Monthly Archives: July 2005

Downtown Train

Posted on by
Reply

Outside another yellow moon
Has punched a hole in the nighttime, yes
I climb through the window and down to the street
And I’m shining like a new dime
The downtown trains are full with all of those Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

Well you wave your hand and they scatter like crows
They have nothing that will ever capture your heart
They’re just thorns without the rose
Be careful of them in the dark
Oh, if I was the one you chose to be your only one
Oh baby can’t you hear me now, can’t you hear me now

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
Every night it’s just the same, you leave me lonely now

I know your window and I know it’s late
I know your stairs and your doorway
I walk down your street and past your gate
I stand by the light at the four-way
You watch them as they fall, oh baby they all have heart attacks
They stay at the carnival, but they’ll never win you back

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
Where every night, every night it’s just the same, oh baby
Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
All of my dreams they fall like rain, oh baby on a downtown train

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
Where every night, every night it’s just the same, oh baby
Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
All of my dreams just fall like rain, all on a downtown train
All on a downtown train, all on a downtown train
All on a downtown train, a downtown train

- Tom Waits 1985

Dead Man Walking blues

Posted on by
Reply

There’s a dead man walking
And he’s wearing my shoes
Dead man walking
And he’s playing the blues.

There’s a dead man walking
And he’s wearing my shirt
Dead man walking
And he’s feeling my hurt.

There’s a dead man walking
And he’s wearing my hair
Dead man walking
He don’t want to care

There’s a dead man walking
He looks through my eyes
Dead man walking
See’s no sunny skies

There’s a dead man walking
And he’s wearing my skin
Knows where I come from
Don’t care where I’ve been

©Rae Allen

Train songs

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve always enjoyed train songs, probably because I’ve always enjoyed trains and the best train songs have that rolling train travelling feel to them.

My favourite train songs are in no particular order:

1. People get Ready by Curtis Mayfield. A lot of people will say this isn’t a train song but more of a metaphor, but it certainly has that rattling train feel to it.

2. Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. Though sung by one of the greats of country music, the man in black gives it a great blues treatment.

3. Downtown Train by Tom Waits. Its had a few covers and one of my favourites is by Everything but The Girl, however the moody Tom Waits version is the best.

more to come.

Folsom Prison Blues

Posted on by
Reply

Well I hear that train a comin’
It’s rollin’ around the bend
I ain’t seen the sunshine
Since I don’t know when
Well I’m stuck in Folsom Prison
And time keeps draggin’ on
That train keeps rollin’
On down to San Antone

When I was just a baby
My mama told me, “Son,
Always be a good boy
Don’t you ever play with guns”
But I shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die
When I hear that lonesome whistle
I hang my head and cry

Well I bet there’s rich folks eating
In a fancy dinin’ car
I bet they’re taking mushrooms
And smokin’ big cigars
Well I know I had it comin’
I know I can’t be free
Those people keep movin’
And that’s what tortures me

If they free me from this prison
If that railroad train was mine
You bet I’d move it on
A little farther down the line
Yeah, far from Folsom Prison
That’s where I want to be
Well those people keep movin’
Goddammit, that’s what tortures me

If they’d free me from this prison
If that railroad train was mine
You bet I’d move it on
A little farther down the line
Yeah, far from Folsom Prison
That’s where I want to be
Well those people keep movin’
Goddammit that’s what tortures me

- Johnny Cash

Scones

Posted on by
Reply


DSC03137- scones
Originally uploaded by RaeA.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups self-raising flour
  • 45 grams butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup full-cream milk

Method:

  1. Put the self-raising flour and the salt in a bowl.
  2. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces then, using the tips of your fingers, rub it into the flour until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.
  3. Add a little milk and ‘mash’ the flour mixture into the milk with a fork. Keep adding small amounts of milk and continue to combine with the flour.
  4. Remove the dough and knead two or three times to form a ball of light dough.
  5. Flatten to about 1.5 cms and cut out small circles with a scone cutter.
  6. Glaze the top of the scones with milk.
  7. Bake in a 220°C oven for 12 minutes.
  8. Cool slightly on a wire rack.

Tips:

  1. Use a scone cutter and don’t twist them. This motion will ‘seal’ the sides of the scone dough and prevent it from rising.
  2. You can use knives to mix the butter into the flour.

Fairytale of New York

Posted on by
Reply

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I’ve got a feeling
This year’s for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They’ve got cars big as bars
They’ve got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It’s no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can’t make it all alone
I’ve built my dreams around you

- The Pogues

This is my favourite Christmas carol

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Posted on by
Reply

Subaru in the snow
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost

Love Me Tender

Posted on by
Reply

Love me tender love me sweet
Never let me go
You have made my life complete
And I love you so

Love me tender love me true
All my dreams fulfilled
For my darlin’ I love you
And I always will

Love me tender love me long
Take me to your heart
For it’s there that I belong
And we’ll never part

Love me tender love me dear
Tell me you are mine
I’ll be yours thru all the years
Till the end of time

- Elvis Presley, 1956

Song on “Crossing Jordan” tonight

released as a single in September 1956, but not on an album until March 1958