ramblin’ jack elliott – 912 greens (1981) lyrics
[monologue]
here come this little blue car
i think it was a plymouth, all the way from l.a
in new york town, and i was a-fooling around in washington square park playing my guitar
there was fiddles and banjos and mandolins; everybody was singin’ songs
one sunday afternoon, guy and frank, they came in in this little car
they were on their way to north carolina, said they was goin’ down there to hear some live music
they invited me to come along on their trip
threw my guitar in their back seat and we took off down highway 301
past richmond, down across the north carolina line
guy’s uncle lived on a farm near the ocean on the coast of north caroline
neighbor was a fisherman, took us out on his boat—we went shrimp fishin’
we caught some shrimp—mostly we got sunburned
got back just in time for dinner
boy was that good: southern cookin’
black-eyed peas, cornbread, okra, b-tter beans
after the dinner dishes was put away, we sat on the porch watchin’ a thunder shower
and frank, he pulled out his guitar and started playing a weird song about california
i asked him about it the next morning as we were heading west, headed for the smokey mountains
frank was in the back seat practicing the banjo
said, “hey, frank, what was that song you played yesterday?”
and he said that it was the south coast
i said—welp, i asked him if he would play it
nope, wouldn’t play it—couldn’t play it
and he didn’t play it for about four days, till we had another thunder shower
it’s just that kind’ve a song, i guess
by this time we were clear over in nashville, tennessee
we saw the grand ole opry
met grandpa jones, met earl scruggs, too
then we got back in our car and headed for the mississippi river
headed down south into new orleans . . . new orleans, louisiana
we had the name of a guy down there; he was a banjo picker, billy fair
looked him up in a telephone directory, but he wasn’t there
so we parked the car and took to the streets
down bourbon street, up rue royale
ended up down at the waterfront, near the mrs. miller river there
in a café, there was billy, drinkin’ a coffee
he invited us over to his pad, which was located at 912 toulouse
just a short walk up the street
up a back alley, over a board fence
up a garbage can lid and over the fence and down you go
landin’ lightly on your feet for it’s concrete in the patio
there was a banana tree there—i figure it was a banana tree, it had a lot of bananas hangin’ on it
and a three-legged cat
he sat there on the stairs like he was guardin’ sumthin’
i ran past the cat and i went upstairs
it was a dark room; i went inside the room and there was a chair in there
it was carved out of an old mexican palm tree
and jack kerouac had sat in that chair only a month before, down in mexico
don’t ask me how i knew that, i just knew that
i sat down in the chair
composed a ballad about jack kerouac, sittin’ in that chair
then it started rainin’, so i got up and went outside
standin’ on the balcony, over the patio
smellin’ the air, the delicious smell of rainfall in new orleans
everybody went inside and started pickin’ the banjo, guitar
singin’ songs, tellin’ stories, gettin’ acquainted
before you know it, the sun was comin’ up
everybody split
i guess they didn’t wanna be caught in that hot new orleans sun
went out over that back fence, didn’t seem to be a front door on the place
we all ended up in a bar down on the waterfront with john truman tellin’ stories about the merchant marine and ships and the sea for three and a half days
one night, after that story, decided to ship out, ship out around the world
went down to the merchant marine, nmu hall
gonna get our seaman’s papers
well, in order to get your seaman’s papers, you gotta get a letter from a ship owner to the union
then get a letter from the union to the coast guard
get a letter from the coast guard to the union, get a letter from the coast guard to the ship owner, get a letter from the ship owner to the union, get a letter from the union to the ship owner, get a letter from the union to the coast guard
so we said, “frig it! we’ll build our own ship!”
[sung]
did you ever stand and shiver
just because you were lookin’ at a river
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