All words and music Copyright © 2001 by Gray Cox
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All words and music Copyright © 2001 by Gray Cox
Click on song titles to stream as mp3 files or, to save to disk and listen later, option click with a Mac or right click with a PC.
1. Turn Things Around [music]
I'll play guitar, if you make a beat.
We'll go on a march, we'll take back the street.
You know it's in our constitution to make revolution by taking back the street at night by dancing in the moonlight.
And there's no time like the present and there is no place like home, to help a fellow citizen to turn things around -- help a fellow citizen to turn things around.
Vernon has a video camera, you bring a tape.
We'll go where there's a news blackout and make a statement.
You know it's in our constitution to make revolution
by sharing what we see, preferably on CNN TV.
And there's no time like the present and there's no place like home -- to help a fellow citizen to turn things around.
I'll play guitar, if you make a beat.
We'll go on a march, we'll take back the street.
You know it's in our constitution to make revolution by taking back the street at night by dancing in the moonlight.
And there's no time like the present and there's no place like home, to help a fellow citizen to turn things around -- help a fellow citizen to turn things around.
We'll draft a resolution and we'll take it door to door -- improving it, persuading folks, till we all agree it's law.
We don't need a Constitution to make revolution. The power of the people is a birthright of ours.
And before the Constitution we were making resolutions, dotting all the i's -- and dumping all the tea like the Adams family back in old Boston City
Cause there's no time like the present and there's no place like home to help a fellow citizen to turn things around. Help a fellow citizen to turn things around.
2.) Streetlight and Colorado [music]
They'd been
at a conference talking politics all day, finding each other's eyes pulled each
other's way.
And after all the meetings were done and everyone else had headed home, they
stood in starlight at the door and lingered to talk and look some more.
She was an urban ecofeminist from the East Coast, she said: 'You can call me
Streetlight Shadow.' He was a long haired boy from Colorado.
And standing there that night, bathed in starlight, he felt the pull of an impulse
to promise: 'Come with me and I will hold you as tenderly as a candle in the
night wind.'
And she said: "Don't tell me you're gonna hold me in your hands. I'm not gona
go for any of that 'Trust me' crap. But if you come lean with me in the windbreak
of this tall tree, we can cup each other's hands to our heads and whisper in
the night wind."
Break
Well the wind blustered up his long hair, it blew prickles in the follicles
of her bald head, and they both felt the pull of an impulse to promise: "Come
with me and I will hold you as tenderly as a candle in the night wind."
And they each felt the sudden, chilling threat of medieval notions of romance.
But they stood their ground in the windbreak of that tall tree and cupped each
other's hands to their heads and whispered in the night wind.
They'd been at a conference talking politics all day, finding each other's eyes
pulled each other's way.
And after all the meetings were done and everyone else had headed home, they
stood in starlight at the door and lingered to talk and whisper some more.
3.) Both Ready to Start
We met on a dance floor. We were both there to learn to swing. And after sweatin'
through a few short hours we started to share all kinds of things.
We were both fresh in the middle of the kind of change that rearranges your
life and heart. We didn't know where we were going but we were both ready to
start.
And when our hands touched and you looked me in the face,it felt like we were
on this fast train whippin' cross a vast landscape.
And my brain said: "Step back and take a deep breath." But my eyes said: "Let's
just look a little more."
And that train it just kept a'rollin' and your shoulder was this vast landscape
I was aching to explore and explore and explore.
And somewhere there's a most peculiar planet whirling round an incomprehensible
sun where aliens encounter strange love and maybe that planet is this one we're
on.
Errrrrrrrrrk . . ..
And maybe that planet is this one we're on.
And the next time we went dancin' it was a cover band and they rocked us through
the decades of our lives.
And we were jumpin', we were pumpin', we were humpin', up and down with an R
E S P E C T shout and all these smile.
And after the dance was over, we kept dancin' in the car and on the couch and
it was the middle of the night and we were doin' all these new moves the elbow,
the ear, the eye, the nose, the mouth, oh, your sweet mouth . . .
And it wasn't but a day or so later as I was bangin' out the chords to this
song that I finally stepped back to take that deep breath and then choke it
back with a sob.
We met on a dance floor. We were both there to learn to swing. And after sweatin'
through a few short hours we started to share all kinds of things.
We were both fresh in the middle of the kind of change that rearranges your
life and heart.
We didn't know where we were going but we were both ready to start.
And somewhere there's a most peculiar planet
whirling round an incomprehensible sun where aliens encounter a strange true
love and maybe that planet is this one that we're on.
4.) Let it pile!
Your tastes are simple, but quite refined. Your needs are basic to satisfy
-- you need a meal and a half a day and twelve hours of dance and thirty-eight
hours of mouth to mouth romance!
And baby, it ain't hard to make you smile, and baby, it just takes a little
while, and baby, if we get behind we can just let it pile and pile and pile.
Let it pile! Let it pile! Let it pile! Let it pile and pile and pile!
Well I love beauty, though I'm a bit of a slob. My needs are basic . . . ally
quite a lot of good food and sleep and dancin' around and that mouth to mouth
romance that makes my heart p-p-p-pound!
And baby, it ain't hard to make me smile, and baby, it just takes a little while,
and baby, if we get behind we can just let it pile and pile and pile.
Chorus
And baby, our tastes may not exactly match and, baby, our needs may be a little
unnatural but, baby, maybe you and I could agree on this dancin' around and
mouth to mouth romancin'.
'Cause baby, we could make each other smile and, baby, it just takes a little
while,and baby, if we get behind we can just let it pile and pile and pile .
. .
Chorus
5.) Poquitas horas de Cancún
Bienvenido a Nuestro Mundo Nuevo, siempre mas cerca a ti,
where we are all just a few short hours from Cancun . . .
Poquitas horas de Cancún, poquitas horas de Cancún.
A few short hours from Cancun. We are all poquitas horas de Cancún
And some go there by boat Van por barco!
some go by plane avión!
7.) Je me souviens
Toute la journée et toute la nuit
je pense a toi et respire
et toutes les choses m'apparaissant
comme la bretelle sur ton épaule
un voile de toi
un symbole de toi
un morceau --- de toi, un souvenir . . .
et je me souviens ohhh ‹
je me souviens, ohhh,
je me souviens de toi
canadienne
française
américaine
ma cher
Liliane
Lili.
[Throughout the day, throughout the night, I think of you and breathe . . .
and each thing at which I look appears to me like the halter strap on your shoulder
blade a draping of you, a symbol of you, a piece of you, a remembrance
of you . . . and I remember, oh I remember you: Canadian, French, American,
my dearest Liliane Lili . . . ]
8.) Someone to Hold
Cryingggggggggg . . . oh there . . .
Sleep baby sleep . . . sleep baby sleep . . .
Little child crying, crying, crying in the night
little child crying, let me hold you hold you tight.
Do you have a hunger? Do you have a thirst?
Do you need a change? Tell me what is worst.
Did you have a night mare? Did you see the night flare?
Did you hear a sound? Did you feel the bomb?
Do you want your papa? Do you want your mom?
Do you cry for someone -- someone who is gone?
I don't have no diamonds. I don't have no gold.
But I have love and hope. Here's someone to hold.
Do you have a hunger? Do you have a thirst?
Do you need a change? A change in this world?
Little child crying, crying, crying in the night
little child crying, let me hold you hold you tight.
9.)
Carmelita
[In a pueblo in Mexico there is a widow who cooks pastries day and night
in her small kitchen to support her children. She sings as she works
and she is "nothing more than a voice, bu not less clear, less rare, less romantic;
nothing more than a heart, nothing more than love . . but nothing less."]
Nada mas que una voz, pero no menos clara,
nada mas que una voz, pero no menos rara,
nada mas que una voz, pero no menos romantica,
nada mas que una voz, pura voz, pura voz.
Nada mas que corazon, pero no menos clara,
nada mas que corazon, pero no menos rara,
nada mas que corazon, pero no menos romantica,
nada mas que corazon, pura corazon, pura corazon.
Nada mas que amor, pero no menos clara,
nada mas que amor, pero no menos rara,
nada mas que amor, pero no menos romantica,
nada mas que amor, pur' . . . amor
10.) El Mar
Había una vez un pez que no sabia que el nadaba en el mar.
Tenia una sed tan fuerte que no podía con esta acabar.
Fue una sed para justicia y para libertad,
una sed fuerte para amor.
Buscaba en las algas, buscaba en el coral,
buscaba por todas las aguas del sal.
Un día una pez quien se llamaba Mercedes le encontró.
Empezaron a platicar, empezaron a bailar, mientras nadando en el mar.
Y después de unas horas empezaron a besar, mientras nadando en le mar.
Y después de unos minutos, no podían continuar, a causa de falta
de oxigeno.
Y fue por eso que ellos descubrieron que ellos estaban nadando en un mar. Y
fue preciso por eso que ellos empezaron
a valuar el mar en lo que nadaban -- el mar en lo que tienen derechos, el mar
de su libertad, el mar infinito de su amor.
Y ellos son nada mas que peces, y no tienen ni cazuela ni comal
pero ellos tienen todas las aguas del sal.
Y se dice que no somos peces, cada uno es muy especial
-- tiene alma y espíritu.
Y por eso tengo una sed fuerte a saber si no es de sal -- en que tipo de mar
nadas tu?
[Once there was a fish that did not know it was swimming in the sea. He
had a thirst so strong that he could not get quit of it.
It was a thirst for justice and for liberty, a strong thirst for love.
He searched midst the seaweeds, he searched amidst the coral, he searched in
all of the waters that were of salt.
One day a fish named Mercedes encountered him. They began to converse and to
dance, all the while swimming in the sea.
And after a few hours, they began to kiss, all the while swimming in the sea.
And after a few hours, they could not go on, because of a lack of oxygen.
And it was through this that they discovered that they were swimming in a sea.
And it was precisely through this that they began to value the sea in which
they were swimming the sea in which they have rights, the sea of their
liberty, the infinite sea of their love.
And they are nothing more than fish, they have neither a cooking pot nor a comal,
but they have all the waters that are made of salt.
And they say that we are not fish, each one of us is very special,
each has a soul and a spirit.
And for this reason I have a strong, strong thirst to know f it is not made
of salt, in what kind of sea do you swim?]
11.) Antes de morirnos . . . ¡Ojala!
¿Dónde está la paz del Verbo, la paz en verdad y servicio?
¿Dónde está verdad justiciera, en la vida y la actividad?
Buscamos, encontramos -- luego vivimos en la Luz . . .
["Before We Die -- If It Please God, May It Be!!"
Where is the peace of the Love that is a deed? Peace in truth, in service? Where
is the Truth that is Justice in Life, in the Doing?
We hunt (seek), we encounter (find), and then we live in the Light.
Whence comes the good morrow? Day of divine love and aspiration?
Whence comes the good day? Good in Spirit and in body?
As dawn grows day, as dusk grows night, it is given out of the Creator.
We make ourselves a question -- the issue is direct, concerning a junta.
Joined here, joined now, we ourselves are that question.
In silence, in starlight, it is given from the Creator.]
Streetlight and Colorado
songs of love and justice
Gray
1.) Turn things around (2:53)
2.) Streetlight and Colorado (6:02)
3.) Both ready to start (7:06)
4.) Let it pile 3:26)
5.) Poquitas horas de Cancun (3:36)
6.) We all come from Africa (5:09)
7.) Je me souviens (4:21)
8.) Someone to hold (3:08)
9.) Carmelita (4:08)
10.) El Mar (5:07)
11.) Antes de morirnos . . . ¡Ojala! (3:10)
12.) Sweet girl with the grayin' hair (4:14)
Canciones # 5 & #10 grabado por Isaac Cortez en Mixaudio
Studio, Merida, Mexico ¡Gracias!
All other tracks recorded and mixed by Nate Schrock, at the Wall Street studio,
Portland, Maine where beautiful sound is a way of life.
CD reproduced by Klarity Music, available at www.klarity.com
All recorded guitar, voice and other sounds by Gray
All words and music Copyright © 2001 by Gray Cox
9 1/2 Cleftstone Road, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, #207-288-3888
gray@ecology.coa.edu