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The Petals

by Al Grierson

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1.
THE ILLUMINATION OF JUDGE ROY BEAN When you’re the law west of the Pecos Your life can be a lonely veil of tears Cause even with a million friends that you can stack from end to end You know you’ll never find a jury of your peers When you’re the law west of the Pecos Where you’d really like to give your girl the moon And tipple champagne from her shoe You know the best you’ll ever do Is hang her name outside some weather-beaten saloon When you’re the law west of the Pecos It’s like you got yourself some tropical disease But ahh there ain’t nobody knows Why some are called and some are chose Or why it seems to run in certain families Cause my brother took a job in San Diego That little town has never had a mayor Kicked along his side until the day he up and died And then I saddled up and rode away from there Now I’m the law west of the Pecos There ain’t nobody mess around with me Cause with my achin breakin heart So full of love and full of art I’m just as sensitive and sad as I can be Yeah I’m the law west of the Pecos Gonna ain’t nobody mess around with me Cause with my achin breakin heart So full of love and full of art I’m just as sensitive and sad as I can be
2.
WHERE IN THE WORLD DOES THE WHOLE WORLD COME FROM? Spoken: There is a legend from China that the great philosopher Chuang Tzu, fell asleep and had a dream that he was a butterfly. And when he awoke, he could no longer be certain whether he was Chuang Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Tzu... Where in the world does the whole world come from? Where does the whole world go? Deep in the sleep of an old man dreaming Down by the greenwoodsidee-oh Hush little baby, keep on sleeping Dream til your dreams come true If somebody kills the butterfly, Who’s gonna wake Chuang Tzu? Who’s gonna wake Chuang Tzu? Mistress Mary, like a fairy How does your garden grow? Under the eyes of a foreign army Down by the greenwoodsidee-oh Hush little baby, keep on sleeping Dream til your dreams come true If somebody kills the butterfly, Who’s gonna wake Chuang Tzu? Who’s gonna wake Chuang Tzu? After the war when the whole world woke up, Where did the soldiers go? Some went to bed and the rest went crazy Down by the greenwoodsidee-oh Hush little baby, keep on sleeping Dream til your dreams come true If somebody kills the butterfly, Who’s gonna wake Chuang Tzu? Who’s gonna wake Chuang Tzu? Where in the world does the whole world come from? Where does the whole world go? Deep in the sleep of an old man dreaming Down by the greenwoodsidee-oh Deep in the sleep of an old man dreaming Down by the greenwoodsidee-oh
3.
Old Coyote 07:10
OLD COYOTE I've been reading all about it in the annals of some ancient lore, How you were smuggled through the garden by the angel at the basement door, And while the serpent in the branches held the mother of the world beguiled, You were pissin' on the Tree of Knowledge while the Good Lord smiled. Old coyote Little brother of necessity and the seeker and the sacred clown Old Coyote You're the fire in the water and the diamonds in the cold cold ground On the mountain top with Moses and with Daniel in the lion’s den, In the bedroom with Delilah – in the hollow in the hearts of men, On the hill on Friday evening when the soldiers rolled them bones, In the garden Sunday mornin' when they rolled away the stone. Old Coyote On the edges of eternity dancin' through the crack of dawn Old Coyote With a pearly white Madonna and the devil with the blue dress on In the bed between the Travelin' Salesman and the Farmer's Daughter, At the elbow of the preacher when the wine turned back to water, In the cabin of a smokin' locomotive on a high speed train, Between the Tower of Babel and the cities of the plain. Old Coyote You're a 30-carat Buddha in a barrel full of old tin cans Old Coyote Just a loose screw messin' with the engine of our best laid plans Now there's an ancient city hidden deep beneath the waves It was founded on the principles of justice -- and the sweat of slaves And I heard a lot about it in a New Age gospel hymn But I ain't ever gonna wade in any water where the fish won't swim. Old Coyote In a vertical position while the world walks upside down Old Coyote At the center of the circle while the wheel goes round and round. Now there's a big wind blowin' down the cities from the outlaw trail You can even hear it whistle in the belly of the great white whale Hear it howlin' through the desert where Ezekiel saw the wheel From the breath upon the water to the breaking of the seventh seal. Is this the end of history or just a wagon full of roses standin' at the gates of Rome The devil's army on the deep blue sea Or just the legions of the lonely only lookin' for the long way home? 'Cause there's an angel with a trumpet in the graveyard where the night wind groans Hear it echo from the brothel on the bayou where the black snake moans To the Playboy mansion from the penthouse to the pool From the palace of the kingdom to the alley where the mad dogs rule Waitin' for the holocaust – Waitin' for the fire that was promised at the end of time Waitin' for the Pentecost Hidin' like a phoenix in the ashes and the ice cold lime Old Coyote At the center of the chaos waitin' since the Lord knows when Old Coyote Gonna wait a little longer 'til it all comes 'round again Little brother of necessity – the seeker and the sacred clown You're the fire in the water and the diamonds in the cold cold ground A 30-carat Buddha in a barrel full of old tin cans Just a loose screw messin' with the engine of our best laid plans Old Coyote In a vertical position while the world walks upside down Old Coyote At the center of the circle while the wheel goes 'round and 'round Old Coyote At the center of the circle while the wheel goes 'round and ‘round
4.
BARNEY RUBBLE MEETS MACK THE KNIFE It was somewhere over by the river where the deal went down Just a little bit of murder and a little bit of lost and found Wasn’t any witness but the moon shine on the wall Ain’t nobody seen a goddamn thing at all Ain’t it a shame, ain’t it a sin Someone shot the circuits out from Bedrock to Berlin Now a lady waits there lonely to the bone Crying to the silence of a prehistoric phone It’s a crime and a pity he was too naive to know There’s a part of the city where the middle class don’t go Cause there wasn’t any reason for the killin and there ain’t no rhyme Just a neolithic tourist on a visa from another time Ain’t it a shame, ain’t it a sin Someone shot the circuits out from Bedrock to Berlin Now a lady waits there lonely to the bone Crying to the silence of a prehistoric phone Ain’t it a shame, ain’t it a sin Someone shot the circuits out from Bedrock to Berlin Now a lady waits there lonely to the bone Crying to the silence of a prehistoric phone
5.
DREAMBOAT TO PARADISE Got no whiskey or apple brandy But ol man Winkle’s doin dandy Gonna sleep the decade through Kinda wish that I could too How’d it happen I never planned To get so tired, it’s hard to stand Tell me how long will it be til my dreamboat comes for me Mr. Sandman, have a care for the weary everywhere For the wealthy in the silver sheets And the children in the streets Save their bodies from being sold Bless their shackles of green and gold Let them slumber and set them free Let my dreamboat come for me Over yonder by the green A blindman’s playing a tambourine All the righteous done heard the news Gonna follow his dancin shoes When I was younger I might have gone Jingle-jangling to the dawn Well I’ve got something I gotta see Where my dreamboat waits for me One day the General’s horse went lame When they put on a battle and no one came Cause the clocks let the cavalry sleep til noon When the kid with the bugle forgot the tune Put down the fire it ain’t no toy Call off the killing, don’t burn that boy He got another one he can play If my dreamboat sails away Well I ain’t been to heaven but I been told That they got them an avenue paved with gold But there’s no way to know if they’re right or wrong And I ain’t even certain that I belong I may be humble, but I got pride And if I go up to Paradise, I won’t ride Go park the chariot in the square Let my dreamboat sail me there I may be humble, but I got pride And if I go up to Paradise, I won’t ride Go park the chariot in the square Let my dreamboat sail me there
6.
IF I DON”T GET MY WAY I don’t wanna go outside, you can’t make me do that I can’t find my other mitten and the dog just ate my hat I have to go to the bathroom, I don’t wanna wear these socks I just wanna stay here, pass the time away here Playing in the cardboard box And if I Don’t get my way If you don’t let me stay I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do Gonna scream like a seagull and bark like a beagle And pour lemonade in my shoe Gonna slam me a door, gonna lie on the floor Gonna hold my breath til I’m blue Gonna roar like a baby gorilla then maybe I’ll do something else when I’m through I didn’t wanna do nothin, not a single thing at all ‘Cept take my older sister’s crayons And colour on the kitchen wall I didn’t wanna go nowhere and nobody seemed to care I didn’t wanna eat my dinner so I’ll put it in my grampa’s hair Now if I Don’t get my way If you don’t let me stay I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do Gonna scream like a seagull and bark like a beagle And pour lemonade in my shoe Gonna slam me a door, gonna lie on the floor Gonna hold my breath til I’m blue Gonna roar like a baby gorilla then maybe I’ll do something else when I’m through I don’t wanna go to bed you can’t pull that on me The sun’s still out, I’m not tired and I wanna watch TV I wanna story, I want a drink, I wanna be with the big folks too I wanna hug now, wrestle on the rug now I wanna kiss from you And if I Don’t get my way If you don’t let me stay I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do Gonna scream like a seagull and bark like a beagle And pour lemonade in my shoe Gonna slam me a door, gonna lie on the floor Gonna hold my breath til I’m blue Gonna roar like a baby gorilla then maybe I’ll do something else when I’m through
7.
LIGHTNING NEVER TAKES A LONG TIME Just like God’s eternal hobo, always waiting for a train With my pockets full of roses, always waiting for the rain I was like some crazy outlaw, lookin’ for the perfect crime Or a word in some old love song, looking for the perfect rhyme And lightning never takes a long time It’s just a flash across the sky Hardly time to say, how are ya? Never time to say goodbye And like the sorrow in the silence, reachin’ out to find the song Like the promise of tomorrow, it’s just the waiting that’s so long They say nobody saw you shining like a candle in the gloom And nobody heard the music when you walked around the room And though the earth declined to tremble when you came in through the door Like an old tree on a mountain, I was broken to the core And lightning never takes a long time It’s just a flash across the sky Hardly time to say, how are ya? Never time to say goodbye And like the sorrow in the silence, reachin’ out to find the song Like the promise of tomorrow, it’s just the waiting that’s so long And now the world is all a-wonder, full of things I can’t explain And on the other side of Eden, Abel’s calling out to Cain With a word of kind forgiveness – it’s like a bolt out of the blue Just like I feel that rolling thunder, everytime I look at you And lightning never takes a long time It’s just a flash across the sky Hardly time to say, how are ya? Never time to say goodbye And like the sorrow in the silence, reachin’ out to find the song Like the promise of tomorrow, it’s just the waiting that’s so long
8.
I’M GOING OVER Well I ain’t nobody special, just an ordinary man I got a cozy little corner on the cosmic plan So there ain’t a lot of nothin that would strike me as a big surprise This is a right life's a highway from the cradle to the grave There’s only three things certain that’s Burma Shave, I never been to heaven and my true love has green eyes I’m goin over, across the river to see that Jerden roll I’m goin over, over to the land of milk and honey And I ain’t-a gonna pay no toll Cause I never been invited to a White House ball I never read much wisdom on an outhouse wall I never been to heaven and my true love has green eyes Well I woulda gone to Paris back in 28 But my ma was just a baby and the clock won’t wait So they had to cancellate the nomination of a Nobel Prize When Scott Fitzgerald went down to Gertrude Stein There’s a lost generation but it sure ain’t mine I ain’t even been to Paris and my true love has green eyes I’m goin over, across the river to see that Jerden roll I’m goin over, over to the land of milk and honey And I ain’t-a gonna pay no toll And while I mighta done a lotta things I can’t forget There’s a whole lotta others that I ain’t done yet I never been to heaven and my true love has green eyes Still I made a lotta money in a good career From the northbound brought up til the southbound steer I was like a fertilizin benefactor of a billion flies But it got too heavy so I let it go And now there’s only two things that I know I never been to heaven and my true love has green eyes Yeah I know there’s that Burma Shave thing in verse one But that ain’t exactly something I know If you could rewind me back to verse one you’d see that I said Is it’s one of the three certain things it is I’m goin over, across the river to see that Jerden roll I’m goin over, over to the land of milk and honey And I ain’t-a gonna pay no toll And now I never eat my dinner with the evening news I never sweep a stable in my Sunday shoes I never been to heaven and my true love has green eyes I’s in a past life last life rollin through the void With some right wing radical and Sigmund Freud By the time I got a word in there was nothin left to analyze So they both went downtown followin their bliss And that’s what I’ve been doin and it all comes down to this: I never been to heaven and my true love has green eyes I’m goin over, across the river to see that Jerden roll I’m goin over, over to the land of milk and honey And I ain’t-a gonna pay no toll Now I hardly ever do it if it don’t feel good I never eat good and healthy like I know I should I never been to heaven but my true love has green eyes Yeah I hardly ever do it if it don’t feel good I never eat good and healthy like I know I should I never been to heaven but my true love has green eyes
9.
Man Of Steel 03:12
MAN OF STEEL As heart to stone and salt to sea, As flesh to bone are you to me The fire’s heat, the ice’s cold The sugar’s sweet, the miser’s gold I pawned my watch and chain for you Sell my horses and my wagon too Call down the thunder from the mountainside Honey, I would walk so that you could ride Her love is fine and love is true Love is one, love is two Love’s divine when in the rose Is held a fuse where the honey flows So lay me down and love me there And the dancing flame of your wildin hair I will kneel and bend me low Like a man of steel with a heart of snow So lay me down and love me there And the dancing flame of your wildin hair I will kneel and bend me low Like a man of steel with a heart of snow
10.
THE OLD PAUL JONES Gentle voices calling out to lovers just to lead em where their hearts belong So they come persuadin to the poet just to tangle up his life in song It’s kinda like the calling of the highway and the answers in the gypsy’s bones Kinda like the calling of the river to the pilot on the Old Paul Jones There’s some that say you’re crazy with a bucket full of stars You’d be better selling buggywhips to motorbikes and cars Though you’re trading in a wagon full of 20 buck cigars for the smoke behind the Old Paul Jones Birth and death, another load of laundry and the stuff that comes along between Life’s a way of filling up the hours when there’s nothing on the TV screen Look alive, along the straight and narrow keep your eye upon the big red ball Pick yer stone, but save it for the sparrow and be certain that you see it in fall And the questions come as quiet as a whisper to the wise There's a hush along the levee, the river starts to rise They watch your disappearance with their disbelievin eyes Through the smoke behind the Old Paul Jones Leave em all to a pocket full of watches and another full of deadman’s gold But their souls get wrinkled up and full of ice only when their hearts get old Leave em til their ossified opinions like nothing let the whole thing go Spend your day just dancing with the angels Strumming Dixie on the old banjo And you never say you’re sorry that it’s gone away too soon In a dizzy misty history, a sour mash of tunes Cause you always left it hanging like an old Missouri moon Through the smoke behind the Old Paul Jones Comes a time to shuffle off to glory Comes a time to lay your burden down You’ll be there still sniffin on the roses When they lay you in the cold cold ground Laughing through the awful lamentations for a life so full of misspent years Singing through the smoke behind the (steamboat) on a river full of mispilled tears Or he coulda been a cowboy or a railroad engineer He coulda even been a banker or some other odd career But we lost him to the music and the words that disappear In the smoke behind the Old Paul Jones And the questions come as quiet as a whisper to the wise There’s a hush along the levee and the river starts to rise As they watch you disappearin with their disbelievin eyes Through the smoke behind the Old Paul Jones
11.
SOMEBODY’S BEEN CALLING OUT MY NAME Somebody’s been calling out my name Calling to the crazy moths from deep inside the flame Was it you, even though we’ve never even kissed With that something in your voice I can’t resist Calling me to come until I came Somebody’s been calling me for years Haunting me with melodies and singing in my ears Was it you serenading softer, singing loud Coming on as quiet as a cloud Quiet as the rain of all my tears Walking through a thousand places Looking at a million faces Til at last I saw you over there Exactly where you oughta be You shoulda been a mystery Yet you knew exactly what to wear Oh, somebody’s been calling in the night Calling out so patiently until they got it right Was it you, learning how to whistle in the dark Far away and lonesome as a lark Lost alone and looking for the light Somebody’s been calling to my heart Messin with the balance on my crazy applecart Was it you, you beside me high upon the wall Dancing there and daring me to fall Even if I do and fall apart Walking through a thousand places Looking at a million faces Til at last I saw you over there Exactly where you oughta be You shoulda been a mystery Yet you knew exactly what to wear Oh, somebody’s been calling out my name Calling to the crazy moths from deep inside the flame Was it you, holding out your heart within the glow Calling me from centuries ago Calling me to come until I came Was it you, holding out your heart within the glow Calling me from centuries ago Calling me to come until I came
12.
DADDY’S GONE TO TEXAS Everything is kind of weird since the clowns and ponies disappeared Nobody heard them say goodbye and no one saw them go Everybody’s crying, Lord, it sounds like someone’s dying So Daddy’s gone to Texas just to find the rodeo There’s magic in that rope he swings, he made it out of dragon’s wings A love as rare as angel’s eggs or Alabama snow He saddled up and gone to ride beyond the land where heroes died Daddy’s gone to Texas just to see the Alamo Don’t you worry little sister, you’ll be safe from that old twister Out there with a posse, you’ll be searching high and low The clowns and ponies might be there, prancin in that prairie air Daddy’s gone to Texas just to chase the buffalo How could Daddy be so dumb – it’s right here in this book The buffalo ran away, why’d he have to go and look? Truth gets tangled up in dreams, like shiny rocks and mountain streams And Daddy’s gotta do the things that Daddy’s gotta do Here’s a song so full of smiles you can hear it two whole thousand miles Daddy’s gone to Texas but his heart’s still here with you Daddy’s gone to Texas but his heart’s still here with you
13.
The Petals 08:01
THE PETALS Come with me and be my love and we'll go high above the city to the mountains where the olden rivers run and I'll lay for you a table just as fine as I am able there to eat the golden apples of the sun And it'll be you and me, honey, at the dawn of all creation watching God set down the needle in the groove and we'll both just sit and gaze into the empty face of darkness till we notice something move Where the necessity of sin has yet to blossom or begin though you can feel the heavy purpose in the air as in the beauty of His grace He comes to look upon your face and kiss the petals on the flowers in your hair Come with me and be my love, oh lay me down among the lilies lay beside me like an autumn afternoon Lay beside me till I shiver in that place inside the river where you hide the silver apples of the Moon And it'll be you and me, honey, at the fall of Rome and off in China at the building of the wall and with an unknown soldier who was buried with the king for running naked with a message down the hall to tell them Pharaoh's drunken army wasn't even after Moses they were looking for the answer everywhere to the riddle of the sphinx; it's not where anybody thinks – it's in the petals on the flowers in your hair So come with me and be my lover in the shadow of the furnace where another holy chamber used to be and a chilly wind's still blowing there to keep the embers glowing in the ashes of some other century And it'll be you and me, honey, at the burning of St. Joan pulling meaning from a senseless sacrifice like a pair of lonely pilgrims on our way to find forgiveness in a place between the fire and the ice And the streets are all embarrassed at the sound of her confession and there's incense in the smoke that fills the square as the smell of holy flesh from Burgundy to Bangladesh recalls the petals on the flowers in your hair Then come with me and be my love and we'll go round and round the riddle whether God should be a Lady or a Lord or if a fate not fully flowered was protecting Mr. Howard or rehearsing in the hands of Robert Ford And it'll be you and me, honey there in Northfield, Minnesota where the living ended bloodied up in chains and as we drag them from the streets we'll be ashamed to tell the dying that they maybe should have stuck to robbing trains And though love is like a river, you can never really break it you can shape it on the anvil of despair and is there still a trace of lead there on the fingers of the dead that pull the petals from the flowers in your hair Then come with me and be my love, oh give me hope and give me shelter lay me down between the lion and the lamb See me safely through the slaughter, down beside the peaceful waters there and love me till I don't know who I am And it'll be you and me at the apocalypse, honey as the world goes up in flames and everybody acts surprised; they got that look there in their eyes but there's a man been going round just taking names And it looks like Rhett and Scarlet with the burning of Atlanta in the background on some old-time movie screen or like Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton all wrapped up in each other's arms while a movie orchestra plays "The Internationale" and in the background the Bolsheviks are busy taking the city and they're so wrapped up in each other they don't even seem to notice and you gotta wonder – if that's what he was really doing – how John Reed ever even wrote "Ten Days That Shook the World" And it's a long way back to 1917 And there ain't no second coming, ain't no comes the revolution just a rainbow sign dissolving the air Time was but time shall be no more, there's no more peace and no more war and no more petals on the flowers in your hair Until there's you and me, honey, at another new creation Watching God set down the needle in the groove

credits

released June 10, 2021

Restored and mastered by Sky Onion Studio, 2021. Tracks 2-11 recorded by Al Grierson. Tracks 1, 12, 13 recorded by River City Folk. Bus Song tracks 3, 7, 9, 11 prepared in 2001 by Mark Nelson, Acme Studios. Tracks 8, 10 from Steve Brooks. Collection curated and assembled by Brian Cutean. Kudos to the archivists who stepped up to offer material. There is now an awesome Al archive!

All songs ©1999, 2021 words and music by Al Grierson (SOCAN) and A.G. Publishing BMI

For Hannah and Aurelia, all the Grierson family everywhere, and For The Roses.

Hearty thanks to Claudia Stevens, Lori Plaxe, Mark Nelson, Steve Brooks, The Rose Tattoo, Clint Harding, Arthur Wood, Kevin McCarthy, Tom May and River City Folk for tracks and tales, and to Al, for keeping the candle lit.

Extra special thanks to Anne Feeney, Blair Powell and Utah Phillips who helped make this recording possible.

Front cover photo by Helga Motley. Inside cover photo by Christopher Briscoe. Cover design by Kimm Still, Lampadina Design.

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