Ain’t No Laughing Matter is one of my favourite tunes written by my friend, the late Wayne Sorge. Here’s my official version, from my CD Unassumed Sideroads. I’ve had so many requests for the lyrics for this that I’ve added them to the video, over a slideshow of run down or abandoned buildings in Virginia and South Carolina. The photos were taken by my Friend Joan in Charlottesville – thanks Joan!
Please have a gander and tell me what you think.
The fish they swim right past our boats and head on out to sea
They’re racing for the Spanish shore, paella soon they’ll be
The season’s spent, roll up your nets, tar the seams of your scull
Our work is done, it’s time for fun, pick up lads where’s your cheer
We’ll sing Hard Hard Times on Signal Hill
Get roaring drunk in Lachine
Chase the girls in Saskatoon
And thumb our nose at the Queen
(more…)
Well it’s Saturday night by the full moonlight
Lacing up my dancing shoes
My paycheck’s blown, I can’t get a loan
If you know me – that’s no news
Babe’s set to go, tapping her toes
She wants to get her name in the news
Gonna make a big mess and by dawn I guess
We’ll be singing the Hoosegow Blues
(more…)
Her husband’s driving long haul to nowhere special
Her beer’s beside mine on the bar in this Interstate pit
We’re both late and desperate when it hits last call
I’m lucky to be the last man standing
(more…)
Got my boots, a roll of tools, leathers for the rain
Helmet for where it’s the law, flask for the pain
I’ve taken off the sea shell; laid it on its beaded thong
The one you made me by the coast when I wrote you that song
Doesn’t suit my neck no more, cuts right though my skin
Gonna kick this old bike into life and climb back on the wind
But there you are, standing at the side of the road
There you are, thumb not hanging out
There you are, crying out those cactus eyes
“Stay, let me make it right”
(more…)
When Bessie the cow would stand by the plough
She’d daydream that she was a horse
She’d get Farmer Brown to race her around
And still give him great milk, of course
‘Cause it wasn’t enough to strut all her stuff
Oon the legs that you find under cows
When your heart has the need for blistering speed
Mosey’n just ain’t no way how
(more…)
Lookin’ up my heart, in the library
Your perfume caught me, back in History
I snuck past Mystery, charged by War
By the time I made Romance, you were out the door
(more…)
There’s a terrible beauty in the pounding rain
As an eighteen wheeler sails on by
The bike surfs on his muddy wake, white knuckle time or slide
Might die this second or maybe the next,
A crumple of blood and twisted steel
Fear at last is something I can feel
(more…)
phicksation 