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Just Practicing



Somebody asked me to perform at a benefit in April, and I immediately said No, and then as we talked, I thought of course I should do it and said, Yes. I’ll practice, and that is what I am doing figuring out the fingering.

I doubt, dear reader, that you’ll make it to this benefit so here you go. Sweet Mary Blackbird has the same chord progression as La Llorona: Am, Dm, Am, Em, Am, G, F, E. Oh Darling kind of goes all over the place so keeping a hold of it is the task at hand. I am (we are) at the (a) beginning. If practice makes perfect, in two months we (I) ought to be closer to (although it’s almost never reached) perfection.

 

 


Sweet Mary Blackbird

I lived at home as a young man
full of fears that paralyze
I was a believer in truth
and the truth was a lie
then I slept with Sweet Mary
and she made me realize
there are more ways to be born
than there are ways to die

When I was a young boy
I could count one to ten
I caught snakes in glass jars
and kept them for friends
A glass jar’s good intentions
but no natural bed
coiled and uncoiling
and your days never end

I saw the black bird on the sapling
I saw the snake on the stone
Black bird flew down
and took him for her own
That’s the world turns,
that’s the way we must go
You can never be free
till you can be swallowed whole

I’ve stayed true to Sweet Mary
she hides my pain when I call
Her throat’s like cold whiskey
she’s my wailing wall
And her breasts turn the leaves
spin you dreams where they fall
Go to her forgotten and empty
She will give you them all


Oh Darling

Oh darling
you know I breathe you
you know I see you
in all the spaces
in diverse places
grown in the mountains
rolled from the sea

Oh darling
you’re so pretty
Sandals, all curly
and the birds are singing
cause the sun a-shining
sends the rose to blooming
red though dying truly
as your Mustang’s bringing
you to me

I’ve been reading Nietzsche
He was wise, went crazy
I think he had nobody but his brain

Can you touch me?
Can you touch me now?
Can you touch me?
Can you touch me? How?

Like a light bulb, like a room
Like a boy and his dog
Like a girl and her doll
Can you touch me, can you touch me now?
Like some perfume in your nose
Like a billion molecules

Even hair-lip ladies
Even dead things, babies
All flying, falling
All splashing, crawling

Oh darling
you’re like the river
that comes forever
Let down your hair
Let down your hair


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