John Kimsey & the Twisted Roots Quartet, playing 1983's "Elvis on Velvet" live in 2018; special guest Jim Kimsey.
1. |
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Somewhere A Guitar
words & music by John Kimsey / John Kimsey Tunes (ASCAP)
Somewhere somebody’s thinking of an old time used to be
Somewhere some joker’s winking and collecting user fees
Some inmate takes a nail file and scrapes out a tattoo
Some kid drapes a telephone wire with some basketball shoes
Somewhere a guitar plays the blues
Somewhere a market’s booming and they’re breaking out the Dom
Somewhere they’ve stopped saluting and they’re cooking up a bomb
Some say whatever happens, happens thanks to you
Some are born to win some say, others you’ll see on the news
Somewhere a guitar plays the
Blues ain’t nothing they say but
Some good folk done wrong
How long has that
Evening train been gone
Some say that Dr. Frankenstein has won the science fair
Some suspect someone like Raymond’s been playing solitaire
Some’ll rob you with a six gun and some with balance due
Some say god has told’em burn them that break one of my rules
Somewhere a guitar plays the
Blues is a feeling they say like you’re
Damned if you do
Or if you don’t
And you got to choose
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2. |
Monkey Trial
04:28
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Monkey Trial
words & music by John Kimsey / John Kimsey Tunes (ASCAP)
In Tennessee where I come from
I heard tell as a child
Of William Jennings Bryan
And that great monkey trial
Now Bryan was a friend to all
Who’d come up by the scruff
And strove to walk that narrow path
That’s writ of in the Book
O glory glory
O glory glory
For one who knows that burning word
There’s little need of schools
All crowded with the fancy talk
Of educated fools
Oh folks can act like angels, yes
Or root with hogs at feed
A dragon’s brother was poor Job
But not a chimpanzee’s
O lordy lordy
O lordy lordy
Yet as I grew I noted how
So like beasts of the field
Men butted heads or locked up horns
For a piece of land or meal
And then I got the call to war
From smiling Uncle Sam
Creed and country to defend
In far-off Vietnam
De o de lay dee
De o de lay dee
Toting up the body count
And wading through quicksand
I became a stranger to
The ways of God and man
Great vanity to lay the blame
On creatures great or small
There is no animal save one
That knows the word napalm
Aheeee
Now Mr. Scopes he paid his fine
Back in 1935
The rest of us I often think
Await our monkey trial
Await our monkey trial
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3. |
Good Morning Mr. Lomax
03:44
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Good Morning Mr. Lomax
words & music by John Kimsey / John Kimsey Tunes (ASCAP)
Good morning Mr. Lomax
Good morning Mr. Lomax
Welcome to cellblock, welcome to cellblock 19
Well do you need someone to holler
Down your recording machine
You can hear me holler
You can hear me holler
You can hear me holler ooh hoo, yes you can hear me call
Well anywhere they’re dragging irons
Or a nine-pound hammer falls
Lugging a ‘leven foot cotton sack and hacking through the swamp
Dreaming ‘bout Little Mamie doing the Okie Dokie Stomp
When that long line skinner man, he drops his head and runs
And the boss squeezes one off and cuts another notch on his gun
The folklorist Alan Lomax recorded scores of inmates on his many field trips to Southern penitentiaries
The story goes that one time, one man said something like this:
Mr. Lomax I ain’t singing
I came here to say my piece
To your machine to the president about the way they treat us
Down here on this farm where the killers keep the keys
And a man he ain’t no man, he’s just the mostest of
the mostest of the least
He’s the mostest of the least
Well a man he ain’t no man, he’s just the mostest of the least
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4. |
Unworthy Craftsman
05:14
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Unworthy Craftsman
words & music by John Kimsey / John Kimsey Tunes, ASCAP
Unworthy craftsman, you do the dirty work
Your gameboard is the world, a man’s a handful of dirt
Princes in the keep, cavaliers standing guard
Hard-working stiffs below who’d just kill
For a winning card
Unworthy craftsman, put out the people’s eyes
Then complain they’re blind and polish up a new lie
It’s the lord’s work, carrying the hod
For a mighty tower to some
Latter-day Nimrod
Whose eye on the dollar, whose sign on the seal?
Is it level and who surveys the field?
Is freedom for the wolf freedom for the sheep?
So many questions, there there relax
And go back to sleep
Unworthy craftsman, a time-honored role
In the great work that turns love into gold
It’s only make-believe to artists of the deal
Will the mill keep spinning ‘til it’s you
Underneath the wheel
Underneath the wheel
Note: If, dear listener, you think this song sounds like a certain celebrated rock trio who peaked in the early 80s, we can neither confirm nor deny such a notion. For some light reading though, see the book The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's Original Political Operative, by Miles Copeland the elder.
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5. |
Dog Eat Dog Eat Dog
04:58
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Dog Eat Dog Eat Dog
words & music by John Kimsey (John Kimsey Tunes, ASCAP)
They say it’s a dog eat dog world into which you’re thrown
You got to fight just to survive, tooth and nail for crumb and bone
And in a dog eat dog world
God bless the dog that’s got his own
And yes it’s a downright rotten lowdown dirty shame
You got to eat or be a meal, you got to prey or be fair game
But after dog eat dog eat dog
Somehow it all comes out the same
Way up in the boardroom where they buy and they sell
Got plenty to catch’em should they fall
Down here on dead end street it’s just you and your bad self
In a war of all against all
Sometimes it makes me wanna howl
Sometimes it makes me wanna moan or go see Mr. Jones
‘Cause in a dog eat dog world
Everybody must get stoned
Way up in the boardroom where they buy and they sell
Got plenty to catch’em should they fall
Down here on dead end street it’s just you and your bad self
In a war of all against all
Somebody shake me, wake me up
And tell me it ain’t what it seems, it was all just a dream
But in a dog eat dog world
Ain’t no one gonna hear you scream
‘Cause we’re all just trudging on through dog-eat no-man’s land
Muttering what they always say, “It’s jungle out there, man”
There’s just one thing about this jungle:
It were made by human hands
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6. |
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Do You Walk Like You Talk
words & music by John Kimsey (John Kimsey Tunes, ASCAP)
There’s a man on the screen and his cufflinks they shine
And he’s talking ‘bout how you ought to live
And he says he can help and put in a good word
If you can find it in your pocketbook to give
Do you walk like you talk?
Would you do like you say?
Could you take it the way you dish it out?
It’s so easy to preach when you’re living in style
Could you walk it like you talk it for a mile?
There’s a woman on the street and she sleeps on a grate
In a city that holds with doing time
But the man with the badge come to take her away
Decides the punishment just doesn’t fit the crime
Do you walk like you talk?
Would you do like you say?
Could you take it the way you dish it out?
It’s so easy to preach when the day is so bright
Could you walk it like you talk it through the night?
Light’s gone out and the sign’s all wrong
Pavement’s hard and the road is long
well
well
well
There’s a leader who looks in the camera and says
There’s a cause that you must serve that is so just
You must head off to war to ensure there is peace
And go get them all before they can get us
Do you walk like you talk?
Would you do like you say?
Could you take it the way you dish it out?
It’s so easy to preach as you sit looking down
Could you walk it like you talk it on the ground?
Could you walk it like you talk
down
on the
ground?
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7. |
Pay No Attention
04:15
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Pay No Attention
words & music by John Kimsey (John Kimsey Tunes, ASCAP)
The mighty wurlitzer
Piping through the system, the exquisite machine
The mighty wurlitzer
Playing on your heartstrings as you stare at what’s there on the screen
Come and journey out to where the arches are gold
Feel it where the enterprise flies free
And the buffalo roam on the videodrome
And Disneyland was made for you and me
The mighty wurlitzer
Pulling out the stops so that the show can go on
The mighty wurlitzer
Pay no attention to the man behind the jumbotron
Ride the big one, roll the bones, be all you can’t be
Spend a moment filling out the form
Runners-up can claim the free home version of our game
Offer good ‘til April Fools’ Day morn
The mighty wurlitzer
You’re getting very sleepy and it’s dark all around
The mighty wurlitzer
Let it carry you along and block out the unpleasant
Sounds that echo from those shapes in the back row
Is it hot in here or am I crazy oh no
Wait don’t answer that I mean
That is, I mustn’t stop the show
O mighty wurlitzer, mighty wurlitzer, mighty wurlitzer, mighty wurlitzer
All rise as we sing along and all rise as we sing along and all rise as we sing along and
Drown out the noise from below
The noise from below
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8. |
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9. |
Elvis on Velvet (live)
03:58
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Elvis on Velvet
words & music by John Kimsey (John Kimsey Tunes / ASCAP)
Last evening you and me we had our usual fight
And I went out driving and drinking and cussing the night
And somewhere ‘bout dawn I was out on the interstate strip
When I pulled in a truck stop, thinking I’d pick up some little making-up gift
And as I looked around at the selection of post cards and coasters and corncob pipes
My eyes came to rest on something familiar I’d never quite seen in that light
It was a souvenir
Meant to bring a tear:
Elvis on velvet
Wasn’t anything great, just a cheaply made dayglo affair
And it depicted the King in his later and lonelier years
But it set me to thinking ‘bout all that I’d done in my life
And two kids who met back in ’57 who went on to be man and wife
And they might have been fools to rush in but they were young and they had no doubts
They just liked to dance all night long to “Baby, Let’s Play House”
And their love was true
But now it’s just misty blue
Like Elvis on velvet
Now the King is no longer with us, but his spirit lives on
In the hearts of his fans, in his pictures and of course in his songs
And even in truck stops I guess, ‘cause as I stared at that thing
I thought for a moment I saw his lip quiver like when he was fixing to sing
And then somebody turned a radio on and it was playing “That’s All Right”
And I thought to myself hell, the King ain’t gone and there’s still good rockin’ tonight
And I’ve been a fool
But I’m gonna be on you
Like Elvis on velvet
‘Cause our love ain’t through
Baby I go with you
Like Elvis on velvet
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10. |
Train of Life
04:06
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Train of Life
words & music by Roger Miller (Sony/ATV Tree Publishing); arr. Kimsey
I sit alone at my table, watching the others have fun
I’m tired of being the sidetrack, watching the main line run
I’m tired of having no future, feeling my race has been run
I’m tired of being the sidetrack, watching the main line run
Watching the main line run
Oh train, train
Oh let me ride
Don’t leave me
Train of life
I got no one to call me their darling, to hug me and call me their own
I’m tired of being the sidetrack, watching the main roll on
I’m tired of having no future, feeling my race has been run
I’m tired of being the sidetrack, watching the main line run
Watching the main line run
Oh train, train
Oh let me ride
Don’t leave me
Train of life
Oh train, train
Oh let me ride
Don’t leave me
Train of life
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11. |
Muleskinner
05:31
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Muleskinner
words & music by Jimmie Rodgers & George Vaughan (Peer International); arr. Kimsey
Good morning captain
Good morning to you boss
Do you need a new muleskinner
With a blacksnake whip to toss
Yodelady hee hee hee
Yeehee hee hee
I’m an old muleskinner
And I really know my trade
I can make any mule listen
Or I won’t accept your pay
Yodelady hee hee hee
Yeehee hee hee
Hee
Hey there little waterboy get your butt up off of the ground
Grab that bucket of water son and bring that bucket ‘round
Well if you don’t like your job
Then lay that bucket down
On the ground
Yodelady hee hee hee
Yeehee hee hee
Hee
Muleskinner
Muleskinner blues
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12. |
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Let’s Don’t and Say We Did
words & music by John Kimsey (John Kimsey Tunes, ASCAP)
I don’t care for caviar
I never drive no little sports car
When the waiter recommends the squid, I say
Let’s don’t and say we did
I don’t sport no designer shoes
I never watch no Hill Street Blues
Some books are better left unread
Let’s don’t and say we did
The devil said, “Man, we could share this spread"
Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Pitchfork-head”
When Pandora went to open that lid, they told her
Let’s don’t, we’ll just say we did
So keep your cocaine and your Wall Street Journals
Give me a Braves game and a box of the Colonel’s
I never hula hooped as a kid, why start now
Let’s don’t and say we did
The devil said, “Man, we could share this spread"
Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Pitchfork-head”
When Pandora went to open that lid
She wouldn’t listen, she did it and look where it led
I know what’s good for me
Call me a square, somebody’s got to be
When temptation rears its ugly head
That’s all, check please, good evening friends
Let’s don’t and we’ll say
that we
did
Whaddya say
Nah
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13. |
First Sight
02:29
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14. |
Treacherous Rapids
03:33
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Treacherous Rapids
words & music by John Kimsey (John Kimsey Tunes, ASCAP)
There’s men who were dashed against the rocks
There’s men who were drowned in their tears
There’s men who never left the dock
There’s men who were overcome by fear
Because white is the water, terrible is the whirlpool
In the treacherous rapids of your love they sailed their canoes
And not one ever made it through
Well some of them they just lost their bearings
Seeing the sun reflected off your smile
And some of them they just stopped caring
After listening to you sing for awhile
Ah but strait is the gate, pitiful is the fool
In the treacherous rapids of your love this fool’s shooting through
Hoping I can get to you
Now here comes the corkscrew
And then it’s a big log jam
Then you put me in the doldrums
Just before you throw me over the dam
Well I don’t know exactly what happened
But somehow I lived through the ride
Over the falls and down to the bottom
Where you now stand by my side
You just follow your heart, let your love do the rest
In the treacherous rapids of your love the one to pass the test
Is the one you love the best
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15. |
The Market Has Spoken
02:57
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The Market Has Spoken
words & music by John Kimsey (John Kimsey Tunes, ASCAP
The market has spoken, there’s nothing more to say
Morning has broken, give us this day our daily averages
And get your broker on the phone, sell high buy low
‘Cause something’s being traded here but you
Don’t know what it is oh no
Do you Mr. Jones?
The market has spoken on behalf of you and me
A modest token of the magic that can set you free
To be all that you can buy, borrow or blow
‘Cause something’s being traded here but you
Can’t say what it is oh no
Can you Mr.
Jones?
Soybean futures, somebody’s genome
It’s all just bidness
Down on the bidding floor
The market has spoken, no ifs or buts or whys
Money is voting, the miracle of demand and supply
Now we rejoin our scheduled show and you contestants at home
Where something’s being traded if you can guess just what it is, oh no
Sorry, Mr. Jones
The market has spoken
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16. |
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For What It’s Worth (live 2003)
words & music by Stephen Stills
Something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there, telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stopped, hey what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Battle lines being drawn, TV says it’s best to just go ‘head on
All kinds of people speaking their minds, getting so much resistance from behind
I think it’s time we stopped, hey what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
In spite of the constant drumbeat, people all over the world in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs, saying “Not in my name, not this time”
I think it’s time we stopped, hey what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid, step out of line the men come and take you away
I think it’s time we stopped, hey what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
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John Kimsey Oak Park, Illinois
Singer, songwriter, guitarist and bandleader John Kimsey is a musical man about town (and country). He helms and writes for The Twisted Roots Quartet; does old-timey duet sets with brother Jim as The Kimsey Brothers; conjures psychedelic pandephonium with power trio Medicated Goo; and whips up cheeky pop euphoria with The Art Thieves. Then he has a nice sandwich. ... more
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