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Only Living Boy in Turlock
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Spunky diatribe on small-town life. Raucous acoustic guitar and vocals.
alternative acoustic folk antifolk female vocal 12 string hippie jangly
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folk, acoustic, hippie, anti-folk, alternative, jangly, singer-songwriter, weird chords
Paper Cats is a lover's duo. We range through folk and anti-folk to rougher electrified rock and blues; Chris plays guitars--six string, twelve string, classical acoustic, electric, you name it--and Lauren mostly sings. Some of our work is Chris's solo guitar composition, some Lauren's solo ballads, but increasingly our work is collaborative, usually with Chris writing guitar parts and Lauren writing vocal parts. We are enjoying ourselves immensely.
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic Folk
Charts
Peak #200
Peak in subgenre #27
Author
Byerly/Nagel
Rights
Byerly/Nagel 2006
Uploaded
July 03, 2006
Track Files
MP3
MP3 2.5 MB • 128 kbps • 2:11
Story behind the song
Playing around with Paul Simon's "Only Living Boy in New York" helped us realize that Simon always lies in print about his songs. Through teasing him and messing with the chords, Chris came up with this tune. After scatting melodies over it, Lauren finally sat down and wrote the lyrics, inspired by being one of very, very few friendly liberal hippie types in a vaguely scary, vaguely sad little "college town" in the Californian Central Valley. An interesting side-note: of everything Lauren and Chris have written, this is Lauren's mother's favorite.
Lyrics
Can't catch a bus through the cars, but the cows come closer than people--won't talk-- Two hours from the nearest place without lights Two hours from the nearest place with life Tell me, why am I here? I duck and I wave and beg and I try to find someone else who smiles but Not in this little town No, not in this town! La t-da dadida ta da bada didow, latasi za za di da Doom, ba da dadida la tsow zada bida gadda ba la tsi da da boom, La ladadidow, Zat zatta da lee zat zatta bop dee zat zatta rah ta ta tee za -- zat dadida dow --zat Li La Li Lie People shouting in print, but I think people thinkin's Fewer and further between than us hippies, long haired and hiding out behind guitars and run to the coast when there's a little Time to breathe. . . I duck and I wave and beg and I try to find someone else who smiles but Not many'n this town No, not in this town! La t-da dadida ta da bada didow, latasi za za di da Doom, ba da dadida la tsow zada bida gadda ba la tsi da da boom, La ladadidow, Zat zatta da lee zat zatta bop dee zat zatta rah ta ta tee za -- zat dadida dow --zat Li La Li Lie (Bridge) Eating peaches and getting pickled on rum and juice in the hot hot sun and then dancing 'round in the rain and watching the muck come out of the air and pretending We the only ones here, today. . . Then I duck and I wave and beg and I try to find someone else who smiles but Not in this little town No, not in this town! La t-da dadida ta da bada didow, latasi just me and peaches, today, a da dadida la tsow zada bida Keep your guitar out the rain and boom, La ladadidow --Da lie la li lie. . .
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