Footsteps on the Ceiling

I write songs for Lee Ann, my lovely long-suffering wife, usually around the Christmas holiday time so that I can have an extra present for her. It's something of a tradition, mixed with the occasional substitution of a poem or a set of poems. I wrote this one, I think, last year--maybe the year before, but I really do like it and I think if you stretch your imagination a little the way it scans does suggest a melody. Add your own to

Footsteps on the Ceiling
by Scott Merrick

I had a dream last night
You were holding me tight.
It was our very first night
Everything was all right.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
No one said the words "I love
you."

I awoke with a feeling.
My senses were reeling.
My world was healing.
Everything was me and you.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
No one said the words "I love
you."

Instrumental break

I want to dream tonight
I am holding you tight.
It's our very first night,
and everything's all right.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
I look at you and say  "I love
you."

I had a dream last night
You were holding me tight.
It was our very first night
Everything was all right.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
No one said the words "I love
you."

Only Time

Only Time,
Scott Merrick, April 4, 2012

I'd like to call my mother.
I'd love to call my dad.
I would love to call the little brother
whom only recently I had.
I'd love to call some dear old friends
who can't pick up the phone--
oh god, oh god, am I not feeling
more and more alone...

I can still call my big brother
and laugh about the past,
but I'm pretty sure that option
will not last indefinitely.
When he's gone, or I am gone,
that's clearly all she wrote.
Our father used to say that
and I'm just now taking note.

So hang in there big brother
We could last 30 more years.
That's a bucketload of laughter
and several boatloads full of tears.
But it's not about how long we last,
it's all about how well,
and one thing we know for certain:
Only time will tell.

Only time will tell.

This One Will Grow--Walkin' Shoes

Said all that we have to say
We have nothin' more to lose.
Sure looks like a pretty day,
Hand me down my walkin' shoes
Hand me down my walkin' shoes

Road ahead is ending now
Right or left I have to choose.
Doesn't matter anyhow,
Hand me down my walkin' shoes
Hand me down my walkin' shoes

I'll take the dog, you get the cat,
I don't win and you don't lose.
This is that and that was that,
Hand me down my walkin' shoes
Hand me down my walkin' shoes

Buyer's Edge

I was thinking about my dear departed dad this Fathers Day morning while walking the purebred Tennessee Black Dawg, MacGuyver. This just popped into my head during the mile or so walk, and in my head I hear it played on the banjo with a voice like Dougie Maclean's (or mine, which is very different from Dougie's ) singing it. Searching for a picture, I came up with this great one at The Consumerist website, but I don't have rights to share it but I'll just link to it. A great article , too, very much to the point. I share instead a charcoal sketch I did decades ago from a photo of my dad (that's an Antonin Artaud poem with it--yes I was a poser bohemian). I have yet to put a melody to this but it scans pretty nicely, so read it aloud singsong-like, or sing it yourself to a melody you invent. I share:

Buyer's Edge

By Scott Merrick

Daddy sold country stores
machines to keep things cool,
drove Tennessee backroads
while we were all in school.
Those backwoods local groceries
had meters I am told,
they plugged and plugged with quarters
to keep their foodstuffs cold.
And when he left my mother
who was never to let him go,
his boss, my mother's father,
took him off the road.
My dad took to selling cars
each and every day
He worked every workday of his life
and not just for the pay.
His used-car salesman's secret
I'll share with you today:
The buyer's edge in any deal
is the one who will walk away.

And my daddy surely had it

until his dying day.

the buyer's edge in any deal

is the one who will walk away.

My Poppy kept bird dogs

and they were not their pets.

Working dogs are different,

their lives by their work set

He took me out to buy a dog

to a farm one day.

The price too high he made to go

but the farmer pleaded with him to stay.

That blue tick hound became his best

and I learned again that day:

The buyer's edge in any deal

is the one who will walk away.

My daddy surely had it

up until his dying day

The buyer's edge in any deal

is the one who will walk away. 

The buyer's edge in any deal

is the one who will walk away. 

The buyer's edge in any deal is the one who will walk away. 

Buyer's Edge by Scott Merrick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License .

Footsteps on the Ceiling

I write songs for Lee Ann, my lovely long-suffering wife, usually around the Christmas holiday time so that I can have an extra present for her. It's something of a tradition, with the occasional substitution of a poem or a set of poems. I wrote this one, I think, last year--maybe the year before, but I really do like it and I think if you stretch your imagination a little the way it scans does suggest a melody. Add your own to

Footsteps on the Ceiling
by Scott Merrick

I had a dream last night
You were holding me tight.
It was our very first night
Everything was all right.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
No one said the words "I love
you."

I awoke with a feeling.
My senses were reeling.
My world was healing.
Everything was me and you.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
No one said the words "I love
you."

Instrumental break

I want to dream tonight
I am holding you tight.
It's our very first night,
and everything's all right.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
I look at you and say  "I love
you."

I had a dream last night
You were holding me tight.
It was our very first night
Everything was all right.

Footsteps on the ceiling above
No one said the words "I love
you."

Tin Man

I always thought this might make a nice rock song, heavy metal or maybe punk. One folk iteration is included on "Scott Merrick's Songs for Alaska, Featuring the Last Frontier Band." I wrote this one as the result of yet another romantic connection attempt: Life is full of them, if we're lucky. I extrapolated it all into a Wizard of Oz settiing and got:

Wizard
by Scott Merrick

tin man lookin' for a ticker again
settled when a lady wearing knickers come in
he gave her all his metal but she wanted his soul
he said i'd like to stay but you're forcing me to to away

pretty lady looking for a cowardly lion
she'd like to find a young 'un but she's taking her time
she'd love to fall in love but he's too sober to fall
she started drinking vodka when her whiskey bottle
all went dry

where's that wizard, they said he'd be here
we're out in the woods, there ain't nobody near
if i was where i wanted i wouldn't be here
'cause we're out in the woods and these trees
are acting queer.

funny lookin' scarecrow told me which way to go
he acted kinda weird so i guess he should know
toto's gettin' squirrelly and these shoes are too big
a freaky witchy lady said she'd show me soon a trick or two

where's that wizard, they said he'd be here

we're out in the woods, there ain't nobody near

if i was where i wanted i wouldn't be here

'cause we're out in the woods and these trees

are acting queer...

Even If I Did

Released "musicnowords" on "Still Waiting," I am fond of the simplicity here. Hope you like

Even If I Did
by Scott Merrick

i never meant to hurt you baby,
just to find the love you hid.
i never meant to hurt you baby,
even if i did.

i never meant to lie to you baby,
just to bend the truth a bit.
i never meant to lie to you baby,
even if i did.

love's colors change their hues,
love looks the same.
love does not win or lose:
love is the game.

i never meant to love you baby,
just to see if we would fit.
i never meant to love you baby,
even if i did

(instrumental bridge)

love's colors change their hues,

love looks the same.

love will not win or lose:

love is the game.

i never meant to love you baby,

just to see if we would fit.

i never meant to love you baby,

even if i did