BORN TO WRITE-Lyrics To Springsteen

Writing On A Dream.

By TIM DAVID HARVEY.

I've never done this before. Aside from to close friends and ones I love and trust. 'This' being sharing publicly what I really write the most about, more than all the articles I post. Lyrics from songs or poems that I have been writing constantly for around a decade now. Although the vast majority will never see the light of the day and there's plenty more lyrics that lament his legacy here's three for the big Boss Bruce. Three songs wrote many years ago in dedication to my music and songwriting hero, Springsteen. In tribute of todays release of the mans memoirs. 'Born To Run', the autobiography of Bruce Springsteen we've been waiting a long time on the road for. So as we read Springsteen's story, straight from the Bosses mouth, here's just a small sample of mine. And what over time this icon has done for me and my writing dream I will always work on...

ANOTHER ROUND FOR ME & THE BOY FROM NEW JERSEY (Wrote 2009)

Same again,
Pour another two if you'd please,
Tonight this writers sharing stories with a man who's been telling them for decades,
& I wanna turn the page,

Bartender,
Another round for me & the boy from New Jersey,
We got a good half hour left & I need one more story,

This mans got my full attention,
Like a wise man or a legend seen to be believed,
The author of my childhood,
The soundtrack of my manhood,

Bartender,
Another round for me & the boy from New Jersey,
We got a good half hour left & I need one more story,

I'm telling how he influences,
While he talks about working on the highway & Darlington County,
I ask him advice about my lady,
& he tells me about Wendy, Mary & Frankie,

Bartender,
Another round for me & the boy from New Jersey,
We got a good half hour left & I need one more story,

So give us a minute,
& lean over whilst your cleaning your glass,
Because he tells my story & yours everytime he speaks,
So lets play a few tracks & that'll be that,

Bartender,
Another round for me & the boy from New Jersey,
We got a good half hour left & I need one more story,

Same again,
Pour another two if you'd please,
Tonight this writers sharing stories with a man who's been telling them for decades,
& I wanna turn the page,

Just one more...

NEW JERSEY SOUL (Wrote 2013)

Greetings from a seaside town that looks like Asbury Park,
You can see the light of those same last laugh amusements after dark,
Another round for me & the boy from New Jersey,
I want to hear just one more story,
With our Canadian friend on the mixtapes playlist,
Walk like a man no matter the distance,

I took a train to the Meadowlands to cut down Nets,
Now a wrecking ball to Brooklyn is all they get,
But I must have seen something on the ride home,
That will always make me go back,
New Jersey soul,
The boss is that,

We'll take a ride in a classic car & talk about girls we loved & lost,
Through a tunnel of love until valentines day can't get enough,
Or when we're tougher than the rest,
A man who may not be my brother but sure is best,
As we hear clearly through stereo,
All the places on this you and me journey we can truly go,

I took a train to the Meadowlands to cut down Nets,
Now a wrecking ball to Brooklyn is all they get,
But I must have seen something on the ride home,
That will always make me go back,
New Jersey soul,
The boss is that,

He told me I'd see the American dream,
& find true love like Bobby Jean,
Hearts hungry,
You & me,
Riding through the U.S.A, till the road & blue jeans are torn,
Like this is where we were born,
Electric Nebraska,
Love & laughter,

I took a train to the Meadowlands to cut down Nets,
Now a wrecking ball to Brooklyn is all they get,
But I must have seen something on the ride home,
That will always make me go back,
New Jersey soul,
The boss is that,

SPRINGSTEEN TO THE AMERICAN DREAM (Wrote 2013)

A writer in waiting,
A waiter writing,
On napkins & bill folds,
From opening time to closing,
Just another bus boy dream,
That I’ll have to wait on,
But I’m not waiting my life away,
While they take tips, force shifts & mess up pay,

Our music was always built on hard times,
Blue collars,
Hearts squandered,
The Boss never lost,
We’re winning now,
In the memory of ‘The Big Man’,
We love you Clarence,

Springsteen to the American dream,
& all the promises life believes to be seen,
Or so it seems,
It’s all coming true,
& that’s all thanks to you,

Soul driving down roads of thunder,
All the way to Atlantic City with the boy from New Jersey,
Down E Street,
Working on a dream like magic,
‘Born To Die’, Lana riding shotgun,
Baby we we’re born to run,
To the sun,
Come on up for the rising,
Hey, hey, hey I’m on fire,

Springsteen to the American dream,
& all the promises life believes to be seen,
Or so it seems,
It’s all coming true,
& that’s all thanks to you,

Darkness on the edge of town,
But a human touch keeps me from the devils arcade,
This American dream baby it’s took its test,
But we’re tougher than the rest,
Looking for the tunnel of love,

Because the spirit of the night,
Gives us reason to believe,
Springsteen to the American dream,

Our music was always built on hard times,
Blue collars,
Hearts squandered,
The Boss never lost,
We’re winning now,
In the memory of ‘The Big Man’,
We love you Clarence,

BOOK REVIEW: WILLIE NELSON-MY LIFE

On The Road.

Weathered wrinkles warn you that this is a man that has seen some miles. But country legend Willie Nelson's 82 year old mind is still as fresh as the first time Georgia was on it.

And it always will be for the legend who has seen it all and sung the same. From the highways with legendary men like the one in black, Johnny Cash, or the one in dark shades, Ray Charles. To the interstates he's gone at alone. The 'On The Road Again' singer takes us, his friends down the music row road most travelled for his memoir 'My Life' and this autobiography is as he puts it; 'A Long Story'. But boy is it a good one. As well wrote as one of his songs these compelling chapters wont put you to sleep. Instead they'll have you wracking your brain to just how you finished just under 400 pages just before bed.

A coffee shop table-top book this is not. More like one for the motel road stop night if you get a little lonely. You'll be lucky to pick this Willie up as he goes full Kerouac on the road, taking you from Nashville to California and all the Houston's and San Antonio's he's been between before. Through it all, the places he's been and the people he's seen this maverick has always kept it real and religious in the name of his fathers soul and the holy spirit of song. As a matter of fact you can take the way he talks about how he writes songs as gospel. Because it's more than a genius of a guide from a life well lived. It's an all freeing truth that falls like a whiskey stream that wouldn't flow if it didn't fit. All the way from the waterfall to the bottom of your glass.

And there's a beautiful spirited metaphor and message for life here that Nelson gives us with no half measures. Whether he's talking about cowboys like the Magnificent Seven or tipping his cap to four walls this man knows exactly what he's talking about when he pays tribute to all the wives he's loved before like Julio Iglesias, or laments a lesson we should all heed and not lose in how it's 'Funny How Time Slips Away'. How can you not take the word from a man that's lived even more lives than we've even heard?

The crazy hearted road warrior of true grit in his recent lifetime has taken more than one kind of hit with rapper Snoop Dogg and rolled around in 'Dukes Of Hazzards' cars with 'Jackass' Johnny Knoxville, but it's the individual life of this solo artist that has garnered real inspiration. And from selling encyclopedias to being in the country music one (in the section marked, 'Hall Of Fame'), it's a life that is still being well lived. So before you hop in a thunderbird down 'Thunder Road' for The Boss, Bruce Springsteen's long-awaited, highly anticipated road warrior memoir 'Born To Run' next week, find time for a quick spin around the block with the man who knows the real road, chapter and verse. A man who will be on it again like our minds...always. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

FOR THE RECORD: KRS-ONE Live @ LIVERPOOL (22/09/16)

4.5/5

Sound Of Da Best.

If you don't know KRS-One. You don't know hip-hop.

After last night Liverpool knows now as the legendary M.C. of B.D.P. hit Beatle-town with his class of the old-school, 80's legendary sound. Managing the mania as he bounded on stage as abruptly as he left it with a tight, no encore, shade under an hour and a half set that was all killer no filler. As a matter of fact one of the best rap shows even a hardcore head could ever see. No exaggeration necessary.

As Boogie Down Production's Kris got down you no longer needed a Baz Lurhman Netflix series to show you the roots of rap and just how good the golden age really was, as one of the eras most epic was right there in front of you, live in living color. As he dropped all sorts of 'Poetry' on the audience, taking them to a 'Higher Level' a hip-hop education (not to mention a real life one) was given to those too busy doing the boogie to remember just how much this living legend, top five lyricist (dead or alive) has actually produced. Old school class was most definitly in session.

Everyone knows the "WOOP! WOOP!" of the 'Sound Of Da Police' signature solo smash. But you don't need to even read more into the lyrics now to see just how more relevant this social commentary is today...still! You could see it in the fire of his eyes as this effervescent, energetic perfomer envoked the passions of all people concerned. But it was when he broke it down to the bare beatless bones of his best work and some formidable freestyles of introspective inspiration that KRS showed he really is the one. And real hip-hop personified in its pure performance. This was more than rap...it's poetry.

"Rap is something you do. Hip-Hop is something you live." KRS-One's legendary quote adorned the stage in a banner moment for the great who showed he was still living the only life he knew, 30 years down the line. His passion could not be denied as he annunciated every word and sucked the crowd in like a vacuum cleaner with every genius turn of phrase. And you could tell the Liverpool faithful were in it. Oohing and laughing at every smart line, shaking their head in wide-eyed, pleasant surprised disbelief (The "smell me" face was definitly the pose last night for the camera phone armed crowd urged to put the instant classics this rapper was dropping in freestyle form on Youtube for the record).

How could we forget? How does the industry neglect? A veteran still on top of his game. You could see it in the cipher like huddle that mosh pit enveloped him after the sensational set from the true school, where KRS took more selfies than the Oscars (KRS-Onesie anyone) in an impassioned but peaceful end to a concert he concluded with 'Criminal Minded's' legendary hit 'The Bridge Is Over'. That all may be. But this One will never be. TIM DAVID HARVEY.