TELLING STORIES
- Robert Deem
- Nov 15, 2021
- 1 min read
Updated: Nov 29, 2021
Now we begin to move away from songs that I imposed upon our household -- perhaps thumping the floorboards -- so you might not be familiar with these next selections. Then again, you might have glimpsed them as auras around my 1968 Mustang suggesting some responsibility for my hearing loss. What brings these songs to you now is their stories.
1969 Ramble On Led Zeppelin
Ramble On Lyrics
The leaves are falling all around, time I was on my way
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay
But now it's time for me to go, the autumn moon lights my way
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's headed my way
Ah, sometimes I grow so tired
But I know I've got one thing I got to do
Ramble on, and now's the time, the time is now
To sing my song, I'm going 'round the world, I gotta find my girl
On my way, I've been this way ten years to the day
Ramble on, gotta find the queen of all my dreams
Got no time to for spreading roots
The time has come to be gone
And though "our health" we drank a thousand times
It's time to ramble on
Ramble on, and now the time, the time is now
To sing my song, I'm going 'round the world, I gotta find my girl
On my way, I've been this way ten years to the day
I gotta ramble on, I gotta find the queen of all my dreams
I tell you no lie
Mine's a tale that can't be told, my freedom I hold dear
How years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air
'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her
Her, her, yeah
Ah, there's nothing I can do now
I guess I'll keep on
Rambling, I'm gonna shake (Sing my song)
I gotta find my baby
I'm gonna ramble on, sing my song
Gonna work my way, going 'round the world
Baby, baby (Ramble on)
Do do do do do do do do, my baby
I can't stop this feeling in my heart
Every time I think about my baby I think "we gots to part"
Gotta keep on searching for my baby
Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby
I gotta keep on searching for my baby
My, my, my, my, my, my, baby
I can't find my bluebird!
I listened to what my bluebird said, but I, I can't find my bluebird!
I keep rambling, baby
At first, I didn't much care for Led Zeppelin's music. I found it too heavy. Then, I discovered that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page enjoyed Tolkien and included references to The Lord of the Rings in Ramble On. After that I became a Led Zeppelin fan.
1973 Hypnotized Fleetwood Mac
Hypnotized Lyrics
It's the same kind of story
That seems to come down from long ago
Two friends having coffee together
When something flies by their window
It might be out on that lawn
Which is wide, at least half of a playing field
Because there's no explaining what your imagination
Can make you see and feel
Seems like a dream
They got me hypnotized
Now it's not a meaningless question
To ask if they've been and gone
I remember a talk about North
Carolina and a strange, strange pond
You see the sides were like glass
In the thick of a forest without a road
And if any man's hand ever made that land
Then I think it would've showed
Seems like a dream
They got me hypnotized
They say there's a place down in Mexico
Where a man can fly over mountains and hills
And he don't need an airplane or some kind of engine
And he never will
Now you know it's a meaningless question
To ask if those stories are right
'Cause what matters most if the feeling
You get when you're hypnotized
Seems like a dream
They got me hypnotized
We had a creepy book in our Charlotte living room bookcase about legends and ghosts of The Carolinas. It's hard to imagine that Bob Welsh didn't consult that book when he wrote Hypnotized. While I feel an attachment to this song through that spooky book, to this day, I absolutely love its triple-time groove -- a great song to take a walk to.
1976 Squonk Genesis
Squonk Lyrics
Like father like son
Not flesh nor fish nor bone
A red rag hangs from an open mouth.
Alive at both ends but a little dead in the middle,
A-tumbling and a-bumbling he will go.
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Could never put a smile on that face.
He's a sly one, he's a shy one
Wouldn't you be too.
Scared to be left all on his own.
Hasn't a, hasn't a friend to play with, the Ugly Duckling
The pressure on, the bubble will burst before our eyes.
All the while in perfect time
His tears are falling on the ground
BUT IF YOU DON'T STAND UP YOU DON'T STAND A CHANCE.
Go a little faster now, you might get there in time.
Mirror mirror on the wall,
His heart was broken long before he ever came to you.
Stop your tears from falling,
The trail they leave is very clear for all to see at night
all to see at night.
In season, out of season
What's the difference when you don't know the reason.
In one hand bread, the other a stone.
The Hunter enters the forest.
All are not huntsmen who can blow the huntsman's horn
By the look of this one you've not got much to fear.
Here I am, I'm very fierce and frightening
Come to match my skill to yours.
Now listen here, listen to me, don't you run away now
I am a friend, I'd really like to play with you.
Making noises my little furry friend would make
I'll trick him, then I'll kick him into my sack.
You better watch out... You better watch out.
I've got you, I've got you, you'll never get away.
Walking home that night
The sack across my back, the sound of sobbing on my shoulder.
When suddenly it stopped,
I opened up the sack, all that I had
A pool of bubbles and tears - JUST A POOL OF TEARS.
All in all you are a very dying race
Placing trust upon a cruel world.
You never had the things you thought you should have had
And you'll not get them now,
And all the while in perfect time
Your tears are falling on the ground.
How in the world did Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, two members of the British rock band Genesis, come up with a song about a fearsome mythical creature from early 20th century Pennsylvania folklore? This of course was a captivating topic of discussion for a bunch of Pennsylvania highschoolers in the late 1970's.
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