Lyrics
Lyrics to the Songs:
Number on the Door
The house you used to
live in just went up for sale
Since walls can't talk I guess that place will never tell
your tale
Soon the neighborhood will change and no one will recall
That someone with your sweet blue eyes ever lived there at
all
Cupid's arrows, deadly
darts, won't find that home of broken hearts
What was the number on that door?
Somewhere up in the
hills deep among the pines
A cabin sits and softly marks what once were better
times
I carved your name in a beat-up bed and it might still be
there
Unless some stranger came along and sanded that board
bare
Cupid's arrows, deadly
darts, won't find that home of broken hearts
What was the number on that door?
Well it really is a
sad, sad day
When all those memories fade away
Cards and letters turned to dust
Put to death by broken trust
Scratch your head and ask once more
What was the number on that door?
(Copyright 2003 David Myles Meinzer)
The Buzzard
There's a buzzard in
my brain and it's circling 'round and 'round
Can't move, can't scream, I can't even make a
sound
There's a devil in my
heart and it just won't let me be
There's a fire in my gut and it's consuming me
Don't try to make to
better don't tell me things'll be all right
Just tell me I don't have to give up with out a
fight
(Copyright 1991 David Myles Meinzer)
Luau Time
Mayflies cover the
window - sunlight fills the room
It was a busy morning - and an active afternoon
But now it's luau time - here at the ranch
Let's have a party - because we can
Yes it's luau time
Tonight we'll turn on
the TV - and watch "A Hard Day's Night"
But right now let's watch the sunset - and marvel at the
beautiful light
But now it's luau time - here at the ranch
Let's have a party - because we can
Yes it's luau time
Tonight let's turn off
the TV - and forget the shadow's gloom
Let's just sit and watch the starlight - and pretend we live
on the moon
But now it's luau time - here at the ranch
Let's have a party - because we can
Yes it's luau time
(Copyright 2003 David Myles Meinzer)
Hell-Bound Train
A Texas cowboy on a
barroom floor
Had drunk so much he could hold no more
So he fell asleep with a troubled brain
To dream the he rode on a hellbound train
The engine, with
blood, was red and damp
And was brilliantly lit with a brimstone lamp
While an imp, for fuel, was shoveling bones
And the furnace rang with a thousand groans
The boiler was filled
up with liquid fear
And the devil himself was the engineer
The passengers they were a mixed-up crew
Christian, atheist, gentile and Jew
Well the train rushed
on at an awful pace
The sulfur fumes scorched their hands and face
Wilder and wilder the country grew
And faster and faster the engine flew
Brighter and brighter
the lightning flashed
And louder and louder the thunder crashed
Hotter and hotter the air became
Till the clothes were burnt from each shaking
frame
From the engine cab
there arose a yell
"Ha ha," said the devil, "The next stop is hell!"
Then oh, how the passengers shrieked with pain
And begged the devil to stop that train
But he capered about
and he dance with glee
And he laughed and he mocked their misery
"My friends, you paid for your seats on this road
The train goes through with a complete load
"'Cause, you bullied
the weak and you cheated the poor
The starving brother you turned from your door
You laid up your gold till your purses bust
And you gave free play to your beastly lust
You've paid full fare
and I'll carry you through
For it's only right you should have your due
Your flesh will scorch in the flames that roar
And my imps will torment you forevermore
Then the cowboy awoke
with an anguished cry
His clothes were wet and his hair stood high
Then he prayed as he'd never prayed before
To be saved from his sins and from hell's front
door
His prayers and his
pleadings were not in vain
For he never again rode the hell bound train
And if you to would avoid eternal pain
Don't get on that hellbound train
Don't get on that hellbound train
No, don't get on that hellbound train
Dream of Me
I doubt you'll ever
hear this, and even if you do
It's highly unlikely you'll think it's about you
I guess it was that Dylan song about someone on his mind
That brought your memory back from that place it was
confined
But when I think of
you, I don't feel regret
Just a broken heart and a kiss I can't forget
And when morning breaks and I wake
From another dream of you
I wonder if somewhere you might be dreaming of me
too
Too young an in
experienced to ever find the way
To sweep you off your feet and carry you away
I tried to be someone on whom you could depend
But you slipped through my fingers and too soon it was the
end
(Chorus)
Now I guess that
time's too precious to waste on might-have-beens
And second guessing past events is a game nobody wins
But still I can't help wondering if you really missed my
call
Or if when it came to you I simply had no chance at
all
(Chorus)
(Copyright 2001 David Myles Meinzer)
Old What's His Name
In a sleepy Midwest
town in 1917
He was a total stranger, someone they'd never seen
He had a cardboard box underneath his arm
Down by the railroad
station, underneath a tree
He took that cardboard box and put it on his knee
An he opened it up and he reached inside
He pulled out a
battered banjo and tuned an errant string
He strummed a few rude chords and then began to sing
And a crowd came 'round to hear him play
He sang about Jesse
James, and he sang about Casey Jones
He howled bloody murder and moldering John Brown's bones
He sang of western cowboys out riding with the herds
Some people even sang along if they thought they knew the
words
And he sang of lonely
maidens whose men has gone to sea
And he did a blues about the coppers who would not let him
be
His voice was high and lonesome, his playing soft and
low
And after about an hour he said "It's time for me to
go"
Some folks put a few
coins in the hat there by his feet
He dropped them in his pocket and he walked on down the
street
And no one in that town ever saw him again
(Copyright 2001 David Myles Meinzer)
Whitehouse Blues
Yonder comes a train
she's comin down the line
Blowin' every station Mr. McKinley is dyin'
In Buffalo, In Buffalo
In Buffalo, In Buffalo
Doctor came a runnin'
he takes off his specs
Says. "Mr. McKinley , You'd better pass your checks
You're bound to die, bound to die
In Buffalo, In Buffalo
McKinley he hollered,
McKinley he squalled
Doc says, "McKinley, I can't find that ball"
In Buffalo, In Buffalo
In Buffalo, In Buffalo
Well looky here you
rascal, just see what you've done
You've gone and shot my president with an Ivor-Johnson
gun
Gettin' bad in Washington
From Buffalo to Washington
Yonder comes a train
she's comin down the line
Blowin' every station Mr. McKinley is a dyin'
It's hard times, hard times
From Buffalo to Washington
Well the jailer said
to Czolgosz, "You won't be long in here
You've gone and shot the president
Now you'll get the 'lectric chair
In Buffalo, in Buffalo
In Buffalo, In Buffalo "
Roosevelt's in the
Whitehouse drinkin' out of a silver Cup
McKinley's in the graveyard he's never wakin' up
He'll be gone a long old time
Yes he'll be gone a long old time
Shallow Grave
I put my love in a
shallow grave 'cause that's where it belongs
I put my love in a shallow grave to stay with all my
wrongs
My heart and soul have been to hell
My brain's in need of rest
I put my love in a shallow grave
To get it off my chest
I put my love in a
shallow grave as she lay in the shadow of death
I put my love in a shallow grave 'cause she was out of
breath
She said that she could not go on
And I took her at her word
I put my love in a shallow grave
And that's where she's interred
I put my love in a
shallow grave 'cause that's where it belongs
I put my love in a shallow grave to stay with all my
wrongs
My heart and soul have been to hell
My brain's in need of rest
I put my love in a shallow grave
To get it off my chest
(Copyright 2001 David Myles Meinzer)
Comrades, Fill No Glass for Me
Oh! comrades, fill no
glass for me to drown my soul in liquid flame
For if I drank, the toast should be - To blighted fortune,
health and fame
Yet, though I long to quell the strife, that passion holds
against my life,
Though boon companions you may be, but comrades, fill no
glass for me.
I know a breast that
once was light whose patient sufferings need my care
I know a hearth that once was bright, but drooping hopes
have nestled there
Then while the tear drops nightly steal, from wounded hearts
that I should heal
Though boon companions you may be - Oh! comrades, fill no
glass for me.
When I was young I
felt the tide of aspirations undefiled
But manhood's years have wronged the pride my parents
centered in their child
Then, by a mother's sacred tear, by all that memory should
revere,
Though boon companions you may be - Oh! comrades, fill no
glass for me.
(Stephen Collins Foster, 1855)
The Other Shoe
Today I took a journey
through the past
With a suitcase full of memories never meant to last
I burned some old papers on the fire
Outdated catalogs of faded desire
This morning I wrote
another song
Remembering old friends I hadn't known so very long
Try to put them in a place where they won't be forgot
To have and to hold till my brain cells are shot
Tonight I took a look
at what I'd done
I sat on a barstool not havin' any fun
Watching winners and losers and some in-between
Make a valiant attempt to maintain a scene
Tomorrow's gonna be
another day
I know that's a very banal thing to say
But I'll get up and face it like I always do
Yes, I'll get up and face it like I always do
Well, I'll get up and face it like I always do
just as soon as I find the other shoe
(Copyright 2003 David Myles Meinzer)