NOTE: Here the lyrics are posted with notes from the songs authors about the song. Getting the pages up is slow going, But if you want to just see the lyrics to all my songs, go to www.rockinkmusic.com/songs
UPDATE: This is beginning to be updated again. Today is 5/1/17, and as of today there are 102 songs.
So I as of today, 3/10/2012, I guess I have written, or co-written, 100 songs with lyrics. I thought at first it was only 97 when I began this collating process in February, but rechecking notebooks there were three more…an even hundred! Many do not suck. Others clearly do suck, particularly early on. I find this reassuring. There have been other Rich Krueger musical compositions: a few pieces of chamber music (for examples Best Two Out of Three and The Music Box Trio); a couple songs I worked on with Chris Farrell where I made very small contributions; a hymn I reset to new music (There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy); a few instrumentals, like Bulgar Wheat (Oliver Steck/Rich Krueger) and Liverpool Charlie Morgan’s Bugger All; and some incidental music used in The Cardiff Giant play, All Eight Die. But my main musical output has been songs in the urbane folk/rock-and-roll/pop idiom.
UPDATE: This is beginning to be updated again. Today is 5/1/17, and as of today there are 102 songs.
So I as of today, 3/10/2012, I guess I have written, or co-written, 100 songs with lyrics. I thought at first it was only 97 when I began this collating process in February, but rechecking notebooks there were three more…an even hundred! Many do not suck. Others clearly do suck, particularly early on. I find this reassuring. There have been other Rich Krueger musical compositions: a few pieces of chamber music (for examples Best Two Out of Three and The Music Box Trio); a couple songs I worked on with Chris Farrell where I made very small contributions; a hymn I reset to new music (There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy); a few instrumentals, like Bulgar Wheat (Oliver Steck/Rich Krueger) and Liverpool Charlie Morgan’s Bugger All; and some incidental music used in The Cardiff Giant play, All Eight Die. But my main musical output has been songs in the urbane folk/rock-and-roll/pop idiom.
Today, I finished collating the lyrics for all these 100 songs. The first song, called “Song”, if you can call it that, was written 9/22/1983, when I was 23, just as I began medical school. I wanted to be an opening act of Avant-Garfielde (a nice interview with Scott Hermes talks about the old days), the weekly improvisational comedy show/cabaret featuring my dear friends who eventually would be known as The Cardiff Giant. To open for them I needed “original material”. The next one was written in June of 1985, a few months before my marriage to Elizabeth Hawkes. I didn’t open for Cardiff Giant until the fall of 1985. Eventually I would write songs for two of their shows.
I have listed the titles, and transcribed the lyrics, in reverse chronological order because in general the best songs were written after the bad songs. But I put them all down here nonetheless. The first song I wrote as bad as it was, actually did contain a couplet that probably sums up my whole songwriting ethos, if not my whole life, which would turn up later better served in the song from 1987 “Vague Existential Yearnings”: “I only wanted your respect/But what I got as your attention”.
A few of the melodies to some of these lyrics I have never recorded anywhere, and have been lost. Maybe one day I will bind them into some old fashion analog book. Over the next few day or weeks or months, I will start posting the lyrics to each of the songs listed here, and link the pages, posting the lyrics with anecdotes about the songs, where there are any (usually there are) and images of old notebooks or other junk that might appeal to someone interested in these songs. I expect that the level of interest in this process of transcription and accumulation, morbid or otherwise, will be limited. But then again, there are literally tens of Rich Krueger fans scattered all over the world. If I never get this project completed, I’ll try to remember to tell somewhere where on the computer this file is.
(For Jeff and Emi on their wedding) June-10
95 Ain't It So Nice Outside Today? video mp3 November-09
94 All Our Tomorrows July-09
93 In Between Kingfishers video mp3 April-09
92 Verschet? Or Whose World And Whose Hands? March-09
91 ‘77/17 (For N.H.D.) video mp3 December-08
90 Can't See Me In This Light (For RL) mp3 December-08
89 A Tout Jamais (Pour Eva Ave) mp3 November-08
88 The Lucid Nightmare Revenant November-08
87 Wrong June-07
86 The Wednesday Boys May-07
85 Yesterday's Wrong April-07
84 Jessica Smiled (For Jessica Mills on her birthday) April-07
83 True Love
(For Vernon and Stacey on their wedding) August-02
82 The Ballad Of Mary O’Connor* November-01
81 Bartender June-98
80 Elizabeth (For Elizabeth Hawkes) July-97
79 Dying Young June-96
78 Family (Apologies To The Rev Al Green)
(For Susan and Doug on their wedding) September-95
77 Ain’t Life Grand June-95
76 Jesus Loves Me (I Know This) June-95
75 Off To Change The World June-94
74 It's Wonderful Life (For Ezra Idlet on his 40th) August-93
73 Girls Go For Arse'oles June-93
72 Waltz (Terpsechore) June-93
71 In Regard Of Flight June-93
70 Little Richard’s World Of Mirth++ June-93
69 Heaven February-93
68 The Gospel According to Carl August-92
67 Amazing (For Scott and Wendy on their wedding) November-91
66 Nashville Patiently, Or Tell Me A Story
(For, or at, John Ims) July-91
65 Kerrville Song (For the Songwriting School
at The Kerrville Folk Festival) June-91
64 Another Hour June-91
63 Everything Dies
(Formerly "All Eight Die", For the Cardiff Show) August-90
62 Ideal World*** (For the Cardiff Show
“All Eight Die”) August-90
61 Closed, Come Again (Sorry) April-90
60 Young English Romantic Song April-90
59 Kick In The Head December-89
58 Por Que No Me Amas (Love Me) December-8957 Miracle On 34th Street December-89
56 Just A Fascination December-89
55 The Cardiff Giant Song November-89
54 The Uncertainty Principle, Or After Heisenberg March-89
53 A Decent Place March-89
52 Between You And Me February-89
51 Secret Admirer February-89
50 I Don't Mind January-89
49 The New Hat December-88
48 A Collective Memory*** December-88
47 A Change In Clothes December-88
46 Zero And The Bandit Queen
Of Department Stores^ November-88
45 Woman On The #6 September-88
44 Charlie Guitar (For Charlie Koster) August-88
43 On Your Return June-88
42 An Economy Of Errors May-88
41 Jack February-88
40 Tell It To The Tambourines January-88
39 Waltz With Me, Jenny (For Patricia Irving
March 7, 1962 – August 31, 1982) December-87
38 Everything That's Ever Happened
During My Entire Life November-87
37 The Ballad Of Davy And Al September-87
36 Jimmy Kidder July-87
35 Dirty Little Town June-87
34 Six String Of Heaven (Daddy’s Guitar) June-87
33 Picnic With The Pope,
Or Things Happen In New Mexico+ June-87
32 The One You Love May-87
31 It's Just A Little Funny April-87
30 There's Something Out There April-87
29 One, Two , Three April-87
28 Tom Johnson April-87
27 Let Us Go Then, You And I^^ March-87
26 The Herald Of Free Enterprise March-87
25 A Plea For Misunderstanding In An Uncomplicated
World, Or Lawrence Welk And WWIII February-87
24 The Great War February-87
23 She's Crazy On You (Sheila) February-87
22 The Emergency-Made-Simple January-87
21 Vague Existential Yearnings January-87
20 Expectation January-87
19 #13 This Week, With A Bullet December-86
18 It's Christmas Time Again December-86
17 Love Is Gonna Break The Fall December-86
16 We Remember Whatever We Can November-86
15 The Dancer October-86
14 Take It Apart October-86
13 Some Of The Things I've Said Before October-86
12 Leave Time September-86
11 Richard Krueger's 12,760th Dream May-86
10 No Time At All December-85
9 Another Gray Weds December-85
8 Do We Dance November-85
7 Resignation To Romance July-85
6 Dust To Dust July-85
5 Sometime Tomorrow July-85
4 I Love A Man (For Scott Hermes) July-85
3 Left For You June-85
2 It Wouldn't Be Right June-85
1 Song September-83
Co-Authors
*Greg Kotis & Mark Hollmann (music & lyric) in 11/2001
Additional Lyric by Rich Krueger in 2002
**Vernon Tonges (lyric)
***Chris Farrell (lyric)
^Ron Lazzeretti & Dave Kerr (music)
+Scott Hermes (lyric)
^^Larry Neubauer (music)
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