Wednesday, November 8, 2017

This is a perfect and great song



Kris Kristofferson takes the listener along for a universal walk of separation and alienation through smell, sight and hearing and places the events on a day which is usually one in which families gather. There are no 'forced words" interrupting the flow and the mood of estrangement Kristofferson immediately creates remains throughout.

Well I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head, that didn't hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad
So I had one more for dessert

Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day

I'd smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and the songs I'd been pickin'
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playin' with a can that he was kicking

Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone's fryin' chicken
And Lord, it took me back to somethin'
That I'd lost somewhere, somehow along the way

On a Sunday morning sidewalk
I'm wishing Lord that I was stoned
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone

And there's nothin' short of dyin'
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleepin' city sidewalk
And Sunday mornin' comin' down

In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughin' little girl that he was swingin'
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs they were singin'

Then I headed down the street
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'
And it echoed through the canyon 
Like the disappearin' dreams of yesterday

On a Sunday morning sidewalk
I'm wishing Lord that I was stoned
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone

And there's nothin' short of dyin'
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of a sleepin' city sidewalk
And Sunday mornin' comin' down 

A Chris Kokesh/LJ Booth update

"Folk duo to harmonize on original songs at heritage center" -- Sheryl DeVore

More on and about Joni Mitchell

"Joni Mitchell: Fear of a Female Genius" -- Lindsay Zoladz