Wanderlust (For Meta. FAWM 2020)

Mr Boffin comes into a lot of money and suddenly has loads of friends.

Mr Boffin (FAWM 2021)

A song about a book shop, a collection of Penguins, and a library that moved away. It's not about a zoo.

Walked down Gower Street to see the Penguins
Dressed in colours orange and green and blue
Holding out the hope of hidden treasures
Like Sutton Hoo

Walked down Gower Street to breathe the morning
Stopped into the Square where time is still
All the tulips listening to Gandhi
Like tulips will.

And the Reading Room is closed to readers
No ethereal dome to draw the eye
Tourists ask the way to Tutankhamen
But not the why

Walked down Gower Street to hear the Penguins
Whispering a tongue we all once knew
I should take them home and give them shelter
Like old men do

Walked down Gower Street and felt the city 
Just beyond the trees and underground
Here among the Penguins and the tulips
I will be found

And the Reading Room is closed to readers
Nothing but a locked and silent door
Tourists buy Rosetta Stones on postcards
Who are they for?

And the Reading Room has no more readers
No blue desk to rest my books upon
Tourists drink espresso in the courtyard
And time moves on
And time moves on...

Gower Street Penguins (FAWM 2021)

Acoustic guitar and voice. G, C, D, and that's all.
Post-FAWM Skirmish number 9 on the prompt "Fragile". Written 2 May 2016. Debuted and improved at Matt Blick's First Tuesday Songwriting Group (Nottingham) on 7 June 2016. 

©2016 E.J. Blomberg & J.L. Nelson - All Rights Reserved.

Fragile (First Tuesday Songwriting Group, Nottingham)

Post-FAWM Skirmish 21. The prompt word was "The ballad of...". This was inspired by my dad, who rides his stationary cycle 10-15 miles a day, and decided to do a virtual trip across the USA between his 94th and 95th birthdays. He made it from LA to NYC in 365 days.

In order to do eight verses in under 3 minutes, it had to be a fast tempo. 
It's downloadable.

LYRICS

This is the ballad of the bicycle rider
with his coffee and slippers and toast,
He started from L.A. on his birthday,
Headed for the other coast.

It was a one-man competition
that everybody wins,
With a map of the nation’s highways,
Three hundred sixty-five pins.

(Chorus:)
This is the ballad of the bicycle rider,
It’s New York City or bust,
While the bike of the ballad writer
sits here gathering dust.

Pasadena, Pomona,
San Bernardino,
Barstow, Kingman, Flagstaff,
Gallup, New Mexico.

He cruised up into Denver,
A thousand miles from the SoCal shore,
The city where he got married
seventy years before.

(Chorus)

He made pancakes in the kitchen
the day he got to Omaha,
He hasn’t any lights or helmet
But he’s never broken the law.

He cruised into Minnesota
like he was still that boy,
Said hello to the home place
and headed for Illinois

(Chorus)

This is the ballad of the bicycle rider,
Old age setting the pace,
Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philly,
Slow and steady wins the race.

He cruised into New York City
when his birthday came around,
Another year behind him
and three thousand miles of ground.

(Chorus)

©2016 Jonathan L. Nelson


The Ballad of the Bicycle Rider (for Dad)

Written for February Album Writing Month 2017. A song for immigrants. 

The FAWM Choir version features Susan Cantey, Paul Henry, Deena Shoshkes, Nick Hogben, Nancy Rost, Alboe, Sherry Somach, and Beat and his kids. Plus Alena Nelson.

FAWM.ORG is a place for songwriters and singers to meet, share songs, and work together during February each year. Ten FAWMers contributed about 20 voices to this song on the last two choruses. Eight countries are represented.

Lyrics

1. Standing at Stansted, leader of a long line
Trying to make the e-gate work,
Turning my passport this way and that,
Feeling like a jerk:

Wait a minute!
I’m a human
(I need a human I can talk to)
I’m a human
I’m a human, now
What about you?

2. LAX at midnight
Seems I got the red light
Even though my card is green,
Hey, border agent, are you a robot?
Am I a machine?

Wait a minute!
We are humans...

We're all humans
We're all humans in this long queue...

©2017 E.J. Blomberg & J.L. Nelson. All Rights Reserved.

Humans (FAWM Choir 2017)

Written and recorded Feb. 27, 2018 for February Album Writing Month (FAWM). Inspired by seeing someone on the steps of the tobacconist finishing a smoke. It's a little about him but mostly about me. Time restrictions prevented me from writing a dozen verses.

Standing on the steps of the cigarette shop
Smoking the last of the pack,
I faithfully promised I’d finally stop,
But my footsteps have led me right back.

Chorus
If it wasn't for me, I‘d be doing great,
I'm the whiskey in my own tea,
I love what I love, and I love what I hate,
I’m my very own best enemy.

I saw you today at the usual time
With your dog and your dirty black hair,
A voice in my mind said to say something kind,
But I passed you like I didn't care.

Standing in the kitchen with a lump in my throat
At the words coming out of my mouth,
My heart says to “Shut It” , but my tongue it won't listen
And our good morning's just gone south.

You begged me to help you and I said “I’m busy,
But I‘ll call you back later today,”
Well, that was a week ago: sometimes I wonder
If the cops ought to lock me away.

If it wasn't for me, I‘d be doing great,
I'm the absinthe in my own tea,
I love what I love, and I love what I hate,
I’m my very own best enemy.

(c)2018 Jonathan L. Nelson, BMI

Best Enemy (FAWM 2018)

Written for February Album Writing Month 2019. True story.

A child of mine was all alone
She left her friends, left her home,
But she and that dog —-it was love at first sight,
When she brought him home she knew she’d be all right,

(Chorus)
But now the old dog is slippin away
Yes the old dog is slippin away,
We used to run, we used to play
But now the old dog is slippin away
Slippin away...

It seemed like he would always stay,
That there’d be no end to the summer’s day,
But we’re all made of dust and clay
And the old dog is slippin away

(Chorus)

There’s a lesson that he leaves behind:
Tomorrow’s just a fiction of the human mind,
All we’ve got is right now today,
If you’re eating, eat
If you’re playing, play

(break)

Yeah, tomorrow’s a fiction of the human mind,
And it don’t take a lot to love and be kind,
All we’ve got is right now today,
If you’re eating, eat; if you’re working, work,
If you’re sleeping, sleep; if you’re playing, play

Yes I know, he’s had his day,
That’s the easy phrase that the people say,
But it don’t seem fair that we get to stay,
And the old dog is slippin away
Slippin away...

©2019 Jonathan L. Nelson. BMI

Old Dog Slippin’ Away (FAWM 2019)

This is what I imagine Woody Guthrie might have sung in the USA’s current social climate if he was in a mellow and understanding mood.

It’s also available in the March edition of Bandcamp’s “Songladder” compilation, curated by punk pioneer and music writer Bill White.
https://billwhite.bandcamp.com/album/songladder-march-2019

I’m here in my gated community
In the place where I sit every day
I smile at the faces that enter
And wave to those going away.

Here in my gated community
I read Hemingway in paperback
My radio’s tuned to rancheras
in the cool of my gate-keeping shack.

Olé. olé América.

My parents came up from Honduras
In the eighties before I was born
They worked in the meat-packing factory
And sweated de-tasseling corn.

Now I’m here in my gated community
In a place that is mine but it’s not
I watch the old men go for breakfast
And a 10 o’clock teeing-off slot.

Some are kind and they’re mostly all friendly
And I don’t really hate them at all
I just wish I could tell them politely
They don’t need to live behind a wall.

Olé, olé América.

It’s not really a question of politics
And I’m sure they don’t think that it’s race
It’s a question of keeping their money
And of other folks keeping their place.

And they’re sad that their country’s divided
But they’re all red and white against blue
They forget that the colors they’re waving
Are the colors of brown people too.

So tonight they go out to a rally
And they’ll cheer for a great leader who
has promised to make the whole country
a gated community too.

(c)2019 J. L. Nelson. BMI. All Rights Reserved.

Gated Community (FAWM 2019)

Check out my other Soundcloud account with my writing partner, Joe Blomberg (link below).

Jon Lort Nelson

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