ROY CLARK
YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG
(Dot DLP-25980)
June/1969
Produced by Joe Allison
Recorded:
Jan-May/1969, RCA Victor Studio, Nashville
1.
YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG
(Herbert Kretzmer - Charles Aznavour)
« © '66 Hampshire House Publishing, ASCAP »
Seems the love I've known has always been the most destructive kind
Yes that's why now I feel so old before my time
Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame
The thousand dreams I dreamed the splendid things I planned
I'd always built to last on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years ran away
Yesterday when I was young
So many happy songs were waiting to be sung
So many wild pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me and nothing else at all
[ strings ]
Yesterday the moon was blue
And every crazy day brought something new to do
I used my magic age as if it were a wand
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit too quickly quickly died
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play
There are so many songs in me that won't be sung
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday when I was young
**********
2.
DAYS OF SAND AND SHOVELS
(Bud Reneau - Doyle Marsh)
« © '68 PolyGram Int, ASCAP »
When I noticed her the first time I was outside running barefoot in the rain
She lived in the house next door her nose was pressed against the window pane
When I looked at her she smiled and showed a place where two teeth used to be
And I heard her ask her mom if she could come outside and play with me
Soon the days of sand and shovels gave way to the mysteries of life
Then I noticed she was changed and I looked at her through different eyes
We became as one and knew a love without beginning or an end
And everyday I lived with her was like a new day dawning once again
And I've loved her since every doll was Shirley Temple soda pop was still a nickel
Jam was on her fingertips milk was circkled on her lips
After many years our love grew silent and at night I heard her cry
And when she left me in the fall I knew that it would be our last goodbye
I was man enough to give her everything she needed for a while
In searching for a pefect love I found that I could not give her a child
Now she lives a quiet life and is a mother of a little girl
And everytime I pass her house my thoughts go back into another world
Cause I see her little girl her nose is pressed against the window pane
She thinks I'm a lonely man who wants to come inside out of the rain
And I've loved her since every doll was Shirley Temple...
**********
3.
RAGGEDY ANN
(Dallas Frazier - Arthur Leo Owens)
« © '69 Acuff-Rose Music, BMI / Unichappell Music, BMI »
**********
4.
LOVE IS JUST A STATE OF MIND
(Red Lane - Joe Allison)
« © '68 Tree Publishing, BMI »
I'll stay with you if you say stay but I must leave you when I must
I'll stay as long as we can last and leave when laughter turns to rust
The day the fireworks fail to flash and mental light refuse to shine
We'll know it's time for someone else for love is just a state of mind
If you can say it like it is and if I like to hear it said
I'll carve your image on my heart and make sure that your soul is fed
But one day the words break step and if one ego lags behind
You column left I'll column right for love is just a state of mind
Keep yourself but give me room I want some place to think aloud
And if you can your chain will reach from ocean floor to shining cloud
When the shackles feel too tight or when restrictions start to blind
It's time to breathe instead of choke for love is just a state of mind
If my words are worry things and if I make your mouth turn down
Then take your apprehensive love and leave me now without a sound
But if you take me as I am and love me one day at a time
I may stay a thousand years for love is just a state of mind
For love is just a state of mind
**********
5.
WHEN A MAN BECOMES A MAN
(Red Lane)
« © '68 Tree Publishing, BMI »
**********
6.
SIMPLE THING AS LOVE
(John Hartford)
« © '67 Ensign Music, BMI »
When you come across unto me with your hair the tangled grass of evening breezes
And you do not hide your face because somebody said one time it wasn't natural
What a joy for us just running down this crooked trail of midnight
And the peaceful things inside me that it does
Then you whisper low I have to go the acid tears start coming slow
To complicate a simple thing as love
Awake now I don't hear the floorboards a creaking as you walk back from the window
Or feel your satin fingers drawing patterns on my back where I lay dying
Without you I'm a child who sucks the vacant thumb of emptiness
Left crying when he has not had enough
At the mercy of an empty room sing verses to some faded wall
Confused bout a simple thing as love
It's too bad we couldn't stay here till the clock runs out and falls from sheer exhaustion
Or till morning when I watch you as you stoop to pick your things up from the floor
But too soon for us it's over in the shock of the electric lightbulb
Sunrise from the ceiling up above
As it dangles to remind us of the spiderweb that binds us
And just complicates a simple thing as love
Awake now I don't hear the floorboard...
**********
7.
SEPTEMBER SONG
(Maxwell Anderson - Kurt Weill)
« © '38 Chappell & Co, ASCAP / Hampshire House, ASCAP »
When I was a young man courtin' the girls I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossin' curls I let this old world take a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears instead of pearls
And as time came along she came my way as time came along she came
But it's a long long time from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
And when the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
And one hasn't got time for the waiting game
Oh the days dwindle down to a precious few
September and November
But these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you
Oh the days dwindle down to a precious few...
**********
8.
JUST ANOTHER MAN
(Joe Allison - Glen Campbell)
« © '67 Campbell-Allison Music, BMI »
I'd like to stay with you for a while and I have promisses to keep
I could be happy here with you but I'm a so wild oat to reap
My strenght tells me my weakness shows you make me think of coats and ties
Of babies home security and job that lasts from nine to five
I could conjure up the constant state of happiness
But I know that I am just another man
And in knowing that I know that I'll get more or less what I can get
So I'll do what I can
I have many steps to take reckless steps I cannot share
A mountain waits for me to climb and I must climb because it's there
I could conjure up the constant state of happiness...
But if you should not let me go and if you want me as I am
And for a while I'll be a God instead of just another man
**********
9.
FOR THE LIFE OF ME
(Joe Allison - Joyce Harris)
« © '68 Central Songs, BMI »
How can there be a song without the music
How can there be a wave without the sea
The lighting needs a thunder as a speaking voice
And I must have you for the life of me
How can there be a baby with no crying
A future with no past can never be
A humming bird can't live unless it's free to fly
And I must have you for the life of me
I know that sunshine follows rain I know that pleasure follows pain
And I know that I must have you somehow
Every ship waits for the crue and every road waits for the dew
But I need you right now
How can there be an end with no beginning
So run to me I'm waiting helplessly
And break these shackles of impatience make me live
For I must have you for the life of me
**********
10.
APRIL'S FOOL
(Dave Kirby - Glenn Martin)
« © '69 Tree Publishing, BMI »
April doesn't shower her sweet love on me
What someone gets in one day may take me two or three
Yes it's true she leads me like a puppet on a string
But my life without April is like next year without spring
People say that April treats me cruel
But I just smile when they say there goes April's fool
The first time I met April was in the middle of December
And she's taught me so many things I'd rather not remember
In wintertime she has me wearing summer clothes
In summer she has jack frost nipping up my nose
People say that April treats me cruel
But I just smile when they say there goes April's fool
But I just smile when they say there goes April's fool
But I just smile when they say there goes April's fool
**********
11.
ODDS AND ENDS (BITS AND PIECES)
(Harlan Howard)
« © '61 Cental Songs, BMI »
A photograph that's signed With Love your lipstick and a tiny glove
Why did you leave so many things to tear at my heart strings
Odds and ends bits and pieces of an old love affair
Old love letters and some flowers that you wore in your hair
Odds and ends bits and pieces of those happy bygone years
Odds and ends that keep tugging at my tears
A book you read a good luck charm I gave to keep you from all harm
The tear stained note you left behind but all the tears were mine
Odds and ends bits and pieces...
**********
12.
TIP OF MY FINGERS
(Bill Anderson)
« © '60 Tree Publishing, BMI »
I had you right on the tip of my fingers
I reached out my arms and I touched you
With soft words I whispered your name
I had you right on the tips of my fingers
Oh but that was as close as I came
My eyes had a vision of sweet lips
Yeelding beneath my command
I had your love on the tips of my fingers
But I let it slip right through my hands
But I let it slip right through my hands
Somebody took you when I wasn't looking
And I should have known from the start
That it's a long long way from the tips of my fingers
To the love hidden deep in your heart
To the love hidden deep in your heart
I had you right on the tips of my fingers
But I let you slip right through my hands
Yes I let you slip right through my hands
**********