BLAZE

Raspberries help those who help themselves

Something to amuse you. Consider the sixties generation's preoccupation with figures of mythic violence. Are you a boxer, a sheriff, or an outlaw? For we all must be something.

The Boxer

I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest

When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of a railway station, running scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know

Lie-la-lie ...

Asking only workman's wages I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

Lie-la-lie ...

Then I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone
Going home, where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me
Leading me, going home

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame
'I am leaving, I am leaving'
But the fighter still remains

Lie-la-lie ...


The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

When Liberty Valance rode to town the womenfolk would hide, they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around the men would step aside
'cause the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting straight and fast
He was mighty good

From out of the East a stranger came, a law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the West would need to tame a troubled land
'cause the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting straight and fast
He was mighty good

Many a man would face his gun and many a man would fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all

The love of a girl can make a man stay on when he should go, stay on
Just trying to build a peaceful life where love is free to grow
But the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last, a law book was no good

Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd return that fateful night, oh that night
When nothing she said could keep her man from going out to fight
From the moment a girl gets to be full grown the very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other, only one returns

Everyone heard two shots ring out
A shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all