Dreamin'

 

If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you

If I try hard and concentrate I can still hear you speak

I picture myself in your room by the chair

you're smoking a cigarette

If I close my eyes I can see your face you're saying, "I missed you"

Dreamin' - I'm always dreamin'

 

If I close my eyes I can smell your perfume you look and say "Hi baby"

If I close my eyes pictures from China still hang from the wall

I hear the dog bark I turned and say, "what were you saying?"

I pictured you in the red chair inside the pale room

You sat in your chair with a tube in your arm - you were so skinny

You were still making jokes I don't know what drugs they had you on

You said, " I guess this is not the time for long term investments"

You were always laughing but you never laughing at me

 

They say in the end the pain was so bad that you were screaming

Now you were no saint but you deserved better than that

From the corner I watch them moving things from your apartment

But I can picture you red chair and pale room inside my head

 

If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you

If I try hard and concentrate I can hear your voice saying,

"Who better than you"

If I close my eyes I can't believe that I'm here without you

Inside your pale room your empty red chair and my head

Dreamin' , I'm always dreamin'

 

Hello It's Me

 

Andy it's me, haven't seen you in a while

I wished I talked to you more when you were alive

I thought you were self-assured when you acted shy

Hello it's me

 

I really miss you, I really miss your mind

I haven't heard ideas like that in such a long, long time

I loved to watch you draw and watch you paint

But when I saw you last, I turned away

 

When Billy Name was sick and locked up in his room

You asked me for some speed, I though it was for you

I'm sorry that I doubted your good heart

Things always seem to end before they start

 

Hello it's me, that was a great gallery show

Your cow wallpaper and your floating silver pillows

I wish I paid more attention when they laughed at you

Hello it's me

 

"Pop goes pop artist," the headline said

"Is shooting a put-on, is Warhol really dead ?"

You get less time for stealing a car

I remember thinking as I heard my own record in a bar

 

They really hated you, now all that's changed

But I have some resentments that can never be unmade

You hit me where it hurt I didn't laugh

Your Diaries are not a worthy epitaph

 

Oh well now Andy, guess we've got to go

I hope some way somehow you like this little show

I know it's late in coming but it's the only way I know

Hello it's me, goodnight Andy

Goodbye, Andy

 

Last Great American Whale

 

They say he didn't have an enemy

His was a greatness to behold

He was the last surviving progeny

The last one on this side of the world

 

He measured half a mile from tip to tail

silver and black with powerful fins

They say he could split a mountain in two

That's how we got the Grand Canyon

 

Last Great American Whale X4

 

Some say they saw him at the Great Lakes

Some say they saw him off the coast of Florida

My mother said she saw him in Chinatown

but you can't always trust your mother

 

Off the Carolinas the sun shines brightly in the day

The lighthouse glow ghostly there at night

The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son

and he'd been on death row since 1958

 

The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig

spit on Indians and lots worse

The old chief buried a hatchet in his head

life compared to death for him seemed worse

 

The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing

and tried to conjure up a storm or rain

The harbor parted and the great whale sprang full up

and caused a hugh tidal wave

 

The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief

The tribe let out a roar

The whites were drowned the browns and reds set free

but sadly one thing more

 

Some local yokel member of the NRA

kept a bazooka in his living room

and thinking he had the chief in his sight

blew the whale's brains out with a lead harpoon

 

Last Great American Whale X4

 

Well Americans don't care for much of anything

land and water the least

And animal life is low on the totem pole

with human life not worth more than infected yeast

 

Americans don't care too much for beauty

They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream

They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach

and complain if they can't swim

 

They say things are done for the majority

Don't believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear

It's a lot like what my painter friend Donald said to me

"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"

 

My Old Man
 

When I was a young boy in Brooklyn

Going to public school

During recess in the concrete playground

They lined us up by twos

In alphabetical order, Reagan, Reed and Russo

I still remember the names

And stickball and stoopball

Were the only games that we played

And I wanted to be like my old man

I wanted to grow up just like my old man

I wanted to be like my old man

I wanted to dress like

I wanted to be just like

I wanted to act like my old man

I wanted to be like

I wanted to act like

I wanted to be just like my old man

 

And then like everyone else I started to grow

And I didn't want to be like my father anymore

I was sick if his bullying

And having to hide under a desk on the floor

And when he beat my mother

It made me so mad I could choke

And I didn't want to be like my old man

I didn't even want to look like my old man

I didn't even want to seem like my old man

 

A son watches his father

Being cruel to his mother

And makes a vow to return only when

He is so much richer

In every way so much bigger

That the old man will never hit anyone again

 

Like my old man

 

And can you believe what he said to me

He said, "Lou, act like a man"

Why don't you act just like a man

Act like your daddy Act like a man

Why don't you act like a man

Like your old man

 

Like my old man

 

Slip Away (A Warning)
 

Friends have said to lock the door

and have an open house no more

The said the Factory must change

and slowly slip away

 

But if I have to live in fear

where will I get my ideas

With all those crazy people gone

will I slowly slip away

 

Still there's no more Billy Name

and Ondine is not the same Wonton and the Turtle gone

Slowly slip away

Slowly slip away

 

If I close the Factory door

and don't see those people anymore

If I give in to infamy

I'll slowly slip away

 

I know it seems that friends are right

Hello daylight, goodbye night

But starlight is so quiet here

Think I'll slowly slip away

 

What can I do by myself

it's good to here from someone else

It's good to hear a crazy voice

That will not slip away

Will not slip away

 

If I have to live in fear

my ideas will slowly slip away

 

If I have to live in fear

I'm afraid my life will slip away

 

If you can't see me past my door

Why your thoughts could slowly slip away

 

If I have to lock the door

another life exists no more slip away

 

Friends have said to lock the door

Watch out for who comes through the door

They said the Factory must change

 

But I don't

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