Early Music

Words and music: Alvah Allen
Performed by: Alvah Allen
(No audio recording of this song exists)

(capo 2 frets)

Lyrics:

Well, I’m her man for now, so I should know
That she goes wherever the mail goes
I can’t stop her wanderin’ to and fro
She goes wherever the mail goes

My friends seen her out as far as Indrio
She goes wherever the mail goes
Damn the rain, damn the sleet, damn the fog and damn the snow
She goes wherever the mail goes

If east is east or west is west
Man, I don’t care
If she keeps the devil busy
on the broad throughfare

Well, I’m her man for now, so I should know
That she goes wherever the mail goes
I can’t stop her wanderin’ to and fro
She goes wherever the mail goes

If east is east or west is west
Man, I don’t care
If she keeps the devil busy
on the broad throughfare

Well, I’m gona mail this song right back to me
And sit don here a’waitin’ on her sweet delivery

Words and music: Alvah Allen (song lyrics, written in the early 1990s)
Performed by: Alvah Allen

Lyrics:

Estrellita
Come on and rise
My ship adrift on
A river of sighs

Estrellita
Impatient I
Waste the day
Awaiting the night

Estrellita
The clocks don’t care
I was a-hiding
everywhere

Estrellita

Unchained Melody (lyrics by Hy Zaret)
Sweet Business on Nueces words and music: Alvah Allen (song lyrics, written in 1993)
Performed by: Alvah Allen

Lyrics:

(Unchained Melody)

Oh my love, my darling
I’ve hungered for your touch
The long, lonely nights
Time goes by so slowly
and time can do so much
Are you still mine?

I need your love, I need your love
God speed your love to me.

_________

(Sweet Business on Nueces)

Well, I got me a woman to answer my phone
But now when we start in loving, baby
Ain’t nobody home
There ain’t nobody home

And I got such sweet business on Nueces
Such sweet business on Nueces

Well, I thought our dog was dead, you know,
I could not hear her barking
But I looked across the meadow
and there she was a meadow larking
There she was one o’clocking.

And I got such sweet business on Nueces
Such sweet business on Nueces

Well, she thought she was Johnny Reb seceding from the union
But went up to Appomattox
We cleared up that confusion, cleared up that confusion.

And I got such sweet business on Nueces
Such sweet business on Nueces

Well, her house got a fence you know, but it ain’t got no gate
When she says, ‘come on in, darling,’ Yeah, I don’t hesitate, I don’t hesitate.

And I got such sweet business on Nueces
Such sweet business on Nueces

__________

(Unchained Melody)

Time goes by so slowly
and time can do so much
Are you still mine?

Words and music: Alvah Allen
Written in Austin or right after Alvah returned to Jax from Austin, circa 1992
There is no recording of Alvah singing this, but Ward’s version can be heard here on the new release, In a Spree Across the South.

Lyrics:

Well, me and Ernie and Grover
got to talking it over
and we’re headed down the block
on the next steamroller
we don’t care where we go
joking with the Chicanos
and trying to avoid flattening children

I told my fellow jailbird
“You see it went like this
I moved out to Texas
and got me an accomplice
well, she wasn’t much for sleeping
but she did possess
a Veronica Lake kind of drowsiness

She said, “Let’s save gas, baby, let’s carpool
first you can take me by your bank
and then I’ll take you to school”
She said, “I’d never ask you to leave me
but I wish that you would” and
“I don’t know what’s got you, son,
but it’s got you good”

And now she’s five months pregnant
and six months gone
I got my beer in my hand
I got my cigarette going
she says she’s gonna marry him
she’s drifting off to sleep again
I always dreamed in black and white,
she always dreamed in crinoline
I ain’t been doing a lot of talking since leaving

Well, it’s a sad tale, but I’ll try and recount it
I started living in the ledger
with my father’s accountant
he said, “Your calculations are a little off
you’re developing a nasty cough
and your golf game don’t really
seem to be improving”

Now it’s just me and Mrs. Marple
on the big blue marble
we’re working out the mysteries
and digging up the plain-to-sees
she says, “You look like Poirot,
a little like Hercules, although”
“surely, Mrs. Marple, you must be joking”

And now she’s five months pregnant
and six months gone
I got my beer in my hand
I got my cigarette going
she says she’s gonna marry him
she’s drifting off to sleep again
I always dreamed in black and white,
she always dreamed in crinoline
I ain’t been doing a lot of talking since leaving

Well, there’s another detail
that bears relating
first we moved in together
and then we started dating
I ended up loving
she ended up not equivocating
she said, “that’s not singing
you’re doing, son, that’s compensating”

They can call me the albatross,
but I don’t care
you know it only reminds me of Baudelaire
he said, “That bird’s pathetic on the deck
but you should see him in the air”

And now she’s five months pregnant
and six months gone
I got my beer in my hand
I got my cigarette going
she says she’s gonna marry him
she’s drifting off to sleep again
I always dreamed in black and white,
she always dreamed in crinoline
I ain’t been doing a lot of talking since leaving

But now I’m staying in the cupboard
with my best friend’s lover
and I’d invite her to tea
just to see what’s become of me,
but there’s something in the sugar
and my best friend’s lover says,
“Why don’t you try my aunt Liz’s recipe,
she said stop stirring, stop stirring,
stop stirring, start listening”

Words and music: Alvah Allen
Performed by: Alvah Allen (song lyrics written in the early 1990’s)

Lyrics:

Well, the leaves just can’t stay on the trees
They’ve been blowing around for centuries
It kinda sound like you and me
It’s my favorite kind of catastrophe.

Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.

Well, it’s raining all over the Hundred Acre Wood
And all God’s chillens going down in the flood
Like a cartoon actor almost persuaded
I gotta love you baby when you get animated.

Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.

Well, they ain’t got you and they cain’t get me
Baby, let’s drag down the economy
Ain’t shipping nothing overseas
We got sleepy little industries.

Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.
Ain’t no reason about it.

Words and music: Alvah Allen
Performed by: Alvah Allen (lyrics circa 1990)

Performed by Alvah Allen & Amy Slaughter:

Lyrics:

It starts out just like Fitzcarraldo in
the summer’s end.
Daddy set about hiring
the hired man.
Clear the trees and cut a path down to
the river’s bend.

Oh child, oh children.
Nothing left to do but fade away.
Nothing left to do but fade away.
Nothing left to do but fade away.

Sailing the house down river.
Sailing the house down river.
Sailing the house down river.

We’ve been here since ‘94
4 or before
I can still remember how we spent
Our summers then.

Oh child, oh children.
Nothing left to do but fade away.
Nothing left to do but fade away.
Nothing left to do but fade away.

Sailing the house down river.
Sailing the house down river.
Sailing the house down river.

Words and music: Alvah Allen
Performed by: Alvah Allen (circa early 1990’s)

Lyrics:

Could you kindly drop me home?
Could we finally say good night?
On its way for years, it suddenly appeared
In my eyes, like traveling light.

Why must it be like this?
Baby, why you drink like that?
I’ll have to take the fifth
And go ’round back.

Well, the bloom is on the ground
And the writing’s on the wall
On its way for years, it suddenly appeared
In her eyes, like traveling light.

Why must it be like this?
Baby, why you drink like that?
I’ll have to take the fifth
And go ’round back.

Well, me and my drunk chauffeur
Couldn’t find no place to turn around
And me and my drunk chauffeur
Burning every bridge in town.

Why must it be like this?
Baby, why you drink like that?
I’ll have to take the fifth
And go ’round back.

Could you kindly drop me home?
Could we finally say good night?
On its way for years, it suddenly appeared
In my eyes, like traveling light.
In my eyes, like traveling light.

Words and music: Alvah Allen
Performed by: Alvah Allen

Lyrics:

Take her to church functions
And the women’s club luncheon
Develop her natural talent for macrame

Make her memorize the stars
But don’t lend her the car
And keep my baby out the bars while I’m away

Keep my baby company
And keep my baby lonely
And keep my baby warm, yeah

Keep my baby warm
And keep my baby tired
And keep my baby warm, yeah

The California days and the California nights
And the car went on through the night
The soul I’m gone but the days go on
And the (?) feel alright

Keep my baby company
And keep my baby lonely
And keep my baby warm, yeah

Take her to church functions
And the women’s club luncheon
Develop her natural talent for macrame

Make her memorize the stars
Don’t lend her the car
And keep my baby out the bars while I’m away