John Ebert: trombone, tuba, background vocal
Ken Frank:
acoustic bass guitar, background vocals, violin
Colorblind James:
vocals, guitar, vibraphone, organ, tenor banjo
PhiIlip Marshall: lead
guitar, background vocals, tenor banjo
Jim McAvaney: drums,
washboard, background vocal
Dave McIntire: clarinette, saxaphone,
background vocal
WHY SHOULD I STAND
UP?
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I have learned to close my eyes to
All
that I can't reconcile
I have learned to turn my back
on
Anyone who cramps my style
I could be satisfied chasing a good time
But
something tells me the suffering's just begun
Maybe I
want to be the silent type
I know what's happening but
why should I stand up?
A man was drowning in a river
Said
won't somebody lend a hand
Nobody did, though I guess
they figured
He'd only fall back in again
And all the heroes threw down their white hats
Claiming they'd been underpaid
And
round the corner there comes a brass band
Its the
cynics on parade
It you've had enough of playing follow
the leader
Its time to come up with some new kind of
game
I'm on the outside anyhow
I can see from here so why should I stand up?
A fellow could get hurt doing something foolish
Doing something rash
I once overheard
some villain say
That he who fights and runs
away
Lives to fight
Lives to
fight
Lives to fight another day
Is there nothing in this world to fight for?
Is there nothing in this world to change?
Is
there nothing in this world that matters?
Is there no
reason to take a stand?
What about justice? What about
freedom?
What about peace? And dignity?
What about respect? What about compassion?
What about a little thing called love?
How
about mercy? How about kindness?
How about blue skies
and clean air?
How about the jaguar? How about the
buffalo?
How about the buffalo?
How about the buffalo?
A million years old and
drunk at the moment
I'm a million years old and drunk
as I might be
Look what I found lying in the
basement:
A bottle of wine called Why Should I Stand
Up?
SHE'LL BREAK
YOURS,
TOO
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She threw me through the bedroom door
Said "Get your suitcase off my floor"
Oh! Oh
she'll break yours, too
I got my things up off the floor
I
guess that girl ain't my girl anymore
Oh! Oh she'll
break yours. too
I will not let this get me down
Who
knows, things might look up next time around
There
won't be no tears in my eyes
Nobody likes to see a
grown man cry
I see them everywhere I go
When we
pass they smile and say hello
Oh! Oh she'll break
yours, too
Well you can smile, go ahead and smirk
Soon I think you'll know just what it's worth
Oh! Oh she'll break yours. too
Two months later he's swallowing pills
He's poised out on his window sill
He sits with
a revolver on the living room floor
I guess that girl
don't love him no more
I told him once, I told him twice
That
boy would not follow my advice
Oh! Oh she'll break
yours too
So don't come around here asking me how
Figure it out she's your girl now
Oh! Oh she'll
break yours
Oh! Oh she'll break yours
Oh! Oh she'll break yours too
BUSTER
CORNELIUS
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Buster Cornelius was an honest man
But
he ruled his people with an iron hand
Buster Cornelius
was a regular Joe
But if you did him wrong. he'd let
you know
Buster Cornelius was fine and upstanding
But to his people he was hard and demanding
He
was always brave and never cruel
But don't ever mistake
him for a fool
Buster Cornelius stood four foot four
But to his people he was ten feet tall
Whether
in battle or at the sacred altar
He led them truly and
never faltered
Buster Cornelius died at home
They say
his age was forty-one
They carried him out of his
modest room
And laid his body in a marble tomb
As heroes go. he was the best
Head and
shoulders above the rest
That's why on the third of
May.
We celebrate Buster Cornelius Day
POLKA
GIRL
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Polka Girl! Polka Girl! Polka Girl!
You'd better not let me down
I know a girl named Ruth
I'll tell you
all the truth
When the cabbage stars to boil
She losses all control
Polka Girl! Polka Girl! Polka Girl!
You'd better not let me down
The band is all in place
Accordion and
bass
Clarinet and drums
Tenor
and trombone
Polka Girl! Polka Girl! Polka Girl!
You'd better not let me down
I'll bare my teeth
My lips will
curl
Heads will roll
If you
get near my Polka Girl
Polka Girl! Polka Girl! Polka Girl!
You'd better not let me down
RIDE
BOARD
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My spirit left my body while I slept
And took a seat in a small cafe overlooking the river
And in a small cafe overlooking the river
My
spirit relaxed
And drank a cappuccino and then
another
And my spirit borrowed a cigarette
And smoked it and watched .t disappear
And my spirit rose
And on its way out
Paused before the ride board
And
reading it, my spirit was moved
And tell to its knee
and wept
And sang of the ride board
Its praises in a loud voice
I'M A SAILOR
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I'm a sailor
I've been to the North
Sea
I've been to the South Sea
I've been to the Dead Sea
I'm a sailor
I've got my top mast
I've got my main
sail
I've got my crows nest too
Been gone for six weeks
Been gone for
eight months
Been gone for ten years
Been gone for a lifetime
Don't know my
family
Forgot my wife's name
If I have children
I know them not
I've seen poor folks
In little junk
boats
Eating fish guts
Eating
frogs' heads
I've seen rich men
Raised on candy
Raised on eclairs
Living on champagne
I've been seasick
I've been
poisoned
I've been capsized
I've been shipwrecked
I've been washed up
on
Devil's Island
With the
driftwood
And left far dead
THAT'S
ENTERTAINMENT
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When you see the tap dancer dancing
Tapping all around
On the floors and on the
wails and on the
Ceiling, upside down
That's Entertainment!
That's
Entertainment!
That's Entertainment!
Well, what would you call it?
A woman is in danger
Of falling off a
cliff
And her house gets torn and her skirt his
caught
And he prays he can gel to her first
That's Entertainment!
That's
Entertainment!
That's Entertainment!
Well, what would you call it?
Sometimes it makes you happy
Sometimes
it makes you cry
Sometimes it makes you wonder
If you even want to try
That's
Entertainment!
That's Entertainment!
That's Entertainment!
Well, what would you call
it?
(HE MUST'VE
BEEN) QUITE A
GUY
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He was born on a freight train
He was
born on a cruise ship
He was born on an airplane
He was born in a taxi cab
He was born in a blizzard
Far away in
a manger
On the top of a mountain
In the mists of the jungle
He was born in the desert
When the
lilacs were blooming
He was born in the ball
park
High up in the grandstands
He was born an a surfboard
He was born
in a backpack
He was born at the opera
He was born on a chain gang
He lived on the east coast
Grew upon
the west coast
Made his home in the north
Settled down in the south
Quit school in the third grade
With
honors from Harvard
Played semipro baseball
For a team in Havana
He worked in Chicago
At the Bake-a-
Lite factory
Dug clams in New Orleans
And then in Miami
He worked on a farm
On a ranch in
Wyoming
Shot buffalo for a while
Until the herds disappeared
He became a teacher
And then an
inventor
He invented the clam bake
He invented the back yard
He invented the porch
He invented the
banjo
He invented the hammock
He invented the card game
He invented the light bulb
He invented
the sick day
He invented a phonograph
With a gasoline engine
He discovered the Mississippi
And he
gave it a name tag
And he filled it with garbage
From the hull of a steamboat
He fled from the dust bowl
He fled
from the city
He fled from his family
He fled from the farm
He joined the union
He marched with
the Wobblies
He wore a red bandana
And sang union songs
He was sent to the war
He fought with
MacArthur
He marched into Paris
He liberated Rome
He marched into Washington
And Selma,
Alabama
He marched into Hollywood
He marched into television
He died in a plane crash
In a fight in
a barroom
He died when his car crashed
In a tenement fire
He died saving children
He died broke
and lonely
And drunk in a gutter
In the middle of nowhere
He died of a heat rash
He died of a
bee sting
He ate poison mushrooms
And that did him in
I went to an auction
Bought a trunk
with his diary
From cover to cover
He must have been quite a guy
WEDDING AT
CANA
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The wedding party had just begun
People getting loose and having fun
'Till Mary
overheard the father of the bride
In a panic 'cause
they had run out of wine
Mary said. Son, they have no wine
Mary
said. Son, they have no wine
He said I can't help that.
Mom, its not my time"
Mary said. 'Son, they have no
wine
Mary told the waiter. 'Do what he tells you
Take what he gives you and buy what he sells you
Listen to him once and listen to him twice
And
don't ignore any of his advice''
Even Jesus was smiling now
He always
liked to help out, anyhow
He said "I'll need seven
buckets, all in a row
All of em filled with H2O"
The waiter was gone for ten minutes or so
And then he came back, lust like he was told
He
said. Here's your seven buckets, all in a line"
Jesus
said, "That's not water it's wine
Just then a man walked by with a frown on his face
Saying. 'Suppose that I might have a taste''?
Mary winked and said she thought he could
So he
drank a cup and said, "Boy, that's good"
He said. 'Most people serve the good wine first
And as the night wears on. the wine gets worse
But you certainly have shown a lot of class;
You've saved the best wine for last'
Now Jesus told the waiter. Don't say a word
About what you've seen and what you've heard"
The waiter agreed and he tried hard, too
But by
the very next day, the whole town knew
ROCKIN' AS FAST
AS I
CAN
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I had a dream the other night
Oh what
a dreadful dream it was
I dreamt that I was on a
stage
And as if that wasn't bad enough
The people were angry and shouted Let's rock!"
There wasn't a satisfied fan
I whispered back
"I am rockin
Rockin as fast as can
So lets rock! Lets rock'
Let's rock!
Let's rock!
Rockin' as fast as I can
Well, frankly, I had to admit it, folks
It wasn't much of a show
Nothing moved and
nothing grooved
And all of the tempos were Slow
And they screamed and hollered 'Hey turn on the heat"
I heard it again and again
I
whispered back The heat is on
And I'm rockin' as fast
as I can
So lets rock! Let's rock!
Let's rock!
Let's rock!
Rockin' as fast as I can
Some people wanted their money back
That didn't matter to me
But others would only
be satisfied
When they'd got what they'd come there to
see
So they screamed and hollered
Hey come on, get down
That is if you think you
still can"
I whispered back I am down"
I'm rockin' as fast as can
So let's rock' Let's rock!
Lets rock'
Lets rock'
Rockin as fast as I can
HI FI
ALPHABET
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I saw the monster from the bay
I saw
it raise it's ugly head
We spoke for about a half an
hour
I don't recall a thing we said
Jack's Bloody Shadow is a bar
Its next
door to the Broken Ghost
That's up the street from What
A Cage
I don't remember on which coast
Lil miss was married yesterday
To some
bohemian die hard twerp
He didn't bother to get
dressed
It wasn't even in a church
His family chipped in for a gift
All
tied with ribbon in a knot
Its what they've always
wanted, yes
A cubist cemetery plot
He said finally wrote my book
Its
called the Hi-Fi Alphabet
I asked him what it was
about
He hasn't figured that out yet
IF NOBODY
LOVES YOU IN
HEAVEN
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The road that does stretch on before us
It ends when we give up this life
But if nobody
loves you in heaven
What's the use of this sorrow and
strife?
And what of the baptismal water
Could
it be nothing more than a bath?
If nobody loves you in
heaven
What good is this straight narrow path?
They say that this road leads to glory
I've heard it again and again
But if nobody
loves you in heaven
Then your life's filled with
nothing but shame
And what at the Holy Scripture
Could
it be just a book full of lies
If nobody loves you in
heaven
Then its all just a roll of the dice
So we pray to the lord for forgiveness
We beg him upon bended knees
But if nobody
loves you in heaven
Our prayers are worth nothing, you
see
Will the lame man never walk freely?
Is the blind man never to see?
If nobody loves
you in heaven
What a cruel joke it would be
Though you sing with the voice of an angel
Though your heart be as pure as a flame
If
nobody loves you in heaven
This life has been truly in
vain
If nobody loves you in heaven
What is
this suffering worth?
If nobody loves you in
heaven
Why are we here on this earth?
Eileen Fugman plays accordian on "Polka Girl".
G. Elwyn Meixner plays Hawaiian guitar on "If Nobody Loves You In
Heaven".
On "Hi Fl Alphabet", Paul Dodd plays bongo drums,
Peggi Fournier plays soprano saxaphone,
G. Elwyn Meixner plays mandolin, and Patrick Morgan and Scott Regan sing
vocal chorus.
