NEW SONGS: DANNY SAYS

A TRUE STORY, although the name has been changed. This is obviously, essentially, a Lou Reed song -- I styled it after "Stephanie Says," but the lyrics and melody are all mine.

"DANNY SAYS" LYRICS:

Danny says
Over a burger and chips
Sometimes just looking down Hollywood
It's like the apocalypse
And Danny says
That on Yucca and Vine
He saw a man with a full-sized cross
Beneath the Hollywood sign

Danny says
This is the month he goes broke
He's spent his entire trust fund
On rent, clothes, and coke
And Danny says
That he spilled some cocaine
And while he was crawling on his knees
A cockroach called out his name

Danny says
His play was almost done
And then he threw it in the trash
Like he'd never begun
And Danny says
That he just had a dream
That his grandpa cut his throat
Because of a Ponzi scheme

Danny says
We should settle on Mars
No need to live in someone else's past
The future would be ours
And Danny says
He may go for a swim
Just take a drive out to the coast
Strip off his clothes and dive in

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NEW SONGS: THE MOVIEGOER

A SONG ABOUT my obsessive moviegoing habits when I lived in Los Angeles when I lived there in the early 90s. I had moved out in the hopes of finding work as a screenwriter, and, while I did not have much luck with that, I did discover it to be an ideal city in which to be a movie lover. Man of the movie theaters on Hollywood Boulevard were then quite run down, and, as a result, fans of cult cinema often took them over to show really obscure z-grade horror and science fiction films. There was a theater near the corner of Hollywood and Vine where you could buy a ticket for a few bucks and see three second-run movies in a row with the most rambunctious crowd I have ever experienced -- they yelled back at any movie that played. There were multiple revival houses that played classic and art films, and, when you wanted to go to a new release, you weren't going to do better than classic movie palaces like the Chinese Theater or the more 60s-styled Cinerama Dome. Additionally, there was still a Pussycat Theater in East Hollywood that played a constant stream of terrible adult films and an occasional classic, and I stopped in every now and then when they had something that intrigued me, which was always an awkward experience.

Although I loved going to the movies, and still do, I generally went alone when I lived in Los Angeles, and it's strange to think back on my time there as being so solitary.

"THE MOVIEGOER" LYRICS:

Monday night on Fairfax
For a silent retrospective
King Vidor could paint with light
But Pabst was introspective
Tuesday night it's Godard
704 goes to the Nuart
Anna Karina dances now
In Bande a part
Oh, where do you go
When you're the moviegoer?
Oh, where do you go tonight
Oh, the cineplex show
Near Rosewood and Gower
Oh a second run film is all right

Cinerama Dome on Wednesday
To see last weekend's big hit
The reviews for this have not been kind
But you find you kind of like it
Thursday night will find you
At the Sunset Pussycat Theater
To see Pia Snow in Cafe Flesh
And Tantala Ray mistreat her
Oh, where do you go
When you're the moviegoer?
Oh, where do you go tonight
Oh, the cineplex show
Near Rosewood and Gower
Oh a second run film is all right

Bukowski filmed by Schroeder
This Friday at UCLA
At 240 minutes
The movie will take the whole day
On Saturday at the Egyptian
At midnight for those who stay late
Are Starlet and The Space Thing
She-Freak and Nature's Playmates
Oh, where do you go
When you're the moviegoer?
Oh, where do you go tonight
Oh, the cineplex show
Near Rosewood and Gower
Oh a second run film is all right

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NEW SONGS: THE SHELTER GANG

A SONG based on the dozens of teenagers I saw pass through the Citrus House homeless shelter in the summer of 1992. While I was there for three months, most of the teens in the program lasted a few weeks or even a few days and then were evicted from the program, sometimes forcefully. The shelter had a lot of rules, and it seemed especially difficult for most of the kids in the shelter to obey them. Sometimes they left on their own, finding housing with a lover or just deciding to leave Los Angeles. All of them had stories of abuse and violence, and we tended to just sit around the television and talk, or go up the street to the Jack in the Box for sodas and to just hang out, so I heard a lot of these stories and they have stayed with me.

"THE SHELTER GANG" LYRICS:

Andrew was just seventeen
When he went into the teen canteen
He only lasted seven days
He tested for AIDS and went away
And Luis ran away from home
When his father caught him with Jerome
He threatened them with a baseball bat
So Luis left and that was that.

Marcus was born in Hollywood
And stayed with lovers when he could
when he was between boyfriends
He came back to the shelter again
James he could not hold his liquor
And fought a guard, he tried to kick her
He grabbed her taser; when he felt her
She left him twitching outside the shelter

Joe dressed up in skirt and blouse
When he left the citrus house
And liked to kiss straight men in bars
Which accounts for Joe's many scars
Martin was not very smart
But found work at Baker's collecting carts
He liked to carry around his cash
And was robbed one night and his hand was smashed

Anne and Omar were engaged
Even though she was underaged
He left without telling, we presume
She cut her wrists in the shelter bathroom
Michael would not stay in his bed
But crept into Robert's instead
They were discreet, but as predicted
Both we caught and evicted

There was Benny and Juan Ortegas
They just packed up and moved to Vegas
And Sam and Rom and Jim and Jules
Could not obey the shelter rules
And Al and Phil and Jake and Kay
Were all kicked out on their seventh day
And what Became of Anton and Sean
There were there one day and then were gone

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NEW SONGS: SANTA MONICA

A SONG from my experiences in Los Angeles in the early 90s. I won't go into any great detail here (they are available elsewhere on this blog), except to say that I was homeless for a while, and stayed in a shelter run by the Gay/Lesbian Community Services Center of Los Angeles. Many of the other homeless kids in the shelter were male prostitutes and made money by malingering on Santa Monica Boulevard, waiting for cars to pick them up. This song is based on those boys, and my experiences seeing them on the street, and hearing their stories in the shelter. Lyrics are not safe for work.

LYRICS TO "SANTA MONICA":

The lads they stand
On the corner of highland
In tight white shorts
Their cocks in their hand
They wait for the cars
To give them a ride
And they do dirty things
To the drivers inside
You're on the wrong side of the law
On Santa Monica

There's nasty little men
On Tamarind
With pockets full of cash
So the boys lean in
To the windows of Porshes
And the doors of Saabs
To take rides to hotels
Or for backseat handjobs
You're on the wrong side of the law
On Santa Monica

It's a fine night for a stroll
Between Wilcox and Cole
There's a cop back on Las Palmas
And he's a fucking asshole
He'll bust you if you loiter
And he'll beat you if you sass
But when he's not on duty
He pays to take it up the ass
You're on the wrong side of the law
On Santa Monica

The lads they stand
On the corner of highland
In tight white shorts
Their cocks in their hand
It's not much of a living
But there's not much else to do
Just walk and smoke and talk
and walk and screw and screw
You're on the wrong side of the law
On Santa Monica

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