trailer, they played near and far Waltham St., Lex­ The agent said .. You boys are dbing just fine ington, MA 02173. But I think she needs practice; let her stay behind." Also distributed by ROUNDER. The .4. She bought smaller blouses, she curled up her hair album is $5.50; In hope they would keep her. in hope they were fair Joanna's previous He still like. her lyrics; he still liked her bed album, "The Great­ He'd dedicate albums to her, so he said est Illusion, is $4.00.) 5.So she stayed at home with her new baby girl See her beauti­ She said "Men with children won't travel the world!" ful song "Ella By day she would praise him, by night she would yearn Ellison" in our He wroter her one letter, he never returned. next issue. 6. She worked as a waitress, she earned her own way Soon met a young fiddler and asked him bo stay She kept him well-tuned and she kept him well-fed and the banjo-man's poster stayed over the bed head 7. She worked as a waitress, he worked not at all 12. The n she kissed the top of her daughter's young and one night she scolded "Go sleep in the hall!" said "go brush your teeth now and climb into bed" He broke half her dishes. he shouted and swore She poured a stiff drink as she did every night She said "Fiddl' up some rent or don' t come here no more!'" She wiped up the kitchen and turned out the light. 8. A Saxophone player blew in the next year 13.0h hard is tue fortune of all womankind Then a drummer who filled up her bathtub with beer Except for the woman who makes up her mind A mandolin-poet who cried on the phone So listen dear friends, verses more there are few and there were times she was gladly alone And what happened for her can still happen fwr you. 9. The seasons did change and the men c~~e and went 14'There's new folks in town and they moved in ne~t- Her daughter said."Ma tell me are you content? Two women with dulcimers, children and more oor You always look worried, you always look sore She said "1 don't need them. my lover'S a star!" And mother, how come you don't sing anymore?" But later that night she got down her guitar. 10. "It's when they get restless they say love's a game 15. She found an excuse, she would borrow some flour And when their groups split up they say I'm to blame Next day they came over and talked for an hour There're some after money and some after fame the strings were in tune and the childran at play But they all call me Momma instead of my name She said "life can be goodJ I don' t care what they say" 11."They will sing about seagulls and living so free 16.Now after each concert she'll speak plain and free They'll sing about children but theirs they won't see That a musician'S lady is a sad thing to be It's sweet talk by night and sour by day So take your own courage down off of that shelf They'll sing about roots while they're running away." You can sing for the wurld, you can live for yourself! -2- Words & Music by TOM PAXTON @ Copyright 1977 Accabonac Music Used by permission • plod - ed:"'-_ As a young III8.ll my dream was to be a Mar-ine, My nag was worth all I could nJ Jig J 13 J J I J ) 3I fej J ) I; , j ,I =:1 J J I .I j J 1 bring it. --- The country felt young when the Anthem was sung, Well, it gave me the goose bumps to 'oLJ ;;;1£'"'' O! rei J oJ I J, l' JIt4Q). 1Ej W j 1J'j, ~ 11~ I sing it~---,-- I was born 011 the fourth of Ju- ly, -- No one more loy-a! than I -- v E,..m f I'" JAnl]))I; 5JljJJIJ,OI)JJIJJJ15 ~ [ .,/ When II!Y country said so, I was ready to go, And I wish I'd been left there to die~ ~ II, 1 ~ C4 \ £'" It. I F \ F :\ ~., -r J 111 J7J l:ti \I 2.When I landed in 'Nam I was great Uncle Sam, I was fighting for God And my mother. And I knew what to do When my first tour was through, I signed up and went back For another. But it all tumbled down When we ambushed the town, In the night how the metal Was flying. We blew it to Hell Really did our job well But just women and kids Did the dying. CHO. 3.In the damned DMZ 4.Now I wheel myself down It all ended for me To the crossroads of town The fighting broke out To watch the young girls And we scattered. And their lovers. One shot hit my heel My mind is afire The last thing I'd feel It's alive with desire And the next hit my spine Christ! I'd barely begun And it shattered. Now it's over. In my hospital bed In my wheelchair for life I could hear what was said My mechanical wife And the words will I'm supposed to be Stay with me forever. Cheerful and stoic. With my whole life ahead I'm your old tried and true My body was dead Yankee Doodle to you -And the word they were using Clean-cut, paralyzed Was "Never." CHO. And herioc. CHO. (This song is recorded by Tom on his Vanguard LP NEW SONGS FROM THE BRIARPATCH) -3- A REMEMBERANCE-­ PART TVJO. LENNY PHil DtHS By Aggie Friesen Lenny was a cosmic phenomenon in the alien galaxy. He was able to translate the For some reason we do not know, A&M Records searing experience of has withdrawn Phil Ochs' REHEARSALS FOR alienation into a form RETIREMENT from the market. A query to that could be univer­ A&M brought only a curt reply that the al­ sally understood: bum "has been deleted from our catalog." jokes. He turned the This is hard to understand since there exists a widespread demand for it, as indi­ cated by the requests for information as to awful ordeals he was going through into where to find it BROADSIDE has received; we funny stories. Other artists have expres­ had a call recently from Rome asking us how sed their trials and visions in paintings 1 the caller could locate a copy. All we or poems and music and songs, which is were able to answer was to look in the flea what Phil did, and which is probably why markets. This development is a shame, since he felt close to Lenny. REHEARSALS FOR RETIRMENT is probably Phil's Once we were able to write all night; greatest achievement, and represents the now we've seen and experienced things that flowerinq of his genius. words can't express and these things over­ 3elow is a further look at this L-P of whelm us, words fail us, they won't corne. Phil"s -- my earlier comments on "Rehearsals" appears in BROADSIDE No. 134. LINCOLN PARK unfurls into a series of images. A blood-red moon. Wise men in their robes. Wild horses, wandering tribes. All kinds of things that nobody, not even a poet, would expect to encounter while taking an evening stroll in the park in Chicago. The song is short, but in it are seen the great possibilities that W.B.Yeats must have seen in Ireland's rebellions against the British, when 'turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer' , and all chaos is loosed upon the land. Of course, the THE LIGHTS ARE COLD AGAIN lovely visions are obscured in the inev­ Way up there, looking down on those itable roils and billows of tear gas, lights you tried so hard to reach, where but still the poet remains waiting, as do you go from there? Old friends knew all poets do, for the second corning that the old you and won't accept the new. never seems to corne. The stage has been turned over to people who have nothing much to say but all kinds THE SCORPION DEPARTS of entertaining ways to say it. With the feeling of unreality that you The loves that you gave a very precious get when you witness a disaster, such as part of yourself to are gone for good, your country going down like a sinking and so is that part of yourself. You get ship and no way to stop it. As in a dream so bitter that you have to laugh, see you are a witness but also a participant, some kind of grim humor in everything. but nothing is quite real to you, not even Didn't you always know somehow that it yourself, so you search for something to would turn out this way? A cycle seems hang on to, a voice to tell you that every­ to be corning to an end.