Windy, song by Ruthann Friedman

Written by Ruthann Friedman and recorded by The Association, “Windy” was released in 1967 and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Here we feature Ruthanne Friedman’s version of the song — a paean to a man (rather than The Association’s woman).

WINDY
Words and Music by Ruthann Friedman

Who’s peekin’ out from under a stairway
Callin’ a name that’s lighter than air
Who’s bendin’ down to give me a rainbow
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody he sees
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment
Everyone knows it’s Windy

And Windy has stormy eyes
That flash at the sound of lies
And Windy has wings to fly
Above the clouds

Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city
Smilin’ at everybody he sees
Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment
Everyone knows it’s Windy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Ruthann Friedman started playing guitar at the age of eight while listening to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Josh White. Her first paid performance was at the Green Spider Coffee House in Denver, Colorado, at the age 19. While staying in San Francisco,  Friedman befriended  members of Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe, and Janis Joplin. Her friendship with Van Dyke Parks not only influenced her deep commitment to music but also introduced her to The Association, the musical group that recorded her song “Windy” in 1967. Three years later, Reprise Records released Constant Companion, her first solo album. In 2006, Water, a San Francisco label, reissued Constant Companion, renewing interest in Friedman’s music and leading to the release of a compilation of rare and previously unreleased home recordings from 1965–1971, Hurried Life. To learn more, visit ruthannfriedman.com.

White Rabbit, music and lyrics by Grace Slick

Jefferson Airplane,  fronted by singer/songwriter Grace Slick, perform “White Rabbit” on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967).

WHITE RABBIT
by Grace Slick 

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell them a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When the men on the chess board
get up and tell you where to go
And you just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the white knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “Off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said

Feed your head
Feed your head

SOURCE: “White Rabbit” appears on Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Grace Slick is an American singer, songwriter, artist, and former model, best known as one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, as well as for her work as a solo artist from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. Today, she works as a visual artist. Visit Grace Slick at her website.

Flight of the Wild Geese, song by Joan Armatrading

“Flight of the Wild Geese,” written and performed by Joan Armatrading from her album Gold (2003) and featured in the 1978 film The Wild Geese, starring Richard Burton.

FLIGHT OF THE WILD GEESE
lyrics by Joan Armatrading

Sad are the eyes
Yet no tears
The flight of the wild geese
Brings a new hope

Rescued from all this
Old friends
And those newly found
What chance to make it last

When there’s danger all around
And reason just ups and disappears

Time is running out
So much to be done
Tell me what more
What more
What more can we do.

There were promises made
Plans firmly laid
Now madness prevails
And lies fill the air.

What more, Oh
What more
What more can we do.
What chance to make it last

What more
What more can we do.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER/SINGER: Joan Armatrading is a British singer, songwriter, guitarist. She is a three-time Grammy Award-nominee and has been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She also received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996. In a recording career spanning 40 years, she has released a total of 18 studio albums, as well as several live albums and compilations.

Julie Andrews sings “The Lusty Month of May” from Camelot

Julie Andrews, as Queen Guenevere, sings “The Lusty Month of May” from Camelot, the 1960 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White novel The Once and Future King. Read the lyrics at stlyrics.com.

Once in a Lifetime (You May Ask Yourself), performed by Talking Heads

Talking Heads perform “Once in a Lifetime” (You May Ask Yourself) in the film Stop Making Sense (1984) directed by Jonathan Demme.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME
Words and Music by David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
wife
And you may ask yourself — Well…How did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…

Water dissolving…and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right?…Am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
MY GOD!…WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…

Morning Has Broken, lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon, performed by Old Royal Navy College Chapel Choir

“Morning Has Broken” is a hymn first published in 1931 with lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon and set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune known as “Bunessan.” Cat Stevens included a version on his 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat. This performance is by the Old Royal Naval College Chapel Choir.

MORNING HAS BROKEN
lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon

Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlight from heaven.
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetnes of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning.
Born of the one light Eden saw play.
Praise with elation, praise every morning;
God’s recreation of the new day.

Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

Across the Universe, lyrics by John Lennon

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
by John Lennon 

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind,
Possessing and caressing me.
Jai guru deva om
Nothing’s gonna change my world. Nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world. Nothing’s gonna change my world.

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe,
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox they
Tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing’s gonna change my world. Nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world. Nothing’s gonna change my world.

Sounds of laughter shades of life are ringing
Through my open ears inciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a
Million suns, and calls me on and on
Across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing’s gonna change my world. Nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world. Nothing’s gonna change my world.

MORE: Listen to the song at youtube.com.

NOTES ON THE SONG: “Across the Universe” is a song recorded by the Beatles. It was written by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song first appeared on the various artists charity compilation album No One’s Gonna Change Our World in December 1969, and later, in different form, on Let It Be, the group’s final released album. (Read more at wikipedia.org.)

When I Paint My Masterpiece, song lyrics by Bob Dylan

 I PAINT MY MASTERPIECE
lyrics by Bob Dylan

Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble
footprints are everywhere
You can almost think that you’re seein’ double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs
Got to hurry on back to my hotel room
Where I’ve got me a date with Botticelli’s niece
She promised that she’d be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece

Oh, the hours I’ve spent inside the Coliseum
Dodging lions and wastin’ time
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly
stand to see ’em
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb
Train wheels runnin’ through the back of my memory
When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese
Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece

Sailin’ round the world in a dirty gondola
Oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!

I left Rome and landed in Brussels
On a plane ride so bumpy that I almost cried
Clergymen in uniform and young girls pullin’ muscles
Everyone was there to greet me when I stepped inside
Newspapermen eating candy
Had to be held down by big police
Someday, everything is gonna be diff’rent
When I paint my masterpiece

CREDIT: Copyright © 1971 by Big Sky Music; renewed 1999 by Big Sky Music. Visit the author’s website: bobdylan.com.

PAINTING by Bob Dylan, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

When I Paint My Masterpiece, song by Bob Dylan

WHEN I PAINT MY MASTERPIECE (Excerpt)
by Bob Dylan

Oh, the hours that I spent inside the Coloseum,
Dodging lions and wasting time.
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle 
I could hardly stand to see ‘em
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb
Train wheels runnin’ through the back of my memory
When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese.
Some day everything is going to sound like a rhapsody
When I pain my masterpiece. 

Listen to The Band (with Levon Helm — RIP — singing) perform the song on YouTube.

Photo: Coliseum, Roma, by Jolove55

Chelsea Hotel #2, lyrics by Leonard Cohen

“I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.”

From Chelsea Hotel #2, song by LEONARD COHEN

Over the years, Leonard Cohen has expressed regret about naming Janis Joplin as the inspiration for “Chelsea Hotel #2,” a song from his 1974 album New Skin for the Old Ceremony. (Read the lyrics here.) Others believe Janis — who died in 1970 — wouldn’t have minded, since she spoke openly of her encounters with Jim Morrison and Leonard Cohen. Apparently she met Cohen in the elevator at the Chelsea Hotel while  looking for Kris Kristofferson. When Cohen learned of her mission, he told her: “I’m Kris Kristofferson,” though he was sure she knew that the author of “Me and Bobby McGee” was a lot taller.