HOW TO PLAY GUITAR AND BE COOL
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
There’s a spinning ball
In a big black hole
And I’m not that big
I’m not in control
And I tell myself
Every chance I get
You can only get so much on
A C-90 cassette
Someone grabbed his wife one day
And they created life
Then they sent him off to school
Where he learned how to play guitar and be cool
There’s a green-eyed girl
And her hair’s dark gold
And I wish I could stay single
But I’m not in control
And I’m not that rich
And I’m not that strong
So I asked her to come hear me
Singing some songs
It’s funny when you think about it
Everything I learned in life
And all I really had to know
Was how to play guitar and be cool
Home, no need to know why
Gone, no need to know where
We’re always home
And always gone
And always on our way there
There’s a spinning ball
In a big black hole
And I hope it don’t spin
Out of control
But until it does
I’m gonna stay right here
With the green-eyed girl
Year after year after year after year
And maybe we’ll retire
Off the money from my car
Start a school for little children
Teach them how to play guitar and be cool
AMAZING THINGS
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier and Gary Rees
Harold climbed the subway stairs a million miles high
Finally he ascended just like Jesus to the sky
Found himself on Wall Street
Found it an amazing thing.
He had bought a one-way ticket on the last plane headed east
Flew out like Mohammed on a silver wing-ed beast
Slimfast bar and coffee
Oh, and those amazing things
Central park’s for walking
He was stopped by a man
Selling something in his hand
Selling something in his hand
And so he wrestled with the changes that came by the grace of fate
Wrestled them like Jacob though they battered him away
Liquid to the pounding
Dreaming of amazing things.
Every day he stumbled down those vacant east side lanes
Not as soft as Buddha, nor immune to suffering,
The scent of misdirection
The fragrance of amazing things
A man does what he has to
Now he was a man
Selling something in his hand
Selling flowers in his hand
Jesus climbed the subway stairs a million miles high
Finally he ascended just like Harold to the sky
He bumped right into Buddha
Wall Street’s an amazing thing.
Buddha waved down Harold to buy his friend Christ a flower
Then up walked Mohammed, and they talked about an hour
Harold had his banjo, Harold got them all to sing.
See, no one ever told him there are no amazing things.
DREAM VACATION
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
I don’t need to snorkel on the Barrier Reef
I don’t need no Stonehenge, or the roots underneath
Don’t need to go to China just to see a great wall
I don’t need no boat trip on the Venice Canal
What I will say
Is I wanna be with you every day
I’m no travel agent, no, that’s not my thing
Don’t misunderstand me, I am up for this fling
I’m just not a guy who really cares where he stays
I couldn’t tell you where I wanna go, anyway
What I will say
Is I wanna be with you every day
Let’s go, Let’s go, it’s a dream vacation
Don’t care, don’t care where, it’s a dream vacation
Any state or nation It’s a dream vacation
As long as it’s just you and me.
I don’t need the Eiffel Tower to stage a romance
I don’t need to dance where ancient warriors danced
No need for a safari through the Amazon trees
The Nile or the Alps, it’s all the same for me
What I will say
Is I wanna be with you every day
So set the reservations, you make all the plans
Surf the net and book the jet, it’s all in your hands
Here’s my bank statement, you can drain it if you want to
If there’s any left, I’m gonna spend it on you
What I will say
Is I wanna be with you every day
Let’s go, Let’s go, it’s a dream vacation
Don’t care, don’t care where, it’s a dream vacation
Any state or nation
It’s a dream vacation
As long as it’s just you and me.
DADDY WILL YOU LOVE ME
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
Daddy, will you love me when I get to heaven
More than you loved me here
Would I see you smile
Would it even be worthwhile
Would it make the journey up there worth the years
Daddy, will you love me when I get to heaven
Will you hold me in your vast, eternal arms
Will you dry my tears for the last time
When you’re done with questions, can I ask mine
Daddy will you love me in heaven
Will you call a thousand angels just to shout my name
Like it says they do in the Bible
I have not found religion, no I’m pretty much the same
I am not perfect, that’s undeniable
But Daddy, will you love me when I get to heaven
Will you find the time to show a boy around
Will you take my hand like you once did
Mess my hair up, say I’m a good kid
Daddy will you love me in heaven
You said we had no common ground
I swore I’d never compromise
But it gets colder as I get older and older
And over and over I catch myself talking to the skies
Daddy, will you love me when I get to heaven
Can we have that talk we never got to have
If I admit that I was wrong
Can we sit and sing some old songs
Daddy will you love me
Daddy will you love me in heaven
FLIGHT TIMES
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
Hey, Mr. P, Our team’s winning,
The band’s marching out to end the beginning
Hey, Mr. P, I spoke to Miss Hurley
I’m thinking I might just graduate early
If you’re checkin’ the flight times
Then it’s time to fly
I wanna Be grown, be great
I wanna be rich and own the great lakes
I want a
Big yard, big tree
And a beautiful girl is gonna wanna marry me
Hey, Mr. P, The news wire’s humming
Iran has a bomb and the 3rd War’s coming
I worked for a while For a guy named Obama
He wants to change the world just like I wanna
But if you’re checkin’ the flight times
Then it’s time to fly
And now I’m grown, I’m great
Got a house just south of those lakes
I got a
Big yard, big tree
And a beautiful girl just said she wants to marry me
I’m grown, I’m great
Got a house just south of those lakes
I got a
Big yard, big tree
And a beautiful girl just said she wants to marry me
Hey Mr. P,
I’m out back grillin’
The neighbors came by and we’re all just chillin’.
SHE AIN’T COMING BACK AGAIN
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
MAN’S VOICE:
She packed her car Grabbed what she could
Left her home At 2 am
One eye open
One word spoken
She ain’t coming back again
WOMAN’S VOICE:
Yeah, you could say that,
Or you could say he was a user, a loser,
He left her bruised, abused and confused
But the lady who sings the blues is a lit fuse,
Don’t you see the clues? read the news?
Forget the welt of the one assault,
What about the strained results of the years of insults,
The fears she felt, tears she dealt with, melted with,
held it within her self, what about that health?
He was an incinerator, red-hot agitator, engine with no radiator,
He left her devastated, isolated, desolated.
She said, “Later.”
She got out, a fair play turnabout,
Roll the credits and a fade-out,
No doubt it was just about time by then.
And she ain’t coming back again.
MAN’S VOICE:
She thinks the sky is fallin’
But that’s just a cloud she’s pullin’ under
And once she drives on through it
She’ll have a new name for the thunder.
MAN’S VOICE:
She’s wiping tears and trying to drive
She’ll head for Mom’s, or else some friend
The black-eyed future
Just stands and stares at her
She ain’t coming back again
WOMAN’S VOICE:
She keeps her eyes fixed, steady, straight ahead, dead ahead
Yeah, but before, she debated what she hated,
Now she’s emancipated, she’s not afraid.
I know, it can pound and pound
She stares it down.
She ain’t, she ain’t coming back again
MAN’S VOICE:
So, if you’re listening, baby
Now don’t get scared, you keep on drivin’
Cause you’ve got power inside you
You’ve only dreamed about, and you’ll find it,
You’ll find it.
She packed her car
Grabbed what she could
Left her home
At 2 am
One eye open
One word spoken
She ain’t coming back again
WOMAN’S VOICE:
Holding an ice pack on a black eye, bringing clothes in grocery sacks out the back in the black night
No place to go. Flying solo. Solo. Yeah. You got that right.
ARLINGTON
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier and Gary Rees
When the thick black gun smoke makes rain in the Mojave sky
There’s no death to wash away
Not a shot of war’s hit this land since it fought itself
But it’s bound to break someday
We are the chosen ones
We are the fresh young guns
Somebody else’s sons who’ll try
We are the chosen ones
We are the fresh young guns
Somebody else’s sons who’ll die
For a country
How many miles, how many miles down to Arlington?
A new rank and file, how many miles down to Arlington?
Who’s gonna lead, who’s gonna lead down to Arlington?
Who’s gonna bleed, who’s gonna lead down to Arlington?
Where the fresh cut grass pushes up through the Virginia soil
The honor hangs as thick as frost
I guess every war ended here for a lot of men
They never knew who won or lost
We are the chosen ones
We are the fresh young guns
Somebody else’s sons who’ll try
We are the chosen ones
We are the fresh young guns
Somebody else’s sons who’ll die
For the country
How many dead, how many dead down at Arlington?
How many said, “You won’t catch me dead down at Arlington.”
Am I alive, am I alive ’cause of Arlington?
When they arrive, are they alive down at Arlington?
Our guns don’t scream for war
No one alive wants cease-fire more
Still bound to fight
If your chosen leaders say to fight
And pray to God the cause is right
Then we can die, then we can die down at Arlington
If we know why, then we can die down at Arlington
So how many miles down to Arlington?
LOVE ME ANYWAY
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
You cook three steaks, you take one, give me two
You always care about me more than you
The fan beats through the smoke, the haze, the heat
That rises from the Foreman Grill and me
When I blame you for where I am today
Love me anyway
You keep talking, asking if I care
It’s like a grown-up game of truth or dare
I choose dare and turn the volume up
You spend hours trying to interrupt
And there’s a hurricane that’s on the way
Love me anyway
There’s a birthday card you sent me sitting on the edge of my desk
I read it over and over ‘til it burns a hole through my chest
But it can’t change me, and I can’t change me
It may be time to rest
I guess we’re having company tonight
I know you want to make it seem all right
I throw a chair down onto its side
You, you bought your ticket, damn it, ride
My throat is tired, there’s nothing else to say
But love me anyway
Maybe I’m a human war machine
Testing different peaks and frequencies
Scanning for reactions, reds and blacks
Studying conditions for attack
It’s fight or flight, but no.
You choose to stay To love me anyway
There’s a panther somewhere in Zaire on a branch, crouched down low
And he makes rustling noises, toying with a scared young doe
And he’s not joking, and I’m not joking
It may be time to go
Suddenly I freeze, and melt
Trickles of compassion, barely felt
My orchestrated anger played with style
Spoiled by your pink and yellow smile
Watch me as I fade from red to gray
And love me anyway
Do you think God really sends angels here?
And is it just as strangers they appear?
Or do they come as people who once knew us?
Do they enter bodies closest to us,
Like you, to water color my gray haze
As if the sunlight had a million rays,
And hold me ‘til the darkness fades away
And love me anyway
NOT THE WAY HOME
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
C’mon back to the five and dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
Don’t make me yell a hole in this front porch screen
You’ve got your own room in the basement
Why run off for more of just the same?
C’mon back to the five and dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
That feeling inside you, that’s just fumes of gasoline
The long gray road leading out of town goes nowhere
But we could make a little something out of this place
Get a replay on the mistakes we made
You can’t run off, I mean…just don’t.
If you think that will fix you…it won’t.
Getting in a car and just going,
That’s not the way home.
C’mon back to the five and dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
To touch the smooth, tanned skin of a homecoming queen
Her white dress drops, the moon lights up her angles
Out here, we make love like God makes angels
Take her into the swimming hole, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
Feel the cool water slip and turn, making everything clean
Then say you’ll stay another year And another year, and another year,
There’s nothing worth having that you can’t get here.
You can’t run off, I mean…just don’t.
If you think that will fix you…it won’t.
Getting in a car and just going,
That’s not the way home.
That’s not the way home.
I CAME THE LONG WAY
Music and Lyrics by Chuck Pelletier
I am not the man who came and asked you for a handout
I came the long way
I reached for a window just as soon as I could stand
I came the long way
And I stumbled ‘round the corners of a small town
Down where everyone’s a member of the jury
And they watch you as you walk the bending sidewalks in the dark
So I kissed the ground and left there in a hurry
Fifty-thousand visions on the highway out of town
I came the long way
Funny I spent twenty years just staring at the ground
I came the long way
But the city keeps its kind and quiet children
So anonymous their names just cause confusion
In a building with a view of other walls and other strangers
Where I finally learned the comfort of seclusion
There I met the only honest girl in Massachusetts
I came the long way
But in the end I couldn’t tell a lie from what was true
I came the long way
I never felt like any love was lost
I never thought that I’d arrived
I never dreamed that feeling pain could help me feel alive.
Now I look at pictures of my eyes when I was nine
I came the long way
Maybe they were brighter then, but I can still see fine
I came the long way
And I have tried to find the man behind this mirror,
I can feel him when the changes turn inside me
But for now I only know the one reflection of my soul
From the people who have seen me and defined me
So don’t ask where I’m running
Or what I’m running from
Don’t try to give a damn
You wouldn’t understand
The answer comes from where I’ve been,
I guess it’s just that I was older then
And I came the long way.
BOUNCING DAY
Love is a game, and you play it with strangers
Sometimes a stranger becomes your friend
Sometimes a friend becomes your lover
That’s where the game begins, not where it ends
Sometimes you lose, ‘cause you pick the wrong partner
Don’t take it hard, you’ll forget that day
And someday you’ll win, and you’ll always remember
The day the ball bounced your way.
