Some songs (including a pro-life one)

I was cleaning out some files when I discovered a some songs I'd written - a few dating back to the late 70s!

I'd only vaguely remembered the lyrics to some, so it was nice finding copies of the songs.

"Georgia River" - one of the first songs I'd written, definitely a 70s kind of song with a Band influence.

"The Music Is A Lie" - reference to "plastic hair" (disco, or maybe Devo?) and taking "soma" (I'd recently read Brave New World).

"The Shower Song" - a tune that got me to the semifinals at the Monroe County Fair talent show, but which I feel uncomfortable performing now due to some of the lyrics.

"Lookin' Out for Number One" - social commentary, of course - with a folk/punk feel!

I remember a song I wrote called "Children of the Earth" that I wrote for an off-Broadway musical (really!) when I lived in New York City, though it didn't make the cut and I don't know if the musical was ever actually produced (I heard it was, and I helped to write part of the script, so you never know, my writing credits might include a musical!). For the life of me I can't recall any of the song  except for the title and part of the chorus.

Then there's a later song, "3 a.m." - a pro-life song I created for a 40 Days for Life rally, and then reprised a couple of years later for another rally. I have the lyrics, but I never wrote down the chords, and so I'm trying to recall how it goes. I hope to polish it and record it some day - maybe post on Youtube.

Here are the lyrics (which I may revise):

3 a.m.

Another night
She’s haunted by
A baby’s cry

In the night

No way to hide
From the emptiness
She feels inside

And all those things

she’ d believed
she now knows
she’d been deceived

With a choice

she’s now a mother
who will never
hold her child.

He turns a page

He turns away
The words get lost
In what he can’t say

He’d shown support

He’d gone along
Despite a feeling
That it was wrong

He resents the loss

And that on that day
Society said he
really had no say

Without a choice

He’s now a father
Who will never
Hold his child

We were too young

We were afraid
We were too poor
The time was wrong
It was just a choice
It wasn’t human
It was just cells
It wasn’t alive
It couldn’t feel
It was just a choice
It was just a choice
It was just a choice

Safe within

His mother’s womb
But when she chose
It spelled his doom

He tried to flee

When death came near
He tried to scream
No one could hear

Now he rests

In God’s love
He’s forgiven but
Laments from above

Because of choice

They’re now parents
Who will never
Hold their child

We were too young

We were afraid
We were too poor
The time was wrong
It was just a choice
It wasn’t human
It was just cells
It wasn’t alive
It couldn’t feel
It was just a choice
It was just a choice
It was just a choice

He’s not a choice
He’s a child
Who will never
Be held. 

Some of those early songs I actually performed publicly way back then. I might publicly perform some of them again, along with other originals like "I'm Gonna Live (Til the Day I Die)" and "Maggie," two songs from that period that I kept on singing, and the children's song "There's a Great Big Monster Under My Bed."

Maybe I'll record them all and put them on Youtube.

Pax et bonum