CHILDREN WILL LISTEN
How do you say to your child in the night
Nothing's all black but then nothing's all white?
How do you say it will all be alright
When you know that it mightn't be true?
What do you do?
Careful the things you say,
Children will listen.
Careful the things you do,
Children will see.
And learn.
Children may not obey,
But children will listen.
Children will look to you
For which way to turn,
To learn what to be.
Careful before you say,
"Listen to me."
Children will listen.
Careful the wish you make,
Wishes are children.
Careful the path they take,
Wishes come true,
Not free.
Careful the spell you cast,
Not just on children.
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you...
Careful the tale you tell.
That is the spell.
Children will listen...
How can you say to a child who's in flight,
Don't slip away and I won't hold so tight?
What can you say that no matter how slight won't be misunderstood?
What do you leave to your child when you're dead
Only what ever you put in its head
Things that your mother and father had said
Which were left to them too.
Careful what you say, children will listen
Careful you do it too, children will see and learn.
Oh!
Guide them but step away,
Children will glisten.
Temper with what is true
And children will turn,
If just to be free.
Careful before you say,
"Listen to me."
Children will listen...
Children will listen!
Children, children will listen
(I love that song, Mac.)
Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Yes, get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.
I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?
Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can't get off.
Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?
Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air.
But will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die.
I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?
Daddy Daddy come and look
And see what I have found
A little way away from here
While digging in the ground
Come away Melinda
Come in and close the door
It's nothing but a picture book
They had before the war
Daddy Daddy come and see
Oh Daddy come and look
There's a four or five Melinda girl
Inside this picture book
There were lots of little girls like you
before they had the war
There's someone in villages
Who's all grown up like you
That someone is a mother
Like you had before the war
Such things I've never seen
Happy faces all around
And all the ground is green
It's just the way it used to be
Before they had the war
Why can't it be the way it was
Before the war began
The answer lies in yesterday
Before they had the war
Yesterday when I was young
the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.
I teased at life as if it were a foolish g ame,
the way the evening breeze may tease a candle fl ame.
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built alas on weak and shifting sand.
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of the day
and only now I see how the years ran away.
Yesterday when I was young
so many drinking songs were waiting to be sung,
so many wayward pleasures lay in store for me
and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out,
I never stopped to think what life was all about
and every conversation I can now recall
concerned itself with me and nothing else at all.
Yesterday the moon was blue
and every crazy day brought something new to do.
I used my magic age as if itwere a wand
and never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.
The g ame of love I played with arrogance and pride
and every flame I lit too quickly quickly died.
The friedns I made all seemed somehow to drift away
and only I am left on stage to end the play.
There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue.
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday when I was young.
They say for every boy and girl
There's just one love in this whole world
And I know I've found mine
The heavenly touch of your embrace
Tells me no one can take your place
Ever in my heart
Young love
First love
Filled with deep emotion
Young love
Our love
We share with true devotion
Just one kiss
From your sweet lips
Will tell me that your love is real
And I can feel that it's true
We will vow to one another
There will never be another
Love for you or for me
Young love -
Hello Young lovers whoever you are
I hope your troubles are few
All my good wishes go with you tonight
I've been in love like you.
Be brave,young lovers, and follow your star
Be brave and faithful and true
Cling very close to each other tonight
I've been in love like you.
I know how it feels to have wings on your heels
And to fly down a street in a trance
You fly down a street on a chance that you'll meet
And you meet not really by chance.
Don't cry young lovers whatever you do
Don't cry because I'm alone
All of my memories are happy tonight
I've had a love of my own
I've had a love of my own like yours
I've had a love of my own.
Every night I hope and pray
A dream lover will come my way
A girl to hold in my arms
And know the magic of her charms
Because I want a girl to call my own
I want a dream lover so I don't have to dream alone
Dream lover where are you
With a love oh so true
And a hand that I can hold
And grow nearer as I grow old
Because I want a girl to call my own
I want a .....
Dream On --Greg Brown
Gonna meet some sweet lover
she'll be so wise and so kind
Love her 'til we're a hundred 'n' seven
Body 'n' the soul an' the mind.
That's right, dream on,
Little dreamers
Dream on
This world ain't what you think it is
It's just what it is!
OK, I will meet some nice person
In a quiet little cafe
We'll make such sweet love that the birds will applaud
And then we'll go on our understanding ways.
Good luck, dream on,
Little dreamer
Dream on.
The world ain't what you think it is
It's just what it is!
The president he gonna start laughin'
Pass to the general a toke.
All the world bigshots gonna lay down their guns
And say "hey folks, it was all just a joke!"
(spoken with jazzy fingersnapping)
Bombs & stuff?
Droppin' on you?
You know we would'n' do that to you.
We're the leaders-of-the-world
We're the real cool guys
We're elected, respected, we try to be wise
We're not gonna drop a bunch a' bombs on everybody, blow up the whole world
over some little political difficulty or border dispute or somethin'
Us leaders-of-the-world we'r' like all you people,
Jus' to sit back, relax, take it easy....
Dream on, little dreamers
Dream on.
The world ain't what you think it is
It's just what it is.
I 'as feeling kinda troubled 'n' upset 'n' confused 'n' out of it.
You know how that goes? Time goes along........... things change, you wake
up some mornin'g 'n' you realize that you're jus' out of it,
I find mysel' at some friend's apartment on a nice spring day, little birds
be singin' in the trees?......... All my friends, they be sittin' aroun'
inside......... They was gittin' kinda out of it too, I guess, but, seemed
to be workin' out awright for 'em....... They be sittin' aroun' in a
little apartment watchin' TV, you know, on a nice spring day..........
they'd be watchin' like reruns of "Three's Company", stuff like
that........ They be laughin', you know, jus' havin' a great time. I
didn' get it........ So I knew I must be kinda outta sync, 'n' outta
swing......... I need a little bit a' help.
Well, jus' luckily for me, the great Swami, Prisnidadirapi was comin'
through town....... (I think he was on his way up to Boulder, Colorado, or
somewhere.) He was givin' a li'l advice as he went by 'n' I went to see
the guy.......... 'n' in so many words I said to him: "I'm in bad shape
here.......... An' I heard you got the true knowledge, which you c'ld give
to me, which w'ld clear up all my doubts and difficulties, 'n' git me back
on the track, back in the swing, fully adjusted to life in the 20th
century....... An' the only trouble I heard about, Swami, is you charge
about eight hundred dollars fer the true knowledge............. That's all
right, I mean........ I never expected there to be a blue light special on
enlightenment or anythin' like that, but I..... I'm just a guitar player,
your holy Swaminess, an' I was hopin' we could make a deal where...... I
would give you, like, maybe, four hundred dollars........an' I was hopin'
maybe you would give me, like, jus' maybe half of the true
knowledge?........Jus' enough to git me by for a month or six weeks at the
most, 'n' I'll give you the rest of the cash......... you give me the rest
of the knowledge, I'll be enlightened, your pockets'll be a little heavy,
we both be doing awright, whaddaya say?"
Well, the Swami, he looked at me from under his heavy-lidded eyes,...his
mysterious eyes...... He smiled at me......... That was nuthin' new, you
know, the Swami was always kinda smiling......... Like he knew sumpin'
that you didn't know...... Like those people that............ they jus'
levitate jus' a lit'l bit, you know, 'n' they git a little smile on their
face.......
He smiled......... He looked at me 'n' he said:
"Dream on, little dreamer
Dream on.
This world ain't what you think it is
it's jus' what it is."
This quiet rain will always continue
Our kids will always think we're great
The world won't keep reeling like a poor drunken fool
Who's lost an' upset an' too late
Dream on, little dreamers,
Dream on.
This world ain't what you think it is,
This world ain't what you wish it was,
Uh, the world
Ain't what you think it is
It's just
What it is.
The Danger Zone - Ray Charles
Sad and lonely all the time
That's because I've got a worried mind
You see the world is in an uproar
The danger zone is everywhere everywhere
Just read your paper
And you'll see
Just exactly what's worrying me
Yeah you'll see the world is in an uproar
The danger zone is everywhere
My love for the world is like always
For the world is a part of me
That's why I'm so afraid
Of the progress that's being made
Toward eternity
Every morning noon and night
Finds me hoping that everything's alright
Mm-hmm the world is in an uproar
The danger zone is everywhere
Land of Confusion
I must've dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams
But I can hear the marching feet
They're moving into the street.
Now did you read the news today
They say the danger's gone away
But I can see the fire's still alight
There burning into the night.
There's too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Can't you see
This is a land of confusion.
This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.
Ooh superman where are you now
When everything's gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, the men of power
Are losing control by the hour.
This is the time
This is the place
So we look for the future
But there's not much love to go round
Tell me why, this is a land of confusion.
This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.
I remember long ago -
Ooh when the sun was shining
Yes and the stars were bright
All through the night
And the sound of your laughter
As I held you tight
So long ago -
I won't be coming home tonight
My generation will put it right
We're not just making promises
That we know, we'll never keep.
Too many men
There's too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Can't you see
This is a land of confusion.
Now this is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth fighting for.
This is the world we live in
And these are the names we're given
Stand up and let's start showing
Just where our lives are going to.
Once both of us saw the world must go
And change as we read in great Rousseau
But change meant one thing to you I see
And something quite different to me
The very same words we both have said
To give our ideals wings to spread
But my way was true while for you led over mountains of dead
Once both of us spoke a single tongue
Of brotherly love we sweetly sung
But love menat one thing to you I see
And something quite different to me
But now I'm aware that I was blind
And now I can see into your mind
And so I say no and I go
To murder you Marat and free all mankind
The stories of the street are mine
The Spanish voices laugh
The Cadillacs go creeping down
Through the night and the poison gas
I lean from mu window sill
In this old hotel I chose.
Yes, one hand on my suicide
And one hand on the rose.
I know you've heard it's over now
And war must surely come,
The cities they are broke in half
And the middle men are gone.
But let me ask you one more time
O children of the dust,
These hunters who are shrieking now
Do they speak for us?
And where do all these highways go
Now that we are free?
Why are the armies marching still
That were coming home to me?
O lady with your legs so fine
O stranger at your wheel
You are locked into your suffering
And your pleasures are the seal.
The age of lust is giving birth
But both the parents ask the nurse
To tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass
Now the infant with his cord
is hauled in like a kite
And one eye filled with blueprints
One eye filled with night
O come with me my little one
And we will find that farm
And grow us grass and apples there
To keep all the animals warm
And if by chance I wake at night
And I ask you who I am
O take me to the slaughter house
I will wait there with the lamb.
With one hand on a hexagram
And one hand on a girl
I balance on a wishing well
That all men call the world
We are so small between the stars
So large against the sky
And lost among the subway crowds
I try to catch your eye.
Leaonard Cohen
The stories of the street are mine
The Spanish voices laugh
The Cadillacs go creeping down
Through the night and the poison gas
I lean from mu window sill
In this old hotel I chose.
Yes, one hand on my suicide
And one hand on the rose.
I know you've heard it's over now
And war must surely come,
The cities they are broke in half
And the middle men are gone.
But let me ask you one more time
O children of the dust,
These hunters who are shrieking now
Do they speak for us?
And where do all these highways go
Now that we are free?
Why are the armies marching still
That were coming home to me?
O lady with your legs so fine
O stranger at your wheel
You are locked into your suffering
And your pleasures are the seal.
The age of lust is giving birth
But both the parents ask the nurse
To tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass
Now the infant with his cord
is hauled in like a kite
And one eye filled with blueprints
One eye filled with night
O come with me my little one
And we will find that farm
And grow us grass and apples there
To keep all the animals warm
And if by chance I wake at night
And I ask you who I am
O take me to the slaughter house
I will wait there with the lamb.
With one hand on a hexagram
And one hand on a girl
I balance on a wishing well
That all men call the world
We are so small between the stars
So large against the sky
And lost among the subway crowds
I try to catch your eye.
Leaonard Cohen
The stories of the street are mine
The Spanish voices laugh
The Cadillacs go creeping down
Through the night and the poison gas
I lean from my window sill
In this old hotel I chose.
Yes, one hand on my suicide
And one hand on the rose.
I know you've heard it's over now
And war must surely come,
The cities they are broke in half
And the middle men are gone.
But let me ask you one more time
O children of the dust,
These hunters who are shrieking now
Do they speak for us?
And where do all these highways go
Now that we are free?
Why are the armies marching still
That were coming home to me?
O lady with your legs so fine
O stranger at your wheel
You are locked into your suffering
And your pleasures are the seal.
The age of lust is giving birth
But both the parents ask the nurse
To tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass
Now the infant with his cord
is hauled in like a kite
And one eye filled with blueprints
One eye filled with night
O come with me my little one
And we will find that farm
And grow us grass and apples there
To keep all the animals warm
And if by chance I wake at night
And I ask you who I am
O take me to the slaughter house
I will wait there with the lamb.
With one hand on a hexagram
And one hand on a girl
I balance on a wishing well
That all men call the world
We are so small between the stars
So large against the sky
And lost among the subway crowds
I try to catch your eye.
Leaonard Cohen
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence
The stories of the street are mine
The Spanish voices laugh
The Cadillacs go creeping down
Through the night and the poison gas
I lean from my window sill
In this old hotel I chose.
Yes, one hand on my suicide
And one hand on the rose.
I know you've heard it's over now
And war must surely come,
The cities they are broke in half
And the middle men are gone.
But let me ask you one more time
O children of the dust,
These hunters who are shrieking now
Do they speak for us?
And where do all these highways go
Now that we are free?
Why are the armies marching still
That were coming home to me?
O lady with your legs so fine
O stranger at your wheel
You are locked into your suffering
And your pleasures are the seal.
The age of lust is giving birth
But both the parents ask the nurse
To tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass
Now the infant with his cord
is hauled in like a kite
And one eye filled with blueprints
One eye filled with night
O come with me my little one
And we will find that farm
And grow us grass and apples there
To keep all the animals warm
And if by chance I wake at night
And I ask you who I am
O take me to the slaughter house
I will wait there with the lamb.
With one hand on a hexagram
And one hand on a girl
I balance on a wishing well
That all men call the world
We are so small between the stars
So large against the sky
And lost among the subway crowds
I try to catch your eye.
Leaonard Cohen
Quadruple apologies for all those postings!! I kept getting a message that the page could not be found. Arrrrrrgh.
I came upon a butcher
He was slaughtering a lamb
I accused him there
With his tortured hand
He said listen to me
I am what I am
And you are my only son
I saw a silver needle
And put it into my arm
It did some good
Did some harm
But the nights were cold
And it almost kept me warm
How come the night is long
I saw some flowers growing up
Where that lamb fell down
Was I supposed to praise my lord
Make some joyful sound
He said listen to me
I go round and round
And you you are my only child
Lead on my son - here's your world
When you get that, just continue on as though all were normal.
Even though it seems like a Monty Python world?
