jamesmichaeltaylor-singer/songwriter

Lyrics for the CD called...

imPossible stArts


This is the preliminary release of the music I worked on “with” Michael Jeffrey from 2000 to 2002. We started the project on 8 track with Michael playing all the instruments and when that didn’t seem like enough I bought digital equipment but Michael wasn’t able to make the transition. An importat part of recording to him was being able to see the reel going round and round. So after he left the project I transfered all of his tracks to the computer and added and subtracted until I came up with the arrangements you hear on this six song cd.


LA DENA WIND
June 28 1978
I wrote this song back in the late 70’s while I was doing a gig at a place called Rhet Butler’s in Amarillo. There was a very touchy-feely waitress there named Dena and one day I hitch hiked out to Canyon and she and I did a little tour of the Pan Handle Museum. I “imbedded” her last name in the song. It served to create an interesting image. Her last name was Fite.

The winds they blow down thru the canyon
Blowing so wild and free
And the night is my only companion
As they're blowing La Dena to me

Blowing in the wind
Canyons in the wind
Fires in the wind of my life
Questions in the wind
Answers in the wind
Dena's in the wind of my life

The sun it beats down Amarillo
The shadows they all fight for a place
And I'm finding my life is a riddle
And it’s staring me right in my face

Riddles in the wind
Puzzles in the wind
Fear is in the wind of my life
Faces in the wind
Voices in the wind
Dena's in the wind of my life


The fires blow down thru the canyon
Burning so wild and free
And the wind is my only companion
And it's blowing La Dena to me

Blowing in the wind
Canyons in the wind
Fires in the wind of my life

Questions in the wind
Answers in the wind
Dena's in the wind of my life

Faith is in the wing
Hope is in the wind
Dena’s in the wind of my life

Harmonies - Peggy, Michael and JMT

(C)1990 Royal T Music


HAPPY NOW

One of Peggy's old friends from her former life came to see us sing at Tinkers, our first club gig, and he said he could tell that she was happy now.

Pretty girl turning into a woman
I never thot the day would be coming

Pretty smile turned into crying
I wondered why her true love was dying

HAPPY NOW. .There's no way to miss it
HAPPY NOW. .I wonder, why is it
She's happy and I'm so blue. . .
HAPPY NOW. .Everyone knows it
HAPPY NOW. .And she clearly shows it
She's happy and I'm so blue. . .She's happy with you

She gave me love. . . . .and I couldn't take it
Gave me her heart. . . .all I did was break it. . .ooo

I didn't care . . .I could do better
I told her so . . .I wrote her a letter

HAPPY NOW. .There's no way to miss it
HAPPY NOW. .I wonder why is it
She's happy and I'm so blue. . .

HAPPY NOW. .Everyone knows it
HAPPY NOW. .And she clearly shows it
She's happy and I'm so blue. She's happy with you
- - -Instrumental of verse & repeat chorus- - -

. . .She's happy with you. . . . . .Why am I blue?

(C)1990 ROYAL T MUSIC


SAY THE WORD
Buddy Holly's birthday - 1989

She's cool and collected. I never feel rejected
But she'll never SAY THE WORD
So unaffected. I never feel neglected
But she'll never SAY THE WORD

She's smart and she's pretty. .Now we're going steady
But she still won't SAY THE WORD
I laugh when she giggles. I tremble when she wiggles
But she still won't SAY THE WORD

*. . .She won't talk about it
But who can doubt it
She's acting out it
She's so good at Braille
She keeps me on her trail

Her eyes, how they twinkle. Her dimples, how they wrinkle
But she never SAYs THE WORD
Ask me why I hover. It's because I love her
Even if she'll never SAY THE WORD

- - -BRIDGE 2- - -

She's smart and she's pretty. Now we're going steady
But she still won't SAY THE WORD
She's so respected. .I feel so protected
But she still won't SAY THE WORD

*. . .She won't talk about it
But who can doubt it
She's acting out it
She's so good at Braille
She keeps me on her trail

- - -VERSE of Na Na Na Nas. . .
- - -CHORUS. . .(Instrumental). . .

She's cool and collected. .I never feel rejected
But she'll never SAY THE WORD
So unaffected, .I feel so connected
Even if she'll never SAY THE WORD

(C)1990 ROYAL T MUSIC


WAKING UP TO YOU
1978
I wrote this one morning a day after I met Peggy in Midland.

I didn't want to tell you I'd been crying
I'd hoped that I could dry up all my tears
But my hearts were like the compass
On the bridge of a sinking ship
And I was drowning in the ocean of my fears

I remember that I said there was no hurry
I'd sing a song. I’d write a verse or two
But I stayed up late on purpose
So I'd sleep into the day
Thinking I'd be WAKING UP TO YOU

WAKING UP TO YOU, WAKING UP TO YOU
I stayed up late on purpose so
I'd sleep into the day
Thinking I'd be WAKING UP TO YOU

In hopeful dreams I listened for your footsteps
But all I heard was ticking of the clock
I couldn’t sleep forever so I had to face the day
Not knowing what to think of all our talk

The easy way you answered all my questions
The ones I spoke the ones within my heart
The answers beyond questions that I found there in your smile
Left me hoping we would never be apart
WAKING UP TO YOU, WAKING UP TO YOU
I stayed up late on purpose so
I'd sleep into the day
Thinking I'd be WAKING UP TO YOU

And then I heard your footsteps in the stairwell
I kicked myself for doubting you were true
You said you’d had a flat tire and you had to fix it by yourself
That’s when I started waking up to you
WAKING UP TO YOU, WAKING UP TO YOU
I’d stayed up late on purpose
So I’d sleep into the day
Hoping I’d be waking up to you

Original words to second and third verse.

(My heart was like a leaf the cold winds wither
Clinging to a limb with all its mite
And there's one thing worse than falling
And it's drifting in the wind
And I was falling like a string that lost its kite

I guess that I had hoped you'd catch me crying
If there's one thing worse, it's crying all alone
But I knew I couldn't trust me
If I wasn't trusting you
Enough to tell you that I felt so alone. . . )

(C)1990 ROYAL T MUSIC


TRAIL of TEARS1990

Peggy and I were at THE HOP one night. It was open mic and a girl from Dallas named Emily Arinson sang her new song, TRAIL OF TEARS. It was a sentimental sugar cube of a song. I said to Peggy, “Write this down,” and proceeded to dictate this chorus to her.

*. . .Trees won't grow
Grass won't grow
Flowers won't grow
On a trail of tears
After all these years

*. . .You can see it from the sky
You can smell it in the wind
You can feel it in your heart
Like a dying twin
When will it end

*. . .You can talk about the Nazis
Killing all the Jews and Gypsies
So self-righteous
So self-righteous
*. . .inst. . .*

You can talk about your Okies
Going from Place to Noplace
Or should I warn ya'
About California
*. . .*

There ought to be a flower
For every tear that fell there
But a flower won't grow
On a trail of bitter tears

*. . .Na na na. . .*
#. . .inst. . .#

Trees won't grow
And the grass won't grow
And the flowers won't grow
On a trail of tears. . .

This is now
That was then
Do you really think
It could happen again
Tell me friend
Where and when

Harmonies, tambourine and flute - JMT

(C)1990 Royal T Music


THERE’LL COME A LOVE
1993
An undelivered message to a kid named Tony Brownrigg

There’ll come a time
There’ll come a woman
There’ll come a love
There’ll come a day when she’ll stand beside you
The one you’re thinkin’ of

There’ll come a time
There’ll come a woman
There’ll come a love
There’ll come a day when she’ll be there with you
The one you’re dreaming of

So, don’t be afraid of the fears that invade your heart
Don’t be unkind to the love in your mind

There’ll come time
You’ll know the moment
You’ve seen it in your mind
There’ll come a day when the rock rolls away
Your clouds are silver lined

The voices around you are pushing and shoving
Ripe with their own points of view
I’ll not be undressing the motives of others
But what do they know about you?

There’ll come a time, you’ll think you’re dreaming
You’ll reach out and find
With the wink of an eye, you’ll see her reply
It’s not love but fear that’s blind
Your clouds are silver-lined

Harmonies – Michael, Peggy and JMT

(C)2000 Royal T Music


Contact: jamesmichaeltaylor@email.com

FEATHERS IN THE WIND

Barbara and I moved our little brood from Portland, Oregon to Texas in the spring of 1974. One Sunday afternoon Barbara and I were doing this song circle at Rick Babb's in Arlington and as we sang CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT a guitar player in the corner joined in with "the other harmony" and then took the guitar part to a new level. His name was Michael Jeffrey. He liked my songs and we liked what happened when he played and sang along.

We talked about making a record together. (This was back in the days of vinyl.) So he set up some drums and a four-trac recorder in his dining room, renamed it MOOSE MEADOW, played all the instruments, arranged all the songs, all the time complaining that he didn't really know enough to make an album. I told him, "Do what he can do and don't worry about what you can't do."

Michael went on to play guitar and sing backup with Steve Fromholtz, Jimmy Buffet, Gary Stewart, etc. Barbara and I sang colleges and then I started singing clubs, mostly in Texas. I changed my name to Wilbur Pig so I wouldn't be confused with that other guy. These are some of the songs that I was singing back then and some of the songs I still sing every chance I get.

I asked friends and students at colleges where we played to pay in advance for their copy of FEATHERS IN THE WIND. Peggy Ann Mitchell, a student at TEXAS A&M, later 1/3 of TEXAS WATER, was one of the first students to pre-buy a copy. We took delivery of our first box of FEATHERS IN THE WIND at A & R in Dallas on the fourth of March, 1976. A date I will always remember. The day we marched forth. jmt


The songs were all written between the time I came to Texas in the spring of 1974 and 1976.


CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT

The Bug Song - June 1 1974

They're flying in from miles around
They circle and they settle down
They sit and feel the world go round with you
They've come to share the night with you
They sit. They stare. That's what they do
They've come to share the light with you

*. . .When the sun begins to shine
They'll be leaving you behind
Where do they go? Where do they go?

Fuzzy, chocolate, stripped, white
Peaches, pickles, humpbacks might
Be leaving you but how they love the light
Angle wings and butterflies
Because the caterpillar dies
That Old Designer, how he tries for you
*. . .*

Red and yellow, black and white
All are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT
Red and yellow, black and white
All are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT
*. . .*

Tiny bodies left behind
You know their mama doesn't mind
Because it's spider feeding time again
Eight legs, six legs, five or four
One, toe, three and sometimes more
Left there in the painted door for you
*. . .*

When the sun shoos out the night
Your fuzzy little friends take flight
Where do they go. They're out of sight
Be back when the sun goes down
Just leave a little light around
They will return without a sound for you

(C) 1977 ROYAL T MUSIC


HUNGRY EYES
1975

I go (He goes. . etc.) down to the honkey tonk to see the peoplethere
I'll pick me out an angel and I'll stare
And it doesn't really matter if she is alone
It's not my thot to take the lady home

*. . .HUNGRY EYES, HUNGRY EYES
I've just come to feed my HUNGRY EYES
HUNGRY EYES, HUNGRY EYES
I've just come to feed my HUNGRY EYES

Men make a lot of jokes about their women and the dark
But we don't think they're (they don't think we're) all the same
In the light she can't compete because our life has left it'smark
(In the light I can't compete. . .)
But she's (I've) found a way to win a losing game

*. . .HUNGRY EYES, HUNGRY EYES
She let's me go and feed my HUNGRY EYES
(I let him go and feed his. . .)
HUNGRY EYES, HUNGRY EYES
She can't begin to feed my HUNGRY EYES
(I can't begin to feed. . .)

Though I'm (he's) not a shy man, sometimes it seems that way
I (He) just know (knows) how easily men stray
Mistakes are often make by men who fail to realize
They just need to feed their HUNGRY EYES

HUNGRY EYES, HUNGRY EYES
I (He) just need to feed my HUNGRY EYES
Mistakes are often made by men who fail to realize
They just need to feed their HUNGRY EYES

(C) 1975 Royal T Music


I FELL IN LOVE WITH TEXAS

I was not born in Texas. I just came here for a while
You give a state like this an inch, it turns into a mile
I came to stay a day or two. It turned into a life
Now I got three hungry kids and one Texas wife
I FELL IN LOVE WITH TEXAS. . . .What else could I do?
I FELL IN LOVE WITH TEXAS when I fell in love with you

I really hate to sing so late, the night bird sings so sweet
The crickets and the bull frogs, they all got that Texas beat
There's a lot of moisture in the air, but I can stand the heat
Of this big flat land, my guitar in my hand, I'm counting my feet
*. . .*

You've seen your bug collections. I bet I've seen more
Fling 'round my porch light, at night. Circling on the floor
I've learned to live with the chigger mites, down around my shoes
And the feeling of a fresh mosquito bite is a feel I never loose
*. . .*

Every night the moon's so bright, it couldn't be too far
There was a time, it took a week to drive across Texas in a car
When you have seen what I have seen, there's no place else to go
From the Oklahoma border to the Gulf of Mexico
*. . .*

I was not born in Texas but I love her just the same
It seems there's so much music written in her name
Just check a map, read a history book and you will see
Why the old lone star is dug down so far inside of you and me
*. . .*

I was not born in Texas, but my grand daddy was
People say, "That don't transmit!" Well, I believe it does
And down around Comanche, there are others just like me
Take a weekend off sometime and drive down there and see

(C) 1975 ROYAL T MUSIC


BENEATH THE AUGUST MOON
1976

BENEATH THE AUGUST MOON
My Summer Love is shed
Once again I'm left to ponder
What we said

Was it with words or smile
My heart was taken
I should know but can't get beyond
I'm forsaken

Father of mountains
You've washed me thru the years
Consider your child now
And wash away her tears

White River rapids
Pound out
All but the present
Help me stop asking
Where his welcoming smile went

AMEN

Rose Kempton wrote a poem and I arranged it and wrote the music.

(C) 1977 ROYAL T MUSIC


CEDRIC ALLRUNNER/BLACKHAWK
74/76

(The opening words on the record are different. I rewrote the 1st verse after Rush Beasley said to me, "I can tell it's about Indians or something." I set the scene but too late to help the LP. Lyle Lovette learned the recorded version and I have heard him sing it that way. He can do it any way he wants to do it. I just wish he would put it on one of his records.)

Albuquerque, '74. I pulled off the road. I opened the door
I said, "Hop in fellow if you're needing a ride.
You got nothing to fear. I got nothing to hide."
I could tell he'd been drinking. He could hardly walk
He dropped thru the door and he started to talk
He looked at his hands and he started to cry
He said, "Nobody cares if I live or die. . .
*. . . Just an Indian, drunken Indian
Just an Indian, drunken Indian."
He said, "I'm Cedric Allrunner
I'm a Black Hawk."

He said, "I got a son. He is a doctor.
Pick my brain. Pick my lock. Turn
Muddy water into liquor. Make me sick. Make me sick. Her
Daddy was a Choctaw warrior. let me tell you how your
History book into pieces. One man lives and another man ceases.
*. . .*

He said, "I got a son. He's a football player.
He kicks it here and he throws it there.
He hasn't even got a pony
But check his cheek and you'll find it bony.
Take this ring. Take it well. What the heaven. What the hell.
I got two. You got none. Take it from me boy. Please don't run.
*. . .*

He said, "Picture that. Picture this. Thy to walk. Try to piss.
Try to stand. Try to move. I got nothing left to prove.
Served my country, served her fine, spilled my blood out n t line
I watched it run. I watched it curdle. I'm the son of the moon
I'm the brother of the turtle.
*. . .*

Pour the water in the pot. Set it up. Burn it hot.
Pour the coffee in the water. Guadalcanal was quite a slaughter.
German army try to hear. Stick my tongue down in their ear.
Kill the Jap. Kill the deer. I'm so drunk I got no fear.
*. .*

(C) 1977 Royal T Music


I'M AN EAGLE
Feb 17,1975
(A song for my brother Joe. He rode a Beech Craft Bonanza into a forest in Wyoming a few years ago. After I wrote this song he bought the vanity plate that said IMN EGL)

I'M AN EAGLE
I'm an arrow
I'm a swallow
I'm a sparrow

And I feel the wind crossing my feathers in the morning
Flying high above the fields, I swoop down without a warning
Do do dooot do doot doo. . .
- *

And I find a thermal and I ride it high
Incredible is normal when you're in the sky

I build my nest high up on a ridge crest
I stand the test, doing what I do best
I build my nest high up on a ridge crest
I fly East and I fly West(2)
* - *

And I tuck my legs up underneath my body. I don't need 'em
Creatures looking for direction, I can lead 'em
* - *

(C)1977 ROYAL T MUSIC


BALI HI


BALI HI, at Sixth and Broadway
Just a little place where people go
To have a quiet drink
Listen to the band and think
Maybe meet a friend, you never know

I said, "Hi. I'm kind of lonely.
My wife and I just had a fight.
Been married seven years.
We got three kids, now it appears
I need someone to talk to tonight

She said, "Hi. I'm kind of thirsty.
I could sure enjoy something cold.
My interest is stirred
If you'll let me add a word
That's the same story I could have told.

I said, "Say. You understand then
She said, "Of course I do. We're a lot the same.
I've been married seven years
I got three kids, now it appears
I need someone to talk to tonight

"Drink up, you all. It's time to go now
The band's all packed up
I'm gonna turn out the lights
I've been married seven years
Got three kids, now it appears
It's time to go on home tonight."

- repeat verse one -

(C)1975 Royal T Music


FEATHERS IN THE WIND

December 7/8 1975
(A song for Carolyn Opitz. My writing life began as notes to her in high school)

. . .She lives above the ocean. She lives above the crowd
Her eye is on the sparrow and her mind is in a cloud
She wrestles with the question, Yes, she asks herself at times
Does it really matter if it always rhymes. . .
She's a poet, she's a poet
You can see it in her eyes
Yeah, all the pretty lies of a poet. . .

Who would think a boy of seventeen could meet a girl
And learn enough from her to change his vision of the world
Learn from her at childhood's end the meaning of a friend
And live to look back on it all as
FEATHERS IN THE WIND

Today I blame myself for what I didn't say
And ignorance is no excuse. I look at it that way.
Harboring a rumor was my part of the sin
And to try and change it now's like chasing
FEATHERS IN THE WIND

Well, her years went by and so did I as did a husband or two
And with my pride all laid aside, I'll tell it now to you
I believed the whole damned story. I believed it to the end
Her words they linger in my ears like
FEATHERS IN THE WIND
She said, What night? What fireplace? She said, What friend?
I said, Keren told me, Carolyn. It's foolish to pretend.
Then she said,It never happened.I've done nothing to defend.
That's when I knew I'd scattered
FEATHERS IN THE WIND

We all know, when we accuse someone, we ought to do it to
their face. It's wrong to go assuming guilt when there is
no evidence to trace. And it's best that you be careful,
what you believe about a friend
Unless you think it's easy catching
FEATHERS IN THE WIND

(C)1977 Royal T Music



I'D BE GLAD TO LET YOU LOVE ME
1974, after a scene I saw in the Leather Ball Saloon one night while Texas Weather was playing.

I'd be glad to let you love me
If you'll just hold me for a while
You can take your time and linger
I will not demand a smile
I'd be glad to let you touch me
If you'll just hold me for a while
I'm hungry like a woman,
But I'm lonely like a child

Children die when they're lonely
Women cry, you know they're only human
My, oh my, oh my
You don't have to talk or listen
You can forget me when I'm gone
But tonight I need somebody
Who is looking/lonely for someone
I won't ask you for tomorrow
I won't ask you for your name
You don't have to try to please me
I know that would be a game
*. . .*

You don't have to try to please me
If you'll just hold me, that will do
Just to know I've been your pleasure
Is all I ask of you (changing to key of A)
So come on while I am able
To control my bitter tears
I can hear, my heart is pounding
As it's drowning out the fears
*. . .*

MALE response. . .
I'll be glad to hold you darling. But I can't just love you for a while
You see, I've never met a woman who could touch me like a child
All the dams I've tended are overflowing with your tears
By the time they are all mended they will have washed away the years

DUET
I'd be glad to let you love me if you'll just hold me for a while
We could take our time and linger, we could both enjoy a smile
I'd be glad the let you touch me if you'll just hold me for a while
I'm hungry for/like a woman who is lonely like a child.

(C) 1976 Royal T Music


SHE DOESN'T THINK WE CAN MAKE IT
October 17 1975
She doesn't think we can make it
She doesn't think you can take it
She'll do what she can to break it
If she can't have me, she'd rather see me alone

She asked me into her mind and
She knew the things I would find and
Said we were two of a kind and
She said that she was a diamond and I was her mount
She said that she was water and I was her fount
She said that she was Woman and I was her man and

She asked me into her heart and
Said that we never should part and
She'd had someone do our chart and
She said that she was a star and I was her sky
She said that she'd always wondered and I'd shown her why
She said that she was a dreamer and I was her dream

She said so many things. . .so many things. . .

She doesn't think we can make it
She doesn't think you can take it
She'll do what she can to break it

I'll do what I can to make it
You do what you can to take it
We'll do what we can to break it

Woo, Woo, Woo. . .

This song has something to do with Rose Kempton.

(C) 1977 Royal T Music


I LIVE WITH REBECCA
(Thoughts of Becky Jarrell plus a book called Logo Therapy added up to this...)

I live with Rebecca
I keep her by my side
I live with Rebecca
With her I do abide

Some people never see
Light at their door
While others, finding their fill
Want no more

One day he blew it
But he never knew it
No one has told him
To this day

He doesn't show it
Because he doesn't know it
His Rebecca's gone away
*. . .*

musical interlude

repeat first verse

(C)1977 ROYAL T MUSIC



.........................................................................................


Que Pasooriginated as a cd in 2000


Que Paso
I wrote this song after reading the Novel THE STONE RAFT which was later made into a movie. I traveled to Spain to play a small part in that movie in the summer of 2001.

The man on the radio said we were falling apart, Que pasa?
The words on the front of the paper said we were drifting away, Que Pasa?
Nunca me ah gustado la gasolina(I never was that fond of Gasoline)
Me rio quando el buay alla la macina (please excuse my spelling)
(I laugh to see the ox pull the machine)
La risa de los ninos se esta muriando, esta muriendose, Que paso?
(The laughter of the children is dying. What's happening?

I'm sorry if I fail to find the news within the news
One stormy night I dreamed I snatched the hand of peace
from the jaws of the peacekeepers.

And as I push the pillow from my bed I can't recall.
Is it my memory o es me memoria?

The voices that speak for my heart tell me I'm breaking away,
drifting away. Que paso?


OUT THERE SOMEWHERE

Here eyes were blurry
Her face was painted
Her hair was died black
Her bag was heavy
And she said something
I asked her to repeat it
She said, "Stop the car.
I thought I could trust you."
I pulled it over and I waited.

If you will tell me where you are going
Then I will take you there.
I'm in no hurry.
She turned to me and spoke so softly
"What did I do wrong?"
I said, "I don't know."
The night was dark and getting darker.

Out there somewhere numb and fading
Void of love, too hurt for hating
It's all over but the waiting
Out there somewhere without a notion
Adrift on some indifferent ocean
Without direction, only motion.

I drove on home and folded my pillow
Tossed my body as dreams unfolded
Sun come shining on clean clothes waiting
I hit the highway. Pulled down my sun visor
There she is standing out by the highway
Where she is going she does not know
But she is befuddled by the notion
that so many people know where they are going

Out there somewhere numb and fading
Void of love, too hurt for hating
It's all over but the waiting
Out there somewhere without a notion
Adrift on some indifferent ocean
Without direction, only motion.



That Night Long Ago

I sit on a bench on the banks of the Brazos
Remembering a night long ago
The swans paddle slowly, the traffic hums lowly
Things I didn't notice that night

And sweat drips from the joggers with musical earmuffs
Girls swing tethered breasts to and fro
Chemical toilets, gum wrappers, spent cigarettes
Things I didn't notice that night long ago

A little girl yells, "Hey! Come look, there's a turtle."
To parents with faces aglow
Cutworms eat the pecan tree, stripping it tenderly
But I didn't notice that night

And couples with children
And childrenless couples with k9s almost in tow
Crawl out of cars comfortable
Almost affordable
Things I didn't notice that night long ago.

So I grab my guitar and I search it for memories
A song that we both used to know
My fingers are awkward, guitar facing backward
But who would have noticed that night

So I find me a pay phone and I dial up your number
You answer and I say, "Hello."
At first you don't know me and then you remember
When we slept in your Fairlane that night long ago.

And you were so comfortable. Almost affordable
When we slept in your Fairlane that night long ago.

And the difference I'd say is between night and day.


THE LAST TIME

The last time we said Good-bye I didn't even look her in the eye.
The last time I kissed her mouth I didn't even think about some day
I'd have to do without.

If I never see her again I don't know why
If I never see her again I don't know when

The last time I held her hand
I didn't know that time was sand, slipping away
The last time I watched her smile I didn't know
I watched a child, slipping away

If I never see her again I don't know why
If I never see her again I don't know when

The last time it got real loud
She was hurt and I was proud
I wonder what she's thinking now
The last time she held me tight was just like any other night
Who's holding her now?

If I never see her again I don't know why
If I never see her again I don't know when

The last time we said good-bye I didn't even look her in the eye


THE BRIGHTER CANDEL
John and I were going door to door in Portland, Oregon asking if we could put a campaign sign in people's front yards. As I paced the streets above the river I remembered something "our candidate for judge" had said at dinner the night before about his late wife.

The brighter candle knows the truth
in golden glow of darkest sun
It knows there's no eternal youth
The brighter candle

So many, rushing, go nowhere
On bikes and skates with silver hair
It's like a dream she once was here
The brighter candle

Though you pay your debt of admiration
You know your tears won't wash the hurt away
All your heady talk of inspiration
Just adds up to one more lonely day

We've all known one, he or she
And often shared the memory
We bow our head and bend or knee
The brighter candle

Though you paid your debt of admiration
You know your tears won't wash the hurt away
And all your heady talk of inspiration
Just adds up to one more lonely day

All the friends that fan the flame
Enjoyed the light
Now share the blame
I've heard them say, "It's such a shame."

The brighter candle always knows
The wind consumes it as it blows
We must accept that's how it goes.


Gramma's Shampoo
(Capo at 3rd fret)

1. (Bm7) Gramma's sham (Am7) poo (Bm7) is washing my (Am7) hair

And I (G) hope it will (D) notice that (C) Gramma's not (Bm7) there

(CM7) It's the kind that knows just what to do

Says it right there on the bottle, sham...(G) poo

(CM7) Automatically adjusts to your hair's cleansing needs

How does it do that? Sham.. (G) poo



2. (Bm7) Gramma's sham... (Am7) poo (Bm7) is washing my (Am7) hair

And I (G) hope it re... (D) members that (C) Gramma's not (Bm7) there

(CM7) Kathy got the washer, Silky got the dryer, Joel got the ca... (G) noe

(CM7) River got the shot gun, Toy got the rifle

and he got the arrowheads (G) too


(Em) All the boxes stacked out in the garage nobody wants to go (C) thru



ENDING (Bm7) Gramma's sham... (Am7) poo (Bm7) is washing my (Am7) hair

And I (G) hope it will (D) notice that (C) Gramma's not (Bm7) there.

Alternate chords for Last line

And I (G) hope it will (D) notice that (Am) Gramma's not (Em) there

(C) 2000 Royal T Music



Hello

You're some kind of prophet I'll give you that
But what I'm needing now is a nurse
An emergence entrance, can you show me that
Before my condition gets worse

Hello I just said good-bye
And I feel like a bird with no sky
You said I should call if I ever hit the wall
Hello

You said, "Love is a healer."
I'll give it a chance.
Can love heal what time can't forget
It's the hole in my dreams and the rip in the pants
Of a world that I don't seem to fit

Hello, I just said "Good-bye"
And I feel like a bird with no sky
You said I should call if I ever hit the wall
Hello

You're some kind of prophet I'll give you that
But what I'm needing now is a nurse
An emergence entrance, can you show me that
Before my condition gets worse



HOLDINGS OF THE HEART
This was written for a movie by that name but it wasn't used in the movie.

The heart can hold a lot of things
The sunshine and the flowers
The chill that springs the falling leaves
Winter's darkest hours
The rains that quench the thirsty earth
The buds that sprout and bloom
Sometimes it tries to hold too much
And there isn't enough room

The heart can hold a multitude
Family and friends
There are things that life will give
And things it only lends
A wife becomes a mother
A son becomes a man
There are things a heart can't hold
And still it thinks it can

The holdings of the bank are cold
Holding hands are warm
The holdings of the mind are thoughts
that in the moment form
The hands that hold the tools
that build the brushes for our art
None are as enduring as the holdings of the heart

(The holdings of the heart are self-renewing
On holdings of the heart, high interest paid.
But holdings sometimes must be liquidated
Yet we stay)

The heart can hold the music
The voices of the time
The heart collects the little things
The pennies and the dimes
The heart can try to measure the stature of a dream
Pounding like the waters on the stones that block the stream

The holdings of the bank are cold
Holding hands are warm
The holdings of the mind are thoughts
that in the moment form
The hands that hold the tools
that build the brushes for our art
None are as enduring as the holdings of the heart
None are self-renewing like the holdings of the heart


YOU

There's a place in my mind
Where your face had a home
Back before you walked into my life
Before you were a known

There's a note in my song
That I knew fit somewhere
Though the journey was long
I hoped I wouldn't be wrong
You would be meeting me there

Every longing I knew proved there was you
Just as I know there's water because I get thirsty
I knew there was you

One day SIlky was mentioning songs to sing at her wedding.
I pulled this song out and realized it needed more so I wrote
another verse and chorus.

There's a thought that I hold
About a love that can be
It's a thought about you
It's a thought about me

There's a place in my mind
SOme will say, "An ideal."
'Neith a cloud, silver-lined
Down a road that will wind
To a plcee that is real

Every longing I knew
Said there was you
And though the questions inspired
They just left me tired
Until the answer was you.

Instrumental break

ALl the questions inside
Even tears couldn't sooth
Not to run, not to hide
A need undenied
And the answer was you

Every longing I knew
Proved there was you
Just as I know there's water becasue I get thirsty
I knew there was you



PIE IN THE SKY

I trip and fall by the road
beneath the sun on the snow
Lost in darkness so thick I can feel it
And the things I was taught and the things that I know
are confusing what's right and what's real

I'm returning a ring to the store where I bought it
Rejected by woman and god
And I lie cold and wet, thinking, "Is this my lot?"
Face-down in the slush and the sod.

I don't want no pie in the sky
I need some help right now
And I don't fear I'll burn when I die
I fear the here and now

We all know heaven waits
Golden streets, pearly gates
Why does that sound so cold?
And the pit for lost souls
Sulphur smoke, glowing coals
A fear we've all been sold

I don't want no pie in the sky
I need some help right now
And I don't fear I'll burn when I die
I fear the here and now
A fear we've all been sold

Then a voice echoes thru all the dogma and rules
It rings so clear and bright
And it says, "Come to me. Thru my eyes you can see
what things are true and right.

Oh, the voice is so clear.
It brings joy to my ear
I'll be your sacrifice
Put your burden on me.
We will be family today in paradise.

I don't want no pie in the sky
And I don't fear I'll burn when I die

So I pick myself up and I brush off the snow
That's reflecting the sun so bright
And where ever I am and where ever I go
now I reflect the light

Now it's been forty years
I've seen sorrow and tears
But I've always been renewed
And the joys of each day
Keep the darkness away
When threatening clouds intrude



FOREVER YOUNG/FOREVER FOOLISH

Had he only known that his fate was his own
And he held it right there in his hand
There was no guarantee what his children would be
Some things were beyond his command

Like many who plan, a disappointed man
Who's pretty petite had grown fat
He was smart and sincere and had just enough fear
To have known it would turn out like that

And Jimmy's smile grew larger year after year
He couldn't talk but he could hear
And sometimes it seemed he'd understand
As he sat with his bucket and shovel in hand

What was in store was a whole lot more
He had not even a trace
Had he but known perhaps he'd have flown
Like a dog on a track in a race

He had a scheme or wo it would seem
He thought he would blow it all off
He'd be on his own when the kids had all grown
He did not hear the wind scoff

And Jimmy's smile grew larger year after year
He couldn't talk but he could hear
And sometimes it seemed he'd understand
As he sat with his bucket and shovel in hand



AFTER WE'RE BROKEN

After we're broken we'll turn from a fight
Ask what it pays and not if it's right
Reaching for balance while falling from grace
Try to fall from the light without losing our face

After we're broken we know it's too late
We don't trim our lamps. We don't knock at the gate
Pressing our ear to the crack in the wall
We know we're straining for whispers but we're missing the ball

After we're broken we'll sit thru the show
When we're tired and we're sure that it's moving too slow
We know it's the truth. No more and no less
We nod when they curse. We sneeze when they bless.

After we're broken the songs are all true
They all tell what we feel they all say what we do
We all keep on running though it's not for the prize
Because we run from the past and from the smoke in our eyes

After we're broken we can sleep anywhere
It becomes so important what we eat what we wear
Our minds must have something to follow away
From the dreams of the past of what we lost yesterday

After we're broken we cannot be hurt
We turned from the sky after we tasted the dirt
Only the broken are broken in rhyme
And what is broken in spirit can't be mended in time

After we're broken we're unlikely to blame
Our folks for failing for now we've done the same
We learn why so many decide to submit
They turn loose of their dream. There's no future in it.

After we're broken we can be nonchalant
We will take what we're given because we've lost what we want
Chasing a rainbow is fine for a lark
But where is the bow when it rains in the dark?



PRETTY THING
This guy at work said...Well, listen to the song!

She hears the termites in the wall while he's sleepin'
He can't even hear the phone from outside
She smells the cigarettes from neighbors out smokin'
He's got a nose but best she figures it died.

She likes the bed made up he leaves it messy
She's always cold he's always hot
She locks the doors he leaves them standing wide open
She cranks the windows shut but he'd rather not

She's such a pretty thing
What does she see in him

He eats a plate-full while she's taking a nibble
She likes to taste her food. He gobbles it down
She runs the air he hangs his arm out the window
She's next to modest while he's more of a clown

She's such a pretty thing
What does she see in him

She drives a Volvo he likes his old Chevy
She cleans the supercharger he mows the lawn
She gets unanimous while he's always iffy
You got the point by now so we will move on

This guy at work said, "What a jerk.
She's such a pretty thing, what does she see in him?"

Yeah there they go, holding hands and just smiling and acting silly.



EASY ANSWERS

Easy answers fogging up my mind
Easy answers taking up my time

You tell me what I feel
What is right and what is real
What do you know?
You say like all the rest
What is worst is what is best
What do you know?

Easy answers fogging up my mind
Easy answers taking up my time

You say that I'm in sin
What is out and what is in
What do you know?
The vision that I knew
Was real to me but false to you
What do you know?

Easy answers fogging up my mind
Easy answers taking up my time

I fear the truth unkind
That hope's in vain and love is blind
What do you know?
I don't know but I've been told
The streets of heaven are lined with condos
What do you know?

Easy answers fogging up my mind
Easy answers taking up my time
Easy answers coming down on me
Easy answers don't mean that much to me



THE HAND OF GOD
This song, I wrote for and performed in a movie called SURVEILLANCE. Available on video.

The hand of God reached down and made Adam
He said, Don't eat the apple but you can eat the plum.
Then he made him Eve. The snake did deceive her
They disobeyed when they should have prayed.

The hand of God reached down and stopped Abraham
He saved the life of Isaac but he doomed the lamb
It was sure a relief. Saved him from some grief.
Wouldn't it be grand if God would show his hand?

Well, I'd like to feel the hand of God on my shoulder
Oh, maybe it would help me be a little bit bolder
What a comfort it would be to feel him here with me
Wouldn't it be grand just to feel his hand on my shoulder?

...................................................................

SOLITARY WALK

YOU CAN'T GO BACK
(I added music and a chorus to a poem by Carolyn Opitz in 1959. Our first song.)

I'll never want to let you go although we're far apart
Our love will linger on I know and live within my heart

Someday you must return to me and start anew with dreams
For only then how right we'll see were all our tender schemes

You can't go back!
You can't go back.

And darling while so far away, don't forget to send
All the love you once did say, for my heart to mend.

You can't go back.
You can't go back.


Hey!

Hey! Yeah! Unnh, unnh,! Hey! Where you going? Hey! Think I'll go with you! What you thinking? That's what I think too!

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo, as I walked out in Laredo one day, I spied a young man all wrapped in white linen, wrapped in white linen as cold as they clay.

Hey! Testing? Hey! Testing? One, Two! One, Two! Hey! Where you going? I think I'll go with you. What you thinking. That's what I'm thinking too.


Lisa's Fingernail

Lost in a tangle of words, her life is a shambles, her dreams are in tatters. Her thots are a garland of thorns, her wounds are internal, her smile for survival. And her breasts are so large she has to hold them when she runs.


DREAM BOOK

Don't wake me up. Can't you see that I'm sleeping. Turn out the light. I'm bound in a dream. Don't raise your voice. I'm crossing the border. Take a note from me. Write it down. I will tell you the words. There in my dreambook at the top of the bed it's got stories that you never heard. Don't wake me up. Can't you see that I'm sleeping. Turn out the light. I'm bound in a dream. Well, I was in the desert climbing some huge bridges, explaining to someone that they are the perfect super structure for buildings. All they needed to do was build the walls. I told them that someday it would be taken for granted. They would use these structures for a duel purpose. Don't wake him up. Can't you see that he's dreaming. Don't pull the plug. We got plenty of time. Write it in your dreambook. Write it in your dreambook. I awakened from being awake in a dream and remembered that I had been thinking in my dream that it was foolish not to have brought my video camera. The colors of the sky and many other things were spectacular but I couldn't remember what they are. That's what you get for not writing it down, Buddy. Yeah, you tell 'em man.. Well a pretty girl drives up to a country stop sign. I run to the car and grab her and open her door and drag her down off the road by the hair and when I get her down to the creek under the bridge I take out a toothbrush and I force her to brush her teeth in front of me. So, I told him I had everything under control. Then he pointed to the pavement. There was a wet spot and a flattened lizard. Then I could see that he flattened lizard was still alive. It ran up over a little raised median and I followed and it turned out to be a horney toad.

(Rabyn on Bass and Bill Pohl plays guitar. I took a piece they had done and added the vocal and words)


JONAH

Jonah lives under the bridge

He's there up off the ground
His world is looking down
Bycycles pass him by
Children ask parents why

Jonah lives under the bridge

No insurence policy on Jonah's oddesy
Send in the scholar see Jonah in squalor

Jonah lives under the bridge

His roof is the pathway the tires all travel
The people with places to go
His floor is the grit and the sand and the gravel
The rain and the wind and the cold

Jonah lives under the bridge

For those with th will to earn up the dollar
The people with something to buy
Jonahj finds cardboard to burn up the hours
To warm up the smoke in his eyes

Jonah lives under the bridge

(And then a reporter from the Star Telegram wrote a story about him and the guy from the city ran him off.)

PRUNING OLIVES

I am a child of Judah
And the mark of Cain is on me
I'm a fugitive in every place I go

And my name is Joseph Freidman
And I tend an olive orchard
On a hillside just a short walk from my home

There the silver trunks are ancient
And the olive branch is fruitful
But the breeze that shakes the leaves still whispers low,
"Where is God? Where is God?"


I am a child of Esau
I am Ali Abed Jabar
I once would harvest olives near my home

I would prune the trees in winter
When the sap seeped deep in Gaza
And the children woke each day to throw their stones

But the soldiers came at midnight
With their power saws remarking
And now the sap has nowhere left to go
"Where is God? Where is God?"


My name is Jimmy Taylor
And I am a Future Farmer
And my project is nine trees out by the road

And the trees have been neglected
All these many years untended
A home now to a solitary crow

So I climb with saw and clippers
Up into the brittle thicket
I'm busy choosing what will stay and what will go

And I note my meager progress
And I wonder if I'll ever
Rid the olive trees of dead wood, I'm so slow

And I read the Sunday paper
And I daily read my Bible
And I see the scars of pruning down below


PIECES

He stands outside her window
Hour after hour he watches
Piece by piece he sees her disappearing

Once she was his flower and he was her fellow
Who can say what comes between lovers?

He takes his blame for reasons they're apart
And thinks it's hard she's selling pieces of her heart.
Pieces of his heart

He stands outside her window
Thinks of the time he's wasting
Piece by piece he feels her disappearing

Once she was his flower and he was her fellow
Who can say what comes between lovers?
(Amsterdam 1988)


The Last Woman on Earth

You will admit, of course, that the life of the world is your life. What you know of history is your history and what you know of the future is your future. Well, this goes for women, we must presume. The women you have access to, to state it bluntly, are the only women on earth. And if there is only one woman you have access to, she is the only woman on earth. And what happens when this woman slams the only door in the world on the only face you have in this world. Well, you sink into the ocean. The only ocean in the world and you begin to exhaust the only breath you have left in the world and you begin to see other worlds and you begin to realize that that last breath in the worldis more important to you than the last woman on earth.

(Rabyn James & Bill Pohl did this piece and I added the reading.)


THE DRAGONFLY

The Dragon Fly - I was sitting at a red light at the corner of Northwest highway and some ragged street just east of Grapevine yesterday when my eyes were caught by a dragonfly. I guess he’d been hit by a car. He was broken. He would lift off the ground, twisting and turning and then a rush of turbulant air, created by a passing car would wash out and he would whack back into the black top. He was one of those big dragonflies. The kind with the huge irredescent multifacited eyes and the pencil-slinder body with the four cellophane leaf wings. What I think of as a prehistoric creature. A left over from a time when there were still turtles in the creek and cat tails on the bank. When there were polly wogs seething in the puddles. A fantasy creature who’s only observable function is to fascinate people with nothing better to think about. And childen. The kind that teams up with another dragon fly and does that cartoon buddy ride. I know it’s mating but that’s not all it is. They could crawl on the ground and do that. The kind that fits into an animated movie about dinasours but it’s hard to fit in with back yards and pets and tvs and scooters. The guy that invented helecopters must have been watching dragon flies. If dragon flies made a noise I’m sure it would sound like a helecopter. War movies with all those choppers coming over the trees always makes me think of dragon flies. I guess with all the talk on tv lately about bravery and sacrifice and the struggle to come and the sadness in the air there were some words and phrases just waiting for application a little closer to home because as I watched that brave creature struggle to go on with his life defying traffic and injury I was touched. And as these thoughts jangled in my mind a red Ford double-cab pickup pulling a red trailer laden with plastic pipe and landscaping tools and the dragon fly disappeared as if by magic. (2000 - part of my response to 9/11)

SWEET YOUNG THING

He lays out a freshly pressed Arrow, clean sox and his new underwear. He brushes his teeth with toothpaste. It seems there's a charge in the air. And he thinks about that Sweet Young Thing and how she trembled the night before. He breaks out a deodorant soap bar. He bathes and he washes his hair. As he dries off, he shivers a little, as he thinks where he's going from there. And he thinks about that Sweet Young Thing and how he trembled the night before. His shirt ripples with every muscle. He pulls on his highest heeled boot. And his heart skips a beat as he buckles his belt. He picks the lint off his suit. And he thinks about that Sweet Young Thing and what she promised the night before. His pants seem too tight as he puts out the cat and turns off the light. And the start of the engine sends shivers up his spine as he faces the night and he thinks he loves that Sweet Young Thing. And of how they trembled the night before. He walks to the door and he pauses. He swallows. He fingers his hair. Feels a flush as he touches the knocker. He waits. There's a sting in the air. And he can almost taste that Sweet Young Thing and he trembles like the night before. His eyes reflect only a doorway. And his hopes and his fears, they collide. And if you painted a freshly tossed salad, that's what he would look like inside. And confusion and anger seem to entwine like they did the night before. He swallows. He knocks, this time, harder. In a sweat, he unbuttons his coat. He turns and he starts for the sidewalk. He stops. He must leave her a note. And he thinks about that Sweet Young Thing and how she trembled the night before. Like oatmeal, the words stick together. In his mind, the clear pictures come hard. His fountain pen shakes out its message on the back of a fresh business card. He wants to tell that Sweet Young Thing it's all right and maybe more. Quickly, his eyes search the mailbox for a place that's almost out of view. And she found it the following Wednesday and she cried when she read, "I love you." And sometimes he remembers that Sweet Young Thing and he trembles like before.

(Peggy on guitar & drums. Harry Nass on keyboards. Peggy produces.)


That Same Conversation

Linda lies listening, quiet as a mouse. She can hear their voices echoing all thru the house. She listens sadly as Mommy and Daddy are having that same conversation. I'll take the Rambler. You take the Chevrolet. I'll find a room that isn't very far away. In case you may need me. Sometime you may need me, you and the children. Roger remembers a time in the past he could keep up with his thots. They didn't run so fast. Tossing and turning, his bridges are burning, inflamed by that same conversation. I'll take the Rambler and leave you. I’ll find a room far away. You don't need me. You don't need me. Need me. Need me. Need me. Tiny Dorie is dreaming. Understands not a word, but she's deeply affected by what she has heard. Not understanding what this life is demanding. Absorbing that same conversation. It's you as an infant. It's me as a man and if it's true we're doing the best that we can. Tell me, what does that mean to a child who is hearing the words in that same conversation.

(April 1 1974. Gary Ogan and Bill Lamb played the instruments and sang harmony. Rex Studio, Portland, Oregon. Trumpet and steel guitar added at Sundance Studio in Dallas.)


WOULD YOU FORSAKE A MEMORY
December 1977 From SONGS FOR GAY LADD

G Am Em C D
If what we do is what we are-And every pain will leave a scar
G Am C D G
Then love must leave a beauty mark-A light 2 guide us (when it's)in the dark
Em G Em G
& tenderness, a hope for more-And trust, a key to every door
Am C D G
What comfort them if we should flee-Would you forsake a memory?

I don't know the future of all that we did
But the past, it is known though the future is hid
And I can't trust the future of a misconstrued past
It's like setting an arm in a crooked hard cast
Tho the price may be turmoil, I choose to be free
And never forsake a memory

Would it make my life simple just to say it was wrong
For the sake of a rhyme or a line in a song
Is there nothing more pressing than calming the storm
Will pretending make ice when the water is warm
And how can I hide when I'm hiding from me
I won't forsake a memory

Repeat chorus...

(C) 1990 Royal T Music


Forever Eyes

Let's just say it's twenty years from now. Your hair's turned grey and I'm still alive somehow. And all is lost we've found that money buys. Will I still see forever in your eyes? (2002)


THE SOLITARY WALK

And tho I follow in the footsteps of my friends
And the road I walk down has been tramped into stone
All the tears that I've cried
Will have turned into dust
And my life will pass like a shadow into the shade
(La sombra a la sombra)

And when the weight of the sun on my eyes
Is replaced by the cool silence of the tunnel
Like a lamb with a broken leg
I will be left behind
And the cries of your newborn will steal your thoughts from me

And when I lie beneath my little cross
And your ridged wheels rattle my bones
I will trust you to leave me
With peace in your hearts
For that will be the end of my world
(Por eso sera el fin de me mundo)

(Chorus lyric is some combining of...
It's a Solitary Walk/Caminante Solitario)
(Isaba, Spain 2000 - on location for THE STONERAFT)
when not otherwise noted, all songs (C)2003 Royal T Music

contact: jamesmichaeltaylor@email.com