The Pearly Blues

from Roger Manning (RM1 make-under) by Roger Manning

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lyrics

Black is the color
of his true love's clothes
she thinks I want to bed her
I just like looking at her face
and I offer her some pearls

It's dark as a dungeon
way down in the subway
hey, don't hate just because I'm white
I won't hate you because you're not
and come on hang out
check out
my string of pearls

In the sad folksinger night
I almost caught myself wearing my tears like a badge
Instead, I'll fix my broken strings
and thread them through your lives
as you make your way back up to the streets
surrounded by a million bricks
that lay pointing in every direction across the continent

I was jazzing along on the couch with my baby
the bass was the train, the sax played the scenery
she pulled my heart out with her little blue eyes,
kissed it and put it back
she's a sponge
she soaks up my words and makes them into pearls

"...The world is mine because I'm poor",
said the on-the-road alcoholic
the microphone drops to the floor
face down in beer.
Through your sad tv nightlight,
cold wet-shoed in the rain,
the hitchhiker walks past your window
relief on the horizon...
People work hard and end up with nothing.
I ain't got nothing either, but at least I didn't
work hard for it!
ain't got nothing
except maybe a string of pearls

In Amsterdam I slept next to library in the bushes,
sang in the streets
and cheated on bus tickets
never saw Michelle Shocked around
though I hear she was up early in that town.
Back in New York
dead in the water
no-one to blow me away
had to go diving for pearls
"Combat Rock" was blasting
and it had to be a folk song
because everybody knew the words
but this is not folk song
this is not a folk song
this is not a folk song
it's just a string of pearls

credits

from Roger Manning (RM1 make-under), released August 24, 2015

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about

Roger Manning New York, New York

The first Roger Manning album was released by California punk recording label SST (Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.). I toured the US and occasionally bits of Europe for over 10 years performing wordy-solo-rock accompanied by bass-heavy amplified 'acoustic' guitar. There's been a bit of re-emergence since 2007 and the album release in December 2014. ... more

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