He tattooed her name in a secret place... it said "Lisa"

His two big sisters told him Lisa was trouble.

His mom told him Lisa was trouble.

His little sister told him the same thing.

One night his dad called from Miami to tell him his mom told him to call and tell him Lisa was trouble.

He knew Lisa was trouble.

It wasn't like it wasn't obvious.

It was just that he was, any way you look at it, helpless.

It was like his life started when he met Lisa. He'd just been waiting around to live. Getting by. Keeping people off his back. But Lisa made him want to please her so bad. It was a compulsion. For a year and a half everything he did was, in one way or another, an attempt to make Lisa happy.

And it wasn't like he hadn't known from the very first day that that was probably impossible. It was almost as if it was the very impossibility of pleasing her that made him crave it all the more.

And yet he also knew that she wanted to be happy. He could feel it.

And, finally, he knew that she didn't know how impossible her own happiness was. And that made the compulsion to go to any length to please her all the more irresistable.

download [2.5 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]
previous AYoS version

Losing Lisa

Lately it looks like I'll be losing Lisa
Danged if there's a thing I can do to keep her
It scares me what I used to do to please her
'Cause now I know there's just no pleasing Lisa

Now I know -- there's no pleasing Lisa
Now I know -- there's no pleasing Lisa

Gave all my records and my stereo to Lisa
gave up my band and dropped out of school -- all for Lisa
Tattoed her name in a secret place -- it said "Property of Lisa"
What a waste of time 'cause nothing ever pleases Lisa

Now I know -- there's no pleasing Lisa
Now I know -- there's no pleasing Lisa

Got a second job just to buy nice things for Lisa
Laptop, cell phone, wetbar in her car -- all for Lisa
But she's not impressed, she's not happy yet -- that's just Lisa
'Cause nothing in the world will ever please that girl -- that's our Lisa

Now I know -- there's no pleasing Lisa
Now I know -- there's no pleasing Lisa

(C)1996, TK Major

I'm just like a child but I'm no fool...

After they broke up, he moved to the city.

He stumbled into a great job, found a little walkup in a decent neighborhood. Others struggled to make it in the city but everything fell into place for him.

And he was thankful for that, because he knew he couldn't take the chance of running into her if he'd stayed back home. And that would have happened. They had all the same friends. The same favorite places. The same favorite camping spot a half hour out of town.

So he went to the city and succeeded. His friends were amazed. His family was relieved.

And he was... not lonely. Although he chose to be alone, for the most part. He went bowling with coworkers every other week, out of a sense of responsibility to himself as much as to his coworkers.

Sometimes he would sit in a cafe and drink a beer or sip a coffee, watching people.

Mostly he would walk.



download [2.2 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]
previous AYoS version (9 Nov 05)

NO FOOL

Sitting all alone
by my telephone
Waited all day
but that's okay
I could wait all night
and that would be all right
for a woman like you
I would wait all my life

Sometimes I pull myself together
and I go downtown
I'm all dressed up
and I wander around
and I feel like a fool
I can't stop thinking of you
When you're all alone
this city's so cruel

I walk along the river
until the stars come out
I sit by myself alone in the dark
and I wonder
Oh yes I wonder
I'm just like a child
but I am no fool
I know it's over

(C)1980, TK Major

I thought I changed all the locks(Sherry, v.2)

A few minutes after he sat down outside the Starbucks his phone rang. He'd driven three Starbucks away from his apartment to wait for her call.

"Sherry. Is that another throwaway phone? It sounds like crap. Why don't you activate that Motorola and that tweaker boyfriend of yours stole from me?"
continues below

download [2.4 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]
previous AYoS version

He knew she wasn't stupid enough to take him up on it -- one of the reasons she always used throwaways. Two steps ahead of the law and one step in front of the creditors.

He sipped his coffee as he held the phone to his ear. Her voice was like the quacking of some distant robotic duck. He let the sound of nearby traffic almost wash her voice away.

When she stopped talking he said, in a measured voice, "None of that matters, Sherry. I'm telling you what's going to happen or you won't get your sister back. She'll never be the first one in your family to go to a real college. She'll just end up staying here in Texas, with me, become a frumpy housewife like your mother, and maybe -- after you've finally been caught and paid your debt to society, maybe we'll invite you over for Sunday dinner."

He held the phone away from his ear. How, he thought, could one person sound like three all talking at once?

"Un hunh. Look, Sherry, it might sound ingratious for me to say about, you know, my former in-laws who will -- surprise -- soon be my in-laws all over again, but their troubled dreams for your generation of the familiy are not my primary concern, here.

"First you kick me out to take up with a tweaker wannabe biker who doesn't even have a freakin' bike. Then, after I start all over from scratch, build up a nice little life for myself, you and the wild one let yourself in and empty my place. My stereo, my TV. My computer. My damn dog. And my Corvette."

He put down the coffee. He leaned forward as though she were there in front of him.

"Let me say this once: Give me back my Stingray -- and I'll let your sister go. She followed me here -- but if I'm the one who tells her, she'll go back to your folks in Austin and start college in the fall like you all wanted."

Before she could start talking again he quickly added, "I want my 'Vette -- and my dog Bill. Bill's non-negotiable. He never liked you, anyway."


[A note on this and the previous AYoS version (December 14) of Sherry: Despite the fact that I shamelessly copped the graphic from the earlier version's post ( I never do that, but it was late and I was tired and... weak) the two musical performances could hardly be more dissimilar. Chords are changed (one's in a major mode, the other minor), the melody is changed, tempo is wildly different -- and, still, one is 2:31 in length and the other is 2:37. Anyhow, if you want a giggle, load them back to back in your player. I fell off the floor.]

download [2.4 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]
previous AYoS version


Sherry

Sherry, you stole my stereo
my dog Bill, my car and my Mac
You can keep the rest of it
but I'm here to tell you
I'm gonna get that Corvette back

Give me back my Stingray
and I'll let your sister go
She followed me from Austin
but she'll go home
if I'm the one that tells her so...

All the way through high school
I was the one who was supposed to break your heart
then we settle down
and you get bored and
you tear our world apart

Give me back my Stingray...

I thought that we were happy
that just goes to show you what I know
I thought I changed all the locks
but I missed that one, you and your tweaker friend
took everything I owned

Give me back my Stingray
and I'll let your sister go
She followed me from Austin
but she'll go home
if I'm the one that tells her so...

(C)1996, TK Major

A ship made of frozen tearsWhen Baby Can't Go On

Y'know, I still remember one night real late, a single dog barking way off and Baby lying in bed next to me looking at the roof of the trailer and she takes a drag on her smoke and says: "In the post-literate culture, where cliche and aphorism take on the social importance of fable and where scandal takes on the importance of myth... the truly realized and fully actualized individual must, of necessity, be the architect of the deconstruction of her own mythos and ultimately of her own self-immolation..."

She's quiet for a long little while while she takes another drag off the cigarette and then she says: "On some kind of level, anyway."

download [ 3.3 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]

When Baby Can't Go On

When Baby can't go on
she won't wonder why
you open up the bottle
and go home when it's dry
when the darkeness hits the dawn
and the ocean meets the sky
there was never in her always
and forever in her goodbye

baby lived forever
for almost thirty years
then she sailed away one day
on a ship made of frozen tears

baby had a house those days
way up the shore
we all knew that she was hiding
but no one knew what for

the last time i saw her
i knew it was her time
there was sadness in her laughter
and a long-way-off in her eyes

baby lived forever
for almost thirty years
then she sailed away one day
on a ship made of frozen tears

(C)1994, 2006 TK Major

You See the Sky? The Sky's in Love with You

He had his feet up on the low balcony wall. He was slouched into the just-starting-to-get -funky easy chair he'd pulled out there when she moved out.

His old spanish guitar was across his midsection, horizontally. His right hand picked a pattern so lazy it seemed to lull his left into a fitful near sleep.

A half pint bottle of tequila, two thirds empty, was on its side on the roofing material floor. Next to it was a six pack of Olympia in bottles, two beers left.

The sun was almost down and the sky had blossomed in a false spring of pinks and blues and purples. The alcohol made him feel warm, but the early evening air was cool on his face.

Today's song a very impromptu solo improvisation:

You See the Sky? The Sky's in Love with You

download [1.6 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]

With the secrets that I know... [Rachel, Tell Me no]

Rachel baby you're so young
you don't see it but I'm so old
Everything you dream I've already done so
Rachel tell me no

download [2.1 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]
previous AYoS version

Rachel Tell Me No

If you ever think I'm gonna fall if my
self-control ever starts to go
If I ever reach out to you
Rachel tell Me No

If I ever look far away
If I ever start to bare my soul
If I ever look deep in your eyes
Rachel Tell Me No

Rachel tell me No
Rachel make me go
Rachel tell me Rachel tell me
Rachel Tell me no


All this time you could have been mine
with the secrets that I know
For once I'm trying to do what's right so
Rachel Tell Me No

Rachel baby you're so young
you don't see it but I'm so old
Everything you dream I've already done so
Rachel tell me no

Rachel tell me no
Rachel make me go
I'm no good I want it understood
Rachel tell me no

Rachel tell me no
Rachel make me go
Rachel tell me Rachel tell me
Rachel tell me no

(C)1996, TK Major

In the end there is ony the dance

partners will come, partners will go
waltzing off into the past
the music goes on, long after we're gone
in the end there is only the dance

download [2.2 mb]
play [broadband]
AYoS radio [broadband]
previous AYoS verion

music plays from far away
let's give it one more chance
why should we stumble, why should we fall
you know it's only a dance

I'm here in the middle of the everything
and I'm hooked up to it all
I tried so long to be everywhere
and now I'm nowhere at all

music plays from far away ...

The echo of that music box
the one that you found in Spain
I hear it at the river's edge
and I hear it in the rain

I hear it in the whisper of
the evening wind in the trees
I sing it in the thunderstorms
and I scream it down on my knees

music plays from far away
let's give it one more chance
why should we stumble, why should we fall
you know it's only a dance

(C)1993,2006 TK Major