Want to win a copy of the new James McMurtry CD/DVD Live in Europe due out next Tuesday? Well just leave a comment on this post with your favorite James McMurtry lyric and some way to contact you (Email, Twitter, etc...) . Winner will be chosen randomly and announced next monday.This is a great album although rather short, and lacking the fiery excitement of Live in Aught-Five. That's not to say it's not any good, more of a testament to how good Live in Aught-Five is. This one is worth picking up for the DVD alone, which as far as I know is the first time a James McMurtry DVD has been released. One of my favorite parts on the DVD is when Jon Dee Graham comes out and flips off the "biggest music critic in all of Amsterdam" right before kicking into a blazing version of Laredo. Watch a clip from the DVD here
Album is also available on LP with a CD & DVD insert for $18 which is a great deal.
Also worth mentioning is McMurtry will be in Blacksburg on the 18th....That means I WILL be going.
For what it's worth, here is one of my favorite McMurtry lyrics (that's not from the song Choctaw Bingo):
Some insurance man biker is yelling out for one more beerbut a part time pirate just can't get much respect around herewe got our problems too manand we'll get to you in just a minutesit your drunk ass downand there's no one to talk towhen the lines go down
-Hurricane Party
Posts
bsmith7028@aol.com (Smitty)
ReplyDeleteI wrecked that El Camino
Would've been DWI
So I just walked off and left it lying on it's side
Troopers found it in the morning
they said it's purely luck I wouldn't killed
I should probably quit my drinking but I don't believe I will
When I'm all alone it's alright
It isn't gonna wound my pride
If anyone can say they're alright,
So can I
My favorite lines:
ReplyDeleteWe got this duplex out on Fire Line Road
It's way out from town so the rent's pretty low
Not much more than a cinder block cell
Just like the one next door and the next one as well
And the bus don't run out here but three times a day
And the seven eleven's a full mile away
And there's a car in the yard, mostly rust and dents
We moved here in it, but it hasn't run since
I'm forty-some years old and man I don't care,
ReplyDeleteAll I want now is a comfortable chair,
And to sell all my stock and live on the coast.
I don't believe in heaven but I still believe in ghosts.
I'm running around in circles and I'm chasing my tail.
ReplyDeleteCarving my initials with a rusty nail.
I train my intentions, man it happens without fail.
You'd of thought that I'd know better by now.
it might not be a very inspired choice of song on my part, but it is my favorite, from Choctaw Bingo:
ReplyDeleteHe's got an Airstream trailer
and a Holstein cow
still makes whiskey
cause he still knows how.
1. I am from Holstein (in Germany)
2. I wish I could make moonshine...
cheers,
MLP
unclemeat@web.de
Well, since Choctaw is a given, and somebody already 'claimed' Rachel's Song, I'd have to go with:
ReplyDelete'Now cousin Clifford
he got the good land
right on the highway out by Air Base road
looks like a Wal-Mart waiting to happen
I mean to tell you it's a pot of gold
It's in the city limits, zoned commercial
Got city water and a sewer line
What with the base expanding from consolidation
It's worth a fortune and it oughta been mine
(chorus)
glory glory
hallelujah
right back atcha
don't she look natural?
don't look at me like there's
something growing outa my head
just cause that old bird's dead'
-Dan Bateman
@BamaDan
Will work for food will die for oil
ReplyDeleteWill kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
So let ‘em eat jellybeans let ‘em eat cake
Let ‘em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can’t make it here anymore
Was true in '05 and still true today...
Jason - jrnewgard@gmail.com
Daddy’s in the big chair sippin’ on a cold beer
ReplyDeleteGrandma’s cuttin’ a switch
She overheard Mary cussin’ her brother
Called him a son of a bitch
She got a good green limb off a sweet gum sapling
Man that’s bound to sting
...because it Memorial Day in America
david_mckinney@ben.edu
n.samardzija@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteJust us kids in the parking lot
Out here givin' it all we got
We don't want to get old and die
And there ain't nothing we wouldn't try
-Just Us Kids
All the midnight angels
ReplyDeleteFold their wings by dawn
The same old wild-eyed
strangers sit and watch 'em 'til
they're gone
-Melinda
Thanks.
rorybe@gmail.com
Whiskey don't make liars
ReplyDeleteIt just makes fools
So, I didn't mean to say it
But I meant what I said
infinitefool@yahoo.com
Strap them kids in
ReplyDeleteGive em a lil bit of vodka
in a cherry coke
were goin to oklahoma
to the family reunion
for the first time in years
its up at uncle slatons
cuz hes gettin on in years
no longer travels but hes
still pretty spry
hes not much on talk
and hes too mean to die
and they'll be comin down
from kansas and west arkansas
it'll be one big old party
like you've never saw
uncle slaton's got his texan pride
back in the thickets with his asian bride
hes got an airstream trailer and a
holstein cow
still makes whiskey cuz he still knows how
plays that chocktaw bingo every friday night
you know he had to leave texas but he won't say why
he owns a quarter section up by lake ufalla
caught a great big ol bluecat on a driftin jugline
sells his hardwood timber to the chippin mill
cooks that crystal meth cuz his shine don't sell
he cooks that crystal meth cuz his shine don't sell
you know he likes that money, he don't mind the smell
my cousin roscoe, slaton's oldest boy
from his second marraige up in illinois
hes raised in east st louis by his
mammas people where they do things different
thought he'd come on down
hes goin to dallas texas in a semi truck
caught from that big mcdonalds
you know that one thats built up on that
big old bridge across the will rogers turnpike
took the big cabin exit stopped and bought a carton of cigarrets
at that indian smoke shop with the big neon smoke rings
and the cherokee nations hittin the skogee late that night
somebody ran the stoplight at the shawnee bypass
roscoe tried to miss him but he didn't quite
bob and mae come up from
some little town way down by
lake taxoma where he coaches football
they were two-A champions for two years running
but he says they wont be this year
not they wont be this year
and he stopped off in tuska at the pop knife and gun place
bought a sks rifle and a couple full cases of that steel core ammo
with the beardam primers from some east bloc nation
that no longer needs em
and a desert eagle thats one great big old pistol
i mean fifty caliber made by bad-ass ebers
and some surplus tracers for that old BAR
of slatons as soon as it gets dark
were gonna have us a time
were gonna have us a time
ruth-anne and lynn come from baxter springs
thats one hell-raisin town way down in
southeastern kansas
got a biger bar next to the lingerie store
thats got rollin stones lips up there in
bright pink neon
and they're right downtown where everyone can see em
and they burn all night
you know they burn all night
they burn all night
Uncle slaton's got his texan pride
back in the thickets with his asian bride
hes got a corner pasture and an acre lots
he sells them owner financed strictly to them
its got no kind of credit
cause he knows they're slackers
and they'll miss that payment
and he'll take it back
plays that choctaw bingo
every friday night
he drinks his johnny walker
at that club 69
were gonna strap those kinds in
give em a lil bit of vinadryll
were gonna have us a time
were gonna have us a time
bama3580@yahoo.com
Strap them kids in, give 'em a little bit of vodka in a cherry coke
ReplyDeleteWe're going to Oklahoma to the family reunion for the first time in years...
The boogie man came calling
ReplyDeleteI said I wasn't home
he didn't believe me
he wasn't alone
he had my number
he got my goat
he bought my ticket
he paid off my note
and he left in a hurry
said he couldn't stay
I guess he had his reasons
I'm not the one to say...
...I can't grow up
'cause I'm too old now
I guess I really did it this time mom.
mikemc
Picking just one awesome lyric from the finiest writer of our generation? Impossible...
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, Hurricane Party alone is full of great lines:
"I don't want another drink, I only want that last one again"
or
"I was looking for an easy score but it just don't work that way"
and finally
"The morning's first cigarette, that's as good as it gets all day, I should know by now"
The best single opening line of any of his songs in my opinion is from Fast as I Can:
"He was a drinking man with a guitar problem"
With much consternation on the enormity of this task and not wanting to repeat some great lyrics already presented, I'm finally submitting this section of well written verse from Fuller Brush Man:
"And now we give it all we got
Pick 'em up at daycare in a state of shock
Frayed at the edges and torn at the seams
It rarely happens in our wildest dreams
That we
Dance on the roof tops
Let our hearts run wild
And it ain't for the sake of the child
You don't too often see a Sunbeam anymore
Never see a fuller brush man or a dinosaur
The voice of reason rules with an iron fist
Please forgive me if I'm not prepared to handle this..... "
-Todd-
email: cmddot@yahoo.com
Hi
ReplyDeleteThankx for the great blog.
My favourite lyrics are from the greatest love song ever written "lights of cheyenne"
Look off down the highway
at the glittering lights
Like windshield glass
on the shoulder tonight
As the diesels come
grinding on up from the plains
All bunched up like pearls on a string
And I guess time don't mean nothin'
Not nothin' at all
And out on the horizon
the broken stars fall
Old broken stars they
fall down on the land
And get mixed together
with the lights of Cheyenne
Cheers,
Peter B.
psbatch@gmail.com
so many lyrics to chose - how to narrow it down!
ReplyDeletewell I hadn't intended to bend the rules
but whiskey don't make liars it just makes fools
so i didn't mean to say it but i meant what i said
too long in the waisteland
too long in the waisteland
must have gone to my head
jridgway@gmail.com
I love Hurricane Party, but it's the other long story song from Just Us Kids that gets to me most.
ReplyDeleteRuby & Carlos:
Holding back the flood, just don't do no good
You can't unclenched your teeth, to howl the way you should
so you curl your lips around the taste of tears and hollow sounds
that no one owns but you, no one owns but you.
(catfishvegas@gmail.com)
Thanks for your great blog! AS for my most fav lyrics from JM, I agree with RockstarAimz:
ReplyDeleteBut I’m forty some years old now and man I don’t care,All I want now is just a comfortable chair
And to sell all my stock and live on the coast,
I don’t believe in heaven but I still believe in ghosts.
But if I had to choose another, I choose this one that pops into my head at the most interesting times:
Walk between the raindrops, dry as a bone.
☮♥♫
(pharmgirlly@gmail.com)
Many of mine have been mentioned, but there's also:
ReplyDeleteOut here in the middle
Where the center's on the right
And the ghost of William Jennings Bryan preaches every night
To save the lonely souls
in the dashboard lights
Wish you were here my love
Wish you were here my love
and
it's been a few years
since I got here
seen 'em come and I've seen 'em go
crowds assemble, they hang out awhile
then they melt away like an early snow
onto some bright future somewhere
down the road to points unknown
sending postcards when they get there
wherever it is they think they're goin'
This has always been one of my favorites, especially the conversational, off-handed way it's delivered in the song:
ReplyDeleteFlatter than a table top
Makes you wonder why they stopped here
Wagon must have lost a wheel
Or they lacked ambition one
All right, the winner was jridgeway. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteDamn, I lost.
ReplyDeleteI going to go get waisted. :)
mikemc
mikemc, you should have bribed the judge!
ReplyDeleteThere's a Live in Aught-Five? I don't see it on his website. I got Live in Aught-Three after the show when he & the Heartless Bastards stormed through Nelsonville a couple years back.
ReplyDeleteFavorite lyric? Maybe still "Painting By Numbers", which was my intro to his music (via the MTV video). When i got the album it seemed that as a very place-oriented story album filled with characters it was like Lou Reed's New York transplanted to east Texas. Great stuff.
I even heard "Levelland" covered by the local band Stella ca. 2004.
endwar