Breakout

Just trolling...

This may be ragged as hell, coz it's been too long a time since I opined to prime a rhyme.


BREAKOUT

Prologue:

*Ringo's in my car
Singing Back To the USSR
While I'm trying to understand
What it means to be a man.
Ma's the only girl in sight
And brother just wants to fight
So it's gotten all too clear:
I gotta break outa here.

Playing French lessons over and over
Won't get me out the door,
But it's a little more show
Than replays on the radio.
Little Egypt coulda got me there,
But I just didn't play fair.

She fluffs her long brown hair
Spreadin' love all in my face,
And it's a heated race
To see if she or I
Can make the moon fly.
Then the Rocket Man rolls in.

Busted the globe so it won't spin,
So I scrub dirt from fingernails,
Grab the full-color atlas
And flip pages to the end.
I can see where I've been,
But destination's way outa sight.

Driving hard deep into night
On a road that keeps on going.
The only limits I can see
Are right in front of me,
But even that big ol' oak tree
Ain't gon' slow me down.

Back on the edge of town
Everybody got in my way.
But the mailman saved the day
With the ticket I never asked for.
Singin' "It's Johnny's Birthday"
I knew, I'd found the way.

Fly me to S.A.
And I'll turn it upside down.
The Man's got me now
But he's just scoring the tune.
It's his game, his due,
But I'm on my way to you.

Might get myself busted
Just smokin' a lil ree,
But my hinges are rusted
And I gotta break free...

Been halfway past the world
And got the scars to prove it,
But I'm rotting on the bone.
Then the man on the phone
Says can you see clear to go nuclear?
All I can say is show me the way.

From flyfishing on a winter day
To counting radiant corpses
On buses to the end of life:
It's not my strife,
But he says to me, Man what I've seen
Ain't fit for a horror-flick screen.

Watching Cossacks through the haze
I have not the slightest clue
As they shovel out her grave
How close I am to you.

But spins the merry-go-round.
Nursing whiplash in L.A. town,
Seger's silver bullet
Almost puts me in the ground.
Cheri's on the grind
And I'm about to lose my mind...

For a desperate year I pine,
Consider all I left behind,
But a Santeria drummer
In a fine Santana tune
Starts lighting up the room,
And I remember.

Half my life's a cinder
But it's not over yet.
Fiorinal and basketball
Save me from the thunderball
So I can heed the call
In the writing on the wall.

Another false start,
But now I can read the charts,
And a dozen 2-steps later
It's "See ya later alligator,
The yellow rose of Texas
Is refibrillatin' my name."

But it's not quite the same
And I'm fresh out of game,
And the kids are alright:
So one more time
I'm lost deep in the night,
And the end is still way out of sight...

Epilogue: Post-Traumatic Amnesia

As you lie here with me
I lose the memory
Of that last lonely night
Before you waltzed into my sight.
Play your heart on a string
And I'll break out and sing
Of how it came to me;
It's all about you, my destiny.


_____

* See Doug's note below regarding "Back In The USSR"

Baby said this could easily go 7 lines, limerick style. I'm giving it a try.

Moon,I went and looked this up,just to make sure I was right.........Ringo not only doesn't sing "Back in the USSR"but Paul also plays drums on the song as well.I know you're one to give credit where it's due (Cocaine by J.J.Cale,first credited to Eric Clapton)but I also thought,for a second(until I heard the second verse)that Ringo sang it!Sir Paul,would forgive you,so do I!

'Preciate you setting the facts straight Doug. In plain truth, I got my memories of "USSR" mixed up with "With a Little Help From My Friends" which Ringo sang the lead vocal on.

But, if you don't mind, I'm not gonna correct the poem, because of a technicality... which is that Ringo did sing "USSR" at least once with the Beach Boys

But I'm putting an asterisk by Ringo's name, with a footnote referring to your post.

A further footnote (and pseudo-explanation of the poem itself, which I almost sorta wanted to set to a tune) is that this carries tones of autobiography, although it's as much lingering-impressions-based as it is factual; and I never cared a whole lot for Paul (TMI) whereas I was pleased as hell that both Ringo and George pulled off their own brand of Breakout

So... Where's the song "It's Johnny's Birthday" from?

But to go along with the notion of setting this to music, I was remembering an upbeat-ballad-type song that Lennon and Yoko did way way back, maybe before George and/or Ringo established themselves as solo artists. But I can't remember the name or even the tune of the Lennon/Yoko song.

Felt evil for not replying to this. This is definitely interesting. I will read it more to conduct a better meaning, you got an cool american twang that's just about tolerable for me And I don't know the backstories of whatever people's you refered to there ^ and if its about them or what, so I will just imagine this from another visual perspective...

"Tolerable" is good

As for who those people might be, it was a wide-open random writing experience that covers about 30 years, and the references are extremely superficial. But I might add; once one breaks out of the "box" (i.e., what everyone else expects of you but it's all totally wrong for you), life can get very random indeed.

Yes, McCartney wrote and sang "Back In The USSR" on the White Album.

"half my life's a cinder,
but it's not over yet"

Moon, this is the Down To Dawn Style with a trickle of defiant Sarcasm I so much like in your writings.

I miss them a lot, hope you're not to wordshy to spit it out

defiant Sarcasm is my middle name

Nope, not any more wordshy than I ever was, but just a bit lacking in creativity for some time now. But who knows when an inspiration will hit; hopefully riding the horse of motivation, koz the other side of things is sometimes I'm just lazy as hell

Thanks muchos for dropping by my friend.

Originally Posted by MoonRide*r*

So... Where's the song "It's Johnny's Birthday" from?

Nobody answered this question yet, so...

That song is from the first album I ever bought (George Harrison's "breakout"):



All Things Muss Pass was (just generally speaking) my first pleasurable taste of anything close to metal, or acid rock. And it was all downhill from there.

Ironically a lot of the songs on All Things Must Pass were recorded and rejected by the Beatles.If you dig deep,you can hear the Beatles versions of All Things Must Pass and many other great George songs.Whenever I listen to the Beatles,I always know when it's a "George"song.Not just from the vocal,because on his songs lots of harmonies are found,but the nature of the song itself.Also,usually a great guitar part can be found.(If I Needed Someone,comes to mind.I remember guitarists having a very difficult job trying to play those licks.)I Need You,Don't Bother Me,And Taxman are among my favorites.Not to mention Here Comes the Sun and Something to name but a few of Harrison's great tunes.

Originally Posted by Doug Denslowe

Whenever I listen to the Beatles,I always know when it's a "George"song.

I can relate to that too.

The rest of your post reminds me of an old joke...

Who was the only person who could hold Michael Jordan to under 30 points a game? Dean Smith (his old college coach).

What was the biggest limitation George Harrison faced in his music career? The Beatles.

Funny thing, the first serious clue I got about G.H.'s real talent on guitar was somewhere around 1987, really listening for the first time to his rhythm-bass work on All My Loving. It was fairly simple as great guitar goes, but man he rolled.

I want to emphasize and expound on my agreement with your post Doug: I have believed for a long time that George had the most genuine musical talent of any of 'em.

Now Moon,my old friend,I didn't say George was the most talented of all the Beatles.It's a moot point of who had what.The fact is,you mixed these four ingredients and you wound up with the great mixture known as the Beatles.I never was one to pick apart whose contribution was the most "this"or "that"!!All I know is I've received more hours of pleasure listening to theses four blokes play than any other "thing" in my life.I saw the Documentary film "Living in the Material World"and was blown away at George's life and his contribution to Rock music in general and his contribution to the Beatles specifically.I love them all the same because there would be no Beatles unless all four had found each other.And those of you out there who think Ringo got "a free ride"think again.

It's partly personal taste Dougie I just never cared for the Beatles' music all that much. And about my comparison, Dean Smith is my basketball hero, so that wasn't meant as criticism at all koz the Dean coached team basketball (and personal development) as directly opposed to individual take-overs and showboat-city. On the same note, teamwork was the Beatles' strong suit, and the sum was clearly different than the individual parts. The Team. The Fab Four. As a group, their music was never quite my cup of tea... I think mostly because of Paul's influence and I really don't care for his music style... But as a Team (like you said, the mixture of the four ingredients) they were Groundbreakers and Earth-shakers for shore!

Not sure how true it is, but I once heard that George mentored John on guitar and helped him improve his skills quite a bit.