Booney Tunes Jukebox
Now you can listen to all six recordings by James Walktendonk by clicking here.
Just the Dream of Them All Alive
In a dream I stood on center stage facing the names on the wall
There was no audience in front of me just the quiet of the moon lit mall
I was singing my songs when it happened I saw a soldier step out of the stone
He was followed by another then another I no longer was alone
As the numbers turned to hundreds all my comrades killed in war
I was greeted with applause and hoots and shouts a happening in store
I saw grunts and nurses arm in arm singing right along with me
They liked the music I had written it all seemed to set them free
They danced and sang to the music As the moon gave wind to a rhyme
Brothers and sisters rockin' and rollin'
We were having a hell of a time
The constellations above us crept slowly across the sky
There wasn't even a want or worry Just the dream of them all alive
I saw Davy, Jeff and Handsome Jack As they walked up to the stage
Their smiles were unmistakable There was no hate, there was no rage
We talked together for a bit Then I sang another set
I told them all that evening I won't let the world forget
As the evening concert lengthened And the war dead shone their face
There were thousands out in front of me In this dreamer's firebase
To the world they'd been transported set free alive tonight
If but just for these short hours but they must return before first light.
They danced and sang to the music
As the moon gave wind to a rhyme
Brothers and sisters rockin' and rollin'
We were having a hell of a time
The constellations above us crept slowly across the sky
There wasn't even a want or a worry just the dream of them all alive.
So as the dawn of early morning approached us on the mall
We said our goodbyes silently then they headed back to the wall
But the last man at the marble
He turned to me and said
"Thanks for all the music, Jim we no longer feel as if we're dead.
It was a night we'll all remember It was a good time had by all"
I gave a salute as the sun rose to the names upon the wall
As I awoke that early morning with this dream upon my mind
I felt an eerie silence as the morning sun did shine
So I set down in these lyrics my dream so real and true
I'd sung a concert for the fallen like I'm singing this song for you.
© 90 Jim Wachtendonk
And the Bombing Had Begun (Song for Desert Storm)
.It was January 15th the year 1991
When Desert Shield turned to Desert Storm
And the bombing had begun
Bush appeared on T. V.
To tell the nation of its fate
Negotiations hadn't worked
Now it was war with the Iraqi state
And as the world watches each attack and as the weapons meet their mate
Allah and Jesus both reap the souls that they once chose to create
Either you're with 'em or against 'em, talking 'bout the soldiers on the sand
It's not as cut and dried as that
Like obeying a command
We employ the crazy madmen
and supply them with their guns
While later on in history
we sacrifice our daughters and sons
There was Noriega and Somoza and the Shah to do the deed
Oppressing freedoms for a price in the name of godless greed
Saddam is the enemy
He dictates fear then kills
The holy war on the black gold sand is a conflict over wills
The holy war on the black gold sand is a conflict over wills
I speak as an ex-combatant
One who's seen the face of war.
To see bodies stacked like cordwood
To hear the bomber engines roar
And lost with these impressions
I ask you to judge the cause.
For the end in Armageddon
Knows no borders and knows no laws
Then there's the multinational oil firms
Who depend upon the oil to flow
They buy it from a friendly sheik
As their profits grow and grow
Read my lips says the president
On his way to a second four years
He's taken back his promises
Now he plays upon our fears
Who decides that outcome?
Who can trust the motives of the man?
The sheiks and the oil men all agree that he's gotta make us understand
But when we drive them from the oil fields and with the monarchy reinstalled
Who will guard their borders
And how many will be appalled?
Yes who will guard their borders
And how many will be appalled?
I see Americans who are for the war and Americans who are not
Lined up filled with loyalty
We're all part of the plot
The story is an old one
War breaks down or builds resolve
Recall the price that all sides paid many millions are involved
The flag as a symbol these days I see it everywhere
On a pin, on a patch, on a stick-on decal times like these are rare
The gulf war is on all our minds
and the troops on both sides fear
Will the righteous patriotic folk
Extract a tear for tear?
Will the antiseptic phrases tell
Of the carnage of the bombs?
Will the death toll be in the multitudes be it children, dads or moms
These wars are all waged for power
In strategic latitudes
And they're carries by us and them using pious platitudes.
Yes they are carried on by us and them using pious platitudes.
Can you envision all the flags on Earth disappearing one by one?
All nations undivided
All the same under the sun
To set aside the racist hatred
To treat all people with respect
And with a concentrated effort
To lead no child to its neglect
We've sent our best to the desert
to protect Kuwaiti trust
We watch them on our T.V. screens
Prepared to die if we feel they must
Will the lesson we've observed this time be recorded right or wrong?
Are the humble souls departed
found in the lyrics of this song?
So they say the war is over
Yeah, the troops really kicked some ass
Bush rekindled pride with power And we're guaranteed our gas
So why am I so empty
Of all the feelings going 'round America has flexed its strength
A new Order has been found
Yes it was January 15th
The year 1991
When Desert Shield turned to Desert Storm
And the bombing had begun.
© 91 Jim Wachtendonk
Star stuff flippers on a pinball game
Rainwater leaking might put out the flame
Flamingos flying to a primal call
Eccentrics lying all about the hall
I had a red wagon, she had a Barbie doll
I collected papers, she had a boy friend Paul
We both grew up in a Catholic school
I did my homework she broke all the rules
Yellow daffodils arranged for a friend
Forty years old and still some signals to send
Red dirt lingers under fingernails
Old campaigns billow from underneath my sails
When will the warrior within me die
Dream dragons are in large supply
So where oh where must this song go
What does it matter it's just part of the show
A practice picture placing people on a page
A frozen flower locked up in a golden cage
Street singer playing for loose change
Guitar strumming singing 'bout the range
Cowboy music with a Nashville sound
With the blues slipped in on the once around
Empty pockets, panhandling on the subway stairs
Rush hour traffic, stop to watch the solar flares
Camo, flares and finding Charlie
Fear and C-rats and a hometown Harley
Feeling you out in front of me
You hearing songs I hang up quietly
Stop at the stop signs, be sure to look both ways
Enjoy the precious moments of both your nights and days
© 90 Jim Wachtendonk
Sonnets say what love were you
So warm and so sweet
a lonely day an added touch
Just to make my life complete
T'would ever lighten before the day Were you and were me
So reap we must and compound our trust As I write my ballads free
Of you and me.
© 91 Jim Wachtendonk
For every wish one might be given
Another is lost and found
Are riches health or immortality
Beyond the speed of sound
No genie left within the lamp
Forgets whose loss has pained
For once the lamp is rubbed in time
Three wishes one has gained
The first wish might be for riches
Like a strongbox full of gold
Its glitter, weight and round doubloons
Are in many stories told
But the genie is a trickster
And its power knows no gauge
So the wealth that is the first wish
Appears surrounded in a cage
So to free the coin that sparkles
The second wish must be said
And as the spell is broken
All the gold all turns into lead
With a laugh that echoes Ho He Hum
It would seem one wish remained
But the wisher spoke it carefully
With all the words one hoped to frame
I'm looking my life over seeing places past
With family all around me my child eyes wouldn't last
With brothers up and sisters 'round I think I must remain
for within my soul I've found a goal while wondering down in pain
I'm looking over shoulders to see you if you're O.K.
I keep noticing you're bolder every summer sunshine day
Phases come and phases go Don't they, my dear heart
But you and me with our big bight No, no, we'll never part
And why? Because I love you Why? Because I do
Why? Because you love me, too Well don't you. Don't you?
Passion's deep within me Seems ready for a dive
I need the Lord to send me a vision from another sky
Sounder may I open wing and soar beneath the sky
To whom we speak of open fling I catch your winged say.
And why? Because I love you too Why? Because I do
And why, because you love me too Well don't you, don't you?
© 81 Jim Wachtendonk
Half Observer and Half Grenade
Impelled to state my opinions
through a melody and some words
Is it presumptuous of my person
or does it seem a bit absurd
For who am I to tell the tale
but a troubadour by trade
As I write the world around me
as half observer and half grenade
You see it's hard to look and see it
if you don't let your eyes behold
Like the children in the mountains of Kurdistan
a sorrowful scene as it unfolds
For the most part it's my mission
to explain it in simple terms
How our Mother Earth has lived for eons
no matter what are our petty concerns
It may reflect from a perilous encounter
with a system set against a common class
To find out our uncle's empty
seen up close in a looking glass
For all my efforts from the heartland
I see the bribes and drugs that are paid
As I sing the was half observer and half grenade
For the simple fact of survival
like the children on the Mount
Remains a calculated cost of fate
like all the lives that can't be count
I see the fight is still within us
be you simple folk, rich man or prez
And it reflects the grand illusion
of what one thinks and what one say
An important part of my message
should include a stylized hook
It must define the lyrics clearly
by the way they feel and the way they look
And if the groove supplies the back beat
see the army's on parade
Hear this troubadour's impressions
as half observer and half grenade
I won't lament my obligations
in this my fourth decade
So I leave you now as I started
half observer and half grenade
© 91 Jim Wachtendonk
When My Great Granddaddy Spoke in Rhymes
Mow the lawn, rake the leaves,
Bag up the clippings, clean the eaves.
Light the furnace, heat the house,
And don't forget to love your spouse.
Autumn's here, my forty-third.
The rustic colors are both seen and heard.
Geese migrate formation V,
They honk for miles on a southerly.
Soon cold and ice and frost will come,
To chill the bones with nose gone numb.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day,
This set of months in winter play.
Then thaw of snowflakes everywhere,
the drip of icicles each one unique and rare.
Each cycle repeating not unending though,
Each planet evolves another and then lets go.
So as spring approaches just six months away,
I live and learn and I hope and pray
That my children's children will know of times
When their great granddaddy spoke in rhymes.
@ 93 Jim Wachtendonk