"RIVER TAKE ME"

DARRELL SCOTT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjG35L4bMzg

 

It's been rainy and windy for seven days straight
I've been going to bed early and getting up late
I look out my window and it's one shade of gray
My wife and my kids don't have much to say
A man out of work only gets in the way

Oh, the river is rising now one inch an hour
And tonight we'll be lucky if we still have power
But I've got a flashlight, an oil lamp and I'm ready to go
And a fresh set of batteries for my son's radio
If the dam really breaks, least we'll know where to go

River take me, river take me
River take me far from troubled times
River take me, river take me
River take me far from troubled times

If I had a boat you know what I'd do
I'd float me and my family down to Baton Rouge
I wouldn't work in no factory, I'd live off the land
And live within means of my own two hands
Dance Saturday nights to a Zydeco band

Oh, the river flows and a young man dreams
And the river can drown you or it can wash you clean
It can take you away to some other place
It can power your cities, carry your waste
And give all that you drink, a peculiar taste

Oh, don't look to me, I've done my time
You see, I've had too many dreams for this one heart of mine
And I've stood on the bridge with the river below
Feeling all of the sadness that a proud man could hold
Oh, the river is full but there's no way to go

"MY LOVE IS ALIVE"

RICHIE HAVENS 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ianfkj6Odhg

 Well, I think it's time to get ready
To realize just what I've found
I have been only half of what I am
It's all clear to me now

My heart is on fire
My soul's like a wheel that's turnin'
My love is alive
My love is alive, yeah yeah yeah

Somethin' inside of me is makin' me crazy
I'll try to keep it together
'Cause what I say may not happen the same way
Now could be forever

My heart is on fire
My soul's like a wheel that's turnin'
My love is alive
My love is alive, yeah yeah yеah

You know it's true
Yeah yeah yеah

There's a mirror movin' inside my mind
Reflectin' the love that you shine on me
Hold on now to that feelin'
Let it flow, let it run

My heart is on fire
My soul's like a wheel that's turnin'
My love is alive
My love is alive, yeah yeah yeah

My love, my love, my love is alive
My love is alive
My love is, my love is alive
My love is alive
Oh yeah, you know it's true
You know it's true
My love is alive
My love is alive
My love is alive
My love is alive

 

 "SUBURBI"

JOAN VINYOLI 

Probablement no podré mai
agafar aquest tramvia
sempre aturat com totes
les coses que serveixen
veritablement.
                       I totes les finestres
de la casa estan fosques.
                                      Comprensible
que mai no s'hi aboqui
ningú.
           Seixem-ho tot
entotsolat, distant, que és quan les coses
es manifesten.
                       No et pertorbi
cap moviment.
                        Aquesta llarga cinta
de carretera de suburbi sols
indica llocs on es podria anar,
però no cal anar-hi.
                               Mai.
                                       Quedem-nos 
aquí.
         Si vols, quan ja no puguis
suportar més la solitud,
agafa el taxi
que està immòbil també fora del temps.

 

 "ON THE TURNING AWAY"

RICHIE HAVENS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZgEkt2dbWk

 

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand

Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away

It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known

Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite in a silent accord

Using words, you will find, are strange
Mesmerised as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside

Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?

 "HURRICANE"

BOB DYLAN 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voH11xV4AKI

 

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees a bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out my God, they killed them all
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously
I didn't do it, he says, and he throws up his hands
I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand
I saw them leavin', he says, and he stops
One of us had better call up the cops
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Paterson that's just the way things go
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you want to draw the heat

Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said, wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men

Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in
They took him to the hospital and they brought him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!
Here's the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame
Remember that murder that happened in a bar
Remember you said you saw the getaway car
You think you'd like to play ball with the law
Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night
Don't forget that you are white

Arthur Dexter Bradley said I'm really not sure
The cops said a poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
You don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You'll be doin' society a favor
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse

All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder one, guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

 "SPANISH BEE"

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvMttqmRdPU

I'm convinced, I confess
It's a mystery
I leave it alone
Why suppress happiness
It's a glimmer
A given unknown

I could've tried
Wanted to be
Look at my life
I'm living free

I confessed, I confessed
For this century
I'm livin' alone
Why suppress happiness
It's a mystery
So I leave it alone

Why even try
So hard to be
I could've died
'Cause of your greed

I could've tried
Wanted to be
Look in my eyes
What do you see
I could've died
Because of your greed
This is my life

 "TREE SONG"

BERT JANSCH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUC_gMcLTA0

 

I wish I had a photograph
To let you see the way you smile
Upon my foolish heart

The words I do not know enough
I hope that you will find my song
A pleasing to your ear

You step beneath the midnight moon
To gather dewdrops for the sun
A Waiting until morn

Oh if I was a branched tree
I'd be the oak tree fast and strong
To win your gentle heart

And If I was one grain of corn
I'd wait till you did come along
To throw me to the wind

And if I was one silken thread
Embroidered all in cherry red
Upon your breast I'd lie

And if I was the alder tree
I'd burn it fiercely over thee
Our love would surely last

And if I was the hawthorn bush
And you did shelter under me
I would not do you harm

And if I was one glass of wine
One sip from you would give me time
To take you by the hand

And all across the hills we'd go
In search of what no-one does know
Except for you and I