Es gibt nur wenige Songs, die es wert sind, gehört zu werden. Ich rede jetzt nicht von den Top Ten, sondern von Songs, die ich in meinem Leben gehört und für hörenswert erachtet habe. Zum Einen, weil ich die Texte einfach genial finde, zum Andern, weil der Interpret genau zu dem Song paßt, oder eine Kombination aus beiden.

Der erste Titel ist ein Song, den der selige Helmut Qualtinger, stimmgewaltiger Österreicher aus Wien mit dem entsprechenden Schmäh in der unglaublich wandelbaren Stimme.
Bekannt wurde er durch seine Paraderolle, den Herrn Karl, einem opportunistischen Kleinbürger mit einem beschränkten Horizont, den er in vielen Aufnahmen darstellte.
Unvergessen auch sein 2-Personenstück „Der Menschheit Würde ist in Eure Hand gegeben“, in dem er zwei alternden Mimen die Stimme leiht. Im Jahre 1956 nahm er das nachstehende Stück auf, in einer unvergleichlichen Mischung aus Wienerisch und amerikanischem Englisch mit einer perfekt abgestimmten Musik.

Der Bundesbahnblues

Helmut Qualtinger

Now I’m going to sing for you that old Bundesbahnblues:

Oh I was travelling through this country, travelling with the Bundesbahn.
Ah geh wusch a geh wui.
I said, I was travilling through this country, with the doggone Bundesbahn.
Ah geh wusch a geh wui!
Taking along my baby – suddenly she was gone. Total verschwunden.

And now i’m looking for my baby, is’nt it a doggone shame.
Himmel fix no amal!
I said: I’m looking for my baby, is’nt it a doggone shame.
I said: Himmel fix no amal!
There is just the Fahrplan of the Bundesbahn to blame zu blöd!

Is she in Scheibbs, in Lunz, in Ybbs, in Schruns,
in Wulkaprodersdorf, in Attnang-Puchheim?
Is she in Mistelbach, in Stinkenbrunn,
in Zwettl or in lovely Wieselburg?
All I know, she’s gone and somewhere im g’scherten Jodelland, my poor baby.

Is she in Hadersdorf, in Weidlingau,
in Kaisermühlen, Gänserndorf, Amstetten?
Is she in Breitenfurt, in Klagenfurt,
in Ischl or in Fuschl or in Graz?
Tell me, where’s my baby or I am certainly going nuts, sunst wer i narrisch!

Is she in Oberlaa, is she in Unterlaa,
is she in Erlaa or is she in Laa an der Thaya? Dann schrei i Feuer!
Is she in Bruck an der Mur, an der Ybbs, an der Donau
or is she in Bruck an der Leitha and so weiter?
This is no Genuß, I sing the Bundesbahnblues for my baby.

I ask the Bahnhofsvorstand, I ask the Kassier,
I ask the man who sells the heisse Würstel.
I ask the Fahrdienstleiter, the man with the Beer,
I even ask the Putzfrau with the Bürstel.
But nobody could tell me, where my baby might be – not even Mr. Waldbrunner!

Since then I’m travilling through this country using still the Bundesbahn,
from Bludenz to Marchegg.
looking for my Baby from Braunau to St. Veit an der Glan,
but my baby is weg!
Wearing out my shoes. Singing the Bundesbahnblues.

Text/Musik: Gerhard Bronner

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Reunion war eine Band, die ein sogenanntes One Hit Wonder im Jahre 1974 hatten. Der Song kann für sich in Anspruch nehmen, die meisten Bands in einem Titel namentlich aufzuführen. Der Sänger muß eine unglaubliche Lunge gehabt haben.

Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)

Reunion

B.B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers
Lonnie Mack and twangin‘ Eddy, here’s my ring we’re goin‘ steady
Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire
Locomotion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction
Baby baby gotta gotta gimme gimme gettin‘ hotter
Sammy’s cookin‘, Lesley Gore and Ritchie Valens, end of story
Mahavishnu, fujiyama, kama-sutra, rama-lama
Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Rogers-Hart, Nilsson, Harry
Shimmy shimmy ko-ko bop and Fats is back and Finger Poppin‘

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

FM, AM, hits are clickin‘ while the clock is tock-a-tickin‘
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, I behold her, Rolling Stones and centerfoldin‘
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can’t stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, gotta swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stop and kick it

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Life is a rock but the radio . . .

Arthur Janov’s primal screamin‘, Hawkins, Jay and Dale and Ronnie
Kukla, Fran and Norma Okla Denver, John and Osmond, Donny
JJ Cale and ZZ Top and LL Bean and De De Dinah
David Bowie, Steely Dan and sing me prouder, CC Rider
Edgar Winter, Joanie Sommers, Osmond Brothers, Johnny Thunders
Eric Clapton, pedal wah-wah, Stephen Foster, do-dah do-dah
Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Surfer Girl and Little Honda
Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy
CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

Listen (remember) they’re playing our song

Rock it, sock it, Alan Freed me, Murray Kaufman, try to leave me
Fish, and Swim, and Boston Monkey, Make it bad and play it funky

(Wanna take you higher!)

By: Reunion
(Norman Dolph-Paul DiFranco-Joey Levine) 1974

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Tim Curry ist den meisten Menschen bekannt als Darsteller des Dr. Frank-N-Furter aus dem Film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sehr gut auch seine Darstellung des Clowns Pennywise in der Stephen-King-Verfilmung „Es“. Nur wenige kennen ihn als Musiker. Das Album Fearless aus dem Jahre 1979 enthielt den Titel „I do the Rock“, der hier vorgestellt wird.

I Do the Rock

Tim Curry

The Literature Verse

Edith Sitwell giving readings
14 Moscow road
Osbert giving champagne parties
Sachi’s got a cold
Gertrude’s hanging pictures
Alice is making tea
Me I do the only thing that still makes sense to me
I do the Rock
I do the Rock Rock

The Rock-Idols Verse

John and Yoko, farming beef
Raising protein quota
Sometimes they make love and art
Inside their Dakota
Rodney’s feeling sexy
Mick is really frightfully bold
Me I do the only thing that stops me growing old
I do the Rock
I do the Rock Rock

Well it’s stimulating

The Thinkers Verse

Solzhenitzin, feels exposed
Built a barbed wire prison
Nietzsche’s six feet under
But his baby’s still got rhythm
Einstein’s celebrating ten decades
But I’m afraid philosophy is too much
Responsibility for me
I do the Rock
I do the Rock Rock

The Sports Verse

Baby Ruth and Dizzy Dean
Best and Colin Caudre
Little Mo, Virginia Wade
Pistol Pete and O.J.
I always liked Di Maggio
and Rockne’s pretty Knute you know
I could never whack a ball with such velocity
I do the Rock
I do the Rock Rock

When I can get it, its stimulating, I’m a keen student

The Personalities Verse

Liz and Dick and Brit and Liza
Jaclyn Kate and Farrah
Meg and Roddy, John Travolta
Gov. Brown and Linda
Interview and People Magazine
Miss Rona and the Queen
It must be really frightful to attract publicity
I do the Rock myself

The Politicians Verse

Carter, Began and Sadat
Brezhnev, Teng and Castro
Everyday negotiate us closer to disastro
Idi Amin and the Shah
And Al Fatah is quite bizarre
I could never get the hang of ideology
I do the rock I do the Rock Rock

AD LIBS:

Sunshine, Sunshine
Well you can’t get enough of it man
Oh, we got the top down now
If you don’t have the top down, pull the top down
How often do you get a sunny day
Come to the rock, the rock will cure your ills, man
Stimulating, stimulating
(something about ‚thru the rear window,
you deserve it, man‘—just as well, perhaps,
to leave it alone.)
Or maybe it was: Been a really rough winter, man, ya deserve it, y’know.

UPDATED VERSE FROM TRACY ULLMAN SHOW 1989

Ronald Reagan’s quite upset,
Ollie’s been indicted.
Thatcher’s lowered taxes,
But the poor can’t get excited.
Gorbachev and Glasnost
Are the very latest thing.
But Afghans, Jews and Artists
Find it less encouraging.

by:Tim Curry 1979/1989

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Don McLean brachte 1971 auf seinem Album „American Pie“ den gleichnamigen Song heraus, der seitdem zu allerlei Rätselraten über den Text geführt hat. Ich will mich an den Spekulationen darüber nicht beteiligen. Es gibt diverse Websites, die entsprechendes Gedankengut verbreiten. Ich finde den Song einfach anrührend, weil er eine ganz bestimmte Melancholie und Traurigkeit hervorruft, die der heutigen Generation gänzlich abgeht. Gleiches gilt auch für den Song „Vincent“ auf diesem Album.

American Pie

Don McLean

A long, long time ago I can still remember
how that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance
and maybe they’d be happy for a while.
But February made me shiver with every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep I couldn’t take one more step.
I can’t remember if I’d cried when I read about his widowed bride,
but something touched me deep inside the day the music died.

So bye, bye, Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.
Them good ole boys were drinkin‘ whiskey and rye,
singin‘ this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

Did you write the book of love and do you have faith in God above?
If the Bible tells you so.
Now do you believe in Rock and Roll, can music save your mortal soul
and can you teach me how to dance real slow?
Well, I know that you’re in love with him ‚cause I saw you dancin‘ in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes, man I dig those Rhythm and Blues.
I was a lonely teenage broncin‘ buck with a pink carnation and a pick-up truck.
But I knew I was out of luck the day the music died.

I started singin‘ bye, bye, Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.
Them good ole boys were drinkin‘ whiskey and rye,
singin‘ this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

Now for the ten years we’ve been on our own,
and moss grows fat on a rollin‘ stone but that’s not how I used to be.
When the jester sang for the King and Queen
in a coat he borrowed from James Dean and a voice that came from you and me.
Oh, and while the King was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned, no verdict was returned.
And while Lennon read a book on Marx the Quartet practiced in the park
and we sang dirges in the dark the day the music died.

We were singin‘ bye, bye, Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.
Them good ole boys were drinkin‘ whiskey and rye,
singin‘ this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

Helter-skelter in the summer swelter the birds flew off with a fallout shelter
eight miles high and falling fast.
It landed foul on the grass, the players tried for a forward pass,
with the jester on the sidelines in a cast.
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
while Seargents played a marching tune
we all got up to dance but we never got the chance.
‚Cause the players tried to take the field the marching band refused to yield
do you recall what was revealed the day the music died.

We started singin‘ bye, bye, Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.
Them good ole boys were drinkin‘ whiskey and rye,
singin‘ this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

And there we were all in one place, a generation, lost in space.
With no time left to start again.
So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candle stick.
Cause fire is the devil’s only friend.
And as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell could break the Satan’s spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight the day the music died.

He was singin‘ bye, bye, Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.
Them good ole boys were drinkin‘ whiskey and rye,
singin‘ this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

I met a girl who sang the Blues and I asked her for some happy news.
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store where I heard the music years before.
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play.
And in the streets the children screamed, the lovers cried and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken, the church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most, the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost,
they caught the last train for the coast the day the music died.

And they were singin‘ bye, bye, Miss American Pie.
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.
Them good ole boys were drinkin‘ whiskey and rye,
singin‘ this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

by: Don McLean 1970

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Steppenwolf kennen die meisten wegen ihres Welthits „Born to be wild“, der durch den Soundtrack des Kultfilmes Easy Rider zu Weltruhm gelangte. Das Album „Monster“ aus dem Jahre 1969 enthielt den gleichnamigen Song, der sich kritisch mit den Vereinigten Staaten auseinandersetzt.

Monster

Steppenwolf

Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And ‚til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

The blue and grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war over
They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has it’s share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it’s protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it’s a monster and will not obey

(Suicide)
The spirit was freedom and justice
And it’s keepers seem generous and kind
It’s leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won’t pay it no mind
‚Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it’s all just an echo of what they’ve been told
Yeah, there’s a monster on the loose
It’s got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin‘

Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin‘ the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can’t understand
We don’t know how to mind our own business
‚Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who’s the winner
We can’t pay the cost
‚Cause there’s a monster on the loose
It’s got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching

(America)
America where are you now?
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster

Words and music by John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Nick St. Nicholas and Larry Byrom 1970

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Arlo Guthrie, der Sohn des Folksängers Woody Guthrie, hatte seinen Durchbruch 1967 mit dem Album „Alice’s Restaurant“, auf dem der gleichnamige Song veröffentlicht wurde. Der talking Blues mit einer Länge von 18 Minuten und 34 Sekunden zählt zu den längsten Stücken in der Rock/Pop/Folkmusik. Er schildert in diesem Song die Erlebnisse eines Besuchs zu Thanksgiving bei seiner Freundin Alice und ihrem Mann Ray in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in einer sehr humorvollen Form, um dann auf das eigentliche Thema des Songs, seine Musterung, zu kommen. Selten wurde ein Song so persönlich gespielt.

Alice’s Restaurant
Arlo Guthrie

This song is called Alice’s Restaurant, and it’s about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice’s Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that’s just the name of the song, and that’s why I called the song Alice’s Restaurant. You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant Walk right in it’s around the back Just a half a mile from the railroad track You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on – two years ago on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant, but Alice doesn’t live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog. And livin‘ in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin‘ all that room, seein‘ as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn’t have to take out their garbage for a long time. We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it’d be a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the city dump. Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the dump saying, „Closed on Thanksgiving.“ And we had never heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage. We didn’t find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw our’s down. That’s what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat, went to sleep and didn’t get up until the next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, „Kid, we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it.“ And I said, „Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage.“ After speaking to Obie for about fourty-five minutes on the telephone we finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the police officer’s station. So we got in the red VW microbus with the shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the police officer’s station. Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at the police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn’t very likely, and we didn’t expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out and told us never to be see driving garbage around the vicinity again, which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer’s station there was a third possibility that we hadn’t even counted upon, and we was both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said „Obie, I don’t think I can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on.“ He said, „Shut up, kid. Get in the back of the patrol car.“ And that’s what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of Stockbridge, Massachusets, where this happened here, they got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars, being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer’s station. They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that’s not to mention the aerial photography. After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put us in the cell. Said, „Kid, I’m going to put you in the cell, I want your wallet and your belt.“ And I said, „Obie, I can understand you wanting my wallet so I don’t have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you want my belt for?“ And he said, „Kid, we don’t want any hangings.“ I said, „Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?“ Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the toilet seat so I couldn’t hit myself over the head and drown, and he took out the toilet paper so I couldn’t bend the bars roll out the – roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. Obie was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice (remember Alice? It’s a song about Alice), Alice came by and with a few nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back to the church, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat, and didn’t get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court. We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, sat down. Man came in said, „All rise.“ We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog. And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, ‚cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn’t nothing he could do about it, and the judge wasn’t going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but thats not what I came to tell you about. Came to talk about the draft. They got a building down New York City, it’s called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. `Cause I wanted to look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York, and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o‘ mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, „Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604.“ And I went up there, I said, „Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.“ And I started jumpin up and down yelling, „KILL, KILL,“ and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, „KILL, KILL.“ And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, „You’re our boy.“ Didn’t feel too good about it. Proceeded on down the hall gettin more injections, inspections, detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they was doin‘ to me at the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no part untouched. Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there, and I walked up and said, „What do you want?“ He said, „Kid, we only got one question. Have you ever been arrested?“ And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice’s Restaurant Massacre, with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that and all the phenome… – and he stopped me right there and said, „Kid, did you ever go to court?“ And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on the back of each one, and he stopped me right there and said, „Kid, I want you to go and sit down on that bench that says Group W …. NOW kid!!“ And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W’s where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean ’n‘ ugly ’n‘ nasty ’n‘ horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, „Kid, whad’ya get?“ I said, „I didn’t get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage.“ He said, „What were you arrested for, kid?“ And I said, „Littering.“ And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, „And creating a nuisance.“ And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, until the Sargeant came over, had some paper in his hand, held it up and said. „Kids, this-piece-of-paper’s-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna- know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing- you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting- officer’s-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say“, and talked for forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there, and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the following words: („KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?“) I went over to the sargent, said, „Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I’ve rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I’m sittin‘ here on the bench, I mean I’m sittin here on the Group W bench ‚cause you want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein‘ a litterbug.“ He looked at me and said, „Kid, we don’t like your kind, and we’re gonna send you fingerprints off to Washington.“ And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I’m singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say „Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.“. And walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement. And that’s what it is , the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come’s around on the guitar. With feeling. So we’ll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and sing it when it does. Here it comes. You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant Walk right in it’s around the back Just a half a mile from the railroad track You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant That was horrible. If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud. I’ve been singing this song now for twenty five minutes. I could sing it for another twenty five minutes. I’m not proud… or tired. So we’ll wait till it comes around again, and this time with four part harmony and feeling. We’re just waitin‘ for it to come around is what we’re doing. All right now. You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant Excepting Alice You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant Walk right in it’s around the back Just a half a mile from the railroad track You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant Da da da da da da da dum At Alice’s Restaurant

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