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My nephew Daniel and I are working on putting some songs together that I wrote mostly in my twenties many a decade ago. Here they are, the first drafts, the first steps to a complete album with other musicians playing instruments including me on the harmonica. Till that day, and it’s coming soon, here are the ten scratches laying down the time and structure for each song, subject to change, but also taking us to the final mixes, the final songs.
This is “Ten Songs” by Don Yorty on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
Blue Sorrow, Green Sorrow
You didn’t stay to sleep
I’m left with nothing to keep
as my windows fill with the dawn
Shall I lie still or rise
forget now or wonder why
already, already you’ve gone?
Who was it who spoke
through the wine and the smoke?
I recall three words and spare change
holding hands at our knees
so the drunks wouldn’t see
then stopping to kiss in the rain
Blue Sorrow, green sorrow
red sorrow tomorrow
What was it I wanted to say?
Good-bye is a whore
I’ve had him before
He slips so softly away
Dear Moses, strike the stone
draw the water from our souls
Your wandering multitude thirsts
I saw it come on black wings
take some children and Mr. King
but nothing and nobody heard
Blue sorrow, green sorrow
red sorrow tomorrow
What was it I wanted to say?
All these words that I sing
only cover the thing
and hide it completely away
Daddy Long Legs Blues
Daddy long legs hanging upside down my door
Daddy long legs hanging upside down my door
Came to tell me you won’t be back anymore
Floating, floating like a drowned man on the sea
Floating, floating like a drowned man on the sea
Now it doesn’t matter if all the waves come cover me
Don’t leave me, baby, I don’t know what I’ll do
Don’t leave me, baby, I don’t know what I’ll do
I can’t leave this place, there’s not one door to walk through
When you’ve filled your teacup, one tear overflows
And all your joys rise past their brims, spilling you to sorrow
Ah, but you just wipe as you weep as you wipe up the mess
Lay your head upon the table
Daddy long legs, go away from door
Daddy long legs, go away from door
Once you know what the truth is,
you don’t need to hear it anymore
Hush, I think I heard her call my name
So nice, so loud and plain
Oh hush hush hush hush hush, she called my name
So nice, so loud, and plain
Asked My Love
Asked my love, “Do you love me?”
Came to me, held me close
Took a knife, cut a finger
In the blood wrote me a poem
Love is like a bed of roses
When you lay down there’s a thorn
Even in the arms of beauty
You will lie bloody and torn
Someday, someday
Someday, someday
Someday, someday
Stopped by your house late last evening
Knocked on your door till dawn
I was there, the moon was fading
And my money was all gone
Stopped by your house late last evening
And you were not at home
Did you go jump in the river?
Have you gone and cut your throat?
Someday, someday, etc.
Some say that God is Love
I say Love is like a mirror
You might not want to, honey
But you gotta look in it
Is who you see
Who you think you are?
What you want to be
Is that what you saw?
Someday, someday. etc.
Bury me in an old tin can
On the edge of the promised land
Dig me down deep as you can
Cover me up with a ton of sand
I wanna die, I wanna die
I wanna die, I wanna die
I wanna die, I wanna die
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 baby and a doll
Can you touch me, can you touch me now?
Like some perfume in your nose
Like a billion molecules
Oh darling
you’re like the river
that comes forever
Let down your hair
Let down your hair
Sweet Mary Black Bird
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
Going Back to Work
Black morning coffee, yes, I’m walking
Subway sleeping, no one talking
Everyday and everyday, it never ends
I spend my time with locks and keys
in a ghetto factory
and every morning it’s back to work again
Lunchtime the ladies say,
“The war was over yesterday.”
But I say, “No, we”ll shake and shake to the bitter end.
Dropping bombs, chopping hands
never changed the heart of man
Tomorrow morning it’s back to work again.
Going back, I’m going back
Lord, Lord, I’m going back
Going back going back going back to work again
Old Sisyphus did fine
pushing one rock all the time
And I’m going back, going back to work again
On the A train riding home
I saw Jesus casting stones
I cried, “Lord, you said that was a sin.”
He said, “Son, I guess that’s so
but I never said I couldn’t throw
Now you get on back, get on back to work again.”
A cool dark well I thought I found
Deep and wide, I could not drown
Quenched all my sorrows at my rainbow’s end
Hold me, honey, squeeze me tight,
see if we can’t make it last all night
Tomorrow morning it’s back to work again
The Friday Night Apocalypse Stew
A white trash witch named Dolly was my baby
Every day she read my cards
She said, “Don, soon the end’s gonna come
and the end is often hard
though to begin or end are painlessly the same
most of us only get as far
as a sacrificial torture rack before nothingness
Life the whip lash, we the scar.”
And Dolly had a baby
Uncircumcised she raised him up
She said, “Liberty’s desire manifested physically
Boy, you walk the streets with a hard-on.”
Then she conjured up a thunderstorm
Consumed its fire, drank its rain
That was when some Christians came
to burn a cross and pray
Well, the cross burned so bright that though it was night
Well, it could have been the day
when Dolly, “Son, there’s no right or wrong
You can do just what you want
But watch a blind child tear apart
what is closest to his heart
See his hate intensely loving
in his oven jelly-rolling Jews, baby.”
The Führer and his lady
thought it best to rise at dawn
to pour the gas and strike the match.
She put their makeup on.
The Pekinese was barking
Such a cute dog, so well bred
Isn’t it the perfect day
To put a bullet through his head?
“O dear Eva, we make such a pretty flame
But don’t you know for one more kiss
Well, I’d do it all again
Though I’d be careful who I swallowed
I’d be sure with whom I ate
And I’d always know who I was gunning down
When I did it in the street.
No, it’s never wise to hypnotize
those who walk a vicious dog
Or seek them follow those silent souls
who write their talking on the walls
They don’t mean anything at all
Walls crumble after all
Just like when empires fall
They don’t mean anything at all.”
The Water’s Work Song
My love, I would tarry
awhile on your mouth
To lie here beside you
is all that I want
but if I don’t go build
a house in the lane
we will freeze when it snows
and sneeze when it rains
A house you can make
with much thought and sweat
To make a handshake
is much harder yet
And much harder still
is to live till you’re dead
but the hardest is giving
without wanting to get
I took my noon rest
by a mountain stream
and watched how the water
touches all things
as it splashes down
among slippery stones
for frogs to jump in
and skin to shine on
Poured from my mouth
and rolled my eyes
for birds who leave
no trace in the sky
for Sir Rattlesnake
crawling alone
and the winter weary
foaling doe
Sweet Little Angel
I’ve got a sweet little angel
Sweeter than apple butter
I’ve got a sweet little angel
Sweeter than apple butter
Just flew in
All the way from Calcutta
I love you, love you, love you, honey
That’s what I told him
I love you, love you, love you, honey
That’s what I told him
Come on, let’s get married
Before you get another day older
You’re my only passion
There ain’t any other
You’re my only passion
There ain’t any other
I’m gonna love you today
I’m gonna love you tomorrow
It’s been raining all morning
Hour after hour
Been raining all morning
Hour after hour
You can hold me, honey
I’ll be your umbrella
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
I’ve got a sweet little angel
Sweeter than apple butter
I’ve got a sweet little angel
Sweeter than apple butter
Just flew in
All the way from Calcutta
Walking Blues
After Robert Johnson
Woke up this morning looking round for my shoes
Think I’ve got those Walking Blues
Woke up this morning looking round for my shoes
Think I’ve got those Walking Blues
It’s like I took a match to everything I own
Woke up this morning. Everything I had was gone
Like I took a match to my happy home.
Woke up this morning. Everything I had was gone.
I can leave right now if I have to. Get on down the line.
I’ve been mistreated and I don’t mind dying.
I’ll leave right now and get on down the line.
Sitting crying is just a waste of time
She’s got Elgin movement, head to her toes
She can break a dollar wherever she goes
Elgin movement from her head down to her toes
You can hear them holler most anywhere that she goes
Come on, Shoes. Let’s get on down the road.
Not going to get there until we go
Come on, Shoes. Let’s get on down that road.
Not going to get there until we go.
