@ALBUM: The Heart of the Appaloosa All lyrics copyright Fred Small @SONG: The Heart of the Appaloosa From the land of shooting waters to the peaks of the Coeur d'Alene Thimbleberries in the forest, elk grazing on the plain The People of the Coyote made their camp along the streams Of the green Wallowa Valley when fences had no name. And they bred a strain of horses, the treasure of the tribe Who could toe-dance on a ridge or gallop up a mountainside Who could haul the hunter's burden, turn a buffalo stampede The horse that wore the spotted coat was born with matchless speed. CHORUS: Thunder Rolling in the Mountains Lead the People across the Great Divide There's blood on the snow in the hills of Idaho But the heart of the Appaloosa never died. In the winter came the crowned ones near frozen in the cold Bringing firearms and spyglasses and a book that saves the soul The people gave them welcome, nursed them till their strenght returned And studied the talking paper, its mysteries to learn. In the shadow of the mission sprang up farms and squatter towns The plain was lined with fences, the plow blade split the ground In the shallows of the Clearwater gold glittered in the pan And the word would come from Washington: remove the Indian. CHORUS The chief spoke to the People in his anger and his pain "I am no more Chief Joseph. Rolling Thunder is my name. They condemn us to a wasteland of barren soil and stone We shall fight them if we must, but we will find another home." They fled into the Bitterroot, an army at their heels They fought at White Bird Canyon, they fought at Misery Hill Till the colonel saw his strategy and sent the order down To kill the Appaloosa wherever it be found. CHORUS Twelve hundred miles retreating, three times over the Divide The horse their only safety, their only ally Three thousand Appaloosas perishod with the tribe The people and the horses dying side by side. Thunder Rolling in the Mountains said, "my heart is sick and sad. Our children now are freezing. The old chiefs are dead. The hunger take our spirit. Our wounds are deep and sore. From where the sun now stands I shal fight no more." CHORUS They were sent to Oklahoma, malaria ran rife But more died of broken hearts far from the land that gave them life And the man once called Joseph at death was heard to say "We have given up our horses. They have gone away." But sometimes without warning from a dull domestic herd A spotted horse of spirit wondrous will emerge Strong it is and fearless and nimble on a hill Listening for thunder, the Appaloosa's living still. CHORUS @SONG: Talking Wheelchair Blues I went for a jog in the city air I met a woman in a wheelchair I said "I'm sorry to see you're handicapped." She says "What makes you think a thing like that?" And she looks at me real steady And she says, "You want to drag?" So she starts to roll and I start to run And she beat the pants off my aching buns You know going uphill I'd hit my stride But coming down she'd sail on by! When I finally caught up with her She says "Not bad for somebody ablebodied. You know, with adequate care and supervision You could be taught simple tasks. So how about something to eat?" I said that'd suit me fine "We're near a favorite place of mine." So we mosied on over there But the only way in was up a flight of stairs. "Gee, I never noticed that," says I. "No problem," the maitre d' replies. "There's a service elevator around the back." So we made it upstairs on the elevator With the garbage, flies, and last week's potatoes I said "I'd like a table for my friend and me." He says "I'll try to find one out of the way." Then he whispers, "Uh, is she gonna be sick, I mean, pee on the floor or throw some kind of fit?" I said "No, I don't think so, I think she once had polio. But that was twenty years ago. You see, the fact of the matter is, If the truth be told, She can't walk. So he points to a table, she wheels her chair Some people look down and others stare And a mother grabs her little girl Says "Keep away, honey, that woman's ill." We felt right welcome. Then a fella walks up and starts to babble About the devil and the holy bible Says "Woman, though marked with flesh's sin, Pray to Jesus, you'll walk again!" Then the waiter says "What can I get for you?" I said "I'll have your best imported brew." And he says "What about her?" I say "Who?" He says "Her." "Oh, you mean my friend here." He says "Yeah." I say "What about her?" "Well, what does she want?" "Well, why don't you ask her?" Then he apologizes. Says he never waited on a cripple before. We immediately nominated him for Secretary of the Interior. Well, she talked to the manager when we were through She says "There're some things you could do To make it easier for folks in wheelchairs." He says "Oh, it's not necessary. Handicapped never come here anyway." Well, I said goodnight to my newfound friend I said, "I'm beginning to understand A little bit of how it feels To roll through life on a set of wheels." She says "Don't feel sorry, don't feel sad, I take the good along with the bad I was arrested once at a protest demo And the police had to let me go. See, we were protesting the fact That public buildings weren't wheelchair accessible. Turned out the jail was the same way. Anyway, I look at it this way-- In fifty years you'll be in worse shape than I am now. See, we're all the same, this human race. Some of us are called disabled. And the rest-- Well, the rest of you are just temporarily able-bodied." @SONG: Willie's Song Lately you been traveling more than you are here As your dreams describe a circle growing year by year The postcard you send from Vancouver or South Bend Recalls the friend too long away. CHORUS: May the rain run off your shoulder when you're caught in a storm When the frost comes a-calling may it find you safe and warm May your place be set, may your promises be kept, May you never forget you are loved. It was storming in Seattle when your car wouldn't start Sunny in Salinas, where you nearly broke your heart It was snowing in St. Paul but the people filled the hall And you sent them all home singing through the cold. CHORUS Night falls hard in a faraway place When you never knew the name and you can't recall the face Your timing's off, you're tired, you can't imagine why they hired you We are there in the silence by your side. CHORUS @SONG: Face at the Window In the stillness of the alley waits a man with an open blade And he hurts the woman badly and within her plants his seed She can't shake the dirt and horror as the seed takes root and grows But the law now claims her body, the doctor's door is closed She goes back to another alley to a leering butcher's blade And the deal is dark and bloody in the crime the law has made. CHORUS: And the face at the window never blinks never turns away When you wake in the night to a flashing light When you burn on judgment day They have spoke aloud your daydreams They have listened to your plans They have watched you dance in the rainstorm They have seen you ride the wind. Walking slowly home at night a man touching a man And the car looks kind of familiar and it's coming round again You got no chance in that deadly dance when they cut you to the bone There's a bleeding gash from the broken glass and you hear somebody moan And maybe somebody calls the cops and they take their own sweet time And they say it's just a couple of fags again and maybe your friend is dying. CHORUS And your lover comes to you softly and you touch and you feel no shame And you steal away from the city and lightning fills your veins In an air-conditioned office the committee discusses your case They know the words you whispered they felt the flush upon your face. They have files on every fantasy, who's on top and who's below You have crossed into the shadow place where outlaws freely roam. CHORUS You can drink the lies of paradise while the books on the shelves disappear You can make a comfortable living, you can swear it can't happen here And maybe they'll come for the unionists and maybe they'll come for the Jews And maybe they'll come for the heretics but they'll never come for you When you hear the step in the hallway, when you taste the iron fear Don't you go shouting out for justice 'cause there's no one left to hear. CHORUS @SONG: Peace Is CHORUS: Peace is the bread we break Love is the river rolling Life is a chance we take When we make this earth our home Gonna make this earth our home. Feel the cool breeze blowing through the smoke and the heat Hear the gentle voices and the marching feet Singing call back the fire, draw the missiles down And we'll call this earth our home. CHORUS We have known the atom, the power and pain We've seen people fall beneath the killing rain If the mind still reasons and the soul remains It shall never be again. CHORUS Peace grows from a tiny seed As the acorn grows into the tallest tree Many years ago I heard a soldier say When people want peace, better get out of the way. CHORUS @SONG: Annie Annie's up at seven on a work day Brewing up a cup of peppermint tea Gathering her papers and lesson plans She grabs her keys Teaching arithmetic and Africa Geology and girl's basketball All the kids in her class Will tell you she's the best But she's heard other teachers in the hall saying CHORUS: "What are we going to do about Annie? Pretty girl like her shouldn't be alone If she took our advice, dressed up real nice She'd find a man to take her home." Mondays come with questions of couples Where and with whom did you go? Avoiding the personal pronoun She hopes it doesn't show Shopping with her lover in the city Two women holding hands don't get a stare If the kids at school knew, what would they do Would they hate her? Why should they care? Tell me CHORUS Never getting too close to a student Never letting out too much of her life Keeping her delights and disappointments Tucked out of sight Annie takes herself to the Christmas party The principal whispers with a smile "You're vivacious and bright, if you play your cards right There're some men here tonight worth your while" thinking CHORUS Work that you love is hard to come by The kids she could never bear to lose So she makes conversations out of silences And half-truths But at night by the fire with her lover She looks out at the wind-driven snow And imagines the day when she'll look in their faces And tell everybody she konws--she'll tell 'em LAST CHORUS: Don't you worry about Annie She don't lie awake and pine Got love to fill her heart, flowers growing in the garden Annie's doing just fine. @SONG: Death in Disguise All my life Working at the factory The pay looked mighty good to me When my body was my own Doctor won't look me in the eye My youngest child asks why I won't ever see her grown. CHORUS: Now I can feel the darkness Growing wild inside me Catching my soul by surprise You know that you've made it You got your home, your job, and some good times Then they tell you it was death in disguise. In the consultation room They explain the x-ray slide I stop the rising tide Of self-pity and cold fear Pale in the fluorescent light I find no one left to fight And remember all my careless years. CHORUS Half the town works there So people fear the truth There's no conclusive proof There's any danger in those fumes The company never saw my face They've got another in my place Another life to be consumed. CHORUS @SONG: Dig a Hole in the Ground You hear so many rumors sometimes you get confused But I read it in Time Magazine and I heard it on the news We'll see dramatic changes in the lifestyle we enjoy If those megatons of atom bombs are actually employed. The scenarios are scary, oh, but they don't worry me Since I received a pamphlet from a federal agency It's got diagrams and checklists and I read it front to back And it told me what to do in case of nuclear attack: Just CHORUS: Dig a hole in the ground, and climb right on down Lay some boards on top of you and sprinkle dirt around You won't have to be dead if you only plan ahead You'll be glad you kept a shovel on hand! Now you can't just go picking any old place to dig your hole Got to take a ride to the countryside to the town where you are told If your plates are odd-numbered please don't panic, you'll be fine Just politely let those even-numbered cars go first in line If you don't have a car, just hail a cab or ride your bike You can climb aboard the Amtrak train, sit back, and enjoy the sights You and thousands of your city friends will be welcomed cordially By townfolk who will show you country hospitality--then CHORUS We're sure to give you notice up to seven days before But it's wise to recognize the warning signs of nuclear war If the temperature is rising in a flash of blinding light Grab your toothbrush and a flashlight and shut the windows tight If the wind is blowing wicked and there's buildings in the air Blisters on you body, fire in your hair If the tupperware is melting and your dinner plans are wrecked Stay calm, it's time to put this foolproof plan into effect: Just CHORUS @SONG: No More Vietnams The market place was bustlying in the morning When the army and the ORDEN made their strike Like a farmer killing chickens for the market They cut down every living thing in sight. They tore into the wombs of the women The sunlight gleaming on their bayonets And the fishermen downstream, though they never heard the screams Hauled in a harvest of human carnage in their nets. CHORUS: Take down my name I ain't alone, I ain't ashamed And I say U.S.A. out of El Salvador! You can tell the Pentagon We want no more Vietnams We ain't marching into that jungle anymore. She left her home in Ohio far behind her She swore a sacred vow to help the poor With three sisters she was raped and slowly tortured Left in a shallow grave in El Salvador. A doctor, he would grieve at all the suffering He never asked his patient's party line But he saved a rebel's life--the death squad came at night Healing the sick his only crime. CHORUS Our taxes buy the bullets of the killers Our helicopters darken southern skies Our business wants new markets and cheap labor Our papers rush to print C.I.A. lies But take a message to the smiling politicians Who like to talk so tough and act so brave The rattling words of war, we've heard them all before And we will answer them with peace and joy and rage. CHORUS @SONG: Larry the Polar Bear In nineteen thirty-who at a zoo in Los Angeles a polar bear named Larry performed for the crowd, they'd cheer aloud He'd go slipping and sliding, jumping and diving The people would laugh. They took his photograph. Larry was born at the zoo He never knew as he grew older anything colder than Los Angeles which is warmer than Alaska where Larry's parents were born. CHORUS: Larry the polar bear He'd never harm a hair on a child's head He'd do tricks for them at the Los Angeles zoo, as he'd been taught to by his keeper Fran. Fran would teach him new tricks A funny pose scratching his nose He knew there'd be a fish at the end, Fran was his friend. One day she said "Larry, you'll be in the movies with real movie stars and a few simple tricks and lots of fish to be filmed on location in Alaska." and so they rehearsed for Larry's big scene, He's supposed to be mean and growl at a woman who was rescued by a man who scared him away It was stupid but fun to do. The director would frown and jump up and down kind of like the chimps at the zoo. CHORUS At last came the day of the trip They put Larry in a crate twelve foot by eight and he sailed aboard a steamship The journey was long and boring Fran would visit she'd talk to him and bring him his favorite fish then the noise and the rumbling stopped and they lowered him down set the crate on the frozen ground and opened it Fran said "Larry, we're here It's time for your tricks." And Larry appeared He looked out at the gray Bering Sea He squinted and puzzled put his nose to the wind and the scent of the seal made him tremble He smelled the fox in its lair and the weasel and hare felt lichen and snow 'neath his paws, and he looked at the tundra and ice, looked at the loon in the sky and he ran slowly at first kind of lumbering he ran gathering speed gathering memories from within old and dim growing stronger to run and to swim, to dive and to float, the cold at his throat But warm inside 'neath the fur and hide Ocean and ice all around him He ran He ran He ran and he swam away.