CHOSEN
©March/2004CHOSEN
©March/2004
1) SADDLE SONG©Don Bray
2003
I’m going to shoe my horse
Pack up my saddle bags
Put on my pointy boots and leave this town
We’re going to walk away
All six legs of us
Until we can’t be found Lord
Until we can’t be found
As we travel I’ll
Pick up the horse manure
So looking back will seem OK
It’s clear as rain that
What you leave behind
Can get into your way Lord
It gets into your way
Thank God for mute companions
Wrong turns and saddle sores
Thank God for empty spaces
And lonely places that I can not ignore
Build myself a fire
Tend it through the night
Watch the stars expire
It’s such a lonesome sight
I’m going to play my
Sad old cowboy song
To anyone who cares to hear
And when I’ve laid my
Cowboy guitar down
I’ll ride into the sun Lord
I’ll ride into the sun Lord
I’ll ride into the sun
2) I BELIEVE IN HEAVEN©Don Bray 2001
I believe in heaven
A nd you would too I bet
I believe in the sweet everlasting
Though that a bit of a stretch
I believe in heaven
She lives on the second floor
And life’s a sweet everlasting process
Of trying to get inside her door
I believe in the Prince of Darkness
And all those lacivious sins
He’s the dude who comes by every weekend
I believe that’s what they do when she lets him in
If I believed in retribution
I’d walk right up those stairs
There’s not enough hail Mary’s
In this whole damnation
To make up for what I’d do there
I believe in heaven
To lie there is my quest
Though it’s a journey hampered by hardship
I believe I will rise up above the rest
And that’s when I’ll meet my lovely maker
Enter those pearly gates
I just hope that when I finally get there
I haven’t left it all too late
He loses he who hesitates
3) Harvest Time© Don Bray/Paul Court 2002
She loves the smell of apple trees
In the autumn sun
The sour taste of almost there
The promise on her toungue
She grew up in these branches
Climbing on these limbs
Willing to take chances
And feel life’s bruises on her skin
The growing’s never over
When harvest time begins
He likes to take her walking
Knowing that he can
Feel the pulse of almost there
In the holding of her hand
She lets him take her school books
And shield her from the wind
And if she gets her way she’ll
Learn life’s lessons next to him
The growing’s never over
When harvest time begins
They like to sit in coffee shops
And dream each others dreams
The sweet taste of what’s almost theirs
Closer than it seems
He reaches for her fingers
Is this the life they’ve spun
Doing what they’ve chosen
And choosing all these things they’ve done
The growing’s never over
The harvest has begun
The growing’s never over
This harvest has begun
4) WE ALL HAVE DREAMS© Don Bray2003
In a hockey rink in Calgary I learned to fight the wars
To spit and cuss and win and lose and move the puck and score
And I wore that 'C' upon my sweater made me feel so strong
But between Gordie Howe and Father somehow it went wrong
And we all have dreams that we let get away
Years later in Toronto in a cold December park
The snow came down liike butterfies floating in the dark
We skated ‘round for hours that night she let me hold her hand
But I would not believe that she might let me be her man
And we all have dreams that we let get away
We all have dreams that we let get away
My goals have been deflected
The crowd has seen me crash
The lines I have selected
Have failed to be effective
In periods gone past
And it’s overtime at last
Now I’m flyiing into Winnipeg looking down below
My future and the city lie shrouded in the snow
And I see the kids are playing shinny I wonder if they know
These possibilities they harbour safe in rink light glow
And we all have dreams that we let get away
We all have dreams that we let get away
We all have dreams that we let get away
5) ONLY A SONG©Don Bray/2003
I’ve been broken been repaired
That’s the way it goes
Driven to my wits end I find another road
I’ve been empty I’ve been full
And this is what I know
The less that I ask for
The more my cup overflows
CHO: These things I have done
This man I’ve become
They’re only a song
Somebody thinks they’ve sung
I’ve been partial incomplete
At least that’s how it seems
But I’ll know the truth some day
Whole is what I’ve always been
CHO:
6) DO OR DIE© Don Bray 2000
He walked out the front door back in 1994
He was bound and determined to be free
He took a cab to the station took a train across the nation
Didn’t stop ‘till he ran into the sea
He left his wife in his bed he left her dreams inside her head
Left the kids at the bottom of the stairs
He left his car in the driveway he told his neighbour have a nice day
It was like he was never even there
CHO:It was bound to make her miss him
It was bound to make her cry
The man was on a mission
And we must do what we do or die
And all the years just slipped away
And he forgot her every day
And all the rain on English Bay
Couldn’t wash away the fact
He was dying to go back
And now he really can’t remember why he felt he had to leave her
Or the fear that persuaded him to part
It seems no matter what his dreams are they can only take him so far
Being bound by the meekness of his heart
CHO:
We must do what we do or die
7) THE GOOD IDEA©Don Bray 1999
Teddy thought he had a good idea
Didn’t pay much heed to his sister Rhea
She likes to have things nice and neet
Called him things I can’t repeat
And tried in vain to make him change his ways
Was a good idea
Teddy drove them to the corner store
Took his gun and waltzed right through the door
Told the dude behind the till
Behave yourself and I won’t kill
And give me what you got and don’t be slow
Was a good idea
Our Teddy wasn’t very bright
Had trouble seeing wrong from right
Teddy thought he had things well in hand
Didn’t see the cop by the donut stand
Felt the gun upon his neck
Turned around thought what the heck
Gone this far I’ll blow this cop away
Not a good idea
Ted’s funeral was very small
They spread his ashes in the mall
His mama cried while Rhea called
A maintenance man to sweep the hall
Was a good idea
8) ALL THE JOYS OF HOME©Don Bray/2001
He has a trailer
And a rusty Cadillac
But he feels like that old bike
Spinning its wheels in the air on the roof rack
And he has a TV
Propane refrigerator
All the joys of home
Except of course for one he’s alone
CHO:And he can’t believe he’s on this road
With his domicile in tow
And these things he’s packing
He could never bring too much
Confusing what he clutches
With what he’s lacking
What he’s lacking
He has a post card
Wishing you were here
Some day he’ll mail it out
Once he’s addressed this envelope of doubt
CHO:
Breakfast in her kitchen sundays
Her conversation with his meals
The feeling he belongs to something
The very fact he feels
The very fact he feels
She has a garden
Tends it every day
Kneels out in the sun
Prays that this one seed won’t blow away
9) CHOSEN©Don Bray 2002
I am chosen to be here
Live this day of these years
I am chosen to belong
Sing this flawed human song
Chosen
I am chosen to see you
Through my own stubborn view
I am chosen to be graced
By your tears and these lines on your face
Chosen
Chosen by some fluke or fate
Chosen from some higher place
Choosing to be small or great
Chosen
I am chosen to this path
And It’s dark aftermath
As I’m chosen to sew this seed
Take this space fill this need
Chosen
I am chosen to this way
To this struggle ingaged
I am chosen to this place
Feed this fire with no fuel but my own frail faith
Chosen
Chosen
10)GREASEMONKEY©Don Bray/2000
She saw him there at the gas station
Dirty hair and greasy dreams
Oh working on some broke down Chevy
He looked so messy and so mean
He saw her looking out the window
Where she was working at the bank
And he thought she looked so cold and fussy
The glance he gave to her was blank
CHO:Who’d ‘a thought that the two of them
Could ever be such a hot item
This red neck standing at her counter
Aimed his revolver at her head
And its working end was big and ugly
It heaped her heaving heart with dread
She said
Help I am in need of rescue
By hero miracle or man
And just then our valiant young greasemonkey
Burst through the bank doors with a slam
And he said
Calm yourself I am your savior
And he thought
Damn what a foolish man I am
But the Gods they must have interceded
When they caused that redneck’s gun to jam
Downtown the wedding bells are chiming
The purpetrator’s out on bail
They both asked for him who introduced them
To be the best man when she raised her wedding veil
CHO:
It’s really something so amazing
To see them walking down the street
Oh him so greasy and so messy
And her so pretty and so sweet.
11) YUM© Don Bray/1999
I had a flea lived in my ear
A very brave flea he knew no fear
He roamed my back and fleas are snacks
Yum
I have a cat she’s full of grace
She likes to tear apart my face
But if I’m quick I get a lick
Yum
All this garbage and so little time
All this aroma and just this one nose of mine
Yum
The girl next door she’s quite a bitch
She does her business in the ditch
When I get free it’s there for me
Yum
And when I’m tired I like to sleep
And if I’m wired you’ll see me leap
But if I’m glum I lick my bum
Yum
Yum
Yum
12) THE BRINY©Don Bray 2003
Lashed to the mast face to the wind
Eyes wide open Salt rips your skin
Try not to cry not that they’d know
With this wind and rain it would hardly show
Out on the main nature attacks
Waves seem alive the sky is black
You are a speck on the deep in the night
Fills you with awe fills you with fright
CHO:But isn’t it great to be up in the rigging
Singing your song
Or down where that wheel is reading then charts
Just like you’d know if you went wrong
A patch on your eye one peg and one boot
Cut a fine figure in your quest for loot
You shared with your parrot but she blew away
It’s a lonely watch on the Briney today
When lost in a storm here’s what you do
Put a brave face on smile at your crew
There’s joy in this lost-ness and life is a hymn
The choice is yours sink or swim
CHO:
If you’ve never been to sea or swabbed on a deck
Never shivered no timbers ah what the heck
the keel knows the water this sails just for you
The wind always blows home no matter what you do