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RAINY DAY SONG

by Ed Askew

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1.
the rain was coming down he was walking around I said kid you better get out of this rain I'll give you a lift down town I'll give you a lift down town he did a lot of talking I did a lot of laughing too he opined the door when we arrived and said i'll see you soon he said he'd see me pretty soon I saw him on a rainy day just hanging around the town he smiled at me as I drove by I said " hay kid get out of the rain" he said I'll see you around the rain was coming down he was walking around I said kid you better get out of this rain I'll give you a lift down town I'll give you a lift down town
2.
Hey Joe 04:08
He came in with the tide just as the Summer rose I always wore with pride began to fade and die. Hey Joe.. Hey Joe What will the Winter bring when Autumn goes? What will the Winter bring when Autumn goes? I walked down windy streets. The sun was gold. and Joe was standing there in the cold. Hey Joe.. Hey Joe What will the Spring nights bring when the cold goes? What will the Spring nights bring when the cold goes? He knocked and came inside. He came in with the tide. And I said have a chair. I handed him a beer. Hey Joe.. His name is Joe What will they talk about when Joe goes? What will they talk about when Joe goes? Hey Joe.. Hey Joe What will the Winter bring when Autumn goes? What will the Winter bring when Autumn goes?
3.
we rise on solar winds we climb the diamond stairs the music of the spheres .. guides us to the stars I walk in a garden with a friend he holds a butterfly in his hand it's raining a little bit on the flowers and the little golden sun has come out we run among the stars with music in our ears our children dance on planets with diamonds in there hair tree tops in the sky a robin on a limb looks around spinning tops on the ground a child laughs at them as they spin the sunrise on the Earth shines like a shooting star a scientist sings in church a child asks a question we rise on solar winds we climb the diamond stairs the music of the spheres .. guides us to the stars ..guids us to the stars
4.
Blue eyed baby cries in a cradle. Mama said to papa, "Look at them eyes". Over the ocean in a great ship. The captain said to the bin boy, Look at that water". In high places in the Rockies I said to Carl, "Look at that valley". o yes o yes o yes The gardener is gracious. His son is so kind. The lips are his that i kiss on the wheel of time. Blue eyed baby cries in a cradle. Mama said to papa, "Look at them eyes". Over the ocean in a great ship. The captain said to the bin boy, Look at that water". o yes o yes o yes The gardener is gracious. His son is so kind. The lips are his that i kiss on the wheel of time Blue eyed baby cries in a cradle. Mama said to papa, "Look at them eyes". o yes o yes o yes o yes o yes
5.
A walk in the park A waltz in the dark I love the way you smile when you talk you laugh when I cry at the movies (harp) We walked on the sand as night turned to day and I love the way You smile when I speak We laughed at the waves that danced on the beach Robert.. When I hear you speak.. the words that you say Your serious face as night turns to day but I like the way we danced in the park a waltz in the dark Robert.. Robert when I hear you speak..
6.
in the morning spring will come the green grass grows under the sun and a starling sings a song in the willow by the pond in the night under the stars the children sing around a fire and in the vault of the night sky a child rides a shooting star What is a man? What is the child of a man? And when a women sings a lullaby to a child will a man and women smile? And will the planets in the sky smile on a child who rides? in the morning spring will come the green grass grows under the sun and a starling sings a song in the willow by the pond
7.
hay Jack what's happening did you see old John walking on the bottom of a pond and the waters rising we better head for the hills too many people are dying in this world too many people are running they can't seem to stop John and Jack are climbing to the top Richard was a miner he dug a hole in the ground he went down to find another sound Jack was making circles he ran round and round John was trying to get up from the ground too many people are running they can't seem to stop John and Jack are climbing to the top
8.
9.
morning comes again the sun is in the sky I drink my coffee black and children play outside summer comes again the children ride there bikes out to the lake, and I drive to the city on the highway the morning sky is blue the cars are green and gray sunshine is yellow too and kids swim in the lake morning comes again the sun is in the sky I drink my coffee black and children play outside the yellow sunshine smiles on gray streets where I drive and kids not far away run and jump in the blue lake the morning sky is blue the cars are green and gray sunshine is yellow too and kids swim in the lake
10.
A New Song 04:13
Boy , what are we doing here, in this lonely place? Lets take the road to town. We'll join the women and men as they gather around to pass the cup. Boy, why are we waiting here, in this place of old hopes and new fears? .. Take my hand and we'll walk under starry skies. We'll watch the sun rise. Wings, beat on a broken door. An old king is crying in great the hall. .. Your mother and dad are lost at the mall. Make a new song, boy. Life, what are we waiting for? Take this time to open the golden door. We'll join the women and men as they gather in town. Sing a new song, boy. Boy , what are we doing here in this lonely place? Lets take the road to town. We'll join the women and men as they gather around to pass the cup .. boy.
11.
We 01:58
12.
blue river under the sky a barge floats by tree tops are swaying under the golden sun we are waiting I hear you laughing under the smashed up sky gun ships are falling we celebrate the blessings of divinity under the bloody moon and we are dancing cracks in the mind and holes in the ground the lake is on fire we drink ourselves deaf dance with me dance with me dance with me dance the tiger will smile the blessings of armies blue river under the bloody sky a barge floats by tree tops are swaying under the golden dome we are fucking waiting
13.
I knew a boy who wore an old hat he worked at the paper he drove an old Chrysler he liked to sing a song in the morning and after work he'd sing a song before supper for the word I saw this boy once in a while his name was Alfred I gave him a dollar to sing a song he sang in the morning and after work he'd sing a song before supper for the word he sang in the morning and after work he'd sing a song before supper for the word

about

Askew created two interesting folk albums at the close of the 1960s, the first to little acclaim, the second remaining unreleased in wide circulation until De Stijl put out the CD last year. Rainy Day Song, however, is not a reissue. It’s Askew’s first new recorded work (released for public consumption) in almost 40 years. While there are connectives – lyrically, Askew doesn’t change that much – and it’s the same man making the music after all, the intervening four decades have shaped him as a very different artist. Before he fit dependably into the zeitgeist, but Rainy Day Song shows him transfigured. As history never goes away, his earlier self, his earlier art, is still in there, but the dialectical transformations have rendered them hazy and dissolute. Thus in vulgar marketing terms, he can’t simply be re-packaged and easily sold to the neo-folk crowd like Bunyan’s Lookaftering was.

The album itself lies somewhere on a spectrum encompassing Leonard Cohen and David Grubbs. Askew sounds like neither, but inhabits the same basin of attraction the others occupy. In other words, there are certain artistic trajectories that lead one into this basin, the aesthetic of the unheimlich singer-songwriter, playing around with the standard tropes, adding bits of stochastic novelty such as a non-repeating piano melodies. Rainy Day Song achieves within it the fusion, and eventual subsumption, of the folk structure with tactics of modern composition. The storytelling aspects and even the legacy of protest is there (“Climbing to the Top”), but it’s decidedly not folk music or even neo-folk music (whatever that ‘even’ signifies).

By Andrew Beckerman (DUSTED REVIEW excerpt)

credits

released June 1, 2008

released on Spinning Gold Records. posted here with permission.

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Ed Askew New York

The singer-songwriter / painter moved to New York for a few months in 1967 where he met Bernard Stollman of ESP-Disk, who offered him a contract. Between 1968 and 1986, Ed lived, mostly, in New Haven; doing occasional shows with his band, and later doing solo shows there. Around 1987, Ed moved to New York City, where he continues to write and record songs, and occasionally perform. ... more

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