Soulful, folk-blues, roots-rock performances featuring poetic lyrics set to memorable melodies.

10 MP3 Songs
POP: Folky Pop, BLUES: Blues Vocals



Details:
Headed for a career as an English professor in the mid 1960âs, John Lyle was âbroadsidedâ by Bob Dylan and The Beatles. His degree went out the window, and so did he, playing in a series of bands and then performing on Canadian network television and radio as a solo act. He was also signed to two record labels during this era, but realized that because of his highly sensitive nature he was not cut out for the performing life.

John returned to his home in the Vancouver area, and devoted himself to his family, supporting them with a career that may have been more dangerous than the perfomance stage. He became a postman. John Lyleâs wonderful body of work is evidence of a life lived on the streets and in the home, filled with all the love and loss and joy and despair that are part and parcel of being alive. The songs are vital, not written to imitate a commercial trend or to fulfil a contract, but to reflect the intensity of experience and to remain sane.

âMagnificent!â The late Robert Altmanâs word for John Lyleâs music,

'I like you, John!' - the late Pat Paulsen.

'John Lyle will take you gently to your safe place, and then sneak up on you with a song as uncompromisingly ferocious as a grizzly in a maternity ward.â Dennis Albo, in his reality novel âOne Bullet Left,â

'Wonderful, odd genius...I hate to think what they'd find if they opened up his head'-American comedian Heywood Banks.

COOL FIRE lyrics-

WHEN THE WIND GETS HIGH

The carousel is finally winding down
Theyâve pulled up stakes
And scraped the makeup off the clown
Not even time can mend this broken-hearted town

I would run away and quit the circus now
If I could overcome the things that make me proud
I would stand so tall my head would be a cloud

Iâve been counting backward in my sleep
Breaking down the horror of belief
Iâve been laughing at things that give me grief

Iâm gonna shave my head
And put my hat on backwards
They say that works
When the wind gets high

You and me, weâre lost inside a bud
Dizzy with a fever in the blood
Let me close my eyes
And sink into the flood

My old red rooster crows at dawn
When everything Iâve prayed against is gone
He leans his back against the fence
And sings a song

Iâm gonna shave my head
And put my hat on backwards
They say that works
When the wind gets high

WALK IT ON DOWN

Scientiologists are coming, thereâs a Morman at the door
Thereâs a Witness counting heads but he donât know what for

The glory train has left the track, itâs barrelling down the street
Scaring the bejesus out of everyone it meets

Walk it on down, walk it on down
Walk it on down to the best guy in town

The sound of distant thunder makes him dream about his past
Just how many blunders can one guy amass?

He searches for his Bible in the rushes, sweet and low
A desperate guy is liable to find anywhere to go

Walk it on down, walk it on down
Walk it on down to the best guy in town

If I told you the dye was cast youâd laugh into my face
Youâd write my name upon the wind and turn another page

The book of life is filled with lies claiming to be true
Iâll bet you any money the biggest lie is you

Walk it on down, walk it on down
Walk it on down to the best guy in town

A DOG LIES DOWN SOMETIME

You scream around the corner, like Little Jack Horner
Who knows whatâs down the line?
Itâs a stone-cold fact, theyâll be bringing you back
In a box of yellow pine

We all have our moments, but yours takes an hour
If it does not take a day
Iâd cut you some slack, but itâs down the track
Where my best intentions stay

Meet your maker, heâs an undertaker
With an old Econoline
Heâs got a black pomade, a Tibetan maid,
And he loves his life of crime

You run around in circles like a dog in a circus
But a dog lies down sometime
If you swear at the moon and it breaks in two
You can take it as a sign

Scrape the haggis off the wall at the lesbiansâ ball
Take your big foot off my throat
Write a letter to the Pope, we gotta legalize dope
And donât forget to vote

Meet your maker, heâs an old heart-breaker
With his own line of clothes
Heâs got a straw-bale shack, by the railroad track
And he breathes through his nose

You run around in circles like a dog in a circus
But a dog lies down sometime
If you swear at the moon and it breaks in two
You can take it as a sign

DO WHALES HAVE SCALES?

Do whales have scales?
Do they go âdo-re-meâ for so long?
Or, are they the avante coast guard?
Do the go âdo
re
meâ?

Do whales tell tales?
Do they meet and sound and then go âround
To Namuâs bar and shoot the bull
Until the cows come home?

Of the many mammals in history
Could there be one smarter than me?
Was it wise for whales to surmise
Theyâd be better off back in the sea?

I gotta know, do whales feel frail
Do they start to blubber
Like a real land-lubber
When they think about the journeyâs end
Then, do they get the bends?

Of the many mammals in history
Could there be one smarter than me?
Was it wise for whales to surmise,
Was it shrewd for whales to conclude,
Was it bright for whales to think they might
Be better off back in the sea?

TOO MUCH COMPASSION

The biggest bully in the yard
Could always put me off my guard
By pulling out a hanky with his hand
This guyâs not half so bad, heâs got a cold just like I had
And some sisters, and a mother with a womb

Then heâd turn into a viper, and Iâd wish Iâd stayed hyper
As a seismograph about to overload
Lift the veil of paranoia and the devilâs damn destroyers
Zero in and aim to blow me off the globe

Too much compassion can kill a nervous man
And too much pityâs bound to drown him on dry land
Tender-hearted heartlessness is how it all began
It takes two to tangle in this cock-eyed caravan

Trillions of gifts beneath the tree
And there was only one for me
Just a cap gun, but it really rang the bell
Iâd wanted it like sin, since my last pistolâd packed it in
Brand new, it bit the dust, and rusted in the rain

Then somebody said, aw, honey,
We just could not find the money to give you your due
That broke me up inside
Drop the veil of paranoia, and the devilâs damn destroyers
Zero in and aim to blow me off the globe

Too much compassion can kill a nervous man
And too much pityâs bound to drown him on dry land
Tender-hearted heartlessness is how it all began
It takes two to tangle in this cock-eyed caravan

NOBODY'S BABY (Garry Macpherson)

Well, she was nobodyâs baby
She wasnât even anybodyâs child
I met her in her garden on my way to kindergarten
And I said, ainât you no oneâs love at all
She said, no, no, no Iâm only waiting
Like we children gotta do
Iâm nobodyâs baby, Iâm nobodyâs child
Iâm all alone like you

Well, she was nobodyâs lover
She wasnât even anybodyâs whore
She was walkinâ through the door, though
From the time that she was four
And she heard the hoboâs call
She spent a lot of time at her window
Lookinâ through her window pane
Saying, Iâm nobodyâs baby, Iâm nobodyâs child
To me itâs all the same

She was nobodyâs honky-tonk lady
Nobodyâs pride and joy
I met her in the ocean, when I took a secret potion
I said, Iâd like to be your boy
She said, no, no, no Iâm only waiting
Like we children have to do
Iâm nobodyâs baby, Iâm nobodyâs child
Iâm all alone like you
Iâm all alone and blue

BLIND LOVE

Evil forces gather in the half-light
Dark with blood, but only in the mind
In the cold desert bloom
Thereâs nothing left but room
For pride in knowing love is blind

Tongues so thick,
They cannot speak of weather
Bodies ache, with things they have not done
To see what is true, and have to live it too
Is a fate that should not befall anyone

Iâve lived most of my life paralyzed
Pretending I can see
When Iâve been looking through
The wrong set of eyes
When I can just let go
Like an angel in the snow
Iâll be the King of the Cowboys
On this sweet little pony of mine

OLD HONTANA ROAD

Inga said a mouthful when she said
I could get her back after sheâs dead
You should hear what people say
About her now sheâs gone
But I will take the high road from now on

Rain comes down like bullets from above
Money canât buy this kind of love

Some old twister, spinning like a top
The way he moves, you think heâll never stop
Just when you think you know someone
You find out theyâre like you
Living in a room without a view

Sun burns down on Old Hontana Road
Turn your head, and you wonât see them go
You wonât see scarecrows smile
At nothing in the dirt
You wonât see them leave a world of hurt

I WON'T BE LONESOME WHEN I'M GONE (J. Lyle & J. Murray)

I may have been in China
When you came to break the news
Trying to give me something I can use
I remember kind of peeling back into my blues
Fetching for a pail to fill my shoes

All graven images, from sea to shining sea
Another smiling Christ, smiling back at me
Woke up this morning with a hammer and a tong
I wonât be lonesome when Iâm gone

Iâm gonna backslide âtil I find an open door
Backslide âtil I canât backslide no more
Every cold idea that thinks it knows the score
Donât seem to mean so much no more

It must have been a foggy night, when you fell for me
Everything you could forget, you managed not to see
Woke up this morning with a hammer and a tong
I wonât be lonesome when Iâm gone

One hand on the shovel, one foot in the grave
Watch another breath go down the drain
If you see my double, ask him if he has a name
And if heâs taking rest inside the shade

Everything you love in me, you hide inside yourself
Turn it outside over, you donât need no oneâs help
Woke up this morning with a hammer and a tong
I wonât be lonesome when Iâm gone

SPARKLING RIVER

Like a faded leaf, hanging by a thread
I blow into the wind and tumble down like I was dead
I say Iâm not a thief but I wonât stand in the light
So you can wash my face and give my empty mouth a bite

How can I be angry with someone so nice
Are my fingers made of silver, is my heart made of ice?
I hide beside the fire with tears in my eyes
Mourning the desire Iâve learned to despise

You know where Iâm going, you know where Iâve been
You know which windâs blowing and you know itâs not a sin

You make a good sheepdog moving me along
All tangled up in what donât last long
On the outskirts of the meadow, in the shadow of fright
Crazy wolves are mending fences in the starry, starry night

You know where Iâm going, you know where Iâve been
You know which windâs blowing and you know itâs not a sin

There is a sparkling river flowing through my head
Bringing understanding who I thought I was is dead
Rollinâ and âa tumblin,â through wind, and stone and sea
Laughing like a baby when a baby is free