John Hartford
Song Titles
Side 1
Liner Notes
I have come to
hose down your piano;
spray all your
mandolins;
check your violins for
cobwebs;
and maybe put
a little disinfectant
on the harminica
i have so much confidence
in your sense of humor
that
im already laughing at
jokes you havent even
cracked yet
they say. . .
(whoever THEY are)
that. . .
whenever you cease to
give a damn
(to WHOEVER it is
you give damns to). . .
thats when it. . .
(whatever IT is)
starts to happen
wouldnt it be a lot easier. . .
if we just hold hands and
stare off into space. . .?
if you work any harder
trying to keep up this
conversation
your gonna shear a pin
concentrate on
not concentrating
to fully benefit
from the
chemical stone. . .
you should know
the latitude of the
mental high
and the power
and mechanics of the
self infliction device. . .
by what yardstick
is the largeness of
big deals measured
Two (2) Dialogues:...
FIRST MOVIE COWBOY:
"Sundance kid. . . yore up to no good!"
SECOND MOVIE COWBOY:
(hooking his thumbs in his gun belt)
"How can you tell?"
FIRST MOVIE COWBOY:
"By the background music. . ."
HIM: "Jeetjyet?"
HER: "Noelsqueet!"
yesterday i bought a
tape recorder for
two thousand dollars
just so i could sit home . . .
sing songs into it . . .
and play them back
for the dog
Gospel Song:
Stand up, stand up for JESUS
But don't rock the boat around
Stand up, stand up for JESUS
Or for Christ's sake sit down
Love Song:
if i was a church
and you played the organ
id come every day
and fill up your sunday school
Pun:
maybe this here
generation spark gap
is just the ignition
of our times
Restaurant Scene. . .
"Whataletbe?", she asked. . .
SO (I said). . .
"I'll have a menu. . .
to start off with. . ."
"A menu?" she said,
chewing on her pencil. . .
"Yeah, a menu. . . with
everything on it. . ."
im sorry im not really a
whiskey drinker. . .
so bring me a childs portion
. . . . . .so
now
here we sit
following each others movements
until we are one with no
direction
save some ultimate connection
and no one has to
lead the orchestra
no matter how many clothes
you wrap around that
beautiful carcass of yours. . .
i'll always be consoled with the fact
that underneath
you wear nothing
somebody said
SEX WILL MAKE YOU DEAF
but
i dont reckon it would
if you didnt get too much
in your ears
and
it probably wouldnt hurt
your vision either if you
could keep it out of your
eyes. . . but then
who wants to?
does sex come by the gallon?
or by the yard
or by the bored foot?
i think i'll panel my
living room with sex. . .
unfinished sex. . .with
sliding doors and curtains. . .
to reflect that
old time feeling. . .
Make Love
Not Records
the bomb. . .
would probably set our
civilization back
quite a few decades BUT
it wouldn't bother
mother nature much. . .
she'd just grit her teeth
and start all over again
with some other horrendous
organic project. . .
AFTER ALL
the dinosaur was a mistake
and it took her
THREE MILLION YEARS
to phase it out
Paranoid Question:
Here i am goin through life
knowin that somebody has
durned my hide. . .
Why. . .out of all the million
and one parts of my body
has my Hide been chosen for
durning?. . .and
Why. . .out of all the million
and one hides available for
durning did they choose mine?
theres something wonderful
about the God given pleasure
of putting new strings on an
old banjo and
picking on them a little
when their all loose and
way down low and lonesome
like an old sweet voice
coming across a wet field
after a spring rain
its hard to sleep
in a fresh made bed
with stiff starched sheets
and room so clean
afraid to touch
or sit or squat
afraid to bounce my head
or mess around
in a fresh made bed
i guess its natural for
man to group
but man is at his lowest
as a group
cause a group is only as good
as its weakest link
ive never been able to
make it as a group. . .
(under any name)
i have a hard time
making up my mind and
when i all get together
i seem to go all to pieces. . .
ive even protested myself
and it keeps me confused. . .
but it helps a little bit
cause i still have a
rhinocerus in my head
now if i could just
learn to stop
all at the same time. . .
but when i call roll
sometimes im not all here. . .
id like to gather myself
together and talk about it but
i keep walking out in single file
. . .maybe im just doomed to
split up and
go my own way
ahhhh
if only this giant redwood
could talk. . .
ahhhh
if only this great old stone
in the forest could talk. . .
ahhhh
if only these rolling hills
could talk. . .
ahhh
if only these walls could talk. . .
they'd probably yawn. . .
here i sit
under a chroma key sky
of electric blue
in a fish eye world of
inflated pastures
with a plexiglass ocean of
beaten pewter stretching out
far below me
a meal demanding my
immediate attention
a tuba met a trumpet
on a bandstand late one night
the tuda said to the trumpet
"miss trumpet, do you think we might?"
"your right, we might" said miss trumpet
"oh yes i think we shall"
so she opened up her trumpet case
and offered him a valve
deadly is that
which i try to say
that i do not myself dig
and yet inflict on others
that they might
Support Your Local Law Enforcement Agency
. . . This Week Commit The Crime Of Your Choice!
you used to change consistently
but the distance and ten years
has locked you in. . .
you no longer change. . .
youve changed. . .
luck is an unpositive thing
that puts itself together in
weird jigsaw puzzle pieces
and gives not a damn
for the unpositive thinker
but then what about the guy
who REALLY believed in the
Kuder Vocational Preference Test,
and now hes unhappy with
what hes doing
but is afraid to change
because of his old test results
woman
PLEASE
dont fall apart on me now
i dont remember how to
put you together again. . .
ive lost you directions
and there aint a franchised dealer
around here for miles
the simple worm has five pairs of hearts
stuffed inside his wormy parts
he falls in love quite easily
and ten times as hard as you or me
Los Angeles, California 1969
LSP-4156
Released: 1969
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