Words and Music by Jimi Dee
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison.
I told you what I could of what I believe deep in my heart.
Love is true, and I never thought I’d feel this way,
but I know I really love you, yes I do,
and I’m thinking of you. I need to tell you
even though it’s a memory, I want your love.
Our lives are like a tapestry woven together.
And as I’ve said before, I love you more and more,
I need your love as the days run off the calendar.
When loving ways have ceased to be,
bring your lonely sadness to me.
Gloria in excelsis! Et in terra pax hominibus.
I told you what I could of what I believe to be the truth.
Since you went away, I think about you everyday.
and I really want to love you, yes I do,
to be with you, I want to be with you
spend my life and eternity by your side.
Our lives are like a symphony blended forever.
And as I’ve said before, I love you more and more,
I need your love as the days run off the calendar.
When loving ways have ceased to be,
bring your lonely sadness to me.
Ooh, you left me crying, baby!
Ahh, all on my own. You left me!
Ooh, you left me crying, crying, crying baby!
There must be a way for us now.
At childhood’s end an echo blends
colors never seen.
Loving ways have ceased to be.
Sing your song for me.
May the waves washing on the beach
as they’re breaking tell you how I love you.
When she came with the morning sun,
Come to me!
You’re telling me that you love me,
asking if I know the reason why?
Why love can’t last forever
as time goes flying by, flying by.
Truth and lies are all the same,
so it was given to me.
In silence one knows what is real
within the soul of another
May the peace that I sing you of
never speaking tell you how I love you.
When she came with the morning sun,
Come to me!
You’re telling me you don’t love me,
the time has come for us to say goodbye.
Why do you say you can’t see me?
You who have not even tried, even tried.
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato,
passus et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die
secundum scripturas, et ascendit in coelum,
sedet ad dexteram Patris.
Long ago and far away you heard me call your name
through field, forest, mountain and desert.
Now that I have followed you on Earth and in the sky
through raging winds and stormy seasons.
The song I will sing to you ever is the same,
without needing reason, without name.
Like the river to the sea, my love returns to you.
I am unto my lady true.
Love, the Mistress of Distress,
hear the song I can’t forget!
What now? I ask Thee, Holy Muse, my comforter in pain,
my soul’s only light in darkness.
Are you as thoughtful, as inspired, as near to the divine?
Or failing as you cannot hope to show
what we perceive, but cannot ever know,
emotion we feel but can’t describe?
That true reality beyond our conscious minds,
O! Stay with me me, do not be unkind.
All these things I’ve seen,
all the words I’ve heard or spoken.
All this time we’ve passed together
can be written like a part of a dream
for the fires to burn or save. O!
And having done I will go from here
to seek my dreams another place.
Ooh, you left me crying, baby!
Ahh, all on my own. You left me!
Ooh, you left me crying, crying, crying baby!
There must be a way for us now.
There must be a way for us now.
It’s really, really real!
I don’t hear what you’re saying.
Quit the game we’ve been playing.
Who can see tomorrow, far past the battle scene,
with sorrow for time that has not been?
Let me remember you before it is time to die,
before the night’s extinguished, and love has turned to lies.
Unholy dreams of passion locked away against release,
bestow their final peace.
A feeling of finality now permeates the dawn,
and yet we know that truly time goes on and on and on.
Now our love has been destroyed life cannot be the same,
there’s only burning flame!
First conceived as a prototype rock opera after having seen the play of the same name, Abelard and Heloise is full of picturesque Medieval romance. This tragic love story inspired first a dramatic poem modeled after those of Robert Browning, which served as the source material for some of these lyrics, then gave rise to this song cycle that depicts certain scenes in the course of poetic narrative. The original poem can be read in its entirety if you can find a copy. In its current manifestation, the piece is a sequence of madrigal-like episodes interwoven with a backdrop of liturgical music from the Catholic Latin mass.
Leaving L.A.
No matter what you say,
I’m leavin’ L.A.
I got to get away,
everybody’s driving me crazy.
Ooh, ooh, ooh-wee-ooh, ahh!
Well I’m a workingman babe,
ain’t got no day time at all.
And you’re a working girl babe,
ain’t got no play time at all.
I saw you once while in a dream,
while the sun did rise the telephone did ring.
I heard your voice and I know you said my name.
On the front porch where we said goodbye,
not a car drove past, not a tear fell from your eye.
No matter what you say,
I’m leavin’ L.A.
I got to, I got to get away,
everybody’s driving me crazy.
Ooh, ooh, ooh-wee-ooh, ahh!
Well I’m a workingman babe,
ain’t got no day time at all.
And you’re a working girl babe,
ain’t got no play time at all.
Ooh, ooh, ooh-wee-ooh,
Ain’t no reason why!
Bom, ba-bom, ba bomedy bom, bom
Bom, ba-bom, ba bomedy bom.
No matter what you say,
I’m leavin’ L.A.
I got to get away,
So I’m leaving today,
I’m leaving L.A.!
Well I’m a workingman babe,
ain’t got no day time at all.
And you’re a working girl babe,
ain’t got no play time at all.
Bom, ba-bom, ba bomedy bom, bom
Bom, ba-bom, ba bomedy bom.
This is a song that expresses the mundane realities of urban life with a touch of the sublime. By contrasting the stark harshness of the daily grind with a dreamlike vision of lost love, the song has a haunting quality that transports us beyond the metropolitan surface noise of freeways and AM radios. The background chorus and saxophone solos lend an eerie subtext to the layered strata of the contrapuntal texture.
You’ll Never Know
Words and Music by Jimi Dee
You’ll never know, ohhh, whoa,
You’ll never know…
Come on baby,
you’re lookin’ fine.
What you’re doing baby,
drive me out’n my mind.
You’ll never know how I love you,
You’ll never know how I really care,
You’ll never know how I love you,
but I do! Ooh it’s true baby, in love with you.
And I know you love me too now, yes I do.
You’ll never know how I love you,
You’ll never know how I really care,
You’ll never know.
Come on baby, doo-wah-doo,
you’re lookin’ fine, lookin’ fine.
What you’re doing baby, feel alright,
It’s right on time, up all night.
You’ll never know how I love you,
You’ll never know how I really care,
You’ll never know how I love you,
but I do! Ooh it’s true baby, in love with you.
And I know you love me too now, yes I do.
You’ll never know how I love you,
You’ll never know how I really care,
You’ll never know.
Come on baby, doo-wah-doo,
the toime is right, lookin’ fine.
What you’re doing baby, feel alright,
you’re lookin’ fine, up all night.
You’ll never know how I love you,
You’ll never know how I really care,
You’ll never know how I love you,
but I do! Ooh it’s true baby, in love with you.
And I know you love me too now, yes I do.
You’ll never know how I love you,
You’ll never know how I really care,
You’ll never know.
Exquisitely simple of design and execution, this song should be heard along the beach under swaying palm trees and gentle breezes where elegant women who all look like the girl from Ipanema are sipping umbrella drinks out of coconut shells accompanied by men clad in Hawaiian shirts and white pants with carefully appointed couture, not a hair out of place while a band serenades the entourage with the music of the samba, flutes wafting serenely over our heads, washing the strand with overtones of a reggae reverie.
Words and Music by Jimi Dee
Love comes as a thief in darkest midnight,
floating like a mist upon the air.
The more you search the less you find her,
then when you least expect it, she’s there!
You know that I really love you.
You know that I’m thinking of you.
And in the morning I can see your face.
There is no lover going to take your place.
Amor é un ladroncello,
un serpentello é amor.
Como un perro negro de la noche,
mucho dolor y triste es mi corazon.
You know that I really love you.
You know that I’m thinking of you.
And in the morning I can see your face.
There is no lover going to take your place.
Love comes as a thief in darkest midnight,
floating like a mist upon the air.
The more you search the less you find her,
then when you least expect it, she’s there!
You know that I really love you.
You know that I’m thinking of you.
And in the morning I can see your face.
There is no lover going to take your place.
This song is extracted from the streets of Los Angeles, city of broken dreams. The ancient mystery of love unfolds as a migrant wanderer almost remembers with sadness times long ago and far away, in a land almost forgotten with tears that have long-since dried. The text is alternately in English, Spanish and Italian, and is freely adapted from a phrase in Ovid’s Art of Love. The atmosphere created derives from the Chicano bands of the sixties, especially the instrumental break in 5/4 time where a PCP laced guitarist shreds his mournful tale of love’s lonely solace.
Words and Music by Jimi Dee
When I’m with you, stars they do shine.
Just like a dream I once had in mind, yeah.
Loving is all around,
never to touch the ground.
When I’m with you, just like before,
Don’t turn around to walk out the door, no.
Loving is all around,
never to touch the ground,
the way that we feel.
You don’t know me, you can’t see on your
color and sound or in the way that you feel.
When I’m with you, just like last night.
Let’s just pretend we don’t have to fight, yeah.
Loving is all around,
never to touch the ground.
When I’m with you!
A cowboy waltz with mysterious implications, When I’m With You creates a mood of harmonic tranquility juxtaposed against an instrumental texture found in the honky-tonks and Texas Two-Step joints. A basic folk song with guitar accompaniment, the harmony is expanded in an almost sacred-harp style, embellished with the soft, plaintive whining of the steel pedal guitar, the strains of the country fiddler and the background color of the mandolin.
Words and Music by Jimi Dee
Aahooh, aahooh, wah, wahooh, aahooh.
I remember Mother Jones,
about seventy-five years old.
She lifted us when we was down,
when there was no other help to be found.
You gotta sing, little lady, sing!
We gotta bring together everything.
Let the bells in the tower ringing make you free!
Because of what you believe.
Now we’re all alone,
like a dog without no bone.
No place to call my home,
no one to call my own.
I’m gonna sing about tomorrow, sing!
‘Cause it’s the end of everything.
Let the bells in the tower ringing make you free!
Because of what you believe in,
because of what you believe in,
what you believe.
Aahooh, aahooh, wah, wahooh, aahooh.
.
Sing, little lady, sing!
Bring together everything.
Sing that jailhouse down and be free!
Sing that jailhouse down and be free!
Now we’s getting old,
and we got’s no place to go.
The winter it is coming on,
and all of our friends is gone.
Now we’re all alone,
your body has gone cold.
We’re gonna sing about tomorrow sing!
‘Cause it’s the end of everything.
May the coming of the judgment day make you free
because of what you believe,
because of what you believe,
because of what you believe in.
This tune began as a 1960s style protest song. Mother Jones herself was a real historical character who attained fame by her valiant fight against the oppression of the coal bosses during the miners’ strikes of the 19th century. She advocated singing while being dragged off to jail. This practice emboldened the miners and gave them courage in the face of adversity. At the time of its original conception, this song had numerous verses retelling the whole saga of the miners strike and the role played by Mother Jones in it, but in the fullness of time it has dropped most of the outboard histrionics and has emerged as a protestant hymn about the conflict between feelings of hope and the inevitability of death.
Words and Music by Jimi Dee
Oh Eurydice! I sing a song of love that’s true.
Another glass of wine I’ll tell you one more time,
I’ve never had a woman like you.
California! Driving through the heat of the day.
Once upon a time I thought that you were mine,
but now it’s all fading away.
The sweetness of emotion
We’re together one last time,
And we’ll see tomorrow through your window.
Oh Salome! Dancing by the light o’ the moon,
never thought a woman could make me cry,
‘til you made it with another guy.
The sweetness of emotion
We’re together one last time,
And we’ll see tomorrow through your window.
Oh Penelope! When will you marry again?
I’ve been sitting up waiting all night for you,
tell me baby where have you been?
The sweetness of emotion
We’re together one last time,
And we’ll see tomorrow through your window.
This song is a catalogue of residual memories left by certain romances as they fly fleetingly into the bittersweet melancholy of the past. The carefree nonchalance conveyed by the harmonica belies the transience of human emotions. Mythological references to beautiful women long-since passed away ought to give the listener poetic pause for reflection.
Nothing to Say
Words and Music by Jimi Dee
Ooh, doot doot doo-doo doo.
She’s a pretty little baby,
you know sometimes I think she’s crazy.
I always tell her someday
I’m gonna find my way if I try to.
But my baby doesn’t care,
she just combs her hair in the morning.
And when the nighttime comes
we’re gonna have some fun while we can.
And there is
nothing to do about it, nothing to say.
How am I gonna live my life from day to day.
I am thinking of her , but she
only wants to play games, so I
think I’ll just pack my things and be
on my way.
But my baby doesn’t care,
she just combs her hair in the morning.
And when the nighttime comes
we’re gonna have some fun while we’re here.
La la la la, la la la la la.
La la la la, la la every day.
And there is
nothing to do about it, nothing to say.
How am I gonna live my life from day to day.
I am thinking of her , but she
only wants to play games, so I
think I’ll just pack my things and be
on my way.
But my baby doesn’t care,
she just combs her hair in the morning.
And when the nighttime comes
we’re gonna have some fun while we’re here.
La la la la, la la la la la.
La la la la, la la every day.
And there is nothing to say.
I’m gonna find my way.
La la la la la la la la la la
every day.
And all night, feel alright.
La la la la la la la la la la
every day.
A common struggle between the sexes is depicted in this story of stress. An allusion is made to an underlying conflict then subverted into the context of the refrain that exhorts us to have some fun while we may. There is a moral in this that for now remains unspoken.