Dancin' Moon Songcast Ep. 18 My First Song

Featured song from 2017's Refuge LP 

My First Song

I was only six or seven years old,
You must've been a worn-out thirty-two.
Don't know what stories you'd been told;
Don't know what you went home to…
But you brought a tiredness behind your eyes,
And you brought a shuffle in your walk.
They only left when your anger flared--
Felt like hell made out of ditto ink and chalk, yeah
Felt like hell made out of ditto ink and chalk,
Felt like hell made out of ditto ink and chalk.

It was a song—my very first,
The kind a first-grader would like to write,
Full of wanna-be Maurice Sendak and Dr. Seuss,
Full of possibility and light…
It went like this…

One day I was a-walkin' down the street, street, street
A funny old man I did meet, meet, meet
He was walkin' on his big old feet, feet, feet
‘til he fell right on his seat, seat seat…
Yeah that's what I wrote…
My first song… yeah

You'd given us a few minutes and a
Blank sheet of lined paper.
I had no idea what I was
Supposed to do…
Maybe I wasn't listening, or
Maybe I was scared,
But knowing me, it was probably just
That song I HAD to write…
My first song…

I made language into music
I gave it a beat, gave it a rhyme
Made it funny—made a story, yeah
One that didn't exist outside of right there—
What I did in my mind…
I wrote my first song…
I wrote my first song…
I wrote my first song… yeah
On that paper you handed to me…

What I wanted to see was what you might think of it
Would you laugh? Would you smile?
Would it brighten that darkness there behind your eyes?
Would you sing it out loud?
But your tired, angry eyes,
Well, they looked, and read, and were more tired.
You could've just put it down now…
Too bad you couldn't just retire.
No—you stole my poetry
You went and stole my literary device…

You wrote, NO, NO, NO in big red letters across the top
Wrote NO, NO, NO on my first song…
You wrote, NO, NO, NO in big red letters across the top
Wrote NO, NO, NO on my first song…
On my first song…

So, I became a teacher,
A teacher with a guitar in his hands.
I may sound corny, may sound "un-rigorous"
But someone's got to take a stand
For singin'…

YES, YES, YES… You've got a song to sing!
YES, YES, YES… I won't give up on you!
YES, YES, YES… We're gonna let FREEDOM RING!
YES, YES, YES… You are the BEST when YOU are YOU!

YES, YES, YES… You've got a song to sing!
YES, YES, YES… I won't give up on you!
YES, YES, YES… We're gonna let FREEDOM RING!
YES, YES, YES… You are the BEST when YOU are YOU!

When you are you…
You are the best when You are You!
When YOU are YOU.

I was only six or seven years old,
You must've been a worn-out thirty-two…