TELLING STORIES

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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