Here are all the lyrics to all the songs on the new Semi-Twang recording The Why & The What For. Click on the artwork to travel to CD Baby and buy one… Then get your hootenanny organized!
1. The Wrong Side Of The Tracks
There are flowers
And there are weeds
Nags and thoroughbreds
Lap dogs living the life of ease
And mutts that won’t get fed
There are mansions on the hill
And shacks in shanty town
Bluebloods tryin’ to look away
When poor folks come around
You can wish upon a star
But that won’t change your luck
Drop some coin down in that well
And wish that you had a buck
Some folks can fit everything they own
In a dimestore paper sack
But a man can’t help if he was born
On the wrong side of the tracks
You can’t move a mountain
If the mountain sits on you
And there is no accountin’
For the things some people do
They drop some coin down on the ground
And tell you how you should act
No, a man can’t help if he was born
On the wrong side of the tracks
2. 52 Jokers
The lion’s head is mounted on the wall
The bearskin rug beneath you starts to crawl
Oh 52 Jokers — They all know your name
On silver trays the champagne flows like wine
You rock the cash bar trying to numb your mind
Oh 52 Jokers — Find you just the same
Laugh track’s cranked up through a Marshall stack
And everything you think is feeding back
Oh 52 Jokers — They all criticize
Another toast — another glass
Another dance — just might be your last
Best man’s weaving — he’s half in the sack
The band just tried to murder Paint It Black
Oh 52 Jokers — Cut you down to size
The lights are spinning way above your head
The chandelier now hanging by a thread
Oh 52 Jokers — Wearing joker capes
The Mickey Finn is kicking in you feel
Like lying down and quitting this whole deal
Oh 52 Jokers — there is no escape
Another toast — another glass
Another dance — just might be your last
3. Au Contraire
Au contraire
I beg to disagree
You say it wasn’t you
I know it wasn’t me
Au contraire
We’re not seeing eye to eye
And now I must point out
What you have let slip by
Just a little thing
Far as you’re concerned
But I feel like
Yes I’m getting burned
Au contraire
Please let me call your bluff
You’re selling me thin air
I believe I’ve had enough
Au contraire
Looking in the horse’s mouth
And now I see the truth
I see that I want out
You just walk away
With what you haven’t earned
I’ll just chalk it up
One more thing I’ve learned
Au contraire
Just one minute of your time
While we add up two and two
And try to make it rhyme
Au contraire
Let’s just make that au revoir
Now it’s the longest day
And it’s the saddest hour
People treat you well
Everywhere you go
But the way you act
Man you’d never know
Au contraire
Au contraire
Au contraire
Au contraire
4. The More She Gets The More She Wants
Not Content
Not content with her old haunts
The more she gets
The more she gets the more she wants
Practicing
Those jibes and taunts
The more she gets
The more she gets the more she wants
Coming out
Coming out a debutant
The more she gets
The more she gets the more she wants
Like a flag
Unfurled she flaunts
The more she gets
The more she gets the more she wants
Losing sleep
Losing sleep looking gaunt
Cause what she gets
What she gets she don’t want
She steps in line
Right near the front
The more she gets
The more she gets the more she wants
The more she gets the more she wants
The more she gets the more she wants
The more she gets the more she wants
5. You Love Everybody
When you think of
Everyone you hated
seems so easy
to be jaded
But you love everybody
You love everybody
You love everybody
Like the first one
In your head
Like the last one
Up in your bed
But you love everybody
You love everybody
You love everybody
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Whooh!
Tell me baby
Honey please
Don’t you want
Want a man like me?
If you love everybody
You love everybody
You love everybody
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Whooh!
I know it
And you know I know it
6. Contents Under Pressure
Sign on your head — Contents Under Pressure
Someday you’re gonna blow sky high
People gonna point and say my my
The one that blew he was the quiet kind
Let it go now — let it go
Something’s got to give— contents under pressure
Why you want to live like you do
Building up inside of you
The big explosion it’s overdue
Let it go now — let it go
Pointing out the one you’ll get
You can’t forgive — you surely can’t forget — oh no
Saying you won’t budge — contents under pressure
How can you hold a grudge for so long
It tears you up — it brings you down
The gauge on your head it’s spinning round
Let it go now — let it go
Everyday you walk the ledge
So afraid that you might lose your edge
7. Love Interest
Yeah she’s my love interest
Yes she’s a real princess
I can call her when I’m low
And she’ll be there
She will I know
She’ll be there
She will I know
And we’re nocturnal creatures
Going to a double feature
Says she’s gonna meet me at the show
And she’ll be there
She will I know
She’ll be there
She will I know
Did I neglect to mention
She’s got all my attention?
And if there’s somewhere that we want to go
She’ll be there
She will I know
She’ll be there
She will I know
She’ll be there
She will I know
She’ll be there
She will I know
8. Making Everybody Cry
Is anybody in their right mind?
Or has this great big world gone mad?
There’s people treating people unkind
They’re making everybody sad
Did anybody see what happened?
Or was it just too much to face?
With all our troubles overlapping
It makes the world a sadder place
And I wonder why
It is this way
The way it is and it’s always been
And it’s going to stay
Now everybody make your own bed
You know that’s where you’re going to lie
I ask you keep these words in your head
Stop making everybody cry
And I wonder why
It is this way
The way it is and it’s always been
And it’s going to stay
Now everybody make your own bed
You know that’s where you’re going to lie
I ask you keep these words in your head
Stop making everybody cry
Stop making everybody cry
9. Miss Watson
Elementary Miss Watson
Let’s discuss this in my Datsun
You want love I believe I got some
Elementary Miss Watson
Young Miss Livingston I presume
Let’s slip out and take a look at the moon
My head is reeling from your perfume
Young Miss Livingston I presume
Alas Miss Yorick I know her well
Down on the beach playin’ with her shells
I hear the ocean she hears wedding bells
Alas Miss Yorick I know her well
Elementary Miss Watson
Let’s discuss this in my Datsun
You want love I believe I got some
Elementary Miss Watson
Miss Watson
Miss Watson
I believe you got some
Out in your Datsun
And you know I want some
Miss Watson
Miss Watson
Miss Watson
10. A Handsome Man
The reason why I’m walking round
Without a bloody trail
A handsome man
A handsome man
A handsome man can’t go to jail
Take a look at you average con
He’s ugly without fail
A handsome man
A handsome man
A handsome man can’t go to jail
Every single time
For every single crime
He’s gonna get away
He’s never gonna pay
Open up them iron doors
And give me back my bail
A handsome man
A handsome man
A handsome man can’t go to jail
Every single time
For every single crime
He’s gonna get away
He’s never gonna pay
Open up them iron doors
And give me back my bail
A handsome man
A handsome man
A handsome man can’t go to jail
11. Dark Out
Dark out
It’s dark out
Left me in no-man’s land and it’s dark out
Talk out
Baby talk out
Say you don’t need a scene and so you walk out
Yeah you walk out
One little thing you ought to know
One little thing before you go
Oh I love you like anything
And it’s dark out
Dark out
It’s dark out
Left me in no-man’s land and it’s dark out
Talk out
Baby talk out
Say you don’t need a scene and so you walk out
Yeah you walk out
And it’s dark out
Yeah dark out
12. Foghorn
Everything is true
That you thought was false
Things come out to get you
When the nightbird calls
And when the foghorn blows
Gonna tear down these walls
Sittin’ by myself
At the end of the pier
Cryin’ man oh man
Get me outta here
Cuz when the foghorn blows
Gonna shed another tear
To the ships at sea it’s a long long way to go
Lyin’ on the waves you can’t see the shore
Listen to the foghorn blow
Blow baby blow
It’s an S.O.S.
From some poor S.O.B.
It’s a distress signal
From some soul lost at sea
And when the foghorn blows
They’ll be comin’ after me
To the ships at sea it’s a long long way to go
Lyin’ on the waves you can’t see the shore
Listen to the foghorn blow
Blow baby blow
Everything is true
That you thought was false
Things come out to get you
When the nightbird calls
And when the foghorn blows
Gonna tear down these walls
All Songs Written By John Sieger
Except #4, 5 & 10 Written By John Sieger & Michael Feldman
Published by Stwangtoons/MCM BMI
Making music can be a mean enough business with out someone stealing all of your gear. Unfortunately, one of Milwaukee’s favorite musicians, utility man extraordinaire Bob Jennings, has had this rotten experience twice in the last three years. It happened overnight last night as thieves busted into his garage and took the tools he uses to make beautiful music. Today his Nord keyboard was recovered by the very alert staff at Record Head. That still leaves some pretty valuable stuff un-recovered. Here is a list of the stolen gear, with serial numbers. If you come across anyone trying to sell it, contact the police and try to do so discretely so that maybe we can nab the villains who did this.
SELMER MARK VI TENOR SAX # 125024 in a black zippered soft case; Otto Link #9 gold metal mouthpiece in case; Red Vandoren mouthpiece in case
Horn valued at $4500.00
Case: $200.00
Mouthpieces: $120.00 / $130.00
YANAGASAWA DORADO “600″ BARITONE SAX # 373992 in a J. Winter gray vinyl hard case; RPC hard rubber mouthpiece (handmade by Ron Coelho) in case;
Horn valued at $1200.00
Case: $200.00
Mouthpiece: $285.00
Peavey MK4 4 channel mixer/amp $100.00
1 Sonic 15” speaker cabinet w/horn speaker $150.00
Red/Orange cube-shaped flight case ($100.00), containing:
1. Roland sustain pedal $35.00
2. 1 Baritone & 1 Tenor sax stands $40.00/$15.00
3. 4 Stereo instrument audio cables (2 are double cables) $40.00
4. 2 Audio direct boxes (bound together as one) $30.00 ea.
5. Rectangular plexiglass (roughly 8’x15’) w/mic stand clip $25.00
Hello aspiring guitarists! I am happy to announce a paradigm shift (my first!) in the way I teach guitar. I am now offering lessons in the home and how convenient is that? I come to your house, you show me a song you would like to learn, we listen to it and I show you the chords. If you are just beginning to play, we will have you up and running in four lessons or less — if you like “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” or “This Land Is Your Land,” four weeks. “Strawberry Fields Forever,” a little longer.
1/2 hour lesson $35
1 hour lesson $50
Payable in advance
Summer Song List Part Two
As we move into the blazingly hot part of summer and Wisconsin starts to feel more like Mississippi or Alabama, it’s time to add a few weather related titles to our growing list of summer songs.
In The Summertime, Mungo Jerry: A simple, fun and oddly mysterious ditty that raises two questions. One, who or what is a Mungo Jerry, and B, what kind of music is this? Is it an update of skiffle? That style never really caught on stateside, but I’m assuming it was somewhere between folk and jug band, but with a more british flavor. Of course, neither of these questions stop you from enjoying this absolutely loony-tunes rhythm and lyric.
110 In The Shade, John Fogerty: As a native of the Bay area who sounds like a yooper when he talks, nobody would have guessed John Fogerty would be laying down the swampiest sounds this side of SlimHarpo or Tony Joe White. I guess it doesn’t matter where you live — if you love a musical style, it’s yours. Just be sure to do it justice, and that’s exactly what Fogerty does with this sizzling meditation on the joys of picking cotton in an outdoor steam bath. The authentic and deep vibe is supplied by the Blind Boys Of Alabama, this storied gospel group never sang a note that wouldn’t make you shiver — even on the hottest day.
Too Darn Hot, Cole Porter: From Kiss Me Kate and recorded by a slew of great American artists from Ella Fitzrerald to Mel Torme. The protagonist lays out a lengthy and convincing argument for laying out: It’s too darn hot! Full of manufactured rhyme and the casual genius Porter flashed without any visible strain.
Too Hot, Kool & The Gang: For a song with that title, it’s surprising to hear the music lingering somewhere in the mid fifties. Conjuring an air-conditioned penthouse this song barely crosses the threshold of Muzak to the lower levels of disco-lite. The tinted glass windows hide the blinding sun and singer JamesTaylor (not the Fire And Rain guy) pours a sweetly smooth vocal over the always professional track provided by Kool & The Gang.
Sunny Afternoon, The Kinks: A pixillated tale of resignation in a voice so perfectly British you feel as if you’ve travelled there, the charm of this devilish delight runs about a mile deep. A unique talent, Ray Davies, and an astoundingly sympathetic band create the kind of magic you expect from legends. This is has to be on a lot of desert island discs — and what a pleasant fantasy it is to picture yourself there with the waves lapping, the palms swaying, listening to Ray’s mild complaint— lazing, basically.
Girls In Their Summer Clothes, Bruce Springsteen: This is historic, I rarely say nice things about the Boss Of Bombast, but I admire what he does when his subject matter shrinks from global to the more manageable personal. He must view gift for pop confection as too light or not challenging enough. That’s a shame, especially for those among us who feast on songs like this. It’s a perfect example of what he can do when he isn’t trying to save the world or write it’s latest anthem.
The Summer Wind, Frank Sinatra: Johnny Mercer is one of the great lyricists and his words were often sung best by Sinatra. You Tube invites you to disprove this theory. Another example of how wonderful a “cool” track can sound when the mercury climbs.
©2012 John Sieger
Oh the joys of summer songs! The more I think about it, the more I want to start a list. These are some of my favorites and a line or two about them.
In no particular order:
Hot Fun In The Summertime, Sly And The Family Stone: There are times I am convinced Sly Stone came from a different planet. I find most of his music other-worldly in it’s brilliance and execution. This one has more hooks than velcro, but the main one for me is the rhythm. It’s 4/4 with a heavy triplet feel but I could just as easily say it’s a fast 6/8. It makes me think about time in many different ways.
In The Summertime, Roger Miller: There was no end to Roger Miller’s inventiveness and this song is a testament to it. A brilliant funny man at the height of his power, he managed to make a broken heart sound like the more fun than a day at the beach.
Summertime, The Gershwins: This song is so good, I would be hard pressed to find a bad version. I suppose that award would go to any revival of the original opera. I don’t like that style of singing, but I love opera singers because they have so much dang confidence!
Almost any song by the Beach Boys: They own summer in a way no other group has or ever will. Can
you think of one Beach Boys song that reminds you of winter?
Summer In The City, The Lovin’ Spoonful: Rock’s answer to Roger Miller, John Sebastian probably could match him song for catchy song. This is the first “summer” song I learned and it conjures up a lot of fun with it’s day versus night structure.
Rain On The Roof, The Lovin’ Spoonful: Hitting the list twice because the Spoonful are a close second in the race for summer dominance. This song, if you haven’t heard it, is google worthy. The joy you will experience is worth the short 20 second search on the internet. I’m guessing it it inspired the next song.
When It Rains At The Drive In, NRBQ: An exquisite pop melody that conjures steamy windows and a B movie nobody will be able to recall the next day. Again, Google/Youtube awaits to take you to an enchanting musical place… and the most underrated band in American history.
Blackbird, The Beatles: This is the ultimate campfire song of the modern era. For a lot of critics, that is a knock — but the last thing I would want to do in the summer is sit around and read a book of rock criticism. Having taught this to countless students, it’s still mystifying in the way all great songs are: Where on earth does something like this come from?
Summertime Blues, Eddie Cochran: There is no way to leave this off a list like this, it’s probably number one for a lot of people.
Summer Song, Louis Armstrong & Dave Brubeck: A masterpiece of hip melancholy with two of America’s greatest. A little harder to find (try iTunes) but so worth the trouble. NOTE: This performance will flatten any unsuspecting soul, so exercise caution!
©2012 John Sieger
Watch the video!
Sometimes you see a bumper sticker supporting a corporate puppet with national ambitions pasted right next to a Mercedes emblem and it speaks to you:
This was the picture I had been waiting for and fell right into my lap. So I took out my little Coolpix and fired away. For a couple months I had bee struggling to put together a video for the song I wrote and recorded with Peter Mulvey called To The Union Man. I had shot dozens of Recall Walker signs in front of modest homes in Milwaukee neighborhoods and wanted to end with a freeze frame like the one above.
The trouble is, I’m not Hitchcock or even an entry level iMovie guy. Yesterday, my friend Chris Hanson took over and created a much better video, starting from scratch and scrapping everything but the bumper sticker. He had already remixed and mastered the song, adding a nice bass part along the way, so I guess you can say I’m really appreciating Chris right now.
The song is supposed to be a throwback to the union songs you might have heard earlier in the last century—the kind where you might have raised your voice and possibly a tankard of fine MIlwaukee beer as you joined a chorus of voices ringing out in the night. Normally, I dislike anthems and other overwrought excuses to join the fight. But, if the tea party is right about one thing, it is this: We do have a class war on our hands. It was declared by the rich and the corporate against the middle class, the working class and the poor. As the old tankard-lifter once said, “Which side are you on?”
This recall election is important, it’s about reclaiming power from special interests like the billionaire Koch Brothers and putting an end to the demonization of teachers and other public servants. If this song helps in anyway to get you fired up in the days leading up to the election, I will be very happy. Now get out and vote!
© 2012 John Sieger / Peter Mulvey
