Performing on the street gave me a real sideways look at the culture and many questions developed, which i now see reflected in these songs.

I had just finished a trip to Europe and had spent much time in the NYC area while these tunes were written. Then as now, NYC has a way of pulling social issues into focus. It is quite an intense place. There are also great artists and history there that inspire one at every corner.

Here are clips in Real Audio format:

The Songs:

• small file  -  Big File Something to be Done

  i woke up sunday morning and i put on my shoes
  i went tot the window to look for some clues
  everyone was standing around
  looking for some kind of news

  i ain´t gonna go back
  ain´t gonna go back
  ain´t gonna go back no more
  i´m going all the way today
  i see my ship is sailing for a distant shore
  i believe there´s something to be done

  think about it talk about it
  but you´ve got to chose
  you get what you deserve
  no matter what you say
  lay it right on the line
  what have you got to lose

  -chorus-

  could you take me could you tell me
  i´ve just got to know
  i´ve been living this way believing it was so

  if there's nothing if there´s no one
  i´ll have to go alone

  -chorus-

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• small file  -  Big File Avenue C

  the cold faucet is dripping
  and the entryway stink
  there´s dead rats in the alley
  with a gunman who drinks

  the cop cars kept comeing
  second street like a morge
  the next day I take out my trash
  past the deals at my door

  but I won´t say a word
  i´ll just keep paying my fine
  ´cause I saw the way you were smiling
  as you reached for my last dime

  for the rent I am paying
  my sister´s buying a farm
  but I came to this city
  to play my guitar

  now dreams they get twisted
  and words can get soiled
  my fears are there fortunes
  but then fortunes get spoiled

  chr

  their calling for bobby
  just two building down
  they´re there every night
  like the baying of hounds

  like a love sick romantic
  losing the girl of his dreams
  like a realing fanatic
  about to split at the seams

  chr

  i was not a young soldier
  when I came to the field
  but the cops they´d arrest me
  for just playing this steel

  and a fire starts burning
  when I think of how I´ve done time
  while just two buildings down
  everyone knows there´s a crime

  chr.
  
  
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• small file  -  Big File So Long Aladdin

  so long aladdin i´m down for the count
  i went to the store but the minister was out
  the word came back Friday
  if you can´t pray you must shout
  i may be dying by inches
  but i´ll never give out

  keep all my pictures in a faded balloon
  sell all the dreams in this wall papered room
  pick up the pieces but don´t come too soon
  cause i´ll be tracing my soul by the light of the moon

  please hand me the water by the night table stand
  tell me a story while your touching my hand
  come see me tomorrow for as long as you can
  keep me beside you for the love of this man

  chr

  hold on and promise there´s nothing for sure
  the flowers are lovely in the view past my door
  you can take back the postage un-used in my top drawer
  i´d send it myself but I´m not sure what for

  chain me to doorways and block up the halls
  make a sad tower of the loved ones who´ve fallen
  if it reaches the stars take the rest to the malls
  find those who stood watching make sure their nailed to the walls

  chr
  
  
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• small file  -  Big File Kevin

  this guitar is just a fountain of my feeling
  i think that kevin must feel the same
  he is one year and one day older
  he has always been in my life

  and there´s some times you´d like to take all the pictures down
  tie up the wall and paint the floors
  kick that old bat for leaving me alone
  write to rose and set you bell free

  and i know
  i know
  i know
  it could never be the same
  i´d like to thank you lucky stars
  and if there was one thing I could remember
  you´d just say,É.keep it to yourself

  there´s just one thing I´d like to go ask kevin
  how come what´s left is not quite all here
  and I know he is still my friend
  cause I can feel guilty after all these years

  and there´s some people who tried to tell me
  that the worst emotions are just to blame
  but now I´ve got so even
  cause I can´t quite recall their names

  chr

  i´d like to thank kevin for the mess I´m in
  he helped build my life through wasted years
  we´d just babble on to babylon
  from the best side of boise idaho
  near the north woods past all our fears

  we didn´t talk about the differences
  i should have guessed but then who cares
  i was just so hungry for affection
  you´d come to kevin´s and find me there

  
  
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• small file  -  Big File Me and Molly (True Lovers)

  
  me and molly we can´t go on
  we´ve got more than we need
  but there is something gone wrong
  there are tears in my eyes
  and my hand wither from her fingers

  now it´s gotten quite hard
  she is almost gone
  burning a hole right into the ground
  as the word passes by
  she tells me a song i could sing her

  she said
  true lovers half crazy with fear
  no wonder you eyes are all broken with tears
  a small reason to hope is enough to last years
  if you find yourself missing true lovers will keep holding you here

  
  mary told me just yesterday
  she is giving it all
  but it´s all slipping away
  tell me the truth
  you just can't help living that way

  don't hold your breath
  cause you can´t close your eyes
  when each day i gets harder to wear you disguise
  the medicine helps
  but it takes all the hope that it buys

  -chorus-

  now i hope you can find a promised
  i would love to go with but i don´t understand
  because this one is for me
  with my heart in my hand

  with everyone spinning and swirling around
  there are very few left with their feet on the ground
  if we could see eye to eye
  we might just stop putting it down
  
  
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• small file  -  Big File Annie´s Clothes

  there´s a little mending needed
  on the holes in annie´s clothes
  safely locked inside her closet
  In a room she won´t expose

  except for lines and traces
  rarely anybody know
  where she´s wearing thin her welcome
  or where the deepest rivers flow

  as if life were a revelation
  sung with inspirations choir
  recalling each and all the pieces
  that were burned up on the fire

  all the songs she could have written
  are what´s left of her attire
  you must be listening with forgiveness
  if you´re hoping to enquire

  cause just perhaps she might glance sideways
  if there is a long long way from home
  and a land that she´s been dreaming
  and a moon beam that sheÕs known

  it doesn´t mean seclusion
  is the only seed she´s sown
  it´s a lack of self-deception
  in a heart that tend to roam

  with a morning cup of coffee
  in peace so well preserved
  little times and hiding places
  when she feels most unobserved

  she knows the ground is shaking
  and what´s here is so well deserved
  because her loves been for the taking
  and can no longer be reserved

  now there´s a calendar of reasons
  who is waiting by the phone
  as she moves to take the kettle
  that´s been boiling on the stove

  the weather calls for sunshine
  but there´s an aching in her bones
  as she reaches past the answers
  for man to call her own

  
  
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• small file  -  Big File Pianoman on Broardway

  he is sitting at the table and he wishes he could care
  but the things that she keeps saying they just float off through the air
  they are in a restaurant window up near 69th and Broadway
  i am walking past them after on hell of a long day

  he stares directly at her as if to find the place
  the last time that he saw her while he was looking at her face
  he is trying to remember just what it is he said
  that got him in this circumstance where he´d just as soon be dead

  the night is crying help me
  there´s a fire to the south
  but the pianoman´s on Broadway
  so don´t look down in the mouth

  her name it must be darlene and i guess i´ll call him fred
  and all the hair he´s losing is just piled up on her head
  the one who moves beside me i don´t recall her name
  but with the things that she keeps saying i hope she feels the same

  the light shine s on the table in the middle of this play
  with the poker-faced field marshal while dizzy blows away
  in a brilliant lovers alcove on a fashionable street
  they´re exposing less than innocence i am looking at my feet

  chr.

  fred´s got quite an investment that´s been devalued in the crash
  me i just say good-night and run off with the cash
  left alone i breathe in aimless dreams and form the words i said
  but i know why she was crying because i´ve often felt misled

  there´s a beat up piano in the parking lot on some casters with a rope
  and a wild man playing straight time for the curious with the dope
  in a key of deep suspicion and one for santa claus
  by the time you've heard that one again they´ve broken all the laws

  
  
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• small file  -  Big File When I Found Victor

  when they brough his body to my door
  and i found his hands were broken
  and i had seen the truth iÕd feared
  will i sing when death comes knocking
  or tremble on my knees
  when heavy boots call me from my bed

  and these ones who speak like rain
  a tiny echo to the storm
  to gather when they reach the ground
  and pool their sorrows brimming grief
  in tiny streams flow to the sea
  and heard in dreams you canÕt believe

  are they swept before my eyes
  and left decaying in the fields
  the fruits of such a long gold season
  to rob the mouths of those whoÕve toiled
  and honor those
  who only speak of glory

  and what of you still left to flower
  until your heads burst full of promise
  Ôtil two or four fold children do inherit
  and wonder why they speak of sorrow
  a word your washing from your doorway
  Ôtil you believe those who say trust me

  and when youÕve sent your last epistle
  and joined again the sea of dreamers
  and with you I hear their boots come marching
  our heads pushed down tied hands behind us
  will you take with me my fear and sorry
  and weave a dream more strong than i alone

  
  
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• small file  -  Big File Off Into Blue

  sitting and waiting and hoping and caring
  and seeing what will be
  you know the answers
  but can you see any reasons
  for running and tearing
  and taking off pieces for free

  iÕve traveled often
  down roads maybe better left bear
  but I had no option
  but to be there and care

  and if I could give you a moment
  this is the one I would chose
  a beat in my heart from your chorus
  as your fading off into blue

  its not hard to find demons
  sometimes only to find friends
  whatÕs so strong in beginnings
  thereÕs something goes wrong when it ends

  if youÕve got moment to listen
  iÕve got a moment to care
  weÕll take some time if itÕs given
  and maybe there something to share

  chr

  thereÕs a sudden resilience
  on wing up in the sky
  and thereÕs something of this
  in each tear that you cry

  holding and tearing and loving and caring
  sometimes it seems like a lie
  i hope you can make it cause everyoneÕ waiting
  thereÕs so much I see in your eye
  
  
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• small file  -  Big File Faces and the Names

  who frees their mind to under stand
  who drops their load to lend a hand
  who finds their life will be a stand
  who takes the time to mend the man

  who builds a fire inside their heart
  who sees a way and makes a start
  who lifts their eyes and takes a part
  who sings the songs and find the art

  ohh..ohh.. the faces and the names
  ohh..ohh.. the faces and the names
  ohh..ohh.. the faces and the names
  and who will remember

  who feeds the lips of hungry years
  who pulls their currage right from their tears
  who pits their patience against their fears
  who breaks their way through all these mirrors

  who tells the boy that he is a man
  who fills their heart and thinks that they can
  who builds the way and makes a plan
  who loses all and gets up again

  chr.

  and when so many people have died
  will you be here to say that you´ve tried

  ohh..ohh.. the faces and the names
  ohh..ohh.. our faces and our names
  ohh..ohh.. your faces and your names
  and who will remember

  
  
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