PATH OF A DECENT GROOVE
(Remark 519938)
1993
1.
ON THE RETURN TO MUSCLE SHOALS
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
Broke the drum out of the closet tuned up the bass and we hit an E
Hawk on the hood big motor running little Stevie windows on the B3
Seven long years and I was needing to ease my soul
And there was sweat in the room on the return to Muscle Shoals
Over in Paris it was happening again like it always seemed to do
I don't know why but they seem to understand talking bout the swampy hoodoo
A long way from Goodwill but they let me see their soul
And there was talk in the air on the return to Muscle Shoals
Over in Stockholm they were getting on down we were reaching for the moon
I was bedridden in Amsterdam the silence of my guitar filled the room
I had become disoriented stranded on the road
And I bet they're frying fish tonight way down in Muscle Shoals
**********
2.
CATAWALLING ALLEY IN NICE
(Tony Joe White - LeAnn White)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
Midnight and I pace around the room
Sleep won't come daylight comes too soon
Somewhere I hear a woman's laughter floating up from the street
I already feel like the morning after by this Catawalling alley in Nice
Through bloodshot eyes distortion on this topless beach
No place to run and the rocks they bruise the feet
The little doll is thrown from the window
As the princess rests in her Bel Air suite
Things fall the way they ought to in this Catawalling alley in Nice
A long way from home in this casino by the sea
The cards are drawn the joker cries silently
Somewhere there's a lover bleeding
Sometimes the moon takes more than it needs
Just in time we are leaving this Catawalling alley in Nice
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3.
I WANT TO BE WITH YOU
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
You light up a room the moment you walk in
You could break a heart without even knowin'
Just in the way you smile the way you move
You say hello I want to be with you
And when I feel your warm embrace you make it seem like yesterday
Touchin' in that special way lovers do
Just when I was gettin' use to goodbye you walk right back into my life
Somehow you make it feel so right I want to be with you
Remember when we danced alone in the dark
Just two people moving to the rhythm of their hearts
Making love at dawn and on into the afternoon
Nothing's changed I want to be with you
And you say it can be just like before maybe even something more
I know you need the door left open wide
So there will be no promises made we won't talk about goodbye
For now we've got tonight and I want to be with you
**********
4.
BACKSIDE OF PARADISE
(Tony Joe White - LeAnn White)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
They say I was born on a stormy night jammin' to the blues
My mama thought that I was a good luck charm
But I think that I was touched with the hoodoo
I must have been a swamp doctor's sacrifice
Cause I'm on the backside of paradise
All out of rhythm in my snakeskin shoes a victim of the dance
A medicine man gave me something for my nerves
But I think it was an aphrodisiac
Suspended animation with my temperature on the rise
I'm on the backside of paradise
I can look out but I can't see within
Can't face what's behind the mask
On top of the world with you under my skin moving too fast
She's a hot blooded octaroon with a heart cold as ice
I'm on the backside of paradise
I'm on the backside of paradise
**********
5.
MOJO DOLLAR
(Tony Joe White - Ricky Ray Rector)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
Mojo Dollar came riding into town in a '57 Chevrolet
Yeah he had a 3030 rifle and a red bone hound
Said he wanted to make a trade
I seen him come out of the pawn shop with a guitar in his hand
And it froze me in my tracks when I looked into the eyes of a wild man
I heard the stories when I was just a young boy
People said that Mojo wasn't right
I couldn't get it out of my head so when everyone went to bed
I slipped out the backdoor late that night
Well I came up on his Chevy and I was scared of going on
But I followed his trail and went deep into wild man swamps
Well I knew I couldn't turn back when I found his little ol' shack
And Mojo had a big fire in the yard
I couldn't hear a word he said but his eyes rolled back in his head
He just kept on rompin' that ol' guitar
There was hoot owls callin' there were wild cats pantin'
Snakes were crawlin' Mojo started dancin'
He was a wild man he was a wild man
I've tried to forget it but it ain't no use
There are some who don't believe and some who do
But I'm telling it like it is there's still some things going on
And whatever you do don't go down to wild man swamps
**********
6.
WAY DOWN SOUTH
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
I was born and raised on a little ole farm
Shotgun house down by the swamp
Work was hard and times were kinda rough
But we just kept on scuffling and hanging tough
The one thing in our lives that kept our spirits high
We could let the music out
And it's alright baby we boogie way down south
Saturday morning everybody goes into town
Hugging and laughing and talking till the sun goes down
Sit out on the porch late in the night
Break out the guitar baby it's feeling right
Backbeat on the knee hit you down in your feet
Make you want to jump and shout
It's alright baby you boogie way down south
Stomp stomp gonna rack the swamp
Stomp stomp gonna rock the swamp
Just keep it cool you got to be loose
It can mean anything that you want it to just boogie
We all moved off and got big city ways
But I still think about those laid back days
Sometimes it hits me in a dream
And I can almost taste that homemade ice cream
Hot delta nights everybody's feeling right
I still got to let it out
And it's so cool baby the boogie way down south
**********
7.
TINA
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
Tina you could never know
The many times I think about you I can't let it go
But I know there's never enough time with so many promises to keep
And the world lying at your feet
I went down to your hometown just cruisin' around
And that old cotton gin had turned to rust
I could almost see your footprints lying there in the dust
When you were just a young girl
Tina I know you've paid the price and you left it all so far behind
But the memories linger still and the storm rolled across the field
If the day should ever come when your smile is just a motion
And you feel that you might need someone
You know I'd cross that ocean
I would never have to think twice you're part of my life
And whatever path you choose Tina you know we pull for you
You just keep on taking us higher you are the fire
**********
8.
JAGUAR MAN
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
Jaguar man jaguar man jaguar man want to be a jaguar man
I like nice clothes cool shoe money to burn and you
Jaguar man jaguar man want to be a jaguar man jaguar man
I don't waste time beatin' around the bush
Cause if it's cool you don't have to push
Jaguar man jaguar man want to be a jaguar man jaguar man
You've got to have more to show than diamonds and pearls
It takes a man to know it's a woman's world
Jaguar man jaguar man want to be a jaguar man jaguar man
I treat a woman with respect
Don't come on strong no gold on my neck
Jaguar man jaguar man want to be a jaguar man jaguar man
**********
9.
UP IN ARKANSAS
(Tony Joe White - Ricky Ray Rector)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
Got me a rocker without no arms ol' wood stove to keep me warm
My firewood out of the rain I sit and watch the seasons change
There's a woman in Little Rock got plenty of money down in her sock
She come to see me time to time we sit on the porch and sip our wine
A man ought to know when he's got it all holding it down up in Arkansas
Coyotes howl in the night the rats ate my food but that's alright
Must have needed it more than me ain't no sweat I'll eat their cheese
Way back in the woods a hoot-owl calls making his rounds up in Arkansas
The eagle flies wild and free catches fish down in my creek
I watch him rise on the breeze I don't bother him he don't bother me
Walmart moves into town progress can't keep it down
Tourists come from miles around I sit on the porch the sun goes down
But I live way back from it all keeping it cool up in Arkansas in Arkansas
**********
10.
ALWAYS THE SONG
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
I remember the first time we touched we almost caught fire
Right there in the middle of night we almost caught fire
Burning each other down and the feeling went on and on
And somewhere in the background always the song
It's always there between us so strong it never breaks
Pulling us together sometimes when there's no other way
I wonder if it's more than fire that's kept us together so long
All the way down through our lives always the song
Baby you're good for me and that's all I've got to say
And all the times we've been through you've been a woman all the way
You know when I've been wounded and I need a place to hide
You see me walking straight up but you know I'm bending inside
You try to help me handle the pain when someone I love has gone
And somewhere way out in the rain always the song
**********
11.
2 HOT 4 U
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Tony Joe White Music »
My love life was alright always in control
I was never one to jump the gun take it nice and slow
Then you changed it all with a kiss
And I never thought it would come to this
2 hot 4 U better watch my step
Got me in a mood like I never felt
It's a fever can't shake it loose
Burning 2 hot 4 U
I tell myself it's a wild dream but I know for sure
Anytime you're close to me you mess with my temperature
Taking my breath away with a touch
My good intentions are just not good enough
2 hot 4 U hot me in a jam
Try to keep it cool but I'm loosing ground
It's dangerous what can I do
Burning 2 hot 4 U
I should listen to my heart try to keep my thoughts together
Something tells me I've gone too far
My emotions overruleb and all I want to do is make love to you
Melting down like a nuke reactor willpower is not a factor
The way you move is a sexy groove hard to refuse 2 hot 4 U
**********
12.
COLDNESS OF THE CHAIN
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Screen Gems Music, BMI / Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
I said goodbye to the cotton patches left my sack out in the field
Caught a midnight ride down to Natchez under the hill
Fell in with some bad companions with no regard for the law
We were under the impression we was above it all
There were high times but the truth was plain
We were one step from the coldness of the chain
My daddy was a quiet person he was a farmer all his life
He played the guitar in the morning and sometimes at night
The years caught up with him and mama the ol' homeplace was falling down
I had come into a little money we bought a place in town
But the city life and the farm is not the same
And I knew he felt the coldness of the chain
It may be that freedom is just an illusion
Always danglin' just out of reach
I have come to the conclusion
I can't change the way it was meant to be
There don't seem to be no way around it it's hard to set the spirit free
I've tried to fly but still I'm grounded by reality how can this be
And I can feel it in the air like a distant rain
I'm one step from the coldness of the chain
**********
13.
PATH OF A DECENT GROVE
(Tony Joe White)
« © '93 Tony Joe White Music, BMI »
Last night I woke up crying
And in the darkness I tasted the tears
I can't explain this dream that haunts me
Down through the years
Maybe it's the strain of trying to prove
I'm on the path of a decent groove
You never come so close to dying
When you turn away from what you know
There's nothing but the pain
When you keep denying what's in your soul
There's so many lonely roads to choose
Far from the path of a decent groove
And there's no good in looking back on times that are gone
It comes down to how you react to chances blown
But I see two young men leading their lives so cool
They're on the path of a decent groove
A girl raised back in the wilderness
Who could have known our path would cross
But down through the years we stick together through it all
She's close to the wolf with eyes the palest of blue
They're on the path of a decent groove
But there are words to be wrote and songs to be sung
And I can only hope someone will keep it going on
And I hear a young voice ringing true
She's on the path of a decent groove
**********