Week 37 - "The Kings Head"

The King's Head

A few of us used to come here in the old days,
Sit in the back room around our guitars,
Trading licks and ideas, all of us dreaming ,
About the days when we'd be stars…….

But one by one we all drifted away,
Bob got married and Jeff just got bored,
Steve got Religion and Andy got lucky,
He struck it rich and he went abroad…….

I left for a few years, couple of marriages,
Didn't work out, found myself here,
Back in my home town and at a loose end,
One afternoon I called in for a beer……

The place that once rocked was now almost silent,
The only noise was the juke-box humming,
I couldn't stand the virtual vacuum,
Took up my guitar and I started strumming……..

Landlady said, “That's nice, what is it?”
“An old Creedence song, “Looking out My Back Door”,
I replied, then she said,”We could do with some music,
“I love all the old stuff, you do any more?”

So I played some Beatles, some Stones, some more Creedence,
Everly's, Orbison, even Link Wray,
She said, “D'you think if I paid you some money,
“You could come in, play requests on Fridays?”

That was six years ago, now I play three nights,
One in the week, Friday/Saturday,
It took a while for things to get going,
Now I get people come to hear me play…….

I play songs for lovers, like the two in the corner,
They always ask for “I got you Babe”,
Songs for the lost and songs for the lonely,
Songs for the ones who are off to the rave…….

Stan and Dolly, always want “Heartbeat”,
Always kiss at the appropriate place,
Susan and Barry, “You'll never walk alone”,
As they gaze into each other's face………

There's an old guy called Freddie, sits in a corner,
Nobody takes any notice of him,
He's a nice guy really, I see him on Sundays,
Man, can he belt out those hymns…….

There's a bunch of young kids on the way to a night-club,
Don't give a hoot what music I play,
There's a couple of them, though, come up to me,
Said “Hey man, that's good stuff you play”

So I sit on my stool and I play my guitar,
There's a million songs I have to play,
I have songs for lovers, the lost and the lonely,
I've nothing better to do today……….

But I wish just one time that I was a listener,
Instead of a player I'd make a request…….
Play me a song for the man with no roots,
Some old blues song would go down best……..

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Sorry this is so long, but once I got into it I didn't know when or where to stop! Like I've said before, you get a good image, a good start-point, then off you go .........this could probably stand a little revision here and there but I've played it through 3 times and the words and music do seem to go well together.......nice simple 3-chorder with a couple of sus4ths chucked in........

Sort of semi autobiographical.........I did used to go there in the old days (the 70's!!!!) and when I came back to live here it was totally dead - but a few of us have got a sort of guitar session going every now and then ...and people do seem to enjoy it..........