Allegiance is a new, independently distributed, label and John Stewart is the first artist they have signed. For once in his career, he should have the undivided attention of his record company.
Those of us on this side of the Atlantic will have to wait to see if this album secures an official release here. If that doesn't happen very quickly, then the specialist import shops should make a killing.
Just to confuse matters, "Tall Blondes'' is also the title of the new John Stewart album which will be released on the Swedish Polygram label in January. The title is the same, but the content of the album will not be identical to that on Allegiance. Maybe even 50% will be different.....maybe less.....maybe even more.....
So after all this time, there should be two albums for all us John Stewart fanatics to enjoy.....plus there are strong moves for him to tour in Sweden in support of his Polygram album. Now either we all head for Stockholm or perhaps we can hijack him into the UK. John would love to play over here again, so I can afford to be optimistic about the chances of seeing him here in 1983.
A look at the Lomax Gold Collection in this issue will indicate that we have had a sneak preview of the Allegiance album. Jennie Tomlinson successfully infiltrated John's Californian hideout. She returned to England in mid-November, her daring rewarded by John with an acetate copy of "Tall Blondes."
Here are the tracks as they appear on this album, which was pressed on 8 November 1982.
TALL BLONDES
THE QUEEN OF HOLLYWOOD HIGH
JUDY IN G MAJOR
THE EYES OF SWEET VIRGINIA
ANGELES
************
YOU WON'T BE GOING HOME
JENNY WAS ADREAM GIRL
GIRL DOWN THE RIVER RIVER
GOLDEN GATE
BLONDE STAR
BORDERLINE
Careful study of O'Bsessions in OR's 28 and 30 will reveal an awful lot of highly rated songs that have got lost in the shuffle, but I think I can safely say that John's fans are not going to be disappointed by this final selection.....if it is the final selection.
There are people who are prepared to kill in order that 'Dreamers on the Rise' should be included. It may well be, in which case it looks as if 'Golden Gate' will be the one to go....or 'Borderline,' which is unlike anything you have heard from John previously, so I hope it stays there. At least 'Angeles' has got a reprieve, so I won't have to go into the bootleg business. Though this version is markedly different from the one I first heard!
Enough of this conjecture! Here's something to keep you busy over Christmas. The sources of these quotes from John's songs are all listed below. Enjoy yourselves!
1...All my poems, they are songs now on their own and the melody alone
sings are you coming home?
2...An 8 track's playing me 'Silver Wings,' like a razor's edge Merle
Haggard sings. Earthbound ships on four lane sea, don't look like
there's any sleep for me.
3...Ballin' on the road is a poor man's score, like a hungry coyote
lickin' at your door.
4...Blackballed in Abilene and I woke up on a train lookin' at the
stray dogs running on the highway in the rain.
5...Bless you long and lonesome highway, you're gonna save my life.
Headlights shining in the cat eyes walking and I can see the light.
6...Chevrolet burning in the left hand lane, me, I'm looking down through
the window pane. A beehive's laying with her head in his lap, I don't
believe she was taking a nap.
7...Clean your guns, the battle's over, they belong now to the wind.
The saddest words I've ever spoken were the words, "It might have been."
8...Devils and angels belong in the church. You try for the best
and you deal with the worst.
9...Even if I go out to California it's a long way to August picking
up friends along the way.
l0..Fire up your heart for the wind is getting cold now, it always
gets cold for the riders of the night. You carry that scar when you
know what lonesome is, looking for a home like a bird in flight.
11..For so long I've been out here looking for a song and it's just
insane, it's like trying to run and chase a moving train.
12..From my window I can hear them talking, walking to the crossing
in the rain, and over the voices I can hear the train.
13..Got a postcard on my wall they were selling around the New Mexico
town where they lowered him down.
14..Have you ever been in Texas with your lungs full of holes?
15..He's got a name on his tattooed arm of a woman he had when he was
but a lad.
16..He's got rhythm in his hands as he's tapping on the cans, sings
rock 'n' roll in the shower.
17..Hey, young moonlight gunner, where's the sun?
18..I can taste you on my tongue and laying out before me the endless
highway lies, and the lady's eyes grow hungry when she knows the eagle
flies.
19..I have not been known as the Saint of San Juaquin, and I'd just
as soon right now pull on over to the side of the road and show you what
I mean.
20..I know that the horses of war finally die.
21..I'm reading your letter, I'm lonely and I want to go home.
22..I never had a job where the boss wouldn't steal the drum from his
own brass band.
23..In the stinking concrete cities, oh, I never do feel clean. The
air is dirt and the ladies' skirts are enough to make me mean.
24..I often get the feeling that I'm talking to the wind and no-one
hears, no-one listens in. Then I start singing songs and the music
makes the whole world feel like home. Sing a song and you're not
alone.
25..It's all the same, it's the wind and rain, it's working all your
life for a little bit of fame.
26..It seems that everyone you meet talks about the fighting in the
streets, but no-one has the time and the patriots you'll find are those
pink poodle people on Sunset and Vine.
27..It's heartbreak alley on the coast highway, they never made girls
like that in my day.
28..I was standin' in line at the Bank of America. Nobody spoke,
they were in the house of God. And a church I know is a drive-in
show and the local band plays hymns to go.
29..Just to think I might have never known you if I had lived my life
in Tennessee.
30..Lay me away any time night or day. Good God almighty, can't
get away. I just look at her run naked in the sun.
31..Listen for the guitar playing fire, listen for horseman on the
drum.
32..Loafin' around smokin' and drinking, woke up this morning and you
didn't have a dime.
33..Long rain following the sunrise. A slow train beckons like
a drum.
34..Lupe Jones was doing well. She owned a Ford and served the
Lord and rang the mission bell.
35..Magnum stroker, donut joker, you know Abel and you know Cain.
36..Miss America, I got your game, it's a Christian burlesque show.
Feeding their eyes on your sweet young thighs, pretending, yeah, that you
don't know.
37..Moonlight Albright ran away with a drifter come yesterday.
Moonlight, she didn't know his name. He must have come on like a
gospel train.
38..Moonlight's alright, radio is all night, seems like heaven to me.
39..No-one hears and no-one cares that the road you're going doesn't
get you anywhere. You're the one that put it there.
40..No-one's getting younger and a few are getting old. It's
all in what you feel and not in what you're told.
4l..Now a one-night stand for a guitar man is easy when the road gets
boring, but Holiday Inns and the two dollar gin can sure look bad in the
morning.
42..Old lonesome picker, no-one cares what dues you paid. You've
played one too many beer halls and there ain't nobody come.
43..Our good times start and end without dollar one to spend but how
much, baby, do we really need?
44..Picker it's raining on the border line and you're out on the unknown
road.
45..Please let your hair down, honey, please while the moon is bright.
46..Pretty little girl, better keep your legs crossed. Hate to
see you get lost on a long, long ride.
47..Rescue me sweet angel, she stole me as a child to become a rider
on her two-lane rodeo.
48..Rivers getting dirty, the wind is getting bad. War and hate
are killing off the only earth we have.
49..Run, dog, run, you'll just catch that semi rollin' by, and I see
that you caught the back wheels. That's how all us stray dogs gonna
die.
50..Running is an itch he's got to scratch. No offence to old
Dan Patch.
51..San Francisco morning, you're lying close to me. I don't
need a photograph, it's inside for me to see.
52..See him fall out on the road, the forgotten son of some old yesterday.
53..She has seen him work so long to try and write the everlasting
song - a whole lot of tears are riding on those rhymes.
54..She's a blinding light, a hero for the homeless, one way flight
for believers in the dream.
55..She's the one who drives me sane and understands when I go chase
some endless, hopeless train.
56..She's the only one who knows you're a right old rolling stone.
57..She turned him on and she turned him down and she turned him over
slowly.
58..Some guy down in Texas I hear went right out of his head.
I see by the papers that six sorry people are dead.
59..Somewhere they're truckin' mustangs on a lonesome desert road.
60..Still the dust, it always blows in our eyes and in our clothes,
and it's in our very souls like this song about me and Jim.
61..That old Chevy was all that I ever need. I had the moves
and I knew she had the speed. On those backseat nights when I was
in by three, that old Chevy was all that I'd ever need.
62..The end of a back porch afternoon, where we'd stand on the bow
of our own man-of-war, no longer the back porch anymore.
63..The heat of the summer made her bitchy and mean as she watched
for the hired man quiet and lean.
64..The preacher's words echo from the old church steeple, "Stay here
with the decent people settle down and marry while you're young."
65..There's a hurricane blowin' on the eastern sea but the storm ain't
meaning a thing to me - been adrift now for ninety-nine days.
66..There's good ol' boys walkin' home in the rain and there's rednecks,
belly and beer. Don't look like something's goin' on here.
67..There's no place left to hide for the motels and the coffee shops
and the flashing neon signs. Are we cursed, are we blind? Have
we all lost our minds?
68..The train disappears in its own westward dot and the two little
figures now stand on the spot where all that mighty iron had rolled.
69..There was magic on the bandstand, hit me in the grandstand, got
me doin' handstands, drummer hit the wam-bam, yeah!
70..This old guitar feels like lovin' that old love of mine
71..Travellers seldom came our way, we lived across the plain.
I called the girl Susanna for I never knew her name.
72..Valiums and hearty, an L.A. party, Topanga music on the radio.
73..Wake up in the morning and I'm hungry, wake up in the evening and
I'm cold. Mama's in her bed with a fever, this old earth will see
she don't get old.
74..We'll ride like the wind coming up from the canyon on a hot summernight
in September.
75..We saw the roadhouse lights were burning, we heard the music of
the band. She said, "Come on honey, let's go dancing," and I just
had to understand.
76..We were tired, we were hungry, we were living on a dream for all
forgotten people never heard and never seen.
77..When the other young boys were enjoying their toys he gave me my
first cigarette, and I'd like to say that these were the days that my sprung
lungs won't ever forget.
78..Where is the crime to be free in your time? Dreams seem to
be all that is free.
79..Wish I was a headlight on a westbound train. I'd shine my
light on cool Colorado rain.
8O..Would you look at her, ah, she never looked finer or better than
today.
81..You got to know how to hold a stogie, keeping it dry through the
wind and the rain.
82..You know what cold showers do, they make you wet and they turn
you blue.
83..Young holy roller, I've gone and stolen her away from the holy
man, his bible and beads.