[Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘Turn our faces to the West’ – Songs Around the Compass
Hi, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs connected to compass directions. By this, I mean songs mentioning any compass direction or relating directly to this; for example, south, southerly, south-western, south-eastern, southward. sou’wester. Whatever the case, the notion of a direction has to be clearly present.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant ‘compass direction’ songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘California Girls’, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, performed by the Beach Boys (1965)
‘Well East coast girls are hip’
‘Substitute’, written by Pete Townshend, performed by The Who (1966)
‘The north side of my town faced east / And the east was facing south’
‘Helen Wheels’, written by Paul and Linda McCartney, performed by Paul McCartney and Wings (1973)
‘M6 south down Liverpool, where they play the west coast sound’
‘Old Paint’, traditional, performed by Linda Ronstadt (1977)
‘Turn our faces to the west’
‘Hollywood Nights’, written and performed by Bob Seger (1978)
‘He was a Midwestern boy on his own’
‘Go West’, written by Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo and Victor Willis, performed by the Village People (1979)
‘Great Southern Land’, written by Iva Davies, performed by Icehouse (1982)
‘Daughters of the Northern Coast’, written by James Reyne and Guy McDonough, performed by Australian Crawl (1982)
‘Life in a Northern Town’, written by Gilbert Gabriel and Nick Laird-Clowes performed by The Dream Academy (1985)
‘Black Velvet’, written by David Tyson and Christopher Ward, performed by Alannah Miles (1989)
‘Black velvet with that slow southern style’
‘Candy’, written by Iggy Pop, performed by Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson (1989)
‘Beautiful, beautiful girl from the North’
‘South Australia’, traditional, performed by The Kilkennys (2014)
…………………………………………………………………
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) connected to compass directions, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a solid general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Songs that come to mind:
Girl from the North Country – Bob Dylan
Way Out West – The Dingoes
Southern Nights – Allen Toussaint
North to Alaska – Johnny Horten
Thanks for opening the batting with this thematically spot-on quartet, Col.
KD, I’m digging into the past here, older even than Col’s Johnny Horten offering (which I remember well from my childhood). My father used to sing and play guitar at local country dances in his younger days, then the guitar was put aside. But throughout his life he was prone to break into song now and then. His repertoire was country and western, hymns and an eclectic collection of mid-20th century songs. Perhaps my favourite was Wilf Carter’s ‘Little grey haired mother in the west’. I can still hear him…If you’re not familiar with this one, KD, you’ll find it on YouTube.
I realIy like hearing these kinds of family stories, Ian. I believe that generations ago people sang (and indeed whistled, to mention another musical thing) considerably more in their everyday lives compared to today. It’s an interesting phenomenon.
I’ll certainly give Wilf Carter’s song a listen.
Open your eyes: Asia
Southern Cross: Crosby Stills and Nash
Compass: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Queen of the hours: Electric Light Orchestra
Birmingham Blues: Electric Light Orchestra
Wild West hero: Electric Light Orchestra
Showdown: Electric Light Orchestra
Eldorado: Electric Light Orchestra
Latitude 88 North: Electric Light Orchestra
Across the border: Electric Light Orchestra
Best imitation of myself: Ben Folds Five
Uncle Walter: Ben Folds Five
Forever autumn: Justin Hayward
You are here: John Lennon
Western union man: Max Merritt
In the valley: Midnight Oil
Outside world: Midnight Oil
Beds are burning: Midnight Oil
Fugitive kind: Mondo Rock
Keep the motor running: Mondo Rock
One more river: James Reyne
Every tooth a tombstone: James Reyne
At the zoo: Simon and Garfunkel
Western promise: Ultravox
Baba O’Riley: The Who
A fine list, Liam! Many thanks.
Good new theme morning KD!
As I was reading the intro, the first song to go ‘ping’ in my memory banks was ‘North To Alaska’. …but, alas, it was taken in the first post by Col R. Also got a nice sensation by seeing ‘Western Union Man’ get a mention. But, for my opening run, I’ll add:
Neil Young – Southern Man
‘Southern man, better keep your head
Don’t forget what your good book said
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast
Southern man’
Good new theme morning to you, too, Karl!
Thanks for ‘Southern Man’ – I’m expecting the American South to get a very good run in terms of this theme, but I’ve found from past experience with these themed songlists that it doesn’t pay to predict too much – many interesting surprises can occur.
Stand – REM should get double points
Stand in the place where you live
Now face north
Think about direction, wonder why you haven’t before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face west, think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven’t before
If you are confused, check with the sun
Carry a compass to help you along
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
West of the Fields – REM
Only A Northern Song – Beatles
North Sea Bubble – Billy Bragg
Northern Industrial Town – Billy Bragg
Facing The North Pole In August – Models
Hit The North – The Fall
Map Ref 41 North 93 West – Wire
Incident On South Dowling – Paul Kelly
Southern Accents – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Southern Girls – Cheap Trick
Sweden (All Quiet On The Eastern Front) – Stranglers
East Easy Rider – Julian Cope
Way Out West – Big Star
Way Of The West – The Johnnys
West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys
Further West – Tactics
The History Of Western Civilisation – TISM
Do You Believe In The Westworld – Theatre Of Hate
Hero From The West – Smokey Dawson
NSEW – The Church
All’s Quiet On The Eastern Front – Ramones
Commando – Ramones
London’s Burning – The Clash
California Sun – Ramones et al
Way Over Yonder In A Minor Key – Billy Bragg and Wilco
Leilani – Hoodoo Gurus
North – Elvis Costello
Less Than Zero – Elvis Costello
Waiting For The End of the World – Elvis Costello
Hand Of Law – Radio Birdman
If I was giving double points for any song choice, ‘Stand’ would certainly be in the box seat, Swish! Thank you.
Thanks, also, for your big songlist, which contains many excellent songs – and quite a number of my favourite bands, incidentally, such as the Beatles, REM, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Cheap Trick, Hoodoo Gurus… I could keep going!
Some Bruce:
Somewhere North of Nashville (north)
My Hometown (south)
Blinded by the Light (east)
Silver Palomino (west)
Always a fine thing when Bruce appears on the thematic ‘stage’, Rick. Thank you.
Song for Ireland – Mary Black (and loads of others) Written by Phil and June Coclough
“Walking all the day, near tall towers
where falcons build their nests
Siver winged they fly,
they know the call of freedom in their breasts
Saw Black Head against the sky
with twisted rocks that run down to the sea
Living on your western shore,
saw summer sunsets, asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic sea
and sang a song for Ireland”
Come All Ye Tramps and Hawkers – The Dubliners, The Battlefield Band (and others) written in the 1870s or 80s by “Brechin Jimmy”
“Oh, come all ye tramps and hawker lads and gaitherers o’ blaw
That tramps the country round and round, come listen ane and a’
I’ll tell to ye a rovin’ tale o’ sights that I hae seen
It’s far intae the snowy north and sooth by Gretna Green”
The Black Fly – Wade Hemsworth
“‘Twas early in the spring when I decide to go
For to work up in the woods in north Ontar-i-o
And the unemployment office said they’d send me through
To the Little Abitibi with the survey crew
And the blackflies, the little blackflies
Always a blackfly, no matter where you go
I’ll die with a blackfly pickin’ my bones
In north Ontar-i-o-i-o
In north Ontar-i-o”
And speaking of North Ontario…..
Helpless – Neil Young
.
“There is a town in north Ontario,
With dream comfort memory to spare,
And in my mind I still need a place to go,
All my changes were there.
Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked and tied across the door,
Baby, sing with me somehow.
Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless.”
More much later…..
Thank, you, Dave, for your opening quartet. For those with a folk inclination, I feel this theme is right up their alley, so many folk songs being connected to journeys, departures, arrivals, travel and the like – and therefore so often involving direction in a locational / geographical sense.
Dylan’s first commercially released song – Talkin’ New York’ – from his 1962 ‘Bob Dylan’ debut albums begins like this:
‘Rambling out of the Wild West
Leaving the towns I love the best
Thought I’d seen some ups and downs
‘Till I come into New York town
People going down to the ground
Buildings going up to the sky’
and ends with:
‘So one morning when the sun was warm
I rambled out of New York town
Pulled my cap down over my eyes
And headed out for the western skies
So long, New York
Howdy, East Orange’
Hey KD – I was writing my above entry at the same time you posted yours (above mine), Appropriately, your comments is 100% spot on with the sentiment in my post….very well scripted!
Excellent alignment, Karl! Thank you for ‘Talkin’ New York’.
A Little Further North – Graeme Connors
“verse
The sun sinks behind me in the west
This is the time of day I love best
Salt breezes murmur through the coconut palms
As the colors change, they set a scene of tropical
Seagulls headin? back to land
Over the mangroves and the salt pans
By a lazy creek with a six-pack and a fishin’ line
Winnin? back some memories and losin’ track of time
chorus
I head a little further north each year
Leave the cities behind, out of sight, out of mind
Whoa, and when my troubles can all disappear
I head a little further north each year’
Honey Do – Jimmy Buffett
“Vacantly occupied, sat on the beach ’til my body got fried
Dreamin’ of your pretty eyes up in South Carolina
I can’t pronounce my R’s or G’s when I’m speakin’ Southernese
Honey do, honey, come and do me again”
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Big wheels keep on turnin’
Carry me home to see my kin
Singin’ songs about the Southland
I miss ol’ ‘Bamy once again
And I think it’s a sin, yes
Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well, I heard ol’ Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don’t need him around, anyhow”
Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits
‘Well, now you step inside
But you don’t see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain
To hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places
Ah, but the horns, they’re blowing that sound
Way on down south
Way on down south, London town”
Talking Birmingham Jam – Phil Ochs (a song about the Freedom Riders’ Civil Rights campaign in the early 1960s)
” Walkin’ down to Birmingham,
way down south in Dixieland.
I thought that I would stop a while
Take a vacation Southern style
Got some Southern hospitality…down there in a Southern hospital”
Thanks for these five, Dave – interesting how ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is, in an important way, a response to Neil Young’s ‘Southern Man’, put forward earlier in this songlist.
Good Saturday morning KD!
Let me ask….’Am I Heading In the Right Direction, with this theme and its intention?’
Bob Dylan’s Dream (1963)
‘While riding on a train goin’ west
I fell asleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had’
Good Saturday mornin’ to you, too, Karl!
Yes, you are certainly heading in the manner of the song I always associate with Renee Geyer.
Thank you for ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’.
Wichita Lineman – Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb et al
‘I know I need a small vacation
But it don’t look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south
Won’t ever stand the strain’
Bad Bad Leroy Brown – Jim Croce
‘Well the South side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named Leroy Brown’
Ah yes, Swish – two great songs! Thank you!
I return to an old favourite – which doesn’t disappoint.
Rick Wakeman – Journey To The Centre Of The Earth (relevant narrated extracts):
‘they continued through the lava gallery, which gently sloped until they reached the inter section of two roads.
Without hesitation Professor Lidenbrook chose the eastern tunnel.’
‘The Eastern route they had taken had come to a dead end.’
‘With a north-westerly wind propelling them along at about three miles an hour, silvery beams of light,
reflected here and there by drops of spray, produced luminous points in the eddy created by the raft.’
‘Cumulus clouds formed heavily in the south, like huge wool packs heaped up in picturesque disorder.’
‘Checking the compass brought only heartbreak as it showed that a chance of wind during
the storm had returned them to just a few miles north of Port Grauben.’
‘Their journey was completed and they found themselves 3000 miles from their original starting
point in Iceland. They had entered by one volcano and they hadcome out by another.
With the blue mountains of Calabria in the east they walked away from the mountain that had returned them.
The frightening Mount Etna.’
Northbound by Cold Chisel is the first one that comes to mind.
and ‘’Turn The Page’ by Bob Seger.
“… east of Omaha”
Your Wakeman pickup is an excellent one, Karl. Thanks!
Thanks for your two choices, Greg. Good stuff!
This inspired me to listen to some more Bob Seger this arvo. In hindsight I would have been better off just listing the few songs of his that don’t contain these references!
Dylan – I Shall Be Released
‘I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.’
Excellent pickup, Karl – one of those songs that aren’t immediately obvious in terms of the theme, then they are!
Hankering for some Hank:
Lonesome Whistle (I was ridin’ number nine/Headin’ south from Caroline/I heard that lonesome whistle blow/Got in trouble, had to roam/Left my gal and left my home/I heard that lonesome whistle blow)
On the Banks of the Old Pontchartrain (I just couldn’t tell her that I ran away/From jail on a West Texas plain/I prayed in my heart I would never be found/On the banks of the old Pontchartrain/Then one day a man put his hand on my arm/And said I must go west again/I left her alone without saying goodbye/On the banks of the old Pontchartrain)
and a couple of random picks:
The Death of Country Music, The Waco Brothers (Tonight the west is sleeping/The desert will be creeping/Inch by inch/Across the continent/And the bones of country music/Lay there in their casket/Beneath the towers of Nashville/In a black pool of neglect)
SF Sorrow is Born, The Pretty Things (For ten weeks now, number three stood empty/Nobody thought there would be/Family laughter behind the windows/Or a Christmas tree/Then a couple from up north/Sorrow and his wife arrived/Before the sun had left the streets/They were living inside/Then before too long/The street, it rang with the sound/From number three, there came the cry/”S.F. Sorrow is born!”)
Plaistow Patricia, Ian Dury (From the Mile End Road to the match-stick Beacontree/Pulling strokes and taking liberties/She liked it best when she went up west, oh-oh/You can go to hell with your ‘well, well, well’, oh-oh/Who said good things always come in threes ?/Reds and yellows, purples, blues and greens/She turned the corner before she turned fifteen/She got into a mess on the NHS, oh-oh/It runs down your arms and settles in your palms, oh-oh)
Cheers
I’m off to see George Clinton and his bands, Parliament/Funkadelic next weekend and yes, a bit excited. Here’s one of their best:
Hit it and Quit It (You can shake it to the east/Shake it to the west/Hit it/Good god, hit it and quit it/Yeah, all up and down/And move it all around/Hit it/Good god, hit it and quit it/Yeah)
Some great picks, Rick – with Hank and some other well-chosen, relevant but ‘random’ material, how could you go wrong?
In one of my ‘go to’ Johnny Cash numbers, ‘Hey Porter’, things of a ‘Southern ‘ variety get a pretty good run, incidentally.
Wintersong – Greg Quill and Country Radio
“North wind rolling down, my friends are leaving town
I know they’re waiting just for me
One more summer gone one more wintersong
And one more time I tried to leave”
The Lily of The West – The Chieftains
“When first I came to Ireland
Some pleasure for to find
It’s there I spied a damsel fair
Most pleasing to my mind
Her rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes
Like arrows pierced my breast
They call her lovely Molly O
The Lily of the West”
(According to Wikipedia, this traditional folk song was first collected in early 19th England, Ireland and Scotland
there are later version from the US and Canada. Both Dylan and Baez recorded the song in the 60s although
in their versions the Lily was met in Louisville and her name was Flora)
The Old Palmer Song – traditional
“The wind is fair and free, my boys, the wind is fair and free
The steamer’s course is north, my boys, and the Palmer we will see
The Palmer we will see, my boys, and Cooktown’s muddy shore
Where I’ve been told there’s lots of gold, so stay down south no more
Chorus
So, blow ye winds, heigho
A-digging we will go
I’ll stay no more down south, my boys
So let the music play
In spite of what I’m told
I’m off in search of gold
I’ll make a push for that new rush
A thousand miles away’
The Ballad of 1891 – words Helen Palmer, Music Doreen Jacobs
“The price of wool was falling in 1891
The men who owned the acres saw something must be done
“We will break the Shearers’ Union, and show we’re masters still
And they’ll take the terms we give them, or we’ll find the ones who will”
From Claremont to Barcaldine, the shearers’ camps were full
Ten thousand blades were ready to strip the greasy wool
When through the west like thunder, rang out the Union’s call
“The sheds’ll be shore Union or they won’t be shorn at all”
Oh, Billy Lane was with them, his words were like a flame
The flag of blue above them, they spoke Eureka’s name
“Tomorrow,” said the squatters, “they’ll find it does not pay
We’re bringing up free labourers to get the clip away”
“Tomorrow,” said the shearers, “they may not be so keen
We can mount three thousand horses, to show them what we mean”
“Then we’ll pack the west with troopers, from Bourke to Charters Towers
You can have your fill of speeches but the final strength is ours”
“Be damned to your six-shooters, your troopers and police
The sheep are growing heavy, the burr is in the fleece”
“Then if Nordenfeldt and Gatling won’t bring you to your knees
We’ll find a law,” the squatters said, “that’s made for times like these”
To trial at Rockhampton the fourteen men were brought
The judge had got his orders, the squatters owned the court
But for every one that’s sentenced, ten thousand won’t forget
Where they jail a man for striking, it’s a rich man’s country yet “
Fine material, Dave – the extensive quoting of lyrics always adds an important dimension to your song choices, as I’ve indicated a number of times before.
Hey KD
What would a music theme be without this all time favourite and consistent provider of ‘on theme’ lyrics? In this instance we have east, west & north……
Tangled Up In Blue
‘And I was standin’ on the side of the road
Rain fallin’ on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues gettin’ through
Tangled up in blue’
‘We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best’
‘I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell’
Ah, good old ‘Tangled’ – the musical gift that keeps on giving! Thanks, Karl.
In mid October, Springsteen is set to release a Nebraska boxset (including the long rumoured to exist, Electric Nebraska). Yeah. This release will synch with the feature film, Deliver Me From Nowhere about the making of Nebraska and Bruce’s long night of the soul. Pretty exciting if yer a mad Bruce fan like me. Especially becuase this comes hot on the heels of the 83 track boxset of unreleased Springsteen songs, which landed in June and Matty Q (fellow Almanacer) and I have been playing the hell out of since. Speaking of which I have a few songs that fit the latest theme by KD. Here we go:
County Fair (At the north end of the field, well, they set up a stand/And they got a little rock and roll band/The people dancin’, yeah, out in the open air/It’s James Young and the Immortal Ones/Just two guitars, baby, bass and drums/Rockin’ down at the county fair)
Delivery Man (I took a hard turn just south of the Kokomo/That rope gave out, my load shift?d, we was all over the road/H?ns busted on the blacktop, chickens scattered all about/Runnin’ hell-bent ‘cross the highway, gettin’ turned inside out/By some local commuters at sixty miles per hour/In five minutes it was all over, except for the flowers, yeah)
Inyo (Over the washes of the Big and Little Tujunga/Above the Mojave in a two-horse buckboard/Bill Mulholland, Fred Eaton set out for the Owens River Valley/In the fall of 1904/Through the Tehachapi, up along the Sierra Nevada/Through the Green Valley towards the Owens River mouth/They come to bring that Owens River water/Two hundred miles to the desert city south)
Ciudad Juarez (The drugs flow north across the river, the guns flow south/The blood flows here from the devil’s mouth/Here at the devil’s mouth, our daughters are bled/Give me back my lost heart/Ciudad Juarez/We come north to the maquiladoras/Made the colonias our home/Morning sun fell on her skin/Then gone)
And one from Woody:
Do Re Mi (Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin’ home every day,/Beatin’ the hot old dusty way to the California line./’Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin’ out of that old dust bowl,/They think they’re goin’ to a sugar bowl, but here’s what they find/Now, the police at the port of entry say,/”You’re number fourteen thousand for today.”/Oh, if you ain’t got the do re mi, folks, you ain’t got the do re mi,/Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee./California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;/But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot/If you ain’t got the do re mi.)
Excellent, highly engaging material, Rick. Your enthusiasm for Springsteen is infectious, by the way. I have so much Bruce material in my music collection that your comments and song choices makes me want to spend a musical day (or maybe week) devoted to the great man.
It’s also nice to see that Woody is getting a bit of attention in relation to this theme, too.
Another Dylan favourite of mine with a few ‘on theme’ compass points:
Isis
‘We set out that night for the cold in the North
I gave him my blanket, he gave me his word
I said, where are we goin’, he said we’d be back by the fourth
I said, that’s the best news that I’ve ever heard’
‘She was there in the meadow where the creek used to rise
Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed
I came in from the East with the sun in my eyes
I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead’
Thanks for ‘Isis’, Karl. It might be a coincidence, but so often it seems that the multi- theme Dylan songs are among his best.
Great theme.. and one song hits all four points of the compass.
West is the Way -,The Stars
Chorus:
West is the way
North is the thunder
East is what we’re runnin from
South is the sea where we’d go under
West is the one
Cheers
Cheers
Some Slim Dusty:
Lights on the Hill (It’s a long tough haul from away down South/A man’s gotta find a little bread for his mouth/And a home for a girl as sweet as my honey can be/So it’s down through the gears, she’s a-startin’ to pull/The gauge on the tanks is a-showin’ near full/And the lights comin’ over the hill are a-blindin’ me)
Indian Pacific (From the silver of the Broken Hill to old Kalgoorlie gold/She mirrors all the colours of the land so hard and old/Then the western clouds are blooming and the air is just like wine/And the Indian Pacific’s makin’ time … Oh the Indian Pacific she goes rollin’ down the track/Five thousand miles to travel before she’s there and back/From the waters of the western sea to the eastern ocean sand/The Indian Pacific spans the land/Oh the Indian Pacific spans the land)
Old Time Country Songs (As a boy I dreamed of travel, to cover this big old land/So I headed north in the ’50s, in a homemade caravan/Early years had corrugations, so we had no time to stall/But I still say to this very day, they were the best damn times of all)
Paddy Williams (Well I met him there, in Turkey Creek as he sat in a four-wheel drive/I was glad to find his mind was sharp and the memories still alive/Of the drovin’ days and the stockyard camp when he rode at the boss’ side/For he’d been a ringer all his life on the western side/Oh Paddy William is his name/And drovin’ was his game/But a thousand miles on the outback trails is a long, long way from home)
Sunny Northern Rose (She was fairer than the flowers that blossom in the vails/Red up in the mountains of sunny New South Wales/But in my youth I went away that’s how the story goes/I’ve had my thing gone back again to my southern Northern Rose)
Thanks for Do Re Mi, Rick. Here are some more of Woody’s songs.
Roll On Columbia.
“Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through.
Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew.
Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on!
CHORUS: Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
Other great rivers add power to you,
Yakima, Snake and the Klickitat, too,
Sandy Willamette and Hood River, too;
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
CHORUS
Tom Jefferson’s vision would not let him rest,
An empire he saw in the Pacific Northwest.
Sent Lewis and Clark and they did the rest;
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
CHORUS
It’s there on your bank that we fought many a fight,
Sheridan’s boys in the blockhouse that night,
They saw us in death but never in flight,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
CHORUS
At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks,
The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks,
Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
CHORUS
And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam,
The mightiest thing ever built by a man,
To run these great factories and water the land,
It’s roll on, Columbia, roll on.
CHORUS
These might men labored by day and by night,
Matching their strength ‘gainst the river’s wild flight,
Through rapids and falls they won the hard fight,
Roll on, Columbia, roll on.
Pastures of Plenty
“It’s a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold
I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you’ll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind
California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine
Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We’ll work in this fight and we’ll fight till we win
It’s always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I will work till I die
My land I’ll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free”
Talking Dust Bowl Blues
“Back in Nineteen Twenty-Seven,
I had a little farm and I called that heaven.
Well, the prices up and the rain come down,
And I hauled my crops all into town —
I got the money, bought clothes and groceries,
Fed the kids, and raised a family.
Rain quit and the wind got high,
And the black ol’ dust storm filled the sky.
And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine,
And I poured it full of this gas-i-line —
And I started, rockin’ an’ a-rollin’,
Over the mountains, out towards the old Peach Bowl.
Way up yonder on a mountain road,
I had a hot motor and a heavy load,
I’s a-goin’ pretty fast, there wasn’t even stoppin’,
A-bouncin’ up and down, like popcorn poppin’ —
Had a breakdown, sort of a nervous bustdown of some kind,
There was a feller there, a mechanic feller,
Said it was en-gine trouble.
Way up yonder on a mountain curve,
It’s way up yonder in the piney wood,
An’ I give that rollin’ Ford a shove,
An’ I’s a-gonna coast as far as I could —
Commence coastin’, pickin’ up speed,
Was a hairpin turn, I didn’t make it.
Man alive, I’m a-tellin’ you,
The fiddles and the guitars really flew.
That Ford took off like a flying squirrel
An’ it flew halfway around the world —
Scattered wives and childrens
All over the side of that mountain.
We got out to the West Coast broke,
So dad-gum hungry I thought I’d croak,
An’ I bummed up a spud or two,
An’ my wife fixed up a tater stew —
We poured the kids full of it,
Mighty thin stew, though,
You could read a magazine right through it.
Always have figured
That if it’d been just a little bit thinner,
Some of these here politicians
Coulda seen through it.”
Tom Joad
“Tom Joad got out of the old McAlester Pen;
There he got his parole.
After four long years on a man killing charge,
Tom Joad come a-walkin’ down the road, poor boy,
Tom Joad come a-walkin’ down the road.
Tom Joad, he met a truck driving man;
There he caught him a ride.
He said, “I just got loose from McAlester Pen
On a charge called homicide,
A charge called homicide.”
That truck rolled away in a cloud of dust;
Tommy turned his face toward home.
He met Preacher Casey, and they had a little drink,
But they found that his family they was gone,
He found that his family they was gone.
He found his mother’s old-fashion shoe,
Found his daddy’s hat.
And he found little Muley and Muley said,
“They’ve been tractored out by the cats,
They’ve been tractored out by the cats.”
Tom Joad walked down to the neighbor’s farm,
Found his family.
They took Preacher Casey and loaded in a car,
And his mother said, “We’ve got to get away.”
His mother said, “We’ve got to get away.”
Now, the twelve of the Joads made a mighty heavy load;
But Grandpa Joad did cry.
He picked up a handful of land in his hand,
Said: “I’m stayin’ with the farm till I die.
Yes, I’m stayin’ with the farm till I die.”
They fed him short ribs and coffee and soothing syrup;
And Grandpa Joad did die.
They buried Grandpa Joad by the side of the road,
Grandma on the California side,
They buried Grandma on the California side.
They stood on a mountain and they looked to the west,
And it looked like the promised land.
That bright green valley with a river running through,
There was work for every single hand, they thought,
There was work for every single hand.
The Joads rolled away to the jungle camp,
There they cooked a stew.
And the hungry little kids of the jungle camp
Said: “We’d like to have some, too.”
Said: “We’d like to have some, too.”
Now a deputy sheriff fired loose at a man,
Shot a woman in the back.
Before he could take his aim again,
Preacher Casey dropped him in his track, poor boy,
Preacher Casey dropped him in his track.
They handcuffed Casey and they took him in jail;
And then he got away.
And he met Tom Joad on the old river bridge,
And these few words he did say, poor boy,
These few words he did say.
“I preached for the Lord a mighty long time,
Preached about the rich and the poor.
Us workin’ folkses, all get together,
‘Cause we ain’t got a chance anymore.
We ain’t got a chance anymore.”
Now, the deputies come, and Tom and Casey run
To the bridge where the water run down.
But the vigilante thugs hit Casey with a club,
They laid Preacher Casey on the ground, poor Casey,
They laid Preacher Casey on the ground.
Tom Joad, he grabbed that deputy’s club,
Hit him over the head.
Tom Joad took flight in the dark rainy night,
And a deputy and a preacher lying dead, two men,
A deputy and a preacher lying dead.
Tom run back where his mother was asleep;
He woke her up out of bed.
An’ he kissed goodbye to the mother that he loved,
Said what Preacher Casey said, Tom Joad,
He said what Preacher Casey said.
“Ever’body might be just one big soul,
Well it looks that a-way to me.
Everywhere that you look, in the day or night,
That’s where I’m a-gonna be, Ma,
That’s where I’m a-gonna be.
Wherever little children are hungry and cry,
Wherever people ain’t free.
Wherever men are fightin’ for their rights,
That’s where I’m a-gonna be, Ma.
That’s where I’m a-gonna be.”
(This is the story of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath although Woody wrote the song after seeing John Ford’s film of the book)
And while I am thinking of the Guthrie Family.
City of New Orleans – Arlo Guthrie (written by Steve Goodman who brought the song to Arlo.)
“Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passing trains that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles
Good morning America, how are you
Say, don’t you know me, I’m your native son
I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done”
Glad you’re enjoying the theme, David T. ‘West is the Way’ is certainly an excellent addition to our songlist. Thank you.
Dylan – Idiot Wind
‘Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your mouth
Blowing down the back roads headin’ south
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe’
Dave’s mention of Arlo Guthrie reminded me of his classic ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ – so I had a look at the lyrics and lo & behold, here’s what I discovered:
‘….they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach,
the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that’s not to
mention the aerial photography.’
So pleased that some fine Slim Dusty material has made it onto our list, Rick. Thanks, indeed.
Thanks, Dave N, for the excellent, extensive, highly interesting Guthrie material. Wonderful!
Thank you for Dylan and (Arlo) Guthrie, Karl – a fitting duo, to be sure.
North of the Equator, Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs (you’ve gotta keep your pedal to the floor, or those Yanks will overtake ya when you’re north of the Equator and they’ll kick yer arse from here to Baltimore)
The Driver, Drive By Truckers (That Grand Prix we saw head-on on our way to see Replacements/When I hydroplaned but caught the road in time/That guy on I-10 driving east as we were west-bound
In Flordia, two-thousand, April-nine/That ten-degree decline headed down Teton Pass/Cooley driving, snow on solid ice/That meteor that fell beside our bus at Idaho/As we drove on past a near flaming demise)
Left of the Dial, The Replacements (Read about your band/In some local page/Didn’t mention your name/Didn’t mention your name/Sweet Georgia breezes/Safe, cool and warm/I headed up north/You headed north)
Khe Sahn, Cold Chisel (And I’ve travelled round the world from year to year/And each one found me aimless/One more year the worse for wear/And I’ve been back to South East Asia/And the answer sure ain’t there/But I’m drifting north, to check things out again/Yes I am!)
Fine range of songs, Rick. I thought ‘Khe Sahn’ was a particularly good pickup, given its iconic status in Australian music.
First song that came to mind was Sandy Denny’s “The North Star Grassman and the Ravens”, in album title, song title and the lyrics of that mysterious song:
They stood upon the deck
As the ship went out to sea
The wind it took of the sails
And left the land a memory
All upon the shore for to wonder why the sailor goes
All to close their eyes and wonder what the sailor knows
That is you today
That is how they think you are
Never on the land but sailing by the north star
That is you today
That is how they think you are
Never on the land but gone to find the north star …
Then I thought, Sandy’s probably got this covered. In “Been on the Road so Long”:
I’ve been on the road, so long
Been tired and broke, so long
I’ve been to the south where the winds they were warm
Travelling the road of no return, so long….
She sang “East Virginia”, along with so many others (bonus direction here):
I was born in East Virginia
North Carolina I did go
And in her “Gold Dust”, another double:
A friend of mine, she hitched from east to west
In time to hear my final song
It seems to me she tried her very best
She is a good companion
I think I have some goodies:
Justice in Ontario, Steve Earle (And the big men ran through the nearest door/Only one man knew what had happened for sure/Well, one and all wore the outlaws brand/And the big bikes roared through the Great Northland/When you live on the edge of the law, you know/Justice in Ontario)
Another Sunday in the South, Miranda Lambert
East Bound and Down, Jerry Reed – remember, from Smokey and the Bandit
Heading South on the Great North Road, Sting
Ernie, Benny Hill (You could hear the hoof beats pound as they raced across the ground/And the clatter of the wheels as they spun ’round and ’round/And he galloped into Market Street, his badge upon his chest/His name was Ernie, and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west)
Northwest Passage – Stan Rogers
“Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.”
John Barleycorn Must Die – traditional English folksong about the growing and making of ale. Recorded by many British folksingers and also by the band Traffic
“There were three men come from the West
Their fortunes for to try
And these three men a solemn vow:
“John Barleycorn must die.”
Early Morning Rain – Gordon Lightfoot
“Out on runway number nine
Big 707 set to go
But I’m stuck here in the grass
Where the cold wind blows
Now, the liquor tasted good
And the women all were fast
Well, there she goes my friend
Well, she’s rollin’ down at last
Hear the mighty engines roar
See the silver bird on high
She’s away and westward bound
Far above the cloud, she’ll fly
Where the mornin’ rain don’t fall
And the sun always shines
She’ll be flyin’ o’er my home
In about three hours time”
Detroit City – Bobby Bare (written by Danny Dill and Mel Tillis)
“Last night I went to sleep in Detroit City
And I dreamed about those cottonfields and home
I dreamed about my mother dear, old papa, sister and brother
I dreamed about that girl who’s been waiting for so long
I wanna go home, I wanna go home, oh, how I wanna go home
Homefolks think I’m big in Detroit City
From the letters that I write they think I’m fine
But by day I make the cars, by night I make the bars
If only they could read between the lines
Cause you know I rode the freight train north to Detroit City
And after all these years I find I’ve just been wastin’ my time
So I just think I’ll take my foolish pride
And put it on a Southbound freight and ride
And go on back to the loved ones, the ones that I left waitin’ so far behind”
Highway 31 – Johnny Chester
“There’ll be a hundred miles between us
When you see the risin’ sun
‘Cause I’ll be headin’ north along
Highway 31
Highway 31”
My Island Home – The Warumpi Band (written by Neil Murray)
“Six years I’ve been in the desert
And every night I dream of the sea
They say home is where you find it
But will this place ever satisfy me
For I come from the saltwater people
We always lived by the sea
Now I’m out here west of Alice Springs
With a wife and a family
And my Island Home
My Island Home
My Island Home is a waiting for me
In the evenin’ the dry wind blows from the hills and across the plain
I close my eyes and I’m standin’ in a boat on the sea again
And I’m holding that long turtle spear
And I feel I’m close now, to where it must be
And My Island Home is a waitin’ for me
Dylan – a triplet where south, west, east & north each get a guernsey:
The Death Of Emmitt Till (1962)
‘Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago
When a young boy from Chicago walked through a Southern door
This boy’s dreadful tragedy you should all remember well
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till’
The Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar (1981)
‘West of Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar
I see the turning of the page
Curtain rising on a new age
See the groom still waiting at the altar’
Sweetheart Like You (1983)
‘Well, the pressure’s down, the boss ain’t here
He gone North, for a while’
Thank you for the Sandy Denny numbers, Andrew. I enjoyed the quoted lyrics, and noted your fine feat of including all four main compass directions across the selected songs.
Thanks for your latest bunch of ‘goodies’, Rick. Most notable, perhaps, was ‘Ernie’, by the English comedy auteur, Benny Hill.
Great material as always, Dave – thank you. Also, a fine thing that another iconic Oz song, ‘My Island Home’, has made it onto our list.
Thanks for the Dylan ‘all main points of the compass’ triplet, Karl.
(Note: I see you’ve posted a new Bob article, which I’ll read – very soon – with my usual great interest.)
Well Karl, I waited a day and as you haven’t cited it, let me do it for you:
Hiding Too Long, Bob Dylan (Don’t speak to me of your patriotism/When you throw the Southern black boy in prison)
Dave, I love the song Detroit City, so great call. As I do, My Island Home. Good to get a Johnny Chester song in as well. So, let me throw one in:
This Town, Flying Emus (Great Western Highway at the edge of town/What’s it hold for me/Who’s gonna notice an old EH/In the streets of Sydney/So maybe it’s best/If I head west/Anywhere but here/I hope it’s better than here/This place is gettin’ harder/As I’m gettin’ older/Gonna leave this town/And I won’t look/Won’t look over my shoulder)
Cheers
Thanks for your latest songs, Rick. Tis a fine thing to see this theme humming along nicely, with (as usual) an excellent range of artists and songs represented. One of the really good aspects of these themed songlists is that one never knows what will come up next.
Hey hey KD!
to quote: ‘one never knows what will come up next’.
Here’s a new game – called ‘name that song’
Here’s the lyric:
‘All my teeth, north and south’
The song is?……….
This game will conclude after the next post; thereafter, normal transmission will resume.
I apologise wholeheartedly for any inconvenience.
Maybe it isn’t the song you’ve put forward, but Tommy Steele’s music hall style ditty from the fifties ‘What a Mouth’ fits the theme splendidly: ‘What a mouth, what a mouth, what a north and south…’
Karl’s song is about a guy who believes he is being followed by a shadow emitted by the moon I believe. Cheers
Ah, Rick, how different is that song to Steele’s music hall number! Both equally valid in terms of our theme, though.
I interrupt normal trAnSMISSION to award the ‘name that song? prize to Rick for what I believe was Cat Steven’s ‘Moonshadow’.
Kevin – you are also a winner!…for the ‘best deviation upon a lyric’.
In both songs, ‘south’ is used to rhyme with ‘mouth’ – to me it seems like a forced & weak rhyming idea, but I wonder if there is a deeper connection between ‘mouth’ & ‘south’ that would enlighten me?
Rick – thanks for adding ‘Hiding Too Long. It wasn’t on my list, so good pick up.
Cheers, Karl. I accept my ‘award’ with humility!
Re ‘mouth’ and ‘south’, I suppose that, basically, things that enter the mouth go south through the body, if that takes the issue anywhere!
One of Robbie Fulk’s albums is called South Mouth and while it isn’t his best album it still has a few gems.
Karl, I didn’t know the song until I read it in your Dylan post and when I played it I heard the reference and thought damn, KD has us under his spell, lol.
South Richmond Girl, by Robbie Fulks, from the South Mouth album (“Oh, the north wind blew hard that December/”And the cold streets of Richmond lay bare/”But the child she bore me that winter/”Seemed to answer my weary heart’s prayers/”And I swore as I pressed him against me/”No storm could the heavens unfurl/”That would e’er cloud the life of my baby/”Or his mother, my south Richmond girl)
Under the Sun, Paul Kelly (Leaving South Fremantle in a Falcon panel van/We were smoking Marlboro, always singing Barbara Ann/Spinning out our dreams, making up our schemes/All day long under the sun)
Depreston, Courtney Barnett (Then I see the handrail in the shower/A collection of those canisters for coffee, tea and flour/And a photo of a young man in a van in Vietnam/And I can’t think of floorboards anymore/Whether the front room faces south or north/And I wonder what she bought it for)
Outfit, Drive By Truckers, written and sung by Jason Isbell (Don’t call what you’re wearing an outfit/Don’t ever say your car is broke/Don’t worry about losing your accent/A southern man tells better jokes/Have fun, stay clear of the needle/Call home on your sister’s birthday/Don’t tell them you’re bigger than Jesus, don’t give it away/Don’t give it away)
Thanks for these latest felicities, Rick. Big fan of ‘Depreston’, for example. Love its film clip, too.
Picking up on your mainly Oz emphasis, I’ll put forward Skyhooks’ (Greg Macainsh) song, ‘Toorak Cowboy’: ‘Well he bought his first dope outside the South Yarra Arms…’
Big night ahead for you KD! Good luck!!
Meanwhile, back on the compass trail, Dylan continues to set a northerly course:
Seven Days (1976) – song given to Ronnie Woods ~ but Dylan has a live version on his Bootleg Series V1-3
‘Seven days, seven more days that are connected
Just like I expected, she’ll be comin’ on forth
My beautiful comrade from the north’
North Country Blues (1964 – Another Side of Bob Dylan)
‘In the north end of town, my own children have grown
But I was raised on the other
In the wee hours of youth, my mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother’
Never Say Goodbye (1974 – Planet Waves)
‘Twilight on the frozen lake
North wind about to break
On footprints in the snow
Silence down below.’
Thanks for your best wishes regarding the game, Karl.
And thank you for your three Bob (north) songs. I thought that the great man would have many ‘directional’ numbers, and it’s certainly turning out to be the case.
I too hope KD has a good game tonight but not as good a game as my Hawks. Cheers
As they say in the classics, Rick, may the best team win!
Yep, so true, and here we go again! Good luck!
Hey Hey Kevin
After the excitement of last night you should have a pleasant relaxed ‘no worries’ weekend.
But alas, for some of us, we need to continue on our quest to circumnavigate the entire compass – from north to south/from east to west………….
Here’s a somewhat forgotten track from Dylan’s ‘Under The Red Sky’ (1990) album.
Once again we find the mouth/south rhyme – but once again it feels unconvincing.
As an aside, KD, what other words are natural rhymes for mouth & south? I’ve been through the alphabet and I think that there are no others?????
Unbelievable
‘It’s unbelievable, it’s strange but true
It’s inconceivable, it could happen to you
You’re going north and you’re going south
Just like bait in a fish’s mouth
Must be living in the shadow of some kind of evil star
It’s unbelievable, it would get this far’
Hi Karl. Yes, in football terms it’s certainly a ‘no worries’ weekend for me. Regarding the mouth and south rhyme, I don’t have any major problem with it, though it’s not a particularly impressive or distinctive one. I think you’re right regarding the complete lack of natural rhymes with mouth and south, especially if one excludes dialect words like drouth, which comes from Scottish English. That said, I suppose there are various near rhymes for the two key words we’re discussing here, like drought.
Hi KD
I return to another favourite singer/songwriter & song:
Richard Thompson – Galway To Gracelands
And silver wings carried her over the sea
From the west coast of Ireland to West Tennessee
To be with her sweetheart, oh she left everything
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king
Thanks for ‘Galway To Gracelands’, Karl. Richard Thompson is someone whose work, it seems, I should get to know better.
Some Emmylou:
Beyond the Great Divide (Somewhere in the distance/Northern lights will shine/You’ll be there beside me, my darlin’/Far beyond the great divide)
Two More Bottles of Wine (We came out west together with a common desire/The fever we had might have set the West Coast on fire/Two months later got trouble in mind/Oh my baby moved out and left me behind/But it’s all right ’cause it’s midnight/And I got two more bottles of wine)
Red Dirt Girl (Me and my best friend Lillian/And her blue tick hound dog Gideon/Sittin on the front porch/cooling in the shade/Singin every song the radio played/Waitin for the Alabama sun to go down/Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town/Me and Lillian/Just across the line and a little southeast of Meridian)
My Window Faces the South – a 1930s song which has been covered by many great artists including Fats Waller, Bob Wills, Willie, several times and Asleep at the Wheel with Brad Paisley, (My window faces the south (yes, it does)/Now I am far from the Swanee/I’m never frowning or down in the mouth/My window faces the south)
Hickory Wind, actually this is a Gram Parsons song and one of his finest, but you’ve gotta lave Emmylou’s version (In South Carolina, there are many tall pines/I remember the oak tree that we used to climb/But it makes me feel better each time it begins/Calling me home, hickory wind)
Speaking of Gram, here is Return of the Grevious Angel, which features Emmylou (‘Cause I headed West to grow up with the country/Across those prairies with those waves of grain/And I saw my devil and I saw my deep blue sea/And I thought about a calico bonnet from Cheyenne to Tennessee)
Wild Montana Skies, John Denver and Emmylou (He was born in the Bitterroot Valley in the early morning rain/Wild geese over the water, heading north and home again/Bringin’ a warm wind from the south, bringin’ the first taste of the spring/His mother took him to her breast, softly she did sing)
Hi All,
I recently joined up to the almanac and have enjoyed the posts. This is my first reply after I was cruising home one afternoon thinking about heading west……
Goin’ Out West – Tom Waits
West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys
Go West – Cult
West Coast – Lana Del Ray
Thanks so much, Rick, for the ‘Emmylou’ – always great to have a high quality artist solidly on board in relation to a theme. Also, you’ve reminded me that the title of the Gram Parsons album, Grievous Angel, is on my shortlist as one of the best album titles of all time.
Hi Dominic. Welcome aboard in terms of the ‘compass directions’ theme! Thanks for your contributions. ( Small note: ‘West End Girls’ is already on our list.)
Bye Bye Johnny, Chuck Berry (She drew out all her money out of the Southern Trust/And put her little boy aboard a Greyhound Bus/Leaving Louisiana for the Golden West/Down came the tears from her happiness/Her own little son name Johnny B. Goode/Was gonna make some motion pictures out in Hollywood)
Johnny Bye, Bye, Bruce Springsteen, he takes the idea and first two lines of the Chuck song to write his own song in respect of Elvis (Well, she drew out all her money from the Southern Trust/And put her little boy on a Greyhound bus/Leaving Memphis with a guitar in his hand/On a one-way ticket to the promised land)
The Ghost of Tom Joad, Bruce Springsteen, where Bruce leverages Steinbeck and Woodie Guthrie and to an extent Bob Dylan to write his own politically loaded song (Shelter line stretching around the corner/Welcome to the new world order/Families sleeping in the cars in the southwest/No home, no job, no peace, no rest)
In the Quiet Morning, Joan Baez, written in respect for Janis Joplin (That in the quiet morning/There would be despair/And in the hours that followed/No one could repair/That poor girl/She cried out her song so loud/It was heard the whole world round/A symphony of violence/The great southwest unbound)
(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66, Nat King Cole (If you ever plan to motor west/Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best/Get your kicks on Route 66)
A13, Trunk Road To the Sea, Billy Bragg, his take on Route 66 (Go motorin’ on the A13/It starts down in Wapping/There it ain’t a stopping/By-pass Barking and straight through Dagenham/Down to Grays Thurrock/And rather near Basildon/Pitsea, Thundersley, Hadleigh, Leigh-On-Sea/Chalkwell, Prittlewell/Southend’s the end)
Thanks, Rick, for your latest choices – fine material, as always ( and from iconic artists, to boot).
Springsteen’s ‘Somewhere North of Nashville’ (2019) deserves a guernsey. It’s a good ‘un.
Hey KD, it got a guernsey, I think it was in my first set of songs for this theme. I prefer the version on Tracks 2, but both versions are pretty good.
Speaking of pretty good, anotheree from Chuck Berry:
Memphis, Tennessee (Help me information, get in touch with my Marie/She’s the only one who’d phone me here from Memphis, Tennessee/Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge/Just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge)
Ah – no worries, Rick, I thought I had a reasonably thorough look back through our songlist, but must have missed the song concerned.
Yep, ‘Memphis, Tennessee’ is another good ‘un. Thanks.
Hi KD, I think I have a few winners as well as surprises:
Lumberjack Song, Monty Python, from the album Monty Python Sings Again and we all know the main lyrics but here is the intro (Well the weather for the whole area/Will continue much the same as the past few days/Temperatures 17 centigrade, that’s 49 fahrenheit/Winds will freshen tonight to South West, force 6 or 7/And there will be showers, sometimes heavy in many-/Oh sod it, I didn’t wanna do this, I don’t wanna be a weather forecaster/I don’t wanna rabbit on all day about sunny periods/And patches of rain spreading from the west/I wanted to be a lumberjack!)
South East Facing Wall, The Smith Street Band, their first recording, an EP, and don’t you just love this band (By the skin of my teeth, by the skin of my teeth/By the holes in the floor, the water that drips in through the cracks in the ceiling/By the mice in the walls, from the fingernail gash in the doorframe/From the blackened handprints on the south east facing wall/Where I sit and I watch the heavy rain fall/Yeah I sit and I watch Smith Street drown)
North, South, East and West, The Church, from Starfish, you know, the album with Milky Way on it ((It’s neither here nor there)/It’s neither here nor there/North and south and east and west/(It has to be /I take my payment, I catch my flight/Don’t wait up for me tonight/(And you might find me there)/And you might find me there/North and south and east and west)
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side, The Magnetic Fields and if you don’t know this band, and this album, get on it, you won’t be disappointed (Andy would bicycle across town/In the rain to bring you candy/And John would buy the gown/For you to wear to the prom/With Tom the astronomer, who’d name a star for you/But I’m the luckiest guy/On the Lower East Side/’Cause I’ve got wheels/And you want to go for a ride)
Hi Rick – your song choices are typically winners like these, drawing on your wealth of musical knowledge. Maybe the Python song is the biggest surprise of all in this recent lot.
Another thing connected to this recent material of yours is that I’ve written a poem about Smith Street, ‘Morning Sun, Fitzroy’, inspired by a few early morning starts in that area, supervising some tertiary students’ exams in one of the old buildings. It’s one of my favourites of all my short poems and was originally posted on the Almanac website back in 2021: https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-poetry-morning-sun-fitzroy/
I really like the poem KD, a snapshot of Smith Street, taken with care and knowing. And it reminds me of a line from the John Prine song, Far From Me: Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle/Looks just like a diamond ring.
And here is a song by John Prine to fit your current theme:
Paradise, and this is easily in my top 10 fave JP songs (When I was a child my family would travel/Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born/And there’s a backwards old town that’s often remembered/So many times that my memories are worn/And Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County?/Down by the Green River where Paradise lay/Well, I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in asking/Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away)
So pleased my poem resonated with you as it did, Rick. I enjoyed the Prine comparison and the choice of ‘Paradise’ as well. Thank you.
What the hell, some more from Priney:
Please Don’t Bury Me, just a fun old song (Give my feet to the footloose, careless, fancy free/Give my knees to the needy, don’t pull that stuff on me/Hand me down my walking cane, it’s a sin to tell a lie/Send my mouth way down south and kiss my ass goodbye/But please don’t bury me down in that cold cold ground/No, I’d druther have ’em cut me up and pass me all around/Throw my brain in a hurricane and the blind can have my eyes/And the deaf can take both of my ears, if they don’t mind the size)
The Late John Garfield Blues (Black faces pressed against the glass where rain has pressed its weight/Windblown scarves in top-down cars all share one western trait/Sadness leaks through tear-stained cheeks/From winos to dime-store Jews/Probably don’t know they gave me these late John Garfield blues)
Jesus, the Missing Years (It was raining, it was cold/West Bethlehem was no place for a twelve-year old/So he packed his bag and he headed out/To find out what the world’s about … Kids in trouble with the cops from Israel didn’t have no home/So he cut his hair and moved to Rome/It was there, he met his Irish bride/And they rented a flat on the lower east side of Rome/Italy, that is)
Some excellent songs have been posted since I last looked at this thread about a week ago.
Glad you mentioned In the Quiet Morning, Rick. Although Joan Baez recorded it, it was actually written by her sister, Mimi Farina who also recorded it.
While I am here,…….
Across the Western Plains (traditional Australian) (I also posted this on the drinking thread)
“Oh for me grog my jolly jolly grog
Oh for me beer and tobacco
Well I spent all my tin in a shanty drinking gin
Now across the Western Plain I must wander”
Mail Order Annie – Harry Chapin
“You know I’m just a dirt man
From the North Dakota plains.
You’re one girl from the city
Who’s been thrown out on her own.
And I’m standin’ here not sure of what to say to you
‘Ceptin’ Mail Order Annie,
Let’s you and me go home.”
Westgate – Mark Seymour
“My name is Eddie, I am a worn man now
But I know where I was that day
Hiding from the foreman at the base of the tower
When I saw the mighty bridge give way
Bolts started snapping on the western span
They sounded like machine gun fire
You should have heard when she came down
The wind blew me over the wire”
From Little Things, Big Things Grow – Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly
“Then Vincent Lingiari returned in an airplane
Back to his country once more to sit down
And he told his people, let the stars keep on turning
We have friends in the south, in the cities and towns
Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting
‘Til one day a tall stranger appeared in the land
And he came with lawyers and he came with great ceremony
And through Vincent’s fingers poured a handful of sand
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow”
Johnny Come Lately – Steve Earle
“I’m an American, boys
I’ve come a long way
I was born and bred in the USA
So listen up close
I’ve got somethin’ to say
Boys, I’m buying this round
[Verse 2]
Well it took a little while, but we’re in this fight
And we ain’t going home until we’ve done what’s right
We’re going to drink Camden Town dry tonight
If I have to spend my last pound
[Verse 3]
When I first got to London it was pouring down rain
Met a little girl in the field canteen
Painted her name on the nose of my plane
Six more missions, I’m gone
[Verse 6]
Well they can ship me all over this great big world
Never find nothing like my North End girl
I’m taking her home with me one day, sir
Soon as we win this war
[Chorus]
But when Johnny Come Lately comes marching home
With a chest full of medals and a G.I. loan
They’ll be waiting at the station down in San Antone
When Johnny comes marching home
Johnny!
Now my granddaddy sang me this song
Told me about London when the Blitz was on
How he married Grandma and brought her back home
A hero throughout this land
[Verse 8]
Now I’m standing on a runway in San Diego
A couple purple hearts, so I move a little slow
There’s nobody here, maybe nobody knows
About a place called Vietnam”
The Drover’s Boy – Ted Egan
“In the Camooweal Pub they talked about
The death of the drover’s boy
They drank their rum with the stranger who’d come
From the Kimberley run, Fitzroy
And he told of the massacre in the west
Barest details – guess the rest
Shoot the bucks, grab a gin
Cut her hair, break her in
And call her a boy – the drover’s boy
And call her a boy – the drover’s boy
So when they build that stockman’s hall of fame
And they talk about the droving game
Remember the girl who was bedmate and guide
Rode with the drover side by side
Watched the bullocks, flayed the hide
Faithful wife but never bride
Bred his sons for the cattle run
But don’t weep for the drover’s boy
Don’t mourn for the drover’s boy
But don’t forget the drover’s boy”
(I don’t that anyone cares, but I have changed ny email address at the foot of this post)
Thanks for your additional Prine trio, Rick. Wonderful material!
Thank you for another fine bunch of highly fitting songs and quoted lyrics, Dave.
(And I do note your change of email address!)
And for our century (congrats everyone!) here’s one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite American artists, Tom Petty , ‘Free Fallin’: ‘All the vampires walkin’ through the valley / Move west down Ventura Boulevard…’
(Petty wrote this song, released in 1989, with Jeff Lynne.)
Love Free Fallin’, great get. And Dave, From Little Things is another top shelf song and get.
Karl, not sure if you put forward the Dylan song, Nettie Moore. If not, consider it included. (I’m going where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog/Get away from all these demagogues/And these bad luck women stick like glue/It’s either one or the other or neither of the two)
And then there’s New South Wales, by Jason Isbell, while he doesn’t directly refer to the State, the song is about touring NSW, with Justin Townes Earle (And the piss they call tequila, even Waylon wouldn’t drink/Well, I’d rather sip this Listerine I packed/But I swear, we’ve never seen a better place to sit and think/God bless the busted ship that brings us back)
So glad you particularly enjoyed some of the recent ‘gets’, Rick. Thanks for ‘Nettie Moore’ (I don’t think it has been listed) and Isbell’s ‘New South Wales’.
‘There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west…’
Very surprised that none of us thought of Led Zep’s ‘Stairway to Heaven ‘ – until now!
I never think about that middling song lol. However, has Battle of Evermore been put forward, you know the song that precedes StH and has Sandy Denny join Mr Plant, Jimmy playing mandolin and Bonham not whacking the skins, which begs the question, is LZIV the height of heavy metal (I hear the horses’ thunder down in the valley below/I’m waiting for the angels of Avalon/Waiting for the eastern glow).
Has REMs So Central Rain been included?
Ain’t Just a Southern Thing, Alan Jackson, and for those who aren’t big into country music, Alan Jackson is one of the greats of the last 30+ years, think George Strait or Don Williams and this little ripper of a song captures all for compass directions (It ain’t just a southern thing/Oh I’ve played up in Chicago/And western Colorado/And we kicked ’em dead in Santa Fe/Sung in North and South Dakota/And eastern Oklahoma/And a TV-Show out in L.A.)
Speaking of Don Williams, this is the song that got me in. I Believe in You (I don’t believe in superstars/Organic food and foreign cars/I don’t believe the price of gold/The certainty of growing old/That right is right and left is wrong/That north and south can’t get along/That east is east and west is west/And being first is always best/But I believe in love)
Inherit the Wind, Elvis, great song and doesn’t Elvis have the best choruses, to sing that make you feel like you’re Elvis, or is that just me (‘Cause the north wind flows through my veins/Like my dad there’s a dream in my brain/In the morning I’ll have to leave again/That’s how it is when you inherit the wind (inherit the wind)/Inherit the wind)
Thanks for your latest bunch of songs, Rick – a fine variety – none of which have been listed before.
And if you wanna hear some super-heavy metal of a much more contemporary nature than LZIV, check out
an American band, Eagle Twin, headed by Gentry Densley (yes, I’d say certainly a relative of mine if we took our family trees back far enough). Wikipedia says about Gentry: ‘Gentry Densley is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter. A longtime fixture on Salt Lake City, Utah’s punk, metal and experimental music scenes, Densley has been involved in numerous bands but is best known for leading the groups Iceburn, Ascend and Eagle Twin. Critic Gregory Heaney describes him as “One of music’s great scientists”.’
Eagle Twin’s albums are: The Unkindness of Crows (2009)
The Feather Tipped the Serpent’s Scale (2012)
The Thundering Heard (2018)
‘Far Far Away’, written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea, recorded by Slade (1974) specifically mentions both east and west.
Best of luck for the GF today KD!
Thanks, Rick. I’ll make no prediction about the result of the game as I don’t want to put the moz on us!
‘Everybody’s Talkin’, written by Fred Neil, made famous by Harry Nilsson (1968): ‘Bankin’ off the northeast winds / Sailin’ on a summer breeze…’
NOTE: NEW THEME THIS COMING FRIDAY OCTOBER 3.
Just a Little Bit South of North Carolina, Dean Martin (Just a little bit south of North Carolina that’s where my thoughts all stray/To the one I love best in South Carolina, I’m going back some day/I can hardly wait to see the face of the one I, I like/Just a little bit south of North Carolina, I’ll find paradise)
London Boy, Taylor Swift (And now I love high tea, stories from Uni’ and the West End/You can find me in the pub, we are watchin’ rugby with his school friends/Show me a gray sky, a rainy cab ride/Babes, don’t threaten me with a good time)
High St Sunset, The T Bones(Looking down from High St. Hill, see the smog hanging over the highrise/I’m staring down the tram tracks at this brand new town of mine/Red brick rooves of Northcote, people come and go/Hop aboard the city tram and everyone is nervous)
I Remember Carolina, Margo Cilker (How could I forget Texas? Everything says Texas/It’s all bigger in Texas, where the best in the west is/We drink Shiner in Texas, we eat tacos for breakfast/The best burger in Texas/The best burger in Texas/The best burger in Texas/The best burger in Texas/The best burger in Texas/The best burger in Texas/The best burger in Texas/It’s where my ex lives/The best burger in Texas/I remember the Alamo)
Open All Night, Bruce Springsteen (Early, North Jersey industrial skyline/I’m a all-set Cobra Jet, creepin’ through the nighttime/Gotta find a gas station, gotta find a payphone/This turnpike sure is spooky at night when you’re all alone/Gotta hit the gas, baby, I’m runnin’ late/This New Jersey in the mornin’ like a lunar landscape)
My final contribution on this theme is two hard core songs by two hard core satirists.
The Wild West is where I want to be – Tom Lehrer (written in the 50’s when the US was testing atom bombs in Nevada and New Mexico)
“Along the trail you’ll find me lopin’
Where the spaces are wide open
In the land of the old AEC, yee-hoo!
Where the scenery’s attractive
And the air is radioactive
Oh, the Wild West is where I wanna be
‘Mid the sagebrush and the cactus
I’ll watch the fellows practice
Droppin’ bombs through the clean desert breeze, a-ha!
I’ll have on my sombrero
And of course I’ll wear a pair o’
Levis over my lead BVDs
I will leave the city’s rush
Leave the fancy and the plush
Leave the snow and leave the slush
And the crowds
I will seek the desert’s hush
Where the scenery is lush
How I long to see the mush-
Room clouds
‘Mid the yuccas and the thistles
I’ll watch the guided missiles
While the old FBI watches me, yee-hoo!
Yes, I’ll soon make my appearance
(Soon as I can get my clearance)
‘Cause the Wild West is where I wanna be”
Redknecks – Randy Newman
(This song contains racist lyrics. Newman wrote them as part of an attack on racists in the 1970s. I somehow doubt that his record company would have published this lyric in the 2020s)
“[Chorus]
We’re rednecks, we’re rednecks
We don’t know our ass from a hole in the ground
We’re rednecks, we’re rednecks
We’re keepin’ the niggers down
[Verse 3]
Now, your northern nigga’s a Negro
You see, he’s got his dignity
Down here, we too ignorant to realize
The North has set the nigga free”
Dean Martin, Taylor Swift, The T Bones, Margo Cilker, Bruce Springsteen… what a fine eclectic bunch of artists and songs, Rick! Thanks for these.
Thank you, Dave, for your hard-core satirical duo.
And I’ll toss ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ into the mix:
‘From out of the east a stranger came
A law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the West would need
To tame a troubled land…’
Controversially, perhaps, I’ll nominate my preferred version as the one by Regurgitator. (Sorry, Rick K – I know what you think about it!)
Hi KD
I heard the news today that Robert Taylor, guitarist & backing vocalist for Dragon between 1974-85, passed away on Tuesday 4 November.
Dragon’s 1977 ‘Running Free’ album has a song that fits this theme perfectly – and I offer it in tribute to Robert:
Man Gone West
‘The signs are there above you
Floating around in the air
And I don’t know why I’m singing
Singing ’cause I don’t care
By the time you hear about it
There’s another man gone west’
Thanks for this topical song choice, Karl. As I’ve mentioned before, Dragon are/were one of my favourite Australasian bands. I remember seeing them (decades ago) live at the Ukrainian Hall in Pakington Street, Geelong West, double-billing with Goanna (probably early eighties).