All I Need Is the Sun

A thanksgiving song.

I'm at that point in my life when I'm mostly beyond being afraid for myself, but like anyone, I have my moments of darkness and doubt.

When things are darkest... I count my blessings.

It's a tactic that not only dovetails nicely with my innate perversity, but which has served me well over the years. As I mentioned in a previous post, 25 years ago (last month) I was hit by an inattentive driver while riding my motorcycle and ended up in the hospital for 2 months (most of that in traction) with an "exploded" hip, a smashed femur, and a shattered ankle.

They pieced me back together (my ex-rays look like I was attacked by the contents of a hardware store), but there were some tough times along the way, I was on crutches for 6 months and a cane for 5 years. (Turned out I was walking on a leg that was still broken. Long story that reinforces the importance of second opinions, which I discovered late.)

Anyhow, the thing is, when things got tough, as they occasionally did, I counted my blessings. (I used to feel bitter that I didn't have any shoes until I saw a man who didn't have any feet. You know?)

I also drank... I'd say 'but that's another story' -- but it's actually this story, or more properly the story of this song.


At any rate, here's a guy who, I'm thinking, is living in that tiny postage-stamp sized bit of grace afforded those with little left to lose...

These lyrics were originally written as a sort of rap to go with music from Brit techno whizkid Deakin Scott but, while Deakin and I collaborated more or less successfully on an earlier track (the lyrics for which are my "Mountains Come, Mountains Go") the track these were written for never came together and I finally sat down with my acoustic guitar a few months later and came up, more or less, with these chords.

I say 'more or less' because I actually had all but forgotten this song and before yesterday and had quite likely not played it twice since 1999. A shame, since I really like it. It's not the first song I've written or track I've recorded in a 'creative phase' that's gone forgotten for a long period after the arc of sometimes fevered productivity has passed.

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looking for my place in the sun
ah but everything is already gone
a bottle in a bag and a bun
now all I need is the sun

caviar and champagne are fun
limos and callgirls the run
but those cocaine days are done
now all I need is the sun


kingdoms and palaces galore
yachts and planes for sure
diamonds and oilfields and mines
yet I traded them all for this wine

caviar and champagne are fun...

I've spent a thousand times what you'll ever own
I had twenty people answerin' my phone
You-- you'd never get through... yet now
here I am drinkin' with you

caviar and champagne are fun
limos and callgirls the run
but those cocaine days are done
now all I need is the sun

1999-11-01
(C)1999, TK Major