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Song Lyrics:

 

Free Harbors (All songs © 1989 by Ray Korona)

 

For more information, click: Here. To listen, click Here.

 

 

 

MAYBE YOU'RE A YUPPIE

 

Do you get turned on when old brick gets exposed?

Does it give you a thrill when a co-op or a condo gets flipped?

Do apartment prices move you more than the home team's final score?

Would you drool if you saw a mahogany door being stripped?

 

chorus Then maybe you're a yuppie.

Yup, yup, yup, you're a yuppie!

 

Does Sunday morning mean brunch with broccoli quiche?

Did you cheer when Joe's Diner turned into Chez Josef's Gourmet?

Does it take clean red brick, plants and wood for a restaurant to

look good?

Would an art print decor change the price you would smugly pay?

 

chorus

 

Does your unique t-shirt pass you on the street?

Does it seem that your neighbors all think an awful lot like you?

Do the high rents make you ill at ease when the old stores get the squeeze,

But you stop in a new one to get some good cheese to make do?

 

chorus

 

Does restoration work prove you've earned your place

Though there're compromises like an air conditioner or two?

Are you sad for tenants from before, too poor to live here anymore

As you order a Medico lock for the door--or a few?

 

chorus

 

tag Yup, yup, yup, you're a yuppie.

Yup, yup, yup, you're a yuppie.

 

 

 

JENNIFER'S MUSIC

 

 

There was a fire, the scars are bad.

There was a lover, but now she's alone.

Moved to the city, the streets look sad.

She isn't pretty; the shadows moan.

There's a sign on a lamp post one day:

"I've got a piano, I no longer play.

It's yours, if you'll take it away."

 

chorus Now, Jennifer's Music is loose in the air.

For some it's a ladder; for some it's a chair.

For some it's a soft, silky cloak to wear

In a city they thought couldn't care.

 

A concrete doorstep is Michael's stage;

Plays on his whistle so high and clear.

Street life can make you look twice your age.

He needs a shave and he wants a beer.

But his whistle leaves strangers entranced.

He played it beside her; she feels romanced.

Michael and Jennifer danced!

 

chorus

 

So many others came, they're a band.

Musical fingers dancing 'til dawn.

Playing together, they take their stand

Building the strength it takes to go on.

And on Sundays they form a big ring

Where some come to listen and some come to sing.

Their hearts and their voices take wing.

 

two choruses

 

 

TIDE OF LOVE

 

Music filled the air all night in a springtime weekend campsite.

Thought that I might take a chance...

Soft guitars in harmony; you sang a song and smiled at me.

I swear you made the mountains dance.

 

chorus The moon sends the ocean waves splashing to the shore

As June stars guide the tide of love

Crashing through my door.

 

Soon we're back to city sights--the culture shock of horns and lights--

Air that's a solid gray wall.

It just doesn't matter though; we hold hands through the undertow

And feel so strong and tall.

 

chorus

 

bridge And the tide of love is flowing when you need a friend.

Its waters are clear and true and they never end.

 

Music fills our lives these days. I can hear it in so many ways.

Living with you seems so right.

Lots to say and lots to do and all at once it's coming through--

The fire of our first night.

 

chorus

 

tag And it's splashing, the tide of love.

And there's music, the tide of love.

Oh, I'm riding the tide.

 

 

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

 

When I first came to the city I thought

You really could live for your art.

But now so many brave dreamers are falling apart.

Restaurants and boutiques have taken away

The spaces we used for our plays.

The little theaters can't make it these big money days.

 

chorus Lay la la la lay lo

Where do we go from here?

Lay la la la lo

Where do we go?

 

Late at night after the shows would all close,

We'd meet for a beer at Tim's bar.

And you could live on a dream then 'til you were a star.

We didn't see that the co-ops would come

Or how the big bucks would be spent.

They ask for three times your income and call it the rent.

 

chorus

 

Why can't I be the one who strikes it rich?

I'd buy this town back up and then

Let all the dispossessed people come live here again.

Maybe, I'll take a straight job for awhile

Or move out where things aren't so high.

I'll find a way to keep writing, I can't let it die.

 

chorus

 

tag Where do we go?

Where do we go?

 

 

JOB SONG

 

chorus Find your place in the system, get a job.

Hold your head high. Know you're free.

Work from dawn to dusk and then you'll see,

You'll be so happy in your job.

 

There's a job two hours away and it sounds just great.

Takes longer on the bus, don't be late.

They do want you there by seven a.m.

But you can take off every other weekend.

If your seniority entitles you, of course,

And you've proved you can work like a horse.

So do what you're told if you want to climb.

And lucky you might even get overtime.

 

chorus

 

Here's a job with travel and education:

The army's like a big vacation.

See Lebanon, Granada and more.

Go any place as long as there's a war.

So much excitement, feel your heartbeat quicken.

How can you say "no" unless you're chicken?

If you get shot or if your plane should crash,

They've got a special hospital like on M.A.S.H.

 

chorus

 

Grab a job where you get a limousine--

A waiting room so big, it's obscene.

Diplomas from top schools won't do it alone.

You've got to be a leader, like Al Capone.

If the stress gets high, you must fight back.

Give one of your aides the heart attack.

Just never sleep 'cause it could mean your death.

Remember what they did to General Macbeth.

 

chorus

 

 

FREE HARBORS

 

The ships roll out and the ships roll in

And sun shines on the harbor.

They carry silk and chocolate creams

And lost souls chasing dreams, but

 

chorus Beware of the ships that would melt down the sea

With bombs that can make all life cease.

May our harbors all be free.

May the waters always dance in peace.

 

A boat sails off from the curving shore

A new world to discover

Where flowers bloom way out on the blue

Unknown islands grew, but

 

chorus

 

The sea knows more than we think she knows.

Her anger can be mighty.

The continents will fall from her waves

And dig the bombers graves, so

 

chorus

 

The ships roll out and the ships roll in

And sun shines on the harbor.

They carry silk and chocolate creams

And lost souls chasing dreams.

 

 

 

NEW AGE DEPARTMENT STORE

 

Since the cleaners closed down

It's been empty for a year or more.

Now you won't believe

What's moved in next door!

It's a high tech, spiritual

New Age Department Store.

Where the tapes are playing

 

chorus Ohm. O-oh o-oh o-oh o-oh ohm.

Ohm. O-oh o-oh o-oh o-oh ohm.

 

They've got magic rocks there

With the powers to make you heal;

Books about all those rocks, yeah,

Proving they're for real.

If you're open to it,

For you, they've got a deal.

And you'll walk out singing

 

chorus

 

Plastic globes that light up,

Little buttons that say energize,

Postcards of some trees--Wow!

They've got beautiful buys.

And the beaming sales clerks

Look into your eyes

As they chant together

 

chorus

 

bridge Now they've tripled all the prices

Of everything in the store

To overcome those foolish fears

Good folks must be poor.

Materializing your cash

Is what the store is for.

Their accountant whistles

 

chorus

 

They've learned from the moonies

And they even try to steal from est.

But it's Sears Roebuck

That taught them the best.

Buy some New Age stocks,

What a way to divest!

The ticker tape is humming

 

 

chorus

 

 

GRAMPA TOOK A WALK

 

Grampa took a walk, now he's missing.

Grandma's lost again in reminiscing.

There's so much we never said

Now we don't have a clue

Where he's gone or what he had to do.

 

Sis and Betty put up signs to trace him

Asking please if anyone could place him.

He's tall and thin, light blue eyes

And lots of long white hair.

Bring him back to those who really care.

 

chorus Sometimes you can't keep on waiting.

How long does somebody have to bleed?

You throw away the rules

And reach for what you need.

 

I remember, looking back it's funny,

How he got so careless with his money.

And only a week ago, he didn't stay to see

When they played the big game on TV.

 

Seemed he found the headlines more depressing;

Yet that little smile kept you guessing.

Did something just snap inside

And make him lose control?

Or did he finally see into his soul?

 

chorus

 

Modern times were not what he expected.

Things that mattered most had been neglected.

Did he have a role to play--

His footsteps in the night

Never resting 'til he got it right.

 

Maybe he just needed time for thinking;

Chasing down the sun as it went sinking.

He's run out there to the edge.

He won't be back this way.

Could it be we'll meet him there someday?

 

chorus

 

 

MELINDA

 

chorus Melinda, are you warm enough tonight?

Did you find yourself a harbor?

Do you think you'll be all right?

I know you're a dreamer

'Cause I'm a dreamer too.

And you believed in me

Now I believe in you.

 

I slipped into the painting that you made me

And sailed up its rivers for hours

Where frozen in their pain, untouched by wind and rain,

I never saw such beautiful flowers.

 

chorus

 

Sometimes I think I hear this old house crying

As shadows of love fill the air.

And when I'm sure I'm right, a ghost comes in the night

And mocks me from its place in your chair.

 

chorus

 

I really thought the path up through the mountain

Could bring me new vistas sublime.

But in the foggy mist, I saw the face I kissed

And knew what I had searched for all the time.

 

chorus

 

 

PAPER

 

chorus You can scream, you can plead,

You can argue all night.

They may be wrong; you may be right.

You can have what you need;

You can get what you want

If you've got the right amount of paper.

 

He really didn't care if his big car wasted gas.

It was awfully smooth to ride in;

It was awfully hard to pass.

He spent a lot of money to get that kind of class

And you know he used his own paper.

 

The refugees of war who rode out on the boat

Had little food and water.

Their chances were remote.

And most of them were lost when it couldn't stay afloat.

And they never even had any paper.

 

chorus

 

When they wrote the law, the loophole didn't show.

The judge who heard the case

Just had to let them go.

The stock went right back up to the status quo

And everybody got a little paper.

 

A simple man with vision started to campaign,

But TV was expensive and

No one knew his name.

When the votes were tallied he was left out in the rain.

The same fingers counted up the paper.

 

chorus

 

They said, "Use atoms for peace and big stock dividends.

Invite them home for dinner.

The atoms are our friends."

Are they really safe now, well it all depends,

Whose pockets are filling up with paper.

 

Would some greedy builder cut costs where it won't show?

Some tired operator,

React a little slow?

Do you think that maybe one of them might blow?

Will we be here to read it in the paper?

 

chorus

 

Would you lock the door--throw a family on the street?

Would you turn away

From the beggar at your feet?

Would you take off your clothes and smile soft and sweet

All for the love of some paper?

 

How the world would glow if we could all be strong;

Join ourselves together

And share each other's song.

You could bet your bottom dollar it wouldn't be too long

When nobody wanted any paper.

 

chorus

 

 

WE'RE LIKE THE SEASONS

 

Winter's showing his age now,

This hard bitter cold's nearly done.

You almost can feel the grass growing

Like when you're lying in the sun.

 

Soon the daylight will be here.

The cavernous night will go 'way.

But why must we pass through such darkness

Before the dawning of the day?

 

chorus: Oh, we're like the seasons--

The nights and the days.

All things are within us always.

 

They say showers in April

Cause flowers to blossom in May.

And somewhere a new baby's crying

When someone else just passed away.

 

chorus

 

May the storm deep inside you

Give way to a soft gentle breeze

And mornings keep bringing you sunlight

Greeting you on peaceful seas.

 

chorus

 

 

MESSAGE OF PEACE

 

intro: We can't go on living this nightmare

In a world that aches with nuclear fear.

The forecast must be revised.

Soon, the weather will clear.

 

There's a place high up on a mountain

Where my troubles elope with the breeze.

And even though I go there alone,

A party gets started as birds dance in trees.

And I can feel the peace.

 

chorus: The power that comes in these moments

Brings me sweet inner release.

I know I can carry it with me

As my message of peace.

 

It'll come sometimes when we're singing

And the notes weave a magical bridge

That winds its way through planets and stars

Where everyone understands each other's language.

And we can feel the peace.

 

chorus

 

bridge: It will grow if we feed it.

Don't be afraid to say that you feel it.

Oh, yeah!

 

Have you dreamed of streets without anger

Where the children are safe in the park?

Of windows and doors open all night;

No missiles aimed at our beds in the dark?

Where we can feel the peace.

 

chorus

 

tag: Let it grow in your heart.

Watch it grow in the world.

 

Let it grow in your heart.

Watch it grow in the world.

Let it grow in your life.

Watch it grow in your work.

(repeat last four lines)

 

Let it grow!