Collected Lyrics For The First 102 Songs By Rich Krueger, With Or Without Other Authors, In Reverse Chronological Order

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.

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.

#        Title of Song                                                          Date of Completion

102     What we are                                                                  February 2017

101     A Short One On Life                                                     June 2016

100     Think What You Will     video                                         September-11

99       What Is It That You Want?      video
               (For Diane Izzo and Marco Zas)                                July-11

98       Me And The Girl Bar-Singer…              video 
                (For Julie Jurgens)                                                      November-10

97       Somewhere                                  video                          October-10

96       Nine Is The Lucky Number

             (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 40^th)          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-89

  57       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)

Arizona Deep and DearTraditions & This Crazy Little Thing We Call the Bill of Rights

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” - Pogo

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!" - Barry Goldwater

Please note I have tried to post the links to the secondary sources I got this information from.

I doubt this blog will resonate with many of you, but I found myself dwelling on today’s terrible events in Arizona, and being troubled. So I read some things and am sharing them here with some reflections.

During the 9/11 attacks took place, an aide leaned over George W. Bush, who was reading to school kids, and whispered, “We are under attack”. George Bush sat for a while, clearly stunned. The question is are we still under attack again today, or are our enemies determined to attack again within the United States.

I am not talking about Al-Qaeda.

I am talking about Tea Party Partisans, particularly the gun wielding ones.

There seems to be an obvious paradox. It is a constitutional right for citizens to bear arms. It is within the constitutional right of free speech to advocate threatening specific people you do not agree with and to use those arms to threaten them, at least metaphorically. Killing people you do not agree with is apparently not unconstitutional, although it is against the law in many places, and is generally to be discouraged, unless you do not agree politically with the person you may threaten to kill metaphorically.

Today Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head, and an unknown number of others were wounded when an assailant opened fire in an area where the lawmaker was meeting with constituents, officials said. Many of the wounded are dead or dying, including a 9 year old girl and a senior Federal Justice appointed by George H. Bush.

Early reports are that the arrested suspect in the shooting is 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner, a man whose quickly retrieved online YouTube posts suggest that he is a paranoid man with an obsession with the government. From the Huffington Post: “The most illustrative window is Loughner’s YouTube account, which appears to be hub of anti-government zealotry, obsession over currency and language standards, and, to put it bluntly, outright paranoia.”

However, when the congresswoman’s father Spencer Giffords, 75, was asked if his 40-year-old daughter had any enemies, he offered a different opinion as to where to cast blame. He wept and said "Yeah," he told The New York Post. "The whole tea party."

Is this just a grief stricken father’s rambling hyperbole and slanderous accusations? Is he too just another delusional paranoid? Consider the following.

According the New York Times, “Sylvia Lee, a friend of Ms. Giffords, told CNN that the congresswoman had received numerous threats….Last March, after the final approval of the Democrats’ health care law, which Ms. Giffords supported, the windows of her office in Tucson were broken or shot out in an act of vandalism. Similar acts were reported by other members of Congress, and several arrests were made, including that of a man who had threatened to kill Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington.

"And in August 2009, when there were demonstrations against the health care measure across the nation, a protester who showed up to meet Ms. Giffords at a supermarket event similar to Saturday’s was removed by the police when the pistol he had holstered under his armpit fell and bounced on the floor.

"During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a controversial map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were noted by crosshairs symbols like those seen through the scope of a gun. Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map.”

 This is just free-speech , right?

Also, Giffords’ 2010 Congressional opponent Jesse Kelly held a June 12 gun event that was billed as follows on the Pima County Republican website (now removed)

“Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M15 with Jesse Kelly”

Jesse Kelly, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to be bothered in the least by the Sarah Palin controversy earlier this year, when she released a list of targeted races in crosshairs, urging followers to “reload” and “aim” for Democrats. Critics said she was inciting violence.

He seems to be embracing his fellow tea partier’s idea. Kelly’s campaign event website has a stern-looking photo of the former Marine in military garb holding his weapon. It includes the headline: “Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”

The event costs $50.

Isolated rhetoric? More Free Speech?

Well, controversial Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said this weekend that she wants residents of her state "armed and dangerous" over President Barack Obama's plan to reduce global warming "because we need to fight back." This is the same extreme paranoid ramblings of the tea party’s favorite son, Glenn Beck.

For example:

     -- He ran several segments, including one on his radio show, in which he promoted the concept of the secession of Texas from the Union. A little later, he tried to pretend he didn't agree with the concept while in fact giving a secessionist the opportunity to promote his plans to Beck's audience.

     -- He regularly promoted "one world government" paranoia. This included a supposed plot to put us all on a global currency controlled by the New World Order.

     -- He tried to argue that the chief cause of the sour economy was the United States' reliance on a central banking system.

     -- He hosted an entire hourlong segment devoted to promoting militia-derived constitutional theories about state sovereignty.

     -- He expressed his admiration for Nazi admirer and renowned anti-Semite Henry Ford.

     -- He warned his audience about Obama's supposed secret plot to grab our guns.

    -- He also speculated that it is actually liberal "political correctness" that inspires right-wingers to go on murderous killing rampages.

     -- Later, when a Beck fan named Richard Poplawski shot three Pittsburgh police officers because he believed the cops were going to take his guns away on behalf of President Obama...and a number of other acts of right-wing violence occurred that were similarly inspired by Beck's kookery...Beck attacked C&L and other blogs for having the audacity to point out the connection.

     -- Then, after building up his audience's paranoia, anger, and fearfulness, he pleaded with them not to indulge in acts of violence.

After the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, Palin has remove the crosshair map from her website and offered her condolences on facebook:

     “My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.- Sarah Palin”

There were generally two flavors of commentsthat followed this posting.

     Bartholomew Hayes “Your rhetoric has caused the deaths of innocent Americans and your offered 'prayers' rings hollow after putting this Congresswoman in your 'crosshairs'. try washing their blood off of your hands but you are unable to do so!”

     Katherine Shannon “Wasn't this one of the members of congress whom you put in your "crosshairs?" Why did you do that?”

     Noah Karr Kaitin “This is what happens when you play with fire, Sarah. You hurt innocent people.”

     F.A. Seidman “You should be in prison. Don't try to worm your way out of this like when O'Reilly incited    the killing of George Tiller. Your political career is over and I hope to God you're Federally investigated for inciting hate crimes with your ‘hit list’.”

     Louise Wylen “Heh, you took out a lot of Libs today, eh, Sarah? good work!!! “

     Laura C Cutshall “ ‘The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons -- your Big Guns -- to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win,’ -- Sarah Palin”

     Gawain Harding “Don't retreat, reload.”

     Tim Kapp “Politics will get you shot, not that politicians deserve much better.”

Of note, Giffords differed with many Democrats on issues such as gun control. A long-time gun owner, Giffords supported the Second Amendment to the Constitution on the right of Americans to bear arms, according to her official biography. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of the 8th Congressional District also signed an amicus brief opposing to a 32-year-old ban on private handgun ownership in Washington D.C. Giffords owns a Glock handgun and regards gun ownership as a constitutional right and an "Arizona tradition."

Arizona was one of the states that sued to overturn the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 l which required background checks before you could purchase a handgun. The bill was named after James Brady who was shot in the head by the Jodie-Foster-obsessed John Hinckley, Jr. during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. The bill was ruled unconstitutional in 1998, but most states, including Arizona, still require the sort of checks when purchasing a gun from a federally licensed gun dealer. However, sales by private owners especially at gunshows do not necessarily require such checks in all states, including Arizona.

In July 2009, Representatives Michael Castle and Carolyn McCarthy introduced the Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2009 (H.R. 2324)[13] in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sen. Frank Lautenberg introduced similar legislation, the "Gun Show Background Check Act of 2009"(S. 843), in the U.S. Senate. As of October 2009, the House version of the bill had 35 co-sponsors (mostly Democrats) and the Senate version had 15 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Presently, 17 states regulate private firearm sales at gun shows. Seven states require background checks on all gun sales at gun shows (California, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Oregon, New York, Illinois and Colorado). Four states (Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) require background checks on all handgun, but not long gun, purchasers at gun shows. Five states require individuals to obtain a permit to purchase handguns that involves a background check (Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Iowa, Nebraska). Certain counties in Florida require background checks on all private sales of handguns at gun shows. The remaining 33 states including Arizona do not restrict private, intrastate sales of firearms at gun shows in any manner.

Apparently it is an Arizona tradition, among its many traditions (John McCain and Barry Goldwater aside). And perhaps they are among our dearest and deepest American traditions as well , such as unending tragedy, blind stupidity, perpetual violence, the unhinging effects hate and fear, and our all-too-many wasted lives.

Me And My Big Fat Broken Heart - A New Song

Okay well things are tough all over I'll admit and I ain’t no different and I ain’t that weird about it neither. But sometimes I get a bit obsessive and compulsive and that raises reasonable concerns from reasonable people as to my current degree of reasonableness. I certainly can understand where they are coming from, as there are times when I can vaguely recall having been reasonable.

And then finally, when the scales begin to fall from my eyes, I see what pain I cause myself, and the nuisance I have been to others, and I begin to wonder about it. And I always cringe. But then sometimes there is a song that gets done. It is not a process I would recommend really, but my muse always carries a heavy stick to beat me with.

It may not be art but it sure is bruising. Something out of Aubrey Beardsly perhaps.

Maybe I will get this thing recorded sometime soon...but until then think maybe Rick Danko singing an upbeat country song with a fairly rapid harmonic rhythm....maybe like Dylan’s"You Ain’t goin’ Nowhere", but little more up tempo and nowhere near that good.

Me And My Big Fat Broken Heart

A day don’t pass me by that a perfect stranger doesn’t tell me

That I remind them of someone that they once loved or knew that died

I smile back at them as if to say “Well, thank you”

Cause it’s important having been seen for having tried.

I'm here to raise a glass to all  my lonely foolish dreaming

It's spill over sometimes when the troubles start to swell

No right-minded no one wants to break down to a stranger

So that’s why God made bars and booze and one-night cheap motels

But hey you look just drunk enough that you might actually understand me

Let me bend your ear awhile before the night pulls us apart

There ain’t nobody sober gonna talk to me tonight

Cause they’ve all heard this one already 
About me and my big fat broken heart

You know just why you came here but you know you can’t admit it

At least not before you had a few more than a few

You staring at the stage and wonder when she gonna start

A couple more and all the songs she sings will be about you

She sings up there of loneliness as if it something she invented

She kicks you in the head from the inside

She shatters your illusions that you just might one day be happy

She leaves smiling before you’ve drunk all you can’t hide

If a man’s a friend you might think he would tell you

But I’m too drunk to listen and the night’s torn me apart

There ain’t nobody sober gonna talk to me tonight

Cause they’ve all heard this one already
About me and my big fat broken heart

 - November 2010

More on this song here.

http://wwwpissoceanrainstormhightide.blogspot.com/2012/03/song-98-me-and-my-big-fat-for-julie.html

and a video here...