Neal Gladstone Memorial Site

Blog

  • Forbidden Relation

    © 1992 Neal
    Gladstone

    I’m in love with my cousin. Forbidden relation
    It happened last summer on a family vacation
    We met by the river. We swam in the water
    That’s when I fell in love with my own uncle’s daughter
    We hide in the shadows. We meet under cover
    It’s the heartache of knowin his aunt is my mother
    I dream we could marry and end all this cheatin’
    But then we would worry our kids would be cretins
    We were just cousins on a family excursion
    Now we’re caught in a tangle of sin and perversion
    I’m in love with my cousin. Forbidden relation
    We’re destiny’s prisoner of inbreed temptation

  • Everybody Knows It

    © 1986 Neal
    Gladstone

    He was seeking a new direction
    For his colored slide collection
    Took a trans-Atlantic flight
    For 7 days and 7 nights
    Well you know the sign was hidden
    Saying pictures are forbidden
    So he focussed in his Nikon
    On a sacred ancient icon
    When a copper from the crowd
    Shouted, “Pictures aren’t allowed!”
    As they clamped a rusty shackle on his limb
    Everybody knows it but him
    Her hair had barely finished drying
    When her Afghan started crying
    So she took him for a walk
    Saw a neighbor, stopped to talk
    Well her Afghan begged his pardon
    In Miss Bentley’s tulip garden
    And Miss Bentley came out screaming
    With her purple Mohawk gleaming
    She was up for altercation
    And demanded explanation
    Of how such an outrage ever could occur
    Everybody knows it but her
    Now you can picket General Motors
    Join the League of Women Voters
    Have some world-wide adventures
    Buy subordinate debentures
    Be a star of motion pictures,
    Marry rich and marry richer
    But somewhere you always know it
    Though you try hard not to show it
    That you’re shackled by a chain
    To monotony and pain
    And there’s not a bloody thing that you can do
    Everybody knows it but you
    Well I can play in bars forever
    Bleach my hair and dress in leather
    Play a custom Telecaster
    Use both hands to play it faster
    Drive a Porche and wear and earring
    Sing the blues and lose my hearing
    See a doctor for depression
    Get arrested for posession
    But my dream to be a famous cock
    Is nothing but a shameless crock
    Of self-indulgent grandiosity
    Everybody knows it but me!

  • Drummer of My Dreams

    © 1994 Neal
    Gladstone

    The night is lonely the clock strikes three
    I sit here playing with my drum machine
    And wonder where he can be
    The drummer of my dreams
    He won’t be hostile and he won’t take drugs
    He won’t drop cigarette butts on my rugs
    He’ll have some self esteem
    The drummer of my dreams
    I’d be breathless I’d be dazzled
    I’d go out of my mind
    It would be heaven
    If I could find someone
    Who could actually keep time
    He won’t be hyper he won’t play too fast
    He won’t use sticks the size of baseball bats
    He won’t be seventeen
    The drummer of my dreams
    Solo
    He wouldn’t have to be a great musician
    Just have some taste and a little precision
    And not get plastered during intermission
    Where can he be
    Oh Lord above is it so much to ask
    For someone who is not a psychopath
    Someone mature and clean
    The drummer of my dreams
    Maybe this summer I’ll find the drummer of my dreams

  • Dream

    © 1994 Neal
    Gladstone
    , Barbara Gladstone
    When your heart is filled with wishes
    When you tire of life’s routine
    When you see your life dissolving
    In a television screen
    There’s a world of hidden pleasure
    True romance and high adventure
    Waiting for the one who holds the key
    It can all come true all you have to do is dream
    You can be
    Anybody’s secret lover
    Sail on rivers of champagne
    Search the stars with Galalleo
    Light the first Olympic flame
    Write poetry in Portugese
    with Baudelaire and Socrates
    And know what you know now at 17
    It’s waiting there for you all you have to do is dream
    You can ride brontosaurus
    Through a great primeval forest
    And swim the Sea of Tranquility
    If you should be inclined
    Go strolling through the crystal dunes of
    Saturn’s undiscovered moons
    Where turquoise sand and ink lagoons
    Grow orchids to the sky
    You can go
    Hunting with a pride of lions
    Swim the oceans with a whale
    Soar above the Andes Mountains
    On a giant condor’s tail
    Dance beneath the mistletoe
    With Juliet and Romeo
    And drink a toast with Shakespeare to the queen
    It’s waiting there for you when you fall into your dreams
    Feel the bonds of time release you
    Slip away where no one sees you
    To a world exquisite and serene
    It’s waiting there for you all you have to do is dream

  • Dodge Dart Dirge

    © 1988 Neal Gladstone

    There’s a brown 67 sedan standing in the rain
    With a blown transmission and a broken timing chain
    She used to take me everywhere I went
    Now her doors are rusted and her rods are bent
    Why’d you have to break my heart? Dodge Dart
    I was driving to Philomath on the day of tragedy
    I had the radio on and I was tuned to KOAC
    Well I turned the corner and I heard a pop
    Then the engine went dead and I rolled to a stop
    Half a mile from Dairy Mart Dodge Dart
    Oh little Dodgie oh little Dodgie
    What am I gonna do
    Oh little Dodgie oh little Dodgie
    I guess I’ll buy a Subaru
    Well I told my friends that you’d never let me down
    Now how am I ever gonna show my face in town
    She died so young I had to weep
    Someone make me an offer and I’ll sell her cheap
    I guess I wasn’t so smart Dodge Dart

  • Dodge Dart

    © 1986 Neal Gladstone

    Now everybody wants to prove how hip they are
    So they borrow up the wanger and they buy a brand new car
    In the first 3 days there’s a dent in the trunk,
    By the time they pay it off it’s a piece of junk
    When are they gonna get smart? Dodge Dart
    I’ve got a brown ’67 sedan with a big slant six
    Well it burns a little oil but it’s mighty cheap to fix
    She starts up easy when the engine’s cold
    The cops don’t bug me cause they think I’m old
    She owns a little piece of my heart Dodge Dart
    Go little Dodgie, go little Dodgie, you know I like your style
    Go little Dodgie, go little Dodgie, another 50,000 miles
    (go Dodge Dart, my little Dodge Dart)
    So please don’t brag about the brand new car you own
    Cause I can drive to Argentina for the interest on your loan
    She’s got 4 bald tires and a hole in the seat
    but with her lifters clickin’ she’s the queen of the street
    I’ll drive her till she falls apart Dodge Dart

  • Didn’t Know You At All

    ©2007 Neal Gladstone

    I can’t believe you said it
    I wish I could forget it
    And even if you felt that way
    It was such a stupid thing to say
    It only goes to show you
    I really didn’t know you at all
    You were so appealling
    Well-groomed and self-revealing
    That Tibetan thing around your neck
    Was so politically correct
    It only goes to show you
    I really didn’t know you at all
    I should have been paying attention
    I should have been aware of the signs
    Those little put downs and pretensions
    I chose to overlook at the time
    You threw a little party (and everybody came)
    You drank too much Bacardi (so no one was to blame)
    I must have tripped some insecurity
    Cause you proceeded to dismember me (it really was a shame)
    It only goes to show you
    I really didn’t know you at all
    I guess I should forgive you
    I’ll probably outlive you
    And still I sit here foolishly expecting an apology
    It only goes to show you
    I really didn’t know you at all
    Those little cuts and subtle/nasty defenses/offenses
    I should have noticed the signs
    Those little airs and subtle pretenses
    I overlooked at the time
    A little cut here a little jab/poke there
    I should have noticed the signs
    A little pretense, and clever defense
    That I overlooked at the time
    to your selection of collectible/collection of exceptional wines
    And when I smudgedgrazed scraped/bruised/nicke/scratched your vanity
    You proceeded to dismember me
    You think I should forgive you
    You think that I’ll forgive you
    For some kind of/Expecting an/And wait for apology
    Yet here I sit expectantly
    Awaiting some apology
    And still I wait expectanltly
    For some kind of apology
    Hoping for some apology
    And still I sit expectantly
    Awaiting an aplolgy
    Hoping for ANd hope for an Awaiting an apology
    And who am I to be the judge
    I shouldn’t be the one to judge
    You wouldn’t think I’d hold a grudge
    But its so much fun to hold a grudge
    It only goes to show me/I guess it goes to show me
    you/I really didn’t know me at all
    Ii really hardly know me at all
    My God I hardly know me at all
    And yet I sit expectantly
    Awaiting an apology
    And yet in my naivite
    I’m expecting an apology
    Expecting an aplogy
    And in the bigger scheme of things
    But then again I might not budge
    Who am I to judge
    It’s too much fun to hold a grudge
    It
    With/In a rage disguised as honesty
    With anger you call honesty
    In a rage that you called
    With anger cloaked in/masked as honesty
    With rage that you called honesty
    In a rage you said was honesty
    With anger/fury cloaked in sublety
    And with pretense of honesty
    You proceeded to dismember me
    And oh so cleverly
    You proceeded to punish me
    Then hateful words turned poisonous
    I just don’t understand it
    How could you take me for granted
    It only goes to show me I really didn’t really know me at all.

  • Dark Blue

    © 1985 Neal
    Gladstone

    Blue came in through a break in my heart
    Made me cold and stained me so dark
    I thought I would never smile again
    But the color cooled the pain in me
    And so I followed willingly
    Deep into her spell
    To sleep beside the fallen angel, Blue
    Dark Blue, your hand is cold
    Dark Blue, please let me go
    My heart was breaking, what else could I do?
    Dark Blue, now hear me sing
    Dark Blue, my love is dying
    Keeper of the tears I’m asking you
    To let some life light through
    Now I have heard what lovers say
    That tears can wash the blue away
    That sorrow fades and love will come again
    But in the color I have chosen
    Hearts grow cold and tears are frozen
    And dark and frozen tears will never flow
    Oh Blue, please let me go

  • Cusp People

    © 1981 Neal Gladstone

    Venus is rising. Mercury’s melting down
    Saturn is sinking. Jupiter is nothing but dust
    Chorus
    What about us, people on the cusp
    Who do you trust when you’re on the cusp
    It’s hard to adjust when you’re on the cusp
    Caught between twilight and dusk
    Gemini’s judging. Scorpio’s sizzling
    Leo is lusting. Capricorn is making a fuss
    Chorus
    When you’re sitting on the divide
    And you’re splitting from the inside
    And your reason starts to unwind
    And your passion must be denied
    And your mind is coming untied
    And you’re finding it hard to decide
    If you’re Jekll or Hyde
    Cities are burning. Seasons are turning
    Oceans are churning
    Can we survive on this shallow crust
    Chorus

  • Crazy Truckers

    © 1983 Neal
    Gladstone

    I was makin a run one New Year’s Eve
    Man you better believe I was fried
    I was two days shy on sleep, had a gut full of concrete
    And a killer migraine half a mile wide
    It was snowin like a bitch, there was semi’s in the ditch
    And you couldn’t tell which way as up for sure
    The wind was rippin from the north and I was flippin
    back and forth
    Like a mama walleye tryin to shake a lure
    Now my eyeballs burned like a pair of combat signal flares
    And whether I could stay awake I had my doubts
    But if I pulled off for a nap I might get buried in this
    crap
    And then it’d take a crane to pull me out
    So I drank a few more rounds of pureéd coffee
    grounds
    And used some words I never learned to spell
    By now the traction was so bad it took near everything
    I had
    Just to keep that heavy mother parallel
    And I’m one of them crazy truckers
    One of Mother Nature’s suckers
    For a life as free as wind and hard as nails
    I been baked and soaked and frozen
    As I rolled between the oceans
    And I spent a night or two in a county jail
    But there’s nothin like the hummin
    Of that open highway comin
    And stretchin out as far as you can see
    It’s a life of steak and gravy
    If it doesn’t drive you crazy
    The road’s the sweetest place a man can be
    Now there was no way I could know as I crippled through
    the snow
    With my fryin eyelids clickin out Morse Code
    But a Southern Central freight was steamin open throttle
    straight
    Toward a railroad crossing a half a mile down the road
    By now my body ached for sleep like a grizzly bear in
    heat
    And a man can only hold out for so long
    And as I passed a sign that read: “Railroad Crossing” just
    ahead
    My lids dropped one last time and I was gone
    CHORUS
    I don’t know how long I was out or what that nightmare
    was about
    But some ungodly rumble brought me back
    And I pried open my eyes just in time to realize
    I was sprawlin jack-knifed clean across the track
    A screamin airhorn split the night as my knuckles twisted
    white
    And the sound of thunder turned my plasma sour
    And through my icy pane I saw a mother-loving train
    Bearin down on me at 60 miles an hour
    Well I quivered like a beetle on a bug collector’s needle
    And I whimpered as my backbone turned to slime
    And when I saw them sparks appear the message came home
    loud and clear
    Only an act of God could stop that train in time
    Then that engine filled my eyes like a 90-story high-rise
    And I heard a sound no man has lived to tell
    Then my tractor caught the force of a hundred thousand
    horse
    And I rode that screamin diesel into hell