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Pretty Simple

by Jim Page

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    13 track solo acoustic. 4 panel wallet, inside photos. Cover & inside left photos by Elizabeth Carpenter, inside right at session in Doolin, Eire, by Katy Keenan. Back photo busking at Pike Place Market Street Fair 1972.

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1.
Dark Hollow 03:55
i’d rather be in some dark hollow where the sun don’t never shine than to be all alone knowin’ that you’ve gone would cause me to lose my mind so blow your whistle freight train take me far on down the track i’m goin’ away i’m leavin’ today i’m going’ but I ain’t comin’ back i’d rather be in colorado where the sky goes on forever than to be walkin’ around in this dirty old town with nothin’ but my memories to remember so blow your whistle freight train take me far on down the track i’m goin’ away i’m leavin’ today i’m going’ but I ain’t comin’ back
2.
i misplaced my love and i went out to try to find it somewhere in among the lost and found in a land where reality is never what it seems to be i had to go the long way around i almost thought i saw it standing by the overpass with a bundle up of blankets and a tent but by the time i got there it had gone to other places and nobody could tell me where it went i sent out a search party good at what they did scouring the countryside for clues but they came back empty handed and what was i to do i was left with just an empty pair of shoes so i put up posters on all the public surfaces in a radius of miles around the town i used that picture of you in ireland so high above the ocean in the days before the world turned around in the midnight i went walking with my hands inside my pockets with my head out in the wind to keep it clear till i met a perfect stranger who asked what I was looking for and told me I would never find it here i dug into a cul de sac and took a cheap motel room in a wayside out along the wounded mile when i went to wash my face i looked into the mirror said how ya doin’ i ain’t seen you in a while my coat was full of empties and my shoes were full of broken and my dreams were all wrung out to dry so i took a chance to go back to where it started to find out if it still was worth a try and i stood above the ocean just like the way that you did on the day before the world went too far why do we always have to get lost before we can find out where we are finally i found that my love was still inside me that it had been there all along so now i’m trying to find you to tell you the news sorry that it took me so long so if you get this letter if you ever hear my story please don’t misinterpret my intent all that really matters is to find what’s been lost it doesn’t really matter where it went
3.
tell you a story ‘bout a dread disease people walkin’ around like zombies everybody’s losin’ their mind starin’ at their cell phones all the time they all got a phone to fiddle with i’m standin’ in line in the coffee shop manager says he’s gonna call the cops I say why and he begins to grin he says “you gotta have a phone or you can’t come in” and I ain’t got a phone to fiddle with no i ain’t a got a phone like a dog no bone like a lonesome flyer in a free fall zone like a headless horse in a hollywood myth i ain’t got a phone to fiddle with there’s a burning bush and a talking snake and a hell fire for chrissake and a preacher with a way to get out of it all says all you gotta do is make a phone call but i ain’t got a phone to fiddle with I met a pretty girl by the taj mahal said she was lookin’ for a shopping mall I said hold on I got a map app reached in my pocket said “oh, crap” ‘cause i didn’t have a phone to fiddle with I wnet to see my MD said he wanted to take a look at me thought I mighta had the tofu flu he says “i know what’s wrong with you” you just need a phone to fiddle with lookin’ for love online, you see hopin’ somebody be lookin’ for me says must be handsome must be grand must play acoustic guitar and must have a phone to fiddle with I had a nightmare to tell you the truth that I died to death in a telephone booth went up to heaven on the head of a pin knocked all day but I couldn’t get in ‘cause i didn’t have a phone to fiddle with no i ain’t a got a phone like a dog no bone like a lonesome flyer in a free fall zone like a headless horse in a hollywood myth i ain’t got a phone to fiddle with now i’m walkin’ around in the shiny new nothin’ made much sense till i ran into you sittin’ on a stone wall takin’ a breather you didn’t have one either no, you didn’t have a phone to fiddle with now we’re together most all the time in analog and that’s just fine you don’t have yours and I don’t have mine we’re livin’ in a land line ‘cause we ain’t got a phone to fiddle with no you ain’t got a phone to fiddle with and i ain’t got a phone to fiddle with now what do we do
4.
there’s a crowd outside my window I can hear them in the street it’s the new evangelistics in a missionary heat saviors of the innocent guardians of right it’s the day before tomorrow in the middle of the night they got shine white faces sing a faraway song show you pictures of Jesus as a blue eyed blond riding like a savior on a big white horse with one hand bearing gifts and the other hand to enforce fundamental frenzy fundamental rage takin’ us back to the middle ages there’s echos in the hallway of the governmental draw where morality is weaponized and written into law to fire your emotion with danger and disgrace to wrap it up in flags and to wave it in your face the local undertaker and the chairman of the board the doctor and the DJ they all climb aboard the country music special and the heavy metal band the military general with the button in his hand chorus the devil is a foreigner and he has to be destroyed throughout this great wide world where his demons are deployed in anybody’s country on anybody’s sea when you’re exorcizing evil you invent your own morality in the language of the prophecies they talk about a time when they wage the final battle for the kingdoms of divine and in the valley of the showdown the fires will rage and god’s ferocious hand will turn the final page chorus now their counting down the hours in the grains of sand as they reach for Armageddon with their eager little hands and there’s an idol on a nose cone triggered to explode and a disappearing future at the end of the glory road now I don’t mind your religion or the cut of your clothes but I gotta keep my eye out to where your shadow goes you want to meet your maker that’s your choice to choose you want to take me with you I’m gonna have to refuse chorus
5.
we got enough wealth to spread it around so everybody swims and nobody drowns there’s too many people livin’ out on the street they need homes they need food to eat we need water we need clean air we need jobs we need health care and it’s not just me and it’s not just you it’s all of us (x2) you take the stolen money out from under their thumb give it back to the people that they stole it from you cut the military budget till it’s almost gone you put the money in schools and you can’t go wrong we been doin’ it wrong all along the line so let’s do it right this time and it’s not just me and it’s not just you it’s all of us (x2) (bridge) we are greater than they allow us to believe we are genius we are history to be and they - they think their money holds the key but we - we know the key is in the numbers of our solidarity (Instrumental) you can’t do it alone don’t even try you got to organize you’re dreamin’ a dream and you’re makin’ it real everybody’s got a shoulder they can put to the wheel and you can’t bet stopped you’re bound to win it’s a great big wheel comin’ round again and it’s not just me and it’s not just you it’s all of us (x2)
6.
Delia 05:48
delia was a gambler gambled all around delia was a gamblin’ girl she laid her money down she’s all i’ve got is gone delia’s poor mother took a little trip out west when she got home little delia had gone to rest delia’s mother weeped delia’s father moaned wouldn’t have been so hard if our child had died at home delia, oh delia how can it be you love those rounders but you don’t love me cooney looking high cooney lookin’ low shot poor delia down with a 44 cooney says to the judge “what’ll be my fine” judge says, “poor boy you get 99” high up on a roof top far as I can see lookin’ at those rounders lookin’ back at me cooney’s in a jail cell drinkin’ from an old tin cup delia’s in the graveyard she won’t ever wake up delia, oh delia how can it be you love those rounders but you don’t love me
7.
Gypsy 04:34
Gypsy came from Texas, blown on the breeze to Northern California and the redwood trees and he saw the deep green rollin’ of the mighty coastal range and something deep inside began to change Gypsy heard the chainsaw, the helicopter squall and he saw the angry clearcuts where the big trees had to fall and he knew it was the marking of the dollar’s bad design he said, “if there’s a worthy fight out there, well I guess this one is mine” tensions they were risin’ in the lumber country towns there were rumors of layoffs and millwork shuttin’ down fear that led to anger, anger that led to rage and the big timber bosses set the stage the big timber bosses ran a billion dollar scam with a slash and burn mentality and a company called Maxxam if you could fly up like a bird and you could look down from the air anywhere you saw a clearcut you’d know Maxxam was there Gypsy found his family there on the north California shore and he became a soldier in the timber wars and he stood between the big trees and the chain saw blades and he learned to find his courage and how not to be afraid if you ask them they will tell you of the danger of those times threats and intimidation, with violence close behind and they will talk of law enforcement and how they use the pepper spray and how justice isn’t blind, it just looks the other way it was one September morning when the final straw was laid some one had to break I guess, that’s how the game was played he only meant to scare them, that’s what the logger later said but he cut that tree and he aimed it, and Gypsy Chain was dead such a dreadful silence no music can relate some one radioed for help but by then it was too late a martyr for the redwoods, he was only flesh and bone some one would have to tell his family that he was never coming home some said it was an accident, some said it was a crime some said it was unavoidable, it was just a matter of time some said it was up to the authorities now and the facts they would compile there was bound to be an investigation, it would just take a little while I’ve been thinkin’ about it and the way it seems to me it’s really pretty simple if you want to make a tragedy use the fear that leads to anger and the anger that leads to rage and they’ll play it out for real on that puppet master stage if you want a way to look at it, for me this is the one that the big tree it was the bullet and the chain saw was the gun and the logger was the trigger but you have to understand that the finger that pulled the trigger, that was Maxxam Gypsy came from Texas, blown on the breeze to Northern California and the redwood trees and he saw the deep green rollin’ of the mighty coastal range and something deep inside began to change
8.
Angeline 04:27
in this beautiful country in which I’m living there is a story that you’ll find of a woman named Kikisoblu and how they called her Angeline Angeline, Kikisoblu she was the eldest daughter of Chief Seattle she watched the world disappear she said “you can build your town around me I’m not going anywhere” Angeline, Kikisoblu it was the fine and expensive wife of Doc Maynard who defined her into something to be owned when she said, “you’re much too beautiful for such an ugly name from now on you will be known as Angeline, not Kikisoblu” and they made her illegal and all of her people and the children threw rocks behind her back but Kikisoblu had some rocks of her own and she threw them back Angeline, Kikisoblu landlord, landlord look over your shoulder careful who you’re talking to maybe somebody you stole something from come to take it back from you Angeline, Kikisoblu so many thieves for all that they have taken they leave us with a world full of holes but we have rocks and we have heroes and we will not do what we are told Angeline, Kikisoblu
9.
Jesus came from the ghetto with the rats and the crust of bread went downtown with a big idea came back with a price on his head you’ve all heard the story about the miracles and the king but if you listen hard enough you can hear the trap door swing don’t let ‘em fool you it was the banker and the boss who took insurgent Jesus and hung him on the cross nobody cares about a ghetto kid when he stays where the belong but you go steppin’ out of line somethin’s bound to go wrong Jesus got smart one day and he began to realize you’ll never get anywhere in this world unless you organize so he went down town and started talkin’ and then he talked some more he said it was the banker and the boss keepin’ everybody poor and people listened, yes they did they liked what he had to say how the poor would inherit the world and the rich would have to pay nobody cares about a ghetto kid till the goe downtown start agitatin’ then the word just gets around they send out their soldiers with their shiny silver blades gonna take insurgent Jesus gonna lay him in the shade bring him in on charges don’t matter if they stick you can call it religion if you want to but it was only politics nobody cares about a ghetto kid until the start to make some waves then the law kicks in with a vengeance you know, it’s always been that way Jesus had a safe house and he had his comrades too but an infiltrator turned him in just like they always do and when they took him off in irons you could hear his mother cry they convicted him of high treason and sentenced him to die as they took him down from that execution cross they thought about what he said about the banker and the boss and they knew it was a long time and a hard way to survive and they knew that the big idea was the right idea and they had to keep it alive so when they told the story they told it this way that soldiers killed the bottle with the genie inside but the genie got away ‘cause nobody cares about a ghetto kid until it’s too late then they gotta wash the blood off their hands and get their story straight but don’t let ‘em fool you it was the banker and the boss who took insurgent Jesus and hung him on the cross
10.
Dark Matter 05:02
i’m wakin’ in the mornin’ to a big surprise that big ole sun tryin’ to rise but there’s something’ weird goin’ on around town every time it goes up it just comes back down so i roll up my sleeves and jump right in dark matter coming on me again let me guess i can figure it out you put a ship in a bottle now you can’t get it out the eye of a needle and a 2x4 seems like nothin' really fits together anymore it’s a mess and i don't know what to do dark matter i’m depending on you paul revere did a midnight ride meeting’ emma goldman by the riverside it was almost a great and a glorious day but they couldn’t remember what they were supposed to say so they took out their guitars and they started to sing dark matter gettin’ into everything stephen hawking said to neil degrass this theoretical stuff is a pain in the ass says neil "what are you tryin to say?" steve says, "i’ll get back to ya later today" it's just that everything would make more sense if dark matter would just get off the fence just because you can’t see it does that mean it isn’t there dark matter everywhere i fell in love with a friend of mine she was walkin’ on a tight rope line and i was crawlin’ on my hands and knees we ran into each other said "excuse me please do i know you? was this meant to be? or is this just dark matter messin’ around with me?" i took a leap and i went so high i blew a hole right through the sky and i swam like a fish in ethereal brine till i left the whole damn solar system behind you ask me why I’m leavin’ i’ll try to make it clear there’s just too much dark matter around here
11.
you're comin' up from south California comin' out from old Boston town you're lookin' at the beautiful trees and the water thinkin' about settlin' down you been hearin' about all of the money dreamin' about a house on the hill thinkin’ that you might get lucky maybe they got room for you still so your drivin' up everything that you got in that car or you’re flyin’ in on a plane and you’re takin’ the bus into downtown that’s the last that you saw of your dream because yes they got all of that beauty and yes they got money to burn but they also got people living under the freeway and that's where your road takes a turn Seattle is a Garden Of Eden a paradise to live in or see but believe it or not you'll be livin' in a parkin' lot if you ain't got the do re mi maybe you came by yourself maybe you brought family too maybe you got some skills you can use maybe you'll just have to make do you’ve been lookin' for work on line at the library thinkin' that you'll make it somehow but you ran out of money for that room on Aurora and you're wonderin' where to go now you could live in your car if you had one there are plenty of people who do but they towed it away to the impound now you’re wearing a hole in your shoe you see rock and roll heroes and sports stars millionaires out on the town and those people livin’ under the overpass the cops just keep movin’ ‘em around Seattle is a Garden Of Eden a paradise, that's what they say but believe it or not you'll be livin' in a parkin' lot if you can't make it pay the mayor is a liberal and the council is mixed and there’s a socialist riding on board they raised up the minimum to 15 an hour that’s the least that boss could afford still you’re sleeping on a cardboard mattress and your house on the hill is a tent and they could freeze all the prices right now but you still couldn’t pay for the rent some say there’s nothin’ you can do about it it’s just human nature they claim this is the greatest system in the world is just needs a little lube on the chain but me I got a better idea I say let’s shut it all down let’s de-fang the bankers and sink all the tankers and spread all the money around because Seattle is a Garden Of Eden a paradise at the end of it’s line so lets put it out with the curbside recycling and try to do better next time
12.
I saw Jimi Hendrix at Winterland it was 1968 I was in whatever shape I was in that night the horses were out of the gate the crowd was fine and fanciful and when Jimi took the stand he had too many fingers in his hand there is no explaining the interdependence of so many pieces of mind there was smoke and there were mirrors and nights of the magical kind Jimi wore knee length moccasins, as I recall and played with his feet out wide and in between the sonic devices he slipped the notes inside yes I saw Jimi Hendrix at Winterland and I was experienced then I was with some impossible people I don’t know how we even got in I was out on a date with a butterfly girl who was floating up out of her shoes we were blowing whatever was left of our minds that night while Jimi was blowing a fuse and the fog rolled in like a blanket and the sun came up over the rim and we were all just skimming stones in the times that we were in and maybe I lost a few brain cells I know it was pretty thin ice but if I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t think twice they made a record of those Winterland nights you may listen if you dare the music and the multitudes I know I’m in there somewhere it was the season of eruptions the doorway to infinity and when Jimi’s guitar said “thank you” and that was enough for me yes I saw Jimi Hendrix at Winterland
13.
you gotta be kidding, you want me to be nice back up buddy, let me give you advice you ever see a mouse bein’ nice to a cat? you ain’t gonna make it like that chorus: nice doesn’t make any waves nice doesn’t move any mountains nice doesn’t make any noise let’s make some noise its time to tear down that pompous facade that rotten racket, that house of fraud chains don’t break because you ask them to to i’m making a fist, how about you? Chorus hand me that wrench, let’s take turns see if we can open this can of worms let’s make some plans, let’s draw some straws and if we have to, let’s break some laws chorus bridge i see the future looking back in disgust their whole world is depending on us we can’t let them down so let’s get it together and go downtown fightin' fire with fire don't make any sense you gotta use water in the present tense not the nice kind of water where the rich folk swim but the fiery kind that you drown in the kind that rises up to be a tsunami of humanity a wave across the finish line and it’s about time chorus

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Recorded at The SunRoom in West Seattle. Engineered and mixed by Orville Johnson.

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released January 23, 2020

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Jim Page Seattle, Washington

Named by Seattle Metropolitan Magazine as “One Of The 50 Most Influential Musicians In Seattle History.” Originally from California Page has called Seattle and the Pacific Northwest “home” since 1971. Songs covered by The Doobie Brothers, Christy Moore, Dick Gaughan, Michael Hedges, and Roy Bailey. Utah Phillips: “If you’re ever going to get the message, this is the messenger to get it from.” ... more

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