Lyrics from CD "Gasoline Rainbows"


Can't Catch You Catchin' Me (Race Relations)

When I'm runnin' after you
Yes when I come chasin' after you
Don't you slow down one little bit
Don't wanna catch you
Want you well away from me
'cause I've been happy independently.

When I'm runnin' after you
Yes when I come chasin' after you
Don't you slow down one little bit
You know I'm 'fraid of catchin' up
afraid I'll make you blue
Afraid I'll fall in love with you

There was a time when we might have done alright
I remember when we lay through the night
all night
And if I found myself a-lyin' once again in your embrace
You know I'd hop up, jump into my runnin' shoes
and make tracks from that place.

And then when you're runnin' after me
Yes when you come chasin' after me
I won't slow down one little bit
Don't you think for a minute love
That I'm in love with you
I just can't do it
Wouldn't be fair to you.

Little Man Blues
(c) Dana Austin, all rights reserved   
                       
I got a concrete mixer babe           
  It's paid for every cent (repeat)
And when I lay some road to you
  It's long, hard, and straight - not bent.

I heard your Laundry Man popped in       
  He just came & went
Why settle for a squirt of starch
  When you can have Portland cement?

Oh, woman, woman, you done paid your dues   
One tumble in the bucket
Will cure your little man blues
                       
I got me a big ol' nail gun, baby
  There's no way to improve (repeat)
My parquet floors: l'art d'avant garde
  Sould be featured dans le Louvre

I'll lay you out a knotty floor           
  You'll wanna bounce & move
'Cause after every nail I shoot
  I oil the tongue-and-groove

Oh, woman, woman, you done paid your dues   
A little bit of tung oil
Will lick your little man blues                  
                       
I've got the biggest boat in town       
  Oh, you'll hear the ladies talk (repeat)
That when my yacht sails in and out
  The swells will make you rock

I got me a pile driver               
  To enhance my wooden dock
It pounds and pounds that mighty shaft
  All around the clock.

Oh, woman, woman, you done paid your dues       
Come sail around the world with me
Come sail around the world with me
And we'll oh yes we'll put your little man
over the fantail...
A little bit of tung oil
Will lick your little man...Blues

The Laundry Song
 (c) Dana Austin all rights reserved

I met you at the sock hop
  at Cotton Sturdy High
I'd just walked out the boys room
  forgot to zip my fly
You swore your love would never fade
  then hung me out to dry
And I machine wash warm
  and tumble dry.  Low kinda guy.

You asked me in for tea
  and spilled that hot pan on your thigh
The color ran from both your cheeks
  I thought that I would die
For under where you dropped your pan
  tea stains would set and dry
And I machine wash warm
  and tumble dry.  Low kinda guy.

You've agitated loads of lovers
  but when they would cry
You're so afraid of KitchenAids
  you conned 'em with a lie
Which may deter gents from a snuggle
  'tween your downy thighs
And I machine wash warm
  and tumble dry.  Low kinda guy.

I dreamed we washed up on a bleach
  and then lay flat to dry
But when I told it to my shrink
  it stretched into a lye
I thought we'd have a tumble
  if your cycle would comply
And I machine wash warm
  and tumble dry.  Low kinda guy.

One Part Harmony
    Music and lyrics written by Dana Austin
    (c) Dana L. Austin, all rights reserved

I find simple pleasure in the way
you yield your hand in both of mine. 
It's fine.  And when you send the treasure of your smile
above our fingers intertwined, you shine.

We've known each other so short a time
A soaring, smooth emotional climb
But harmony slipped out of tune
Your I love you came much too soon.

The soft light of the candles mingles with
the expectation in your eyes.  You sigh your
words like velvet vandals softly severing
our tentative new ties.  That's why:

I find I'm lost to find a way
To reflect your smile or say
Words to bind us, I can't lie.
Honesty might mean goodbye.

(interlude)

    A trembling glaze clings to your eye
    My chance to answer's slipping by
    I don't know what to say or do
    I wish I had a tear for you.

Coda

So I press your hand
and almost on cue
I close my eyes and say
"I love you, too."

The Woman Who Cries
    Lyrics written by Marilyn Basil Austin
    Music written by Dana Austin
    (c) Dana L. Austin, all rights reserved

The woman who cries
peers through long, curling lashes
webbed with misty tears.

She looks at you
while rivulets trickle down, down
touching deep her fears.

(Refrain)
The woman who cries doesn't ask you to hold her
but you do.  But you do.
Her tears she dries on your I Love Yous
and sighs I love you.
I love you, too.

The woman who cries
smiles her dewy-morning smile
forgetting recent tears.

She looks at you
with her hazy, sunny eyes
drawing you near

(Refrain)

She looks at you
while rivulets trickle down, down
touching deep her fears.

Coda
The woman who cries doesn't ask you to love her
but you do.  I love you, too.

Lena's Song  (post partum impression)
    Music and lyrics written by Dana Austin
    (c) Dana L. Austin, all rights reserved

She sat on the rug and played
At puzzles, pens, and people
Within my touch yet far away
Her world of make believe.

Bow legs' wobble made me smile
First steps were a game
Toddling falls took just a kiss
To make things right again.

Refrain
    Now I know that I was slow
    To understand how precious is she
    I recall when she first spoke
    (With a little prompting)
    "Daddy I love you."

Changing slowly, hard to see
The old for new made room
Turn my head, the baby's gone
I'm watching beauty bloom.

(Refrain)

I stop in her room at night
And watch her smile in sleep
Sunlit fields with butterflies
I wish her in her dreams.

(Refrain)

Shine On Harvest Moon
Jack Norworth / Nora Bayes circa 1908

The night was mighty dark so you could hardly see,
For the moon refused to shine.
Couple sitting underneath a willow tree,
For love they did pine.
Little maid was kinda 'fraid of darkness
So she said, "I guess I'll go."
Boy began to sigh, looked up at the sky,
And told the moon his little tale of woe

  Oh, Shine on, shine on, harvest moon
  Up in the sky;
  I ain't had no lovin'
  Since January, February, June or July.
  Snow time ain't no time to stay
  Outdoors and spoon;
  Shine on, shine on, harvest moon,
  For me and my gal.

I can't see why a boy should sigh When by his side
is the girl he loves so true,
All he has to say is:  "Won't you be my bride,
For I love you.
I can't see why I'm telling you this secret,
When I know that you can guess."
Harvest moon will smile,
Shine on all the while,
If the little girl should answer "yes."

Blue Cycle (infidelity)
    Music and lyrics written by Dana Austin
    (c) Dana L. Austin, all rights reserved

Well I think I should not like the things you do.
Well I think I - oh you know I should not like the things you do.
Well I think I should think you been untrue

Refrain
'Cause when I knock on your door
you come downstairs with open arms
but when you see it's only me
well your smile fades            (minor lyric change from record, was faded)

You're making me so unhappy, you know you're making me so sad
Oh you're making me so unhappy, oh you know you're makin' me so sad
But when I think of you in the arms of another man
Oh it makes me mad.

Geronimo!
    Music and lyrics written by Dana Austin
    (c) Dana L. Austin

Your mind is always racing toward tomorrow
You start to work today on every dream
Forget about today's responsibility
Then wonder why we start to scream

Refrain
    Geronimo!  I'm bailin' out
    God knows I'm sorry but I just can't stay
    Geronimo!  Don't think it's easy
    The choice is not in black and white
    But ugly shades of gray.

You say you think that everyone's against you
You just can't see you bring it on yourself
But when you're pistol-whipped by actuality
You whine, "It's not my fault!"  We yell:

(Refrain)

Interlude
Self destruction is a selfish self indulgence
when supported by the selfless sacrifices
of your family and friends
When you love someone it hurts to see him
hurt himself; we've got to save our sanity;
it's agony to leave but then it's worse to stay
We've got to say:

(Refrain)

We start to wonder if your actions come from
Some shrouded sado-masochistic streak
Our sympathy begins to fester angrily
We've had enough; we start to shriek

(Refrain)
(don't try to stop me 'cause I'm on my way)


The Worlds Shortest Musical

This excerpt from an in-progress musical comprises two songs: 
"Seven Words" and "Still, Through It All..."

Seven Words
-----------
On this day we take our vows
Before this host within God's house
We pledge to make each other strong
And love for all our lives then longer

In each other's eye we glimpse eternity
And promise in our heart
To honor love
And cherish with compassion
So what God has joined together here
No Earthly force can pull apart

(spoken)
The secret of marital happiness and success
Does not lie in mundane acts of mutual respect
Thoughtfulness
And charity
Though those things are important
   
The secret is a magic incantation
Seven words long
Begun by either of the partners in marriage
And finished by the other
   
The power in these spoken words is ineffable

They heal
They recreate
They stop the earth

Yet the words are simple
And common
And impotent if uttered thoughtlessly
Or without sincerity

One of the partners in marriage says
I love you
And the other responds
I love you too

Seven words
   
And for that brief moment during which the Earth
And all Earthly things on it stop
The partners in marriage may glimpse the beauty
And the joy
Of being married in the eyes of God forever

(sung)
In each other's eye we glimpse eternity
And promise in our heart
To honor love
And cherish with compassion
So what God has joined together here
No Earthly force can pull apart


Still, Through It All...
------------------------
Well I been dirty
And I been drunk
And I been torn from the arms
  of Jesus
But still, through it all...

Well I been beaten
And I been robbed
And I been torn from the arms
  of my family
But still, through it all...

Well this song's for the ones
  who never...
They always...
And this song it's for the times
  that we...
We really...
Didn't we?
And this song is for the
  very special...
That made me see:
That still, through it all...

Well I been...
And I been...
And I been torn from the breast
  Of my mother
But still, through it all...


Seven Words (reprise, last act, last scene)
-------------------------------------------
On this day we say goodbye
And I shall miss you when you die
For all the times you've made me strong
And held me while I cried
Then longer

Don't be scared I'm afraid enough for both of us
But I promised not to show
Last goodbyes are wordless prayers the living trust
Will grant the unsurpassed peace that comes
When nothing's left to know

George's Song (every song and every child is different)
    Music and lyrics written by Dana Austin
    (c) Dana L. Austin, all rights reserved

Note:  there is a longish instrumental overture.

Do you remember when we went to the circus
with the windshield wiper clown?
Windshield wipers going swish-swish-swish
while the other clowns hosed him down

And the times that we went to the park just the two of us
frisbee, ball, and kite?
Deep left, runner's coming, throw him out at home
from the wall, with all your might.

Lose our bait and skip pebbles over the lake
At Como, Lake Como, "we're here because we're here."
Critters hide in the bush when we go for a ride
And look in the gully -- well did you see the deer?

Then you're six-foot-three like a tree
strong and solid and standing on your own (well almost...)
fifteen years of stuff we saved,  your Mom an' me,
remind us how you've grown.

Schoolwork, paintings, crafts, awards, and baby clothes,
report cards, all the rest
are in a great big box in the attic near the front
that we call your treasure chest.

Now and then we open it up and begin
A journey inside us, it's easy to restore
memory's page gone a little bit yellow with age
Then each time we put back a little something more.

Last Call (self medication)
    Music and lyrics written by Dana Austin
    (c) Dana L. Austin, all rights reserved

We all like to party
but it's over for the night
So if you think you drank too much
to make it home all right
put a note out on your car
I'll tell you what to say,
"I drank too much.  I took a cab. 
Don't tow my car away!

Refrain
Please don't penalize me
For using my good sense
We don't need drunks out on the road
Causin' accidents
I'm tired.  I want to go home
and get myself to bed
But I don't need eternal rest
I'm too young do be..."