Live Forever Shaver Lyrics
This is probably my favorite Billy Joe Shaver song, which of course no one has ever posted on YouTube because it isn't exactly a toe-tapper. I've heard a number of variations of it. As is the nature of music, lyrics change, particularly when sung by the writer. The lyrics as published by others usually have "crippleful" as "cripple for". I've listened. Listen hard. That isn't what he sings, and it a makes a subtle difference in the meaning. I first posted this on my birthday last year. I'm posting it again tonight because I was struck by how universal some themes are. The uneducated cowboy of 1986 and the educated man of 1586 are both talking about "My crop of corn is but a field of tares" and "No fruit will be borne by his tree". "The fruit is dead, and yet the leaves are green" versus "No fruit of the harvest lent weight to my pockets". Both men are talking about coming to the end of their cycle. Although one much more immediate and terrifying....
That’s certainly not the case, Ely said last week from his home in Lubbock as he geared up for a trip that will bring him back to the Southland for one of his rare concert stops on Thursday at the Mint in Los Angeles. But were it true, it wouldn’t be unprecedented: That’s just the way he came to the City of Angels the first time, some 45 years ago.
“I was playing the old Cellar Club in Houston,” Ely, 64, said, launching a scenario that sounds like one of the richly detailed shaggy dog tales that’s been a key part of his musical repertoire since he emerged from Lubbock in the 1970s with a string of critically lauded solo albums.
“I had some differences with the management one night,” he said in the languid West Texas drawl that contributes to his reputation as a canny storyteller. “I’d met some friends at the old Market Square in Houston — they were black guys — and I invited them to the club as my guests. When we got there, the bouncers pointed to a sign they kept way high over the door that read ‘$99 cover charge.’ It was there to keep blacks out of the club. That was in 1966.
|
Honky tonk legend Billy Joe Shaver provided the national anthem and more on Monday at the state Capitol as legislators convened for the |
