Omaha Rainbow : Issue 31

O'BSESSIONS WITH JOHN STEWART - by Peter O'Brien 

If the Good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise.....by the time you read this, "Tall Blondes," John's new album will have been released in America on a new label, Allegiance, which is headed by British rock star of the mid-sixties, Spencer Davis.

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.
 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ANSWERS
 
1) Santa Barbara  2) 18 Wheels  3) Bring it on Home  4) Anna on a Memory  5) Road Shines Bright  6) 18 Wheels  7) The Last Hurrah  8) Survivors  9) Omaha Rainbow  l0) Lost Her in the Sun  11) Over the Hill  12) Lincoln's Train  13) Durango 14) Ride Stone Blind  15) Big Joe  16) Gold  17) Wild Horse Road  18) Wheatfield Lady  19) July, You're a Woman  20) Spirit  21) Rodeo Mary  22) Cheyenne  23) Earth Rider  24) Some Lonesome Picker  25) Moonlight Rider  26) Mucky Truckee River  27) Heart of the Dream  28) Kansas Rain  29) California Bloodlines  30) Morning Thunder  31) Out of Nowhere  32) Easy Money  33) The Raven  34) Road Away  35) Cops  36) All Time Woman  37) Wind Dies Down  38) Wind on the River  39) The Runner  40) Kansas  41) All Time Woman  42) Touch of the Sun  43) Daydream Believer  44) Touch of the Sun  45) Lady and the Outlaw  46) Wolves in the Kitchen  47) Freeway Pleasure  48) Armstrong  49) Anna on a Memory  50) Let the Big Horse Run  51) Rock It in My Own Sweet Time  52) Cody  53) Joe  54) Lady of Fame  55) Julie, Judy, Angel Rain  56) Holly on my Mind  57) Road Away  58) Signals to Ludi  59) Wild Horse Road  60) Oldest Living Son  61) Wheels of Thunder  62) The Pirates of Stone County Road  63) Summer Child  64) Missouri Birds  65) Boston Lady  66) Promise the Wind  67) Roll Away the Stone  68) Bolinas  69) Nightman  70) Rock It in My Own Sweet Time  71) Fire in the Wind  72) Rose Water  73) Dark Prairie  74) Mazatlan  75) Hung on the Heart (of a Man Back Home) 76) The Last Campaign  77) Razor Back Woman  78) Love Has Tied My Wings  79) Chilly Winds  80) Mother Country 81) Lonesome John  82) Golden Rollin' Belly  83) Light Come Shine.

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