RaeAllen.net

Author: Rae Allen

  • Blue Skies


    Whirlygig
    Originally uploaded by RaeA.

    I was blue, just as blue as I could be
    Ev’ry day was a cloudy day for me
    Then good luck came a-knocking at my door
    Skies were gray but they’re not gray anymore

    Blue skies
    Smiling at me
    Nothing but blue skies
    Do I see

    Bluebirds
    Singing a song
    Nothing but bluebirds
    All day long

    Never saw the sun shining so bright
    Never saw things going so right
    Noticing the days hurrying by
    When you’re in love, my how they fly

    Blue days
    All of them gone
    Nothing but blue skies
    From now on

    I should care if the wind blows east or west
    I should fret if the worst looks like the best
    I should mind if they say it can’t be true
    I should smile, that’s exactly what I do

  • Downtown Train

    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

    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

    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

    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


    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

    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


    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

    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

  • The Road Less Travelled


    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair
    And having perhaps the better claim,
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that, the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

    – Robert Frost