Posts Tagged ‘country music’

Nowhere to Go

May 6, 2013

driving nowhere

I had a happy home
And I thought I needed more
I had a happy home
I don’t have it any more

Driving, driving nowhere
Don’t wanna go home
Driving, driving nowhere
I can’t stand myself alone
Driving, driving nowhere
And my gas is running low
Driving, driving nowhere
Cuz I got nowhere to go

I had a girl who loved me
What more can I say?
I had a girl who loved me
And I sent my girl away

Driving, driving nowhere
Don’t wanna go home
Driving, driving nowhere
I can’t stand myself alone
Driving, driving nowhere
And my gas is running low
Driving, driving nowhere
Cuz I got nowhere to go

Ain’t nowhere to go
I ain’t never gonna find
The lovin that I lost
Now I’m gonna lose my mind

Driving, driving nowhere
Don’t wanna go home
Driving, driving nowhere
I can’t stand myself alone
Driving, driving nowhere
And my gas is running low
Driving, driving nowhere
Cuz I got nowhere to go

Richard W. Bray

Nobody Ever Knows

April 30, 2013

crazymanlove

Love can take a mighty toll
Love can lacerate your soul
Love can mutilate your guts
Love can make your brain go nuts

Love is crazy
Love is wild
But it’s hardly ever mild
Love is groovy
Love is grand
But it never goes as planned
Love’s a ride
That thrills and throws
And nobody ever knows
What it’s gonna do to a man

Love can make the stars align
Love can make your whole world shine
Love can readjust your view
Love can make your whole life new

Love is crazy
Love is wild
But it’s hardly ever mild
Love is groovy
Love is grand
But it never goes as planned
Love’s a ride
That thrills and throws
And nobody ever knows
What it’s gonna do to a man

Richard W. Bray

Multi-Faced Moron

April 17, 2013

 

You invite yourself to dinner
To tell me who’s a sinner,
Who’s a clown, and who’s a crook
You indulge in second helpings
While you spend the evening yelping
Then you tell the town that I can’t cook

You’re a multi-faced moron
Waging constant war on
Anyone you think you can defame
You’re a back-stabbing cretin
Who’s earned himself a seat in
The trash-talking loser Hall of Fame

Your boss, your maid, your friends,
Your neighbors and your kin
Hear you dishing dirt the livelong day
Your friends all know each other
And even your own brother
Knows you put him down when he’s away

You’re a multi-faced moron
Waging constant war on
Anyone you think you can defame
You’re a back-stabbing cretin
Who’s earned himself a seat in
The trash-talking loser Hall of Fame

You love to dish so bad
It fills your heart with glad
Every time a guy walks out the door
You’re a double-dealing clown
Who always brings me down
Don’t wanna see you round here any more

You’re a multi-faced moron
Waging constant war on
Anyone you think you can defame
You’re a back-stabbing cretin
Who’s earned himself a seat in
The trash-talking loser Hall of Fame

Richard W. Bray

A Veteran’s Lament

April 11, 2013

It ain’t my job to make the world safe
I signed up to protect the USA
Don’t matter what they’re doing over there
They can worship dogs for all I care
You tell me that you really love the troops
If you want to prove to me it’s true
Here’s a list a laws that you can pass
(And shove that yellow magnet up your ass)


Support me with a wage that feeds my kids
Ain’t asking much after all I did
Support me with a GI Bill that works
Not a bunch of bureaucratic jerks
Support me with an adequate VA
Not a place where vets are packed away
Support the troops by always asking why
Before you send our finest off to die

Richard W. Bray

Gotta Let it Breathe

April 3, 2013

heart cage

A man should support
And defend his girl
Treat her like she’s
Precious as a pearl
He should wake up
In the morning
And think of her
And love her and protect her
From this cold, cold world

But time’s gonna come
She’ll havta pursue
Her place in the world
Like we all want to
It hurts like hell
But it’s still true
Gotta let people do
What they gonna do

A woman is a treasure
But she ain’t no prize
She can’t be cloistered
From wayward eyes
A good loving man
Must realize
Gotta let love breathe
Or it’s gonna die

Richard W. Bray

Drunks are Boring

March 22, 2013

drunks

You tell yourselves you’re heroes
For numbing down your souls
Really you’re just cowards
Crawling into holes
Pity you can’t see yourselves
Pity you can’t smell
The putrid cloud of stench
That surrounds your private hell
Nights that start out hopeful
Always end the same
Drunks are boring
Drunks are losers
Drunks are lame

You only drink the good stuff
Cuz you got so much class
But it don’t make much difference
When you’re falling on your ass
Suckin down on stupid
Till you don’t know your name
Drunks are boring
Drunks are losers
Drunks are lame

Slurring back and forth
In a mindless fog of shit
Crawling through a sewer
With fools who won’t admit
What the bottle led to
What they all became
Drunks are boring
Drunks are losers
Drunks are lame

Richard W. Bray

Relief

March 13, 2013

kindness

Fire, famine, mudslides,
Hurricanes and homicide,
Overburdened single moms,
Runaways and cluster bombs,
Veterans without a home,
Gramma livin all alone,
Busted dreams, massive debt,
Little kid who lost a pet,
Poverty and cheatin spouses,
Banks foreclosing on our houses,
Daddy bet the farm away,
Mommy shootin smack all day…


This world’s got
A lot to bring me down
There’s plenty
Of hurt to go around
And the only relief
That I know of
Is kindness
And fellowship
And love

Richard W. Bray

Other People’s Problems: Repost and a Brief Commentary

March 6, 2013

denial pin

Fixating on other people’s problems doesn’t foster learning and growth, but it’s a lot more fun than thinking about my own
.

That’s the simple observation behind my song Other People’s Problems. I’m not sure if I should refer to it as a song, exactly. At this point, it’s simply some tuneless lyrics, like the other fifty-six entrants in my If it Sounds Country category. And by the way, all my songs ain’t necessarily betrothed to that particular category. The heading is actually a tip of the hat to one of my favorite songwriters. But many of my lyrics do have a certain twang. (And for some reason, the subject of alcoholism seems to come up quite a bit.)

But the main reason I’m posting something tonight is that I use my blogroll as a portal to my Essential Daily Blogs, and I just can’t stand to keep looking at the dismal picture which accompanies the dreary sestina I wrote to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War.

Other People’s Problems

Sarah is a diva,
Lester is a drunk
Harold is a pervert,
And a weasel and a punk
They tell me “mind your business”
But I know it’s bunk
They pretend that they’re all rosy
When they really smell like skunk

Ever’body got a gift
And I was born to see
Other people’s problems
It’s my spesh-ee-al-i-tee
I’m just here to help them
Be the best they’ll ever be
Got so much time to do it
Cuz there’s nothing wrong with me

My daddy is a sweetheart
But he likes to take a swig
He lives to serve his country
When he ain’t in the brig
And you know I love my mama
Despite everywhere she been
And all my friends and neighbors
Are such paragons of sin

Ever’body got a gift
And I was born to see
Other people’s problems
It’s my spesh-ee-al-i-tee
An Egyptian river is
Where I ought to be
Thinking about you
Replaces thinking about me

Richard W. Bray

Toil

February 23, 2013

toil

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
   Yes, to the very end.

—Christina Rossetti

life’s a road
that runs uphill
strife and toil
always will
be the daily
plight of all
who breathe

cursing fate’s
a waste of time
find your beat
and live your rhyme
cherish all
you can before
you leave

Richard W. Bray

A Brand New Bunch of Lies

February 8, 2013

Magnifying glass with the word lies magnified in square format in blue

I know my baby loves me

Cuz he makes me moan and coo
Sometimes he wreaks of perfume
But what’s a girl to do?
I should feel flattered
Other women want him too

Pondering reality
Is never very wise
I can only take the truth
In disguise
Time for me to find myself
A brand new bunch of lies

I’m just a social drinker
I never drink alone
There’s fifty-seven bars
Where I am widely known
I ain’t an alcoholic
I don’t even drink at home

Pondering reality
Is never very wise
I can only take the truth
In disguise
Time for me to find myself
A brand new bunch of lies

They say my boy’s a bully
Cuz he had a couple fights
He ain’t no troublemaker
He just stands up for his rights
Bail bonds and sirens
Fill my sleepless nights

Pondering reality
Is never very wise
I can only take the truth
In disguise
Time for me to find myself
A brand new bunch of lies

Richard W. Bray