Honey Come Dance With Me
Lyrics
by Patricia Luce Chapman
With illustrations by Krisztina Lee Botond
I found that I was a songwriter about the same time that I discovered country music. I had been, and remain, an opera buff. How was it possible that the same person who could shiver with joy at Aida and Madame Butterfly could also fall apart laughing or crying at All My Ex’s Live in Texas, or Love Me Tender?
Well, I came to realize, country is a kind of abbreviated opera, while opera is a kind of expanded country. Both have great stories and heady emotions. Country gives more fun in its surprising plays on words, while opera has more catch-your-breath beauty; I guess I like laughter and music and moving stories.
Lyrics must accommodate specific structural and rhythmic requirements, while saying something in an unusual way that rhymes. Wild wonderful creativity must be disciplined and controlled. The process is challenging. An idea can percolate for years before it emerges as a finished lyric. But when the pieces fall in place—when that one key word is found—there’s an overwhelming joyous rush.
Some of my lyrics are pop or blues in addition to country; some are novelty or theater. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed writing them!
Dance With Lightning
I was watching the sky during a particularly dramatic thunderstorm; the lightning was leaping all over the heavens. My goodness, I though, the lightning is having fun, it’s dancing! But if you try to dance with it, it’ll be too hot, and you’ll get burned. Time passed, and then one morning I woke up with the line “dancing up a storm” in my mind. “Dance with Lightning was born. Christopher Blum came up with a great idea for the ending, and Jeff Severson wrote some really fun music to get us dancing! (This lyric was a prizewinner.)
Patricia Luce Chapman, whose article “To Bernard Berenson with Love” appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of the Social Register Observer, is also the author of a volume of lyrics, Honey Come Dance With Me, including those reproduced here.
Most of these lyrics together with their respective melodies can be heard or purchased directly from Mrs. Chapman or from www.Broadjam.com, as albums or as individual CDs. Those wishing to buy her book or one or more of her three CDs can do so by contacting her directly (patchacha@me.com, or www.patricialucechapman.com) or at www.Amazon.com.
ChapmanWorks 2012, 112 pp.
$12.95, paperback.
ISBN: 978-0976520733
Dixie was dancing up a storm when I walked into the bar
Her hair as red as sunset, her eyes were like live wires
Well I wanted her, I wanted her, I asked her for a dance
She looked me over, tossed her head, and said
Not a chance
She was lightning, she was wildfire in the night
Wildfire
She was lightning like fireworks hot and bright
She shook her hips, blew me a kiss
Said, boy, you’ve got to learn
If you try to dance with lightning, baby
You’ll get burned
We I had totally lost it, I didn’t care if I got hurt
Just stood there praying she’d want me for dessert
Oh that short red leather skirt, red heels a mile high
She took a step forwards, leaned far back and that
Skirt rode up her thigh
[Refrain]
Dixie stepped back way too far, her heel caught on a wire
She fell into the drum set, started up a fire
The neon signs exploded, the bottles popped their tops
She sat hard on that sawdust floor, somebody called the cops
[Refrain]
She was lightning, she was lightning
Gonna Run Away
There come times in life when every day brings a new catastrophe or insult or unsolvable conflict, and you yearn to break away to a place just like the one described here. This lyric, basically intended for abused women, or men, can be adapted to other hard circumstances.
I’ve got to get away to find a life
Can’t take this treatment any more
Have to escape without him seeing me
Maybe slip out through the doggie door?
Gonna run to sunshine and to flowers
All the way to soft ocean air
Where the seagulls idle in the great blue sky
Far away from coldness and despair
Gonna run to music in the village heart
All the way to sweetness in the eyes
Where laughter rolls in like an ocean wave
Far from the city’s bitter cries
Gonna be a runaway, I’m gonna run away
From this hard place into a dream
Gonna be a runaway, gonna play each day away
Spreading happiness as thick as cream
So I’m pouring out the barrels full of tears
Burning boxes full of memories
Want a life clean as moonlight on the sand
Young as white spray dancing with the breeze
[Refrain]
I’m heading off and baby I’ll keep going
‘Til I get to where I’m safe and free
[Refrain]
Gonna run run away, gonna play play away
Run away play away, run run run run play away
Honey Come Dance With Me
This lyric was such fun to write, even though very difficult. It began as a Charleston: note the three rhymes in each two lines of verse. The inspiration was my mother, Edna Lee Booker Potter (pictured at left), who had a twinkle in her eyes and a stubborn chin. Krisztina “Tina” Lee Botond, her granddaughter and my daughter, who created the illustrations for the lyrics published here, made an important rewrite to the chorus. I learned a vital lesson when noted author/critic/songwriter Jason Blume at a BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) songwriters’ seminar read the lyric. I had written in the second verse, “(she) got a job in town.” Jason: “What was her job?” Me: “I dunno, she just had a job.” Jason: “Pin down her job and you’ve a strong song.” Three days later I got it: she worked AT THE SALON. Of course! The additional detail makes the heroine become so much more real.
In Louisville old folks still tell
About a pretty country belle
Who had a glow that caught the beaus
Made them feel like Romeos
Ah, peaches and cream, she was the dream
Of men from Butte to New Orleans
As spirit bright, full of fight
She waltzed and two-stepped every night
Calling
Honey come dance with me, dance with me hon
We’ve got time for one more dance
And let’s have a laugh or two
Sure is fun being with you
Oh honey, come dance with me, dance with me hon
She learned to swing, sang along with Bing
A new man said she was the prettiest thing
She married John, worked at the salon
Evenings they’d rock with the radio on
Some years were rough, but there was love enough
They discoed even when times got tough
Fire and grit, she wouldn’t quit
When her hair grew white and she wasn’t so quick
Calling
She’s in pain now, needs a cane
Holds her head high just the same
Her husband’s gone, was his name John?
Now she drifts back to the Grand Cotillion
Calling
[Refrain]
Honey come dance with me, dance with me
Dance with me, dance with me, hon
Oh honey, come dance
My Heart Attack Just Walked In
Two lines of an Emily Dickinson poem that I love have stayed with me for years. They are slightly altered in this lyric. Can you find them? Jeff Severson wrote very unusual rocking music for this song. (This lyric was a prizewinner.)
Oh my heart attack just walked in
I thought I’d gotten over him
And it’s scary how he fires up my brain
And I become a yearning churning heart aflame
And oh he’s walking over to me
And my pulse jumps and my knees go weak
He Comes up, whispers my name
And I become a shaking quaking heart aflame
And oh, and oh
That stoplight flashing in my heart
And oh, and oh
That sudden thundering alarm
I don’t need no EKG to fill me in
My heart attack just walked in
I knew he was trouble from the get go
He electrified my libido
He used me and abused me
And treated me mean
So I ran away from that
Heartbreak machine
[Refrain]
Help me!
I need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!
Together Forever
My children and I were stunned when we saw this scene of snow geese on a Texas ranch. Like Janie in the song, our eyes filled with tears. I love how smoothly it adapted into a love story between a boy and girl. Bonnie Farris Nicholson’s beautiful chorus adds poignancy and power. (This lyric was the Lyric Winner at the UK 2011 International Songwriting Contest.)
MANJITH KAINICKARA
Me and Janey were walking on the farm
Late in November
I was trying to find a way
To tell her I’d love her forever
We stopped to watch the white snow geese
Flying high above the lake
Then someone took a shot at them
One bird spun out of place
Well the frightened geese flew off, but one
Dropped to the lake to die
We saw one other circle back
To float right by its side
And I held Janey, saying
That’s what I call true love
And our love will live forever
Sweet and true
Together forever with you
We’ll be together forever
I swear to you
Together forever with you
The sky grew dark, but the faithful bird
Swam close beside its mate
Keeping vigil as the dying bird
Laid its head down on the lake
As the moonlight shone on one lonely bird
Janey’s cheeks were wet
We knew that what we saw this night
We could never ever forget
And I held Janey, saying
[Refrain]
We'll All Come Home
A New York tower is now rising high again. I hope the song will soon be obsolete. I can’t sing it without crying. Dedicated to the protectors and defenders of our American homeland.
When a tree finds a young boy’s kite
Across the fields to the candlelight
Children’s stories on a winter’s night
Then we’ll all come home
And when the valley is hushed with snow
From off the gray sea a cool wind blows
Ripening corn in long green rows
Then we’ll all come home
When the young girls are skipping on sidewalks
Covered with hopscotch and autumn leaves
When the young boys are fishing from boats
On the rivers we never wanted to leave
When through the trees we see an evening star
And young lovers walk on a windblown sand bar
And a boy kisses a girl in a beat up old car
Then we’ll all come home
When New York towers rise high again
To tell the tales of heroic men
And our homeland feels like home again
Then we’ll all come home
When New York towers rise high again
To tell the tales of heroic men
And our homeland feels like home again
Then we’ll all come home
We’ll all come home
The People-Repellent Blues: If You Ain't Breathing, You Ain't Smoking
Well now I know all about this subject, having been a happy smoker until asthma nearly killed me a few years ago. I was muttering to some equally nicotine-addicted music friends that it’s when you die that you can finally stop smoking. It’s just so hard to stop; and, I sort of joked, “if you ain’t breathing, you ain’t smoking.” They asked me to use that in a lyric and here it is. It’s a silly lyric but uncomfortably true. For anyone interested: sing it with any blues chords and act out exaggerated sound effects! I performed it at the Aransas Pass, Texas, “Rialto Theater” on an open mike night, and the audience broke up laughing.
My sweet baby left me, said I smelled like a stable
But Sweet Baby, I said, you know I tried to stop smoking but wasn’t able
Phew, phew, phew
She said, you’re stinking cause you’re smoking
If you ain’t stinking, I’m rethinking
My sweet baby left me, said I coughed up too much spit
But Sweet Baby, I said, you know I tried to quit
Ptuh, ptuh, ptuh
She said, you’re spitting cause you’re smoking
If you ain’t spitting, maybe I ain’t splitting
The blues, the blues
I got the people-repellent blues
Yeah I guess
I got the people-repellent blues
My sweet baby left me, said she was tired of my wheeze
But Sweet Baby, I said, you know I gotta breathe
Gasp, gasp, gasp
She said, you’re wheezing cause you’re smoking
If you ain’t wheezing, maybe I ain’t leaving
My sweet baby left me, said she can’t stand to hear me cough
OK, OK Sweet Baby, I said, I’ll have just one laaast little puff
Cough, cough, cough
She said, if you’re smoking you’re coughing
If you ain’t coughing, maybe I ain’t measuring your coffin
Phew, ptuh, gasp, cough
If you ain’t breathing, you ain’t smoking
The blues, the blues
I got the people-repellent blues
Yeah I guess
I got the people-repellent blues