Performances at Saint Mark’s Church, New Year’s Day 2011, 12, 13, 14 & 15

I began to perform at the Poetry Project’s New Year’s Day benefit with my nephew Daniel in 2010. Our first performance wasn’t recorded, but in 2011 my partner Akram began to record us. The following are those five performances. I hope to continue this tradition with Daniel for many years to come, I hope that you enjoy them, and if you would like to sing any of these songs yourself, sing right along. Happy New Year. Here is to health and happiness. And remember anyone can make a donation, no matter how small, to the Poetry Project any day of the year, not just on the first one: http://poetryproject.org

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

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 her before
She 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

Sweet Mary



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

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, baby
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 Fuehrer and his lady
Thought it best to rise at dawn
To pour the gas and strike the match
An 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.”

Sweet Little Angel



I gotta sweet little angel
Sweeter than apple butter
I gotta 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 gotta sweet little angel
Sweeter than apple butter
I gotta sweet little angel
Sweeter than apple butter
Just flew in
All the way from Calcutta


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