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Six Of One
(Fossil 1301)
All songs © 2001 Joel Mabus
all rights reserved -- do not post this material to another website!
Scroll down or click on title to read the lyrics.
To learn more about this CD, click here
To order this or any album, click here
School For Love
Careless Love
My Ramona
Old Smokey
Storybook Romance
The Cowboy's Barb'ry Allen
Little Baby Lindberg
Old Baggum
Virus On The Town
Balm In Gilead
Back Porch Of Glory
Don't Let Your Deal Go Down
School For Love
words and music ©2001 Joel Mabus
Junior’s in love, and he’s standing in the
corner
Sipping Pepsi Cola, just a watching the dance
She’s the queen of the prom, and everybody knows it
If only, if only, she would send him a glance
If there was only a school for love
If there was only a class that taught the ABC’s
Of trust and devotion
Lust and emotion
If there was only a school for love
Sittin’ in the back seat of his dad’s Eldorado
He’s taking it off – she’s keeping it hid
She says no – He says “You would if you loved me”
She says “I don’t know” – He says “You would if you did.”
[chorus]
There’s a guy in the street screaming at his woman
It’s two in the morning – he ain’t wearing no shoes
They both been drinking – they don’t know what they’re saying
My, oh my, they sound so confused
[chorus]
Go to the black board
Write down
the rules
Call all the children
And send
‘em to school
Now he’s wearing his best suit – she’s wearing
dark glasses
Got all of their papers in a neat little pile
The judge is too busy to pay much attention
And only the lawyers are wearing a smile
[chorus]
Careless Love
Traditional, arranged and adapted by Joel Mabus
Love, oh Love oh my Careless Love
Love, oh Love oh Careless Love
Love, oh Love oh my Careless Love
Just see what love has done to me
It’s once I wore my Apron Low [as before]
I could harldly keep you from my door
Now my apron strings don’t pin
You pas my door, but you won’t come in
I love my mom and poppa too
But I’d leave them both to go with you
What, oh what would mama say
When she learns I’ve gone astray
She’ll tear her hair and bite her tongue
She did just the same when she was young
My Ramona
words and music ©2001 Joel Mabus
I don’t suppose somebody knows where I can find
Ramona
My Ramona mon ami
I been searching High and Low from Maine to Arizona
Where can that sweet woman be?
My, my, Ramona -- Don’t you love me anymore?
I’ll be sweatin’ till I get an answer from Ramona
My Ramona, mon amour
I just want to be the one to marry my Ramona
Please, Ramona, marry me.
Last thing that she said was that “I’ll write or else I’ll phone ya”
I’m still waiting patiently
My, my Ramona -- I’ll go knockin’ door to door
If you see her, tell her I’m the feller crazy for Ramona
My Ramona, mon amour
Old Smokey
Traditional, arranged and adapted by Joel Mabus
On top of Old Smokey all covered with snow
I lost my true lover by courting too slow
Now courting is a pleasure -- Parting is a grief
But a False hearted lover is worse than a thief
For a thief he may rob you and take what you save
But a false hearted lover will lead you to your grave
Oh they’ll hug you and kiss you and tell you more
lies
Than the cross ties on the railroad or the stars in the sky
I’m gonna build me a log cabin on a mountain so
high
So I can see my darlin’ as she goes passin’ by
Storybook Romance
words and music ©2001 Joel Mabus
Our story book romance
Could take a page from Hans
Christian Anderson or maybe Brothers Grimm
No writer out in Hollywood
Could dream up something half as good
As Charming Prince for her
Or Beauty Sleeping next to him
But our palace is a castle made of sand
And something’s not so grand
In our never never land
There’s something in this story I don’t like
Am I that little Dutch Boy with his finger in the dike?
I only came to play -- Beside the Zuider Zee
And now it seems disaster’s bound to strike
There’s something in this story I don’t like
There’s something in this tale that’s awfully
wrong
Am I the fighter pilot here to bring down your King Kong
I circle central park -- Hunting monsters in the dark
Why can’t your monkeys stay where they belong
There’s something in this tale that’s awfully wrong
Our fairy tale affair was happy once upon a time
But Jack & Jill fell down that hill too steep for them to
climb
There’s something in this ending I don’t buy
You’re off to see the wizard with a rainbow in your eye
Believe it if you can -- but your wizard’s just a man
And my balloon is ready set to fly
So step off and find your own way
Happily ever after someday
But now its time to say goodbye
Cowboy’s Barb’ry Allen
Traditional, arranged and adapted by Joel Mabus
Up Medicine Bow, where I was born
There lived a fair maid dwellin’
Made all the boys ride saddle-sore
And her name was Barb’ry Allen
Cold hearted Barb’ry Allen
It was in the merry month of May
All the green buds, they were swellin’
Young Billy rode up to the west country
To be courtin’ Barb’ry Allen
Come a courtin’ Barb’ry Allen
But come next year in the month of June
All the jaybirds they were crowin’
Young Billy on his deathbed lay
Just for lovin’ Barb’ry Allen
Cold hearted Barb’ry Allen
Well, he sent for her, just to say goodbye
But she took her time in comin’
And all she said when she threw the covers back
“Young man I think you’re a-dyin’
Looks like you’ll be a-dyin’”
And then she rode on back to camp
All the cattle they were lowin’
And with every step they seemed to say
“Cold hearted Barb’ry Allen
Cold hearted Barb’ry Allen
“Oh father, father, go dig my grave
Go dig it long and narrow
Young Billy died for me today
I’ll die for him tomorrow
I’ll die for him tomorrow.”
Well we buried her up on Chimney Rock
We put young Bill beside her
And from his grave grew a red red rose
From hers a thorny briar
From hers a thorny briar
And there they grew in a lover’s knot
Till they could grow no higher
And there they stand to this very day
The red rose round the briar
The red rose round the briar
[reprise first verse]
Little Baby Lindberg
words and music ©2001 Joel Mabus
Little Baby Lindberg never saw it coming
He was just like you
You’ll be snatched away — some fine day
And there’s not much you can do
Samson and Delilah had “intimacy issues”
They were just like you
When she spills the beans — to those Philistines
There’s not much you can do
[cho]
‘Cause you’re screwed
Yes, you’re screwed
You’re so screwed
Ahh, you’re screwed
Elvis in the bathroom had a little “problem”
He was just like you
When you’re all alone — on your throne
There’s not much you can do
Nixon in the white house recording all his secrets
He was just like you
When your pants are down — they’ll turn up the sound
And there’s not much you can do
[CHORUS]
John Jacob Astor boarding the Titanic
He was just like you
When you pay first class — and it bites your ass
There’s not much you can do
Lincoln at the theater never caught the last act
He was just like you
When your war’s been won — but its not quite done
There’s not much you can do
[CHORUS]
Little Baby Lindberg
Never saw it coming…
Old Baggum
Traditional, arranged and adapted by Joel Mabus
Old Baggum went out for a ride
Cut him down cut him down
Baggum went out for a ride
Catch him if you can
Baggum went out for a ride
Sword and a pistol by his side
Cut him down – cut him down
Catch him if you can
There is a wild hog in these woods
(x3 etc)
Kills strong men and drinks their blood
Baggum found him in his den
Chewin’ the bones of a fresh killed man
His tusk was red and drippin’ blood
Turned on Baggum where he stood
Baggum raised his sabre high
Swore by love he’d kill or die
Did you win or did you lose
Or is it now your bones he chews
There is a wild hog in these woods
Kills our men and drinks their blood
A Virus On The Town
words and music ©2001 Joel Mabus
There’s a story going round
About a virus on the town
It can strike at anytime or anyone
How your hand goes to your heart
When you hear the first report
Somebody snapped, somebody got a gun
In the schoolyard – in the
office
In the church or on a train
Here we go, here we go again
Interview the neighbors, the lovers and the friends
The characters keep changing but the story never ends
Call the doctors – call the priest
Call the counselors of grief
Point the camera at the man who wears the frown
For the camera will not tell
Anything it cannot sell
And the headline is – a virus on the town
In a famine or a feast
It’s the nature of the beast
To prey upon the weak and the diseased
Now there’s an odor in the air
You can smell it everywhere
The taste of gun smoke on the breeze
And the fingers point to
Hollywood
It’s a storyteller’s crime
Oh, the lobbyists are working overtime
For the ammunition makers
And the congressmen they buy
They’re selling you “protection” and the pistols
multiply
There’s a virus on the land
You can hold it in your hand
You can fill the chamber with another round
You can pull the hammer back
And prepare for the attack
There’s no safety with a virus on the town.
Balm In Gilead
Traditional, arranged and adapted by Joel Mabus
[Chorus]
There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin sick soul
In this old world of tribulation
With anger everywhere
I find a place of peace and freedom
With words of love -- with words of prayer
[Chorus]
Sometimes I feel so discouraged
This life seems all in vain
But when I sing, this holy spirit
Fills my soul again
[Chorus]
I may not preach like John or Peter
I may not pray like Paul
But I can tell how love can heal us
How love can heal us one and all
[Chorus]
Back
Porch Of Glory
words and music ©2001 Joel Mabus
In the songs that’s sung of heaven and the stories
that are told
We’ll be wearing robes of white and the slippers made of gold
But all I need is dungarees and I won’t wear shoes at all
When I’m sitting on the back porch of glory
[chorus]
Save me a place …. on the back porch of glory
With a hound dog and a fiddle and a huckleberry pie
No room for my soul … In a mansion made of gold
I’ll meet you on the back porch of glory
A soft breeze is blowing up the hill and through the
pines
The back door’s always open where the honeysuckle twines
The banjo always plays in tune and never breaks a string
When you’re pickin’ on the back porch of glory
[chorus]
Mama’s frying chicken like only mama could
And Grandpa’s in his rocker with a piece of whittlin’ wood
And daddy plays the fiddle while the mockingbirds all sing
It’s a picture from the back porch of glory
[chorus]
Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down
Traditional, arranged and adapted by Joel Mabus
Last night as I lay on my pillow
Last night as I lay in my bed
My thoughts run back to my old mother dear
And the last kind words she said
[chorus]
Don’t let your deal go down
Don’t let your deal go down
Don’t let your deal go down
Till you’ve seen your last go ‘round
I been out to Boston and Nashville Tennessee
I’ve played in sunny San Antone
Any old place I take my guitar
I call it home sweet home
[chorus]
Fry me a chicken when I’m hungry
Pour me some cider when I’m dry
Peel me a greenback when it’s time to pay the bill
And send me to heaven when I die
[chorus]
Last night as I lay on my pillow
Last night as I lay in my bed
My thoughts run back to my old mother dear
And the last kind words she said
[chorus]
© 2001 Joel Mabus
Last revised: January 24, 2015
.