LYRICS, POETRY AND PROSE 170731

FEATURED POSTS

July 31, 2017

A place to share some words of beauty, inspiration, and fun. Enough of love. What’s better than love? Booze. When all else fails, you can count on booze to get you through the night. If love doesn’t work for you, maybe a shot of something a little less ethereal can. Today we have three Tennessee songs that celebrate booze – two different songs about Jack Daniels Whiskey and one about moonshine. The last song was the theme song from a 1958 regional cult film entitled Thunder Road, starring Robert Mitchum. If you were a teenage Southern boy during that period – as I was – you knew all the words. We hope you enjoy. Click on the name of the piece to get a video or more information.

Thank you Jack Daniel’s Old Number Seven
Tennessee Whiskey got me drinkin’ in heaven
An’a I know I can’t stay here too long
‘Cause I can’t go a week without doin’ wrong
(Old Number Seven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Drinkin’ in heaven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Old Number Seven)
Without doin’ wrong
(Drinkin’ in heaven)

– Old Number Seven Group: The Devil Makes Three; Writer: Peter Bernhard

Bogie Bogart, he cried, “Laureen, let’s sail the sea”
Honey, when I’m dyin’, have another drink of that stuff for me
But now ya find him in Lynchburg all the time
But they keep him waiting at the end of the line

At that old honky tonk people prayed
My God, look at all the parts he played, I’m talkin’ about it

Jack Daniel’s, old number seven
Tennessee, sour-mashed whiskey
Jack Daniel’s, old number seven
Tennessee, sour-mashed whiskey
He used to be so frisky

– Jack Daniels (Old Number Seven) Singer: Jerry Lee Lewis; Songwriters: Tony Colton, Charles Hodges, Albert Lee & Raymond Barry Smith

Roaring out of Harlan went the whippoorwill
He shot the gap at Cumberland and screamed through Maynardsville
With G men oh his taillights and roadblocks up ahead
That mountain boy took roads that even angels fear to tread
Blazin’ right through Knoxville on down Kingston Pike
It was just outside of Bearden where they made that fatal strike
He left the road at ninety that’s all there is to tell
The devil sent the moonshine and the driver straight to hell

And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road
Thunder was his engine, white lightning was his load
And there was moonshine, moonshine, to quench the devil’s thirst
The Law, they never got him, ’cause the devil got him first
Law, they never got him, ’cause the devil got him first

The Ballad of Thunder Road Singer: Robert Mitchum; Writers: Robert MItchum & Don Raye

News

April 17, 2024

Minor Character

Sometimes I feel like a minor character in one of those really long James Michener historic novels. I’m one of the guys they check in on a couple of times during the course of the book and one more time when he finally kicks the bucket. In truth, that suits me just fine. I don’t want to be one of the major players – those guys who lie, cheat, sleep around, make a lot of money, kill a lot of people, and then then suffer a tragic death on Christmas Eve. I just want to be me – plugging along, having some fun, loving the same woman for years, and then quietly passing away.

March 25, 2024

Cereal Killer

I have almost given up on cereal. As a younger man, I loved a sugary treat. As an old man, who has to watch his diet, I find myself checking labels on everything. Sugar is the enemy. For instance, Cap’n Crunch – a former favorite of my wife – contains: Corn Flour, Sugar, Oat Flour, Brown Sugar, Palm and/or Coconut Oil, Salt, Reduced Iron, Yellow 5, Niacinamide, Yellow 6, BHT, Thiamin, Mononitrate, Pridoxined Hydrochloride, Rioflavin, and Folic Acid. My choice: plain old Shredded Wheat. Ingredients: wheat and BHT (a harmless preservative). Not a taste treat, but at least I’ll live to tell about it

Highway Memorials

Driving across country nowadays, we notice a growing number of roadside displays – flowers, crosses, and ribbons – marking the sites where people apparently died in traffic accidents. I do understand mourning the passing of somebody you love, but I’m not sure I see the point of putting a display at the place along the road where they died. Even sadder is the fact that flowers wilt and highway trash piles up around the displays, making them just another sad reminder of life cut short.

December 5, 2023

Love Motives

I often tell my wife I love and adore her, mainly because I do and also because women like to hear the man in their life actually say the words. But during one conversation I had to confess that some times when I say it – especially when she is irked and giving me the deadly silent treatment – I am also reminding myself of that fact so I don’t start yelling and slamming doors. Is that so wrong?

Being Mortal

I am officially an old man. Sometimes I forget, then I look in the mirror and there it is. The truth is that life has its limits, and that is how it should be. There are new generations coming up, ready to step up and take our place. They are welcome to it. If you have reached old age, you have made some blunders in you life. If you think otherwise, then you are indeed a fool. You can warn the new generations about the mistakes you made, but they are oblivious. This too is as it should be. It’s their world, and it’s on them to screw it up for the generations to follow, just as we did for them.

Good Deeds

There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. It’s mostly – but not always – true. The problem with good deeds is that most people who do them expect to be appreciated. In actuality, good-deed recipients are more often resentful about it, rather than grateful. Nobody likes being the person who has to rely on the good will of others. So do good deeds for your own sake – because it makes you feel better, not because you want to be feel appreciated.

Recreational Bitching

Did you ever notice that some people – maybe more people than not – like to complain about everything? In the summertime, it’s too hot. In the wintertime it’s too cold. Health care is too expensive. Young people are too rude. Old people move too slowly. There ought to be a law against anything and everything that might make one unhappy. It’s recreational bitching, and we all do it to greater or lesser extent. Maybe once in a while, it might make sense to listen to how we talk and how we think. Most of us are just doing the best that we can.