Episode 3 Singer-Songwriters at the BBC

I was born in Chickasaw County.

When I was six we moved to another region

in Mississippi called the Delta.

And we lived between two rivers.

One was the Yazoo

and the other was the Tallahatchie.

# It was the third of June

# Another sleepy dusty Delta day

# I was out chopping cotton and my brother was baling hay

# And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

# And Mama hollered at the back door

# Y'all remember to wipe your feet

# And then she said I got some news this morning from Choctaw Ridge

# Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

# And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas

# Well Billie Joe never had a lick of sense

# Pass the biscuits please

# There's five more acres in the lower 40 I've got to plough

# And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe anyhow

# Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge

# And now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

# Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe

# Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show

# And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?

# I'll have another piece of apple pie you know it don't seem right

# I saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on Choctaw Ridge

# And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

# And Mama said to me child what's happened to your appetite?

# I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite

# That nice young preacher Brother Taylor dropped by today

# Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday

# Oh by the way

# He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

# And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off

# The Tallahatchie Bridge

# A year has come n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe

# And brother married Becky Thompson

# They bought a store in Tupelo

# There was a virus going round

# Papa caught it and he died last spring

# And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything

# And me I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

# And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge. #

# I have seen the morning burning golden on the mountains in the skies

# Achin' with the feelin' of the freedom of an eagle when she flies

# Turnin' on the world the way she smiled upon my soul as I lay dying

# Healin' as the colours in the sunshine and the shadows of her eyes

# Wakin' in the mornin' to the feelin' of her fingers on my skin

# Wipin' out the traces of the people

# And the places that I've been

# Teachin' me that yesterday

# Was something that I never thought of trying

# Talkin' of tomorrow and the money love and time we had to spend

# Lovin' her was easier than anything I'll ever do again

# Comin' close together with a feelin'

# That I've never known before in my time

# She ain't ashamed to be a woman or afraid to be a friend

# I don't know the answer to the easy way she opened every door

# In my mind

# But dreamin' was as easy as believin' it was never gonna end

# And lovin' her was easier than anything I'll ever do again

# Oooooh

# Lovin' her was easier than anything I'll ever do again. #

APPLAUSE

# Bows and flows of angel hair

# And ice cream castles in the air

# And feather canyons everywhere

# I've looked at clouds that way

# But now they only block the sun

# They rain and snow on everyone

# So many things I would have done

# But clouds got in my way

# Oh I've looked at clouds from both sides now

# From up and down and still somehow

# It's cloud illusions I recall

# I really don't know clouds at all

# Moons and dunes and Ferris wheels

# The dizzy dancing way you feel

# As every fairy tale comes real

# Oh I've looked at love that way

# But now it's just another show

# You leave 'em laughing when you go

# And if you care don't let them know

# No don't give yourself away

# I've looked at love from both sides now

# From give and take and still somehow

# It's love's illusions I recall

# Oh I really don't know love at all

# Tears and fears and feeling proud

# To say I love you right out loud

# Dreams and schemes and circus crowds

# I've looked at life that way

# But now old friends are acting strange

# They shake their heads they say I've changed

# Well something's lost but something's gained

# In living every day

# Oh I've looked at life from both sides now

# From win and lose and still somehow

# It's life's illusions I recall

# Oh I really don't know life

# At all. #

APPLAUSE

# If you could read my mind love

# What a tale my thoughts could tell

# Just like an old time movie

# About a ghost from a wishing well

# In a castle dark or a fortress strong

# With chains upon my feet

# You know that ghost is me

# And I will never be set free

# As long as I'm a ghost that you can see

# If I could read your mind love

# What a tale your thoughts could tell

# Just like a paperback novel

# The kind any drugstore would sell

# When you reach the part

# Where the heartaches come

# The hero would be me

# Heroes often fail

# And you won't read that book again

# Because the ending's just too hard to take

# I walk away like a movie star

# Who gets burned in a three-way script

# Enter number two

# A movie queen to play the scene

# Of bringing all the good things out in me

# But for now love let's be real

# I never knew I could feel this way

# And I've got to say that I just don't get it

# I don't know where we went wrong

# But the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back

# If you could read my mind love

# What a tale my thoughts could tell

# Just like an old time movie

# 'Bout a ghost from a wishing well

# In a castle dark or a fortress strong

# With chains upon my feet

# But stories always end

# And if you read between the lines

# You'll know that I'm just trying to understand

# The feelings that you lack

# I never knew I could feel this way

# I've got to say that I just don't get it

# I don't know where we went wrong

# But the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back. #

APPLAUSE

# May you never lay your head down

# Without a hand to hold

# May you never make your bed out in the cold

# You're just like great strong brother of mine

# You know that I love you true

# And you never talk dirty behind my back

# And I know that there's those that do

# Oh please won't you please won't you bear it in mind

# Love is a lesson to learn in our time

# Now please won't you please won't you bear it in mind for me

# May you never lay your head down

# Without a hand to hold

# May you never make your bed out in the cold

# You're just like a good warm sister to me

# You know that I love you true

# And you hold no blade to stab me in the back

# And I know that there's those that do

# Oh won't you please won't you please won't you bear it in mind

# Life is a lesson to learn in our time

# Please won't you please won't you bear it in mind for me

# May you never lay your head down

# Without a hand to hold

# May you never make your bed out in the cold

# You're just like a fat and crazy brother of mine

# You know that I love you true

# And you never talk dirty behind my back

# And I know that there's those that you do

# Please won't you please won't you bear it in mind

# Love is a lesson to learn in our time

# Please won't you please won't you, bear it in mind for me

# May you never lose your temper

# If you get in a bar room fight

# May you never lose your woman overnight

# May you never lay your head down

# Without a hand to hold

# May you never make your bed out in the cold

# May you never lose your temper

# If you get in a bar room fight

# May you never lose your woman overnight

# May you never lose your woman overnight

# May you never lose your woman overnight. #

# You're not a dream

# You're not an angel

# You're a man

# I'm not a queen

# I'm a woman take my hand

# We'll make a space in the lives that we'd planned

# And here we'll stay until it's time for you to go

# Yes we're different worlds apart

# We're not the same

# We laughed and played at the start like in a game

# You could have stayed outside my heart but in you came

# Here you'll stay until it's time for you to go

# Don't ask why

# Don't ask how

# Don't ask forever

# Love me now

# This love of mine had no beginning

# It has no end

# I was an oak now I'm a willow

# Now I can bend

# And though I'll never in my life see you again

# Still I'll stay until it's time for you to go

# Don't ask why of me

# Don't ask how of me

# Don't ask forever of me

# Love me love me now

# You're not a dream

# You're not an angel you're a man

# I'm not a queen

# I'm a woman take my hand

# We'll make a space in the lives that we'd planned

# And here we'll stay until it's time for you to go. #

# Broken windows

# Empty hallways

# Pale dead moon

# And a sky streaked with grey

# Human kindness

# Is overflowing

# And I think it's going to rain today

# Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles

# Frozen smiles to chase love away

# Human kindness is overflowing

# And I think it's going to rain today

# Lonely

# Lonely

# Tin can at my feet

# I think I'll kick it down the street

# That's the way

# You treat friends

# Right before me

# The signs implore me

# Help the needy

# And show them the way

# Human kindness is overflowing

# And I think it's going to rain today. #

APPLAUSE

# Starry starry night

# Paint your palette blue and grey

# Look out on a summer's day

# With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

# Shadows on the hills

# Sketch the trees and the daffodils

# Catch the breeze and the winter chills

# In colours on the snowy linen land

# Now I understand

# What you tried to say to me

# How you suffered for your sanity

# And how you tried to set them free

# They would not listen they did not know how

# Perhaps they'll listen now

# Starry starry night

# Flaming flowers that brightly blaze

# Swirling clouds in violet haze

# Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

# Colours changing hue

# Morning fields of amber grain

# Weathered faces lined in pain

# Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

# Now I understand

# What you tried to say to me

# How you suffered for your sanity

# How you tried to set them free

# They would not listen they did not know how

# Perhaps they'll listen now

# For they could not love you

# But still your love was true

# And when no hope was left inside

# On that starry starry night

# You took your life as lovers often do

# But I could have told you Vincent

# This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

# Starry starry night

# Portraits hung in empty halls

# Frameless heads on nameless walls

# With eyes that watch the world and can't forget

# Like the strangers that you've met

# The ragged men in ragged clothes

# The silver thorn a bloody rose

# Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

# Now I think I know

# What you tried to say to me

# How you suffered for your sanity

# How you tried to set them free

# They would not listen they're not listening still

# Perhaps they never will. #

APPLAUSE

# I thought I heard the sound of my name

# And I looked back down behind me

# And with hair like the ripened wheat she came

# Sure as the west wind to find me

# And just for a moment I wished my life

# To see our friends all around us

# And I turned to her

# I held my breath in the far Norwegian mountains

# For there we stood two children of spring

# As everything seemed to be gleaming

# Her looking breathless clean out of my mind

# And me with my crazy dreaming

# To think of my friends underneath the same roof

# In one common destination

# When all we do is remain aloof

# Like we have no close relation

# And love is my torment

# And I'll take when I can

# But I'll give in the moment

# When you are my woman and I am your man

# And I watched her making her first daisy chain

# As her nipples hung hard in suggestion

# And naked not bitten we drifted the plain

# In the hazy desert of sensation

# And we dreamt of all the loves we'd known

# And we never thought of the sorrow

# With forelocks wound on the primrose down

# In the wood by the empty long barrow

# Two silver greenflies to flicker the back

# Dropping lush of the emerald springtime

# To lust for a moment in love of another

# As dust on a dragonfly's wing

# And love is no torment

# For we'll give when we can

# And we'll live in the moment

# When you are my woman and I am your man

# And the black cap sings and the forest rings

# The nettles tall all around me

# With shafts of sun and moving things

# And poems fast and slowly

# And fantasies of luscious thirst

# For new lust and fresh waters to seek it

# Like diamonds set in realities

# Of skies drawn back in secret

# But somewhere out there with my heart in her care

# Her prayers and the breezes that caught them

# She sits like the Earth as I fly to her arms

# Like the showering yellows of autumn

# And love is no torment

# For we'll give when we can

# And we'll live for the moment

# When she is my woman

# And I am her man. #

# It's the frame it's the frame that you're in

# It's the frame it's the frame it's the frame

# It said you may grumble said you may groan

# You may cry till those cows come home

# Oh Lord I don't know you very well

# Though I think you have touched me once or twice

# But I know

# I know you got a lot of grace and love and light

# Do you think you could spare some on my life?

# It's the frame it's the frame that you're in

# It's the frame it's the frame it's the frame

# It said you may grumble said you may groan

# You may cry till those cows come home

# Oh Lord now you don't wanna be the only one in heaven do ya?

# Wouldn't you like me and my friends

# And my family for company?

# So could you send some of your grace and love and light

# And while you're there could you spare us some charity?

# It's the frame it's the frame that you're in

# It's the frame it's the frame it's the frame

# It said you may grumble said you may groan

# You may cry till those cows come home

# Oh Lord have mercy on me

# I said Lord

# Lord Lord have mercy on me. #

# When I was young

# I never needed anyone

# And makin' love was just for fun

# Those days are gone

# Livin' alone

# I think of all the friends I've known

# But when I dial the telephone

# Nobody's home

# All by myself

# Don't wanna be all by myself

# Any more

# All by myself

# Don't wanna live

# All by myself any more

# Hard to be sure

# Sometimes I feel so insecure

# And love so distant and obscure

# Remains the cure

# All by myself

# Don't wanna be

# All by myself any more

# All by myself

# Don't wanna live

# All by myself any more

# When I was young

# I never needed anyone

# And makin' love was just for fun

# Those days are gone

# All by myself

# Don't wanna be

# All by myself any more

# All by myself

# Don't wanna live

# All by myself any more

# All by myself

# Don't wanna be

# All by myself. #

During the past two or three years, I must have seen Loudon Wainwright

at least half-a-dozen times

and I think I enjoy him more each time I do.

He seems to me a marvellous man

and it's a great pleasure

to have him join us on the programme tonight.

His first song is called Reciprocity so here is Loudon Wainwright.

# They got drunk last night

# Had a knock-down dragged out fight

# She was determined and he saw it his way

# He threw a tantrum and she threw an ashtray

# They got drunk

# Last night

# How's this for a how-do-you-do?

# He's unfaithful she's untrue

# They're their own masters and they're their own bosses

# They reserve the right to employ double-crosses

# How is this for a fine how-do-you-do?

# You'd need a chair and a whip

# To control their relationship

# Once they were lovers and practically best friends

# Now he's into bondage and she's into revenge

# You would need a chair

# And a whip

# And if one of them should die

# I suppose that the other would cry

# There would be tears of sorrow and great grief

# Or else there would be tears of release and relief

# If one of them

# Should die. #

# Have you seen the old man

# In the closed down market?

# Kicking up the papers

# With his worn out shoes

# In his eyes you see no pride

# And held loosely at his side

# Yesterday's paper

# Telling yesterday's news

# So how can you tell me you're lonely?

# And you say for you that the sun don't shine

# Let me take you by the hand

# And lead you through the streets of London

# I'll show you something

# To make you change your mind

# And have you seen the old girl who walks the streets of London?

# Dirt in her hair

# And the clothes in rags

# She's no time for talking

# She just keeps right on walking

# Carrying her home in two carrier bags

# So how can you tell me you're lonely?

# And you say for you that the sun don't shine

# Let me take you by the hand

# And lead you through the streets of London

# I'll show you something

# To make you change your mind

# And in the all-night cafe

# At a quarter past eleven

# Same old man sitting there on his own

# Looking at the world

# Over the rim of his tea cup

# And each tea lasts an hour

# And he wanders home alone

# So how can you tell me you're lonely?

# And you say for you that the sun don't shine

# Let me take you by the hand

# And lead you through the streets of London

# I'll show you something

# To make you change your mind

# And have you seen the old man

# Outside the seaman's mission

# Memory fading with the medal ribbons that he wears

# In our winter city

# The rain cries a little pity

# For one more forgotten hero

# And a world that doesn't care

# So how can you tell me you're lonely?

# And you say for you that the sun don't shine

# Let me take you by the hand

# And lead you through the streets of London

# I'll show you something

# To make you change your mind. #

APPLAUSE

We are very lucky to have the guest we have with us tonight.

It's her first tour of Britain,

her first appearance on the programme live.

Would you please welcome Miss Dory Previn?

APPLAUSE

# I have flown to star-stained heights

# On bent and battered wings

# In search of mythical kings

# Mythical kings

# Sure that everything of worth

# Is in the sky and not the Earth

# And I never learned to make my way

# Down, down, down

# Where the iguanas play

# I have ridden comet tails in search of magic rings

# To conjure mythical kings mythical kings

# Oh yes singing scraps of angel song

# High is right and low is wrong

# I never learnt to make my way

# Down down down where the iguanas play

# Astral walks I've tried to take

# I sit and throw the eaching

# Aesthetic bards and tarot cards of the chords to which I cling

# Don't break my strings

# I wish you would

# Or I will fall

# I wish I could I wish I could

# Curse the mind that mounts the clouds

# In search of mythical kings

# And only mystical things mystical things

# Oh yes

# Cry for the soul that will not face

# The body as an equal place

# And I never learnt to touch for real

# Or feel the things iguanas feel

# Down down down down

# Where they play

# Teach me

# Teach me

# Teach me

# Reach me. #

APPLAUSE

# Till the rivers all run dry

# Till the sun falls from the sky

# Till life on Earth is through

# I'll be needing you

# I know sometimes you may wonder

# From little things I say and do.

# But there's no need for you wonder

# If I need you

# Cos I'll need you

# Till the rivers all run dry

# Till the sun falls from the sky

# Till life on Earth is through

# I'll be needing you

# Too many times I don't tell you

# Too many things get in the way

# And even though sometimes I hurt you

# Still you show me

# In every way

# Till the rivers all run dry

# Till the sun falls from the sky

# Till life on Earth is through

# I'll be needing you. #

APPLAUSE

Our second studio guest tonight is probably not

for you a household name, but he's had a growing career

in Ireland over many years.

His name is Paul Brady and he began in Dublin rock bands

such as Rockhouse and The Kult back in the '60s.

He was in the folk band The Johnstons

and later joined Planxty, though never recorded with them.

Since then, he's building his reputation as a solo artist

and this month releases an album called Hard Station.

He's playing the Venue tomorrow night.

But right now, he's here to play Crazy Dreams.

Paul Brady, who closes the show for tonight.

# Snowbound siren in the winter dawn

# There was a blizzard blowing in from off the river

# It's ten below on all these city streets

# But the feeling in your heart is even colder

# Sunrise screeching down the line

# And the fog banks running out of time

# But you won't be here when they creep in tomorrow

# Oh no

# You're tired of dreaming someone else's dreams

# When they really don't include you any longer

# Miles from home you're sliding down with each day

# And you need a woman's love to make you stronger

# Lately you've been getting doubts

# A voice inside keeps calling out

# There's someone else whose dreams don't get you nowhere

# So shut the suitcase kiss the year goodbye

# Don't let nobody stop you at the doorway

# And close the shutters on this empty room

# Where these crazy dreams come crawling

# Head on out across that line

# Where she's been waiting all this time

# Tell her that you want her there forever

# Forever and ever

# It's still two hours until this plane gets down

# Can hardly bear to wait another minute

# Your sweet loving baby is all that I need

# Darling it's been building up inside of me

# Tonight we're going to paint this town

# We're going to drink champagne until we both fall down

# We'll find some other crazy dream tomorrow. #