Apple
When I first met my wife, I told her that I wrote this song about the daughter I wanted to have someday. Her name would be ‘Apple’. I could see the feigned smile on her face that I only learned years later meant ain’t no way buster! So, instead of arguing with me, we had two boys.
If I could show you all the loving that is in my heart
Then I would show it to you in an apple care
I would hold up to you
An apple just for you to see
That any apple is good as an apple could be
If an apple were like the love I feel inside when I’m thinking of you
Then the cart is full of love when you’re loving me too
Baby Born on a Summer’s Night
Written for my son, Scott Hardy, son, age 8 months
Baby born on a summer’s night
Why do you put up such a fight
Don’t you know that your daddy cares for you?
Screaming into the world that way
Will give me a headache many a day
Don’t you know that your daddy cares for you?
Hold my finger with your hand
And dream of the sandman with his sand
Don’t you know that your daddy cares for you?
Stretch your hands to the coming morn
And thank your stars that you’ve just been born
Don’t you know that your daddy cares for you?
Banyan Tree
This was written about a woman with whom I lived at the Banyan House commune during my college years.
There is a flower garden by the banyan tree
I see a rose there for you by the rose for me
I sit inside my window; and you in yours
And our love is there for us to see
And while the wind is swimming in the morning dew
And while the sun is smiling; you smile too
We watch the flowers in the garden of our home
Dance to what is you and what is me
Pray in the morning your flower opens wide
Pray in the evening your day is quick to find
You will be happy, and I’ll be happy too
Because we’ll watch the world unfold
The world of me and you
We cannot watch the flowers close within a day
We cannot watch the sun for fear it slips away
We can only watch the change the evening brings the two
And watch the flowers close at the end of day
Gentle Heart
Guernica
Picasso’s painting depicts the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on April 26, 1937. Franco’s German and Italian allies in the Spanish Civil War carpet-bombed Guernica, a stronghold of Republican opposition to Franco’s Nationalists, for hours.
Almost as famous for his biting wit as he was for his artistic prowess, Picasso once treated a German Gestapo officer to a sharp rejoinder in reference to the painting’s depiction of the atrocities of fascism and war. When asked by a officer about a photo of the painting, “Did you do that?” Picasso is said to have replied, “No, you did.”
See the picture you made fighting wars for mom
Fly the impotent bomb
Watch your babies drop on the building top
Feel the brink of the land as a flash in the pan
And your wings sail free where the living has stopped
And the dying prolonged
See the young girl pines
In her arms she whines where her child sleeps
For its breasted nurse became the universes
And a man’s eyes glow in a bright window
As he sinks away with his legs of clay
While the moment suspends all the living loose ends
Feel the darkness prevail though the city turns pale
And the people stand statues of the land
Then the bulb blows out in a silent shout
From the open mouths wailing up at your
As the nation sings in an orchestra of Guernica
It Doesn't Matter
This is one of my favorite songs because I wrote it while working as a children’s ski instructor at Anzere, Switzerland. NOTE: kids are born knowing how to ski. They didn’t need my help which is the reason why none of the professional Swiss ski instructors wanted the job. It’s also the reason I took my guitar to the job. During my lunch break I would sit in the snow on top of a ridge that overlooked a deep and wide valley east of the top-of-the-mountain gondola. It was a great place to play guitar and sing because the entire snow-lined valley not only resonated every note I played and sang, but it also seemed to have one sympathetic note that seemed to last longer than all other notes. Google notes that, “The best places for Alpine-style yodeling are those with an echo.” Google also discusses ‘Sympathetic resonance’ but nothing about the alpine equivalent to musical intonation. But I wasn’t interested in yodeling anyway. Instead, I enjoyed singing a note, then ‘sliding’ my voice down to the sympathetic note. It was so cool I wrote a song that used my newfound technique.
It doesn’t matter where we go together; anywhere for me will do
It doesn’t matter if we’re close as toes inside a shoe
It doesn’t matter if the telephone rings for an hour or two
It doesn’t matter ‘cause I love you
It doesn’t matter if you’re gone awhile; say to me you’ll come home soon
It doesn’t matter if the sun decides to be our moon
It doesn’t matter if we sleep all day and talk the whole night through
It doesn’t matter ‘cause I love you
It doesn’t matter when the years have fallen one by one
Petals fall from flowers in the sun
It doesn’t matter if your mama loves your daddy more than you
It doesn’t matter ‘cause I love you
It doesn’t matter ‘cause I love you
Leave the Lovers Alone
My wife and I belonged to the San Anselmo Pixie Park when our boys were 3 and 5 years old. The park had an annual Halloween parade for the little ones. Huey Lewis and family also had two kids the same age so we chatted and paraded awhile while my pirate thwacked Huey’s princess. After the parade I took my guitar up to the top of Pilot’s Knob above the town and wrote this song for Huey. And, yes: I did try to get a cassette of the song into his hands a few times but (big surprise) I never heard back from him.
Playin’ ball in my backyard: hit one over the fence
Thought I hit my neighbor when I heard a moan
Beneath the broken window I read a little sign saying:
Leave the lovers alone
Walking in the park just me and my dog
He ran into the bushes looking for a bone
He got an education ‘cause he didn’t read the sign .. said:
Leave the lovers alone
Go to the park or go to the show
It doesn’t really matter where you go
In the middle of the park, beach, party or home
Leave the lovers alone
Now you’re invited to a party I’ve got one think in mind
By the end of the evening no one will be alone
We’re turnin’ out the lights and we’re putting up a sign saying:
Leave the lovers alone
Living is the Way of Dying
Nuclear Soldier
I had enjoyable memories of my father playing Tom Leher’s songs on his record player. One song in particular haunted me: “So long Mom (I’m off to drop the bomb)”. Almost 20 years later I had to follow up with song about me as a pilot going off to drop the bomb. Kudos to Tom (and my dad.)
Gotta go now
I can’t take you
I got my orders and
I don’t know where I’m goin’
If you can wait here
I’ll be returnin’
Me and my body in spirit form
Gotta go
Mmmm gotta run
Gotta go now
Mmmm gotta run
Always know I’d do for you
What you would do for me
I’d wait forever and ever and ever and ever….
That is what I know I’d do
I’d wait eternally
If you went away from me
If you went away from me
Let me hold you; you can hold me
When we part I’ll feel the afterglow
What’s that feeling just like a tingle
From my head to my tippie toe
I love you forever
I love you forever
So Soft
This one’s to my wife of 43 years and for my friend forever (one and the same.) None of it is true except for the ‘love’ part. That’s what romantic ‘anything’ is all about: It’s just a fluttering of universally accepted nonsense whose shallow meanings are as deep as ye’ need to go.
She opens my eyes
She kisses my nose
She’s wearing my love like warm winter clothes
So soft your love on me
The wind int the willows
The waves in the sea
The clouds
The need just to be here
With you our love and me
So soft your love on me
So soft your love on me
Twas dying tomorrow and dyin today
I was living in the future; was wasting away
But then I just saw you; my heart led the way
To love and you and me
So soft your love on me
So soft your love on me
Was I the One?
I broke a few hearts in my day. I’ve no other way than to apologize except write a song for those wonderful ladies who probably forgave me so long ago they probably don’t even remember my name.
Was I the one who made you sad
Who took your happy eye and fled
Was I the one who broke your heart
And never never knew what he had done
Was I the one who never knew
That all the loving was more than fun
Was I the one who played all night
And never never stayed ‘till the sun
Please tell me; I gotta know for true
What you’re tryin to tell me
What I never knew
I was the one
Was I the one who cause you pain
And let your tears dry in the sun
Was I the one who made you sad
And never never never let you love again
And never ended what he’d begun
Was I the one who tore your heart out
And never ended what he’d begun
Was I the one was I the one
Who never never knew what he had done
You Can Love Anyone
This is the only song I ever wrote about myself. I had just landed in Europe with backpack and guitar to travel, play and work for a year-and-a-half. I wrote the song while riding on trains through Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, among others. My traveling sojourn began in Amsterdam, Holland with a feeling of deep depression and loneliness. I wrote the song to myself in the third person to remind me of what was important in life. I finalized the song while sitting on a quay overlooking the harbor in Cap d’Antibes, France.
You can love anyone you want to
You can love yourself if you’re closer than me
You can love anything if it has meaning
Then the world will move for you
It will stand for you and me
In our lives we will change like our love
You can touch anyone you want to
You can touch your soul while it tries to be free
You can touch with your words if someone will listen
Then the song and melody will be a world to you and me
In our lives we will change like our love